ITV

Tag: Viacom18

  • OTT’s first digital talent hunt for kids launched on Voot

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life, a private life insurance company, has announced the return of HDFC Life Young Stars Season 2 in partnership with Voot, a Video-on-Demand platform from Viacom18.

    Conceptualised by Maxus for HDFC Life, this unique digital talent show for kids includes performances by children, between the ages of 6 and 14, in the popular categories of Dancing, Singing, Acting and Musical Instruments. The engaging show HDFC Life YoungStars Season 2, showcasing kids and their inspiring talent, is now streaming exclusively on Voot .

    Along with mesmerizing audiences with their stellar performances, the young prodigies will also be mentored and judged by celebrity experts from the respective fields. The celebrity judges this season include:

    – Salman Yusuff Khan, a popular dancer turned actor of ABCD fame, will be making his judging debut and mentoring the young dancers

    – Jay Bhanushali, an award winning television actor and renowned host, will be mentoring the child actors

    – Harshdeep Kaur, the Bollywood singing sensation, will be mentoring young singers, while

    – Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins fame will be mentoring the budding musicians.

    YoungStars Season 2 aligns to HDFC Life’s digital first focus and Voot’s vision of curating innovative content experiences. Parents uploaded their child’s video clips on the Young Stars microsite, which were then shortlisted. The selected children will get mentored by the celebrity judges, who will nurture their talent in the field of their choice. The finale will include a faceoff between the finalists and the winners, who will be adjudged ‘HDFC Life Young Stars’ and will get the opportunity to perform with the celebrity mentors.

    Commenting on YoungStars Season 2, Pankaj Gupta, EVP-Strategic Alliances, Bancassurance & Marketing, HDFC Life said, “Every child has a special talent that blooms through recognition and constant encouragement. Keeping this in mind, we launched HDFC Life YoungStars, an innovative digital platform that gives parents the opportunity to nurture their child’s talent, through expert guidance. The platform allows us, as a brand, to give parents the ability to secure more than just their child’s financial future.”

    Pooja Verma, Head – Content, Sports and Entertainment Partnerships at Maxus, said, “Maxus is incredibly proud to have established HDFC Life YoungStars as a valuable asset for HDFC Life to bring alive the brand’s proposition of ‘Sar utha ke jiyo!’. The show extensively engaged with parents and kids, in line with the deeply rooted brand philosophy.”

    She further added, “We are excited to reprise the success of HDFC Life YoungStars at an even bigger scale this year, together with the perfect partner that we found in Voot. The encouraging response so far has once again, affirmed our expertise and belief in the power of using content for brands to tell their stories in newer and compelling ways.”

    Monika Shergill, Head of Content, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures said “We at Voot are always looking at bringing content innovation to our viewers. With HDFC Life YoungStars 2, we have brought alive an immersive platform for kids to showcase their talent. With this show, we are confident of providing entertainment & engagement for all our viewers – both parents and kids.”

    She further added “We are happy to partner with HDFC Life and Maxus to promote new and unique talent amongst kids. Both HDFC Life and Voot have a shared vision of empowering kids and with this initiative we intend to tap into their early potential and give them a platform to show case the same to the world.”

  • Viacom18 welcomes Peppa Pig & George, largest party with Hamley’s

    MUMBAI: Viacom18 Consumer Products, the consumer products arm of Viacom18, is all set to welcome the internationally acclaimed character of Peppa Pig and her brother George, to India this July. The show – Peppa Pig, started to air in India on Nick Jr. from December 2016 along with our fast growing video on demand platform Voot and rapidly gained a massive following among tiny tots and their parents in India; following which, Viacom18 is gearing up to enhance the viewer’s experience further by providing an exclusive meet and greet with their favourite characters across Hamley’s outlets in Delhi on 22 July, Chennai on 30 July and Mumbai on 5 August.

    The mega launch of the characters will be hosted in association with none other than kid’s leading toy brand- Hamley’s. A never-seen-before ‘Peppa Pig Party’ will be organized and a meet and greet exclusively in Hamley’s stores across four cities. Kids will get to interact with Peppa Pig and George while participating in fun activities such as coloring contests, Peppa maze game, Peppa pong game, and an exciting magic show. An extensive marketing and communication plan has been activated to maximize the reach of the Peppa Pig characters.

    Peppa is one of the most celebrated animated characters internationally. British pre-school animated series- Peppa Pig provides for healthy kid’s content like creative lessons and other elementary learnings for kids.

    Viacom18 Consumer Products and Integrated Network head Saugato Bhowmik said, “We have previously launched iconic international characters like Dora-the explorer, Spongebob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peanuts and Charlie brown with a wide range of consumer products for kids along with our home-grown beloved characters Motu Patlu. With the launch of Peppa Pig Viacom18 Consumer Products truly establishes itself as the leader in bringing the world’s best licensing programs to India.”

  • MTV Nishedh: International family & sexual health series’ Indian version starts in ’18

    MUMBAI: Viacom18 and MTV Staying Alive Foundation are bringing MTV Shuga with localised Indian content in 2018. The announcement was made in London at the Family Planning Summit 2020.

    At the Family Planning 2020 summit in London, Viacom18 announced its intention to launch MTV Nishedh , a localized format of the critically and commercially acclaimed drama series MTV Shuga, in India. The summit, which was co-hosted by UK Dept. for International Development and UN Population Fund, in association with USAID and Global Affairs Canada, saw Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) announce its plans to expand MTV Shuga with two new localized versions in India and Egypt by 2020.

    At the heart of it, MTV Nishedh will be the centrepiece of a MTV Shuga styled mass media behaviour change campaign in India, aimed at increasing knowledge and generating positive attitude towards contraceptive use, gender violence, HIV prevention and child abuse. MTV Staying Alive Foundation had pioneered MTV Shuga, its most successful behaviour change campaign till date, in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009 with a long-running drama TV series and multimedia campaign that follows the lives of young people on the African continent.

    “Education and awareness must form the backbone of liberation – be it economic or sexual. With just 15% of the total youth population having being exposed to any form of sex education, as a society we have allowed social stigma to overpower our responsibility to educate and empower our future.”

    Observed Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats: “‘Entertainment’ is our business, ‘engaging’ consumers, our strength and ‘enriching’ their lives, a responsibility. These 3 E’s together form our legacy, that of a network with a humane purpose. With MTV being the country’s most resonant youth brand, we are optimally poised to dial up the reach of sex education in our country, through MTV Nishedh.”

    “We know that storytelling has the power to catalyse positive social change, and have seen that first-hand in Africa with series like MTV Shuga,” said MTV Staying Alive Foundation ED & MTV International SVP – social responsibility Georgia Arnold.

    “By bringing this format to new countries and new continents, we are committed to challenging misconceptions and inspiring our audiences to talk openly and honestly about their sexual health, encouraging more young people to protect themselves.”

    With a drama series at its core, MTV Nishedh will take a 360 ‘edutainment’ approach that incorporates multiple touchpoints for promoting sexual and reproductive health beyond the TV screen — including content on digital and social media platforms to reach an estimated audience of more than 281 million young people.

  • MTV’s Nescafe Labs picks 12 finalists

    MUMBAI: Nescafe and MTV hosted the finale of their co-branded digital talent platform called MTV presents Nescafe Labs at the Summer House Café in Mumbai.

    MTV, the voice of the youth and Nescafe, India’s favorite coffee brand, had set out on a journey to provide young and raw talent with a unique online platform to help them get nurtured and recognized with MTV presents Nescafe Labs – a destination for creative youngsters looking for inspiration, mentors and a stage to showcase their talents.

    The property garnered a social reach of over 90 million, over 8 million digital video views and received an overwhelming 85,000+ registrations. Out of this, 12 finalists were selected by the mentors to showcase their talent in India’s biggest talent pool party in Mumbai, aptly named the House of Labs.

    This ‘Always On’ Platform for experimental, creative, raw and hidden talent, has enabled youngsters to live their dreams. The property saw enthusiastic participation of youngsters possessing unique talent like flute-boxing, beatboxing, rapping, singing, dancing and football freestyling.

    Speaking on the need for such platforms, Sunayan Mitra, General Manager – Coffee and Beverages, Nestlé India Ltd. commented, “Nescafe is a brand that resonates with the aspirational youth. It aims to partner with the youth in their journey towards achieving their dreams. Youngsters have an inherent talent. This talent needs to be identified, harnessed and refined. MTV presents Nescafe Labs is one such platform which discovers creative talent and enables them to interact and learn from industry experts. Serving as a talent scouting and nurturing platform, it is an opportunity that kick starts their journey to better and bigger things in life.”

    Speaking about the finale of season one of MTV presents Nescafe Labs, Ferzad Palia, Head, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “MTV and Nescafe joined hands to empower the youngsters by providing them a platform in the form of MTV presents Nescafe Labs to give wings to their dreams. The massive number of registrations prove that a lot of youngsters have been able to be a part of this creative ecosystem. It’s amazing to see the enormous talent pool in the country, which is second to none. For us, true success of the platform lies in seeing these talented young people reaching heights of success in their chosen fields and having the best of minds from within the industry coming forward to mentor them.”

    Commenting on judging the film-making competition at MTV presents Nescafe Labs, National award winning film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar said, “It feels really good to judge such fresh and raw talent at MTV presents Nescafe Labs finale. It’s amazing to see young film makers brimming with unrestrained energy and showcasing their talent. Rarely do people get such opportunities to showcase their mettle and MTV and Nescafe have done a brilliant job by providing youngsters with such a great platform.”

    On being adjudged the winner of the photography challenge, Manjusha Dangeti said, “Photography has been my passion and when I got to know about MTV presents Nescafe Labs I did not give it a second thought and registered right away and to my surprise I won the contest. MTV presents Nescafe Labs has boosted my confidence and given me hope that this is a promising profession and I can surely make it big.”

    In order to enable the contestants to hone their talent, industry stalwarts renowned for the skills including the likes of Papon (Cover Singer Challenge), Subi Samuel (Photography Challenge), Shakti Mohan (Dance Challenge), Satish Acharya (Cartoonist Challenge), Nikhil Chinapa and Jose Covaco (Twitterati Challenge), RJ Rishi (RJ Challenge), Vikas Bahl and Madhur Bhandarkar (Film-making Challenge) mentored the contestants.

  • Viacom18 working with MCGM to instal art-inspired mobile toilets

    MUMBAI: In a bid to support the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) make Mumbai open defecation-free, Viacom18 has flagged off the second phase of its Chakachak Mumbai campaign in Bandra. As a part of this initiative, aesthetically designed mobile community toilets are being used as canvases and installed across 13 locations in the city, in an innovative bid to synergize infrastructural enhancement with behavioral change.

    The toilets were instated in the presence of Poonam Mahajan, Member of Parliament, Mumbai North Central; Ashish Shelar, Member of Legislative Assembly, Vandre West; Ajoy Mehta, Municipal Commissioner, MCGM; and Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO – Viacom18.

    Speaking about the project, Poonam Mahajan, Member of Parliament, Mumbai North Central said: “Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, India is gearing up towards becoming open defecation free. In such a scenario, it is highly encouraging to see corporates like Viacom18 take up the cause and use their capabilities as storytellers to not only artistically design toilets that induce hygienic behavior but also educate people through their behavioral change campaign. This is our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s dream, this is Viacom18’s dream and this is every Indian’s dream.”

    Shelar said: “Keeping our communities clean is the basis of prosperity. We have taken initiatives to make Mumbai open defecation free and we hope that projects such as Viacom18’s Chakachak Mumbai will help us achieve this target. Viacom18 has innovatively used pre-fabricated mobile toilets that can help solve Mumbai’s open defecation problem as they are easier to build and faster to install.”

    The first phase of Chakachak Mumbai focused on renovating and reconstructing over 200 toilets across 4 slums in Andheri East. Furthermore, underlining the importance of instigating a change in people’s mindset at the ground level, the network had roped in Ramon Magsaysay award winner Jockin Arputham and underprivileged women’s self-help collective Mahila Milan, to undertake an intensive behaviour change communication programme.

    Vats said, “A very simple philosophy drives Chakachak Mumbai – that we as businesses have a responsibility to give back to the society that helps us grow. As the country’s fastest growing media and entertainment network and as the country’s foremost storytellers we have both the expertise and the reach to act as a catalyst of dialing up socially inclusive change messaging. In this second phase of Chakachak Mumbai, we are working with the MCGM to rapidly scale up the infrastructural community enhancements to help make Mumbai ODF. And while doing it, we incorporated the Viacom18 ethos of marrying art to drive behavior change by using the toilet walls into art work canvases. I’m thankful to the state government and the city administration for working with us to facilitate this story of a Swachh and Chakachak Mumbai.”

    The mobile toilet blocks are state-of-the art and are reflective of Mumbai’s spirit. The toilets are designed on themes such as Mumbai’s lifeline local trains, Bollywood, Koli community, etc. that aim to invoke a sense of pride in the communities and encourage more people to use them.

    “Being an urban area, we understand the impact that behaviour change communication can make in adoption of toilet usage. Simply constructing toilets is not enough, generating awareness and educating people as well as maintaining these toilets with electricity and water are essential. We are therefore, happy to partner with Viacom18 and their flagship Chakachak Mumbai program to help further the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan as they have successfully used positive reinforcement amongst the community to help make the city open defecation free,” said Mehta.

  • Viacom18 distribution among IBC finalists as Voot sees 77% visitor-to-video hike

    MUMBAI: IBC has announced the shortlist for the IBC2017 Innovation Awards. Demonstrating a breadth of innovation in the electronic media, entertainment and technology industry, the international judging panel reviewed an array of compelling entries, settling on 11 finalists from around the world, all offering very different solutions.

    The shortlist covers everything from a major football final to e-sports; from virtual studios to channel marketing; from mobile OTT on a massive scale to seamless content delivery on high speed trains. Taking to the stage during IBC Awards Ceremony on Sunday 17 September will be representatives from Toronto to Singapore, the UK to India, and Spain to the USA.

    For 2017, IBC’s 50th anniversary year, categories in the Innovation Awards were updated to reflect and respond to the shifting industry landscape. Three awards will be presented for the most innovative projects in Content Creation, Content Distribution and Content Everywhere. What has not changed is the emphasis on collaborative work to tackle a real challenge, and the trophies are taken home not by the technology partners but by the broadcasters, media enterprises and service providers who commissioned the project.

    “I was astounded by the quantity, and most important the quality, of entries this year,” said Michael Lumley, chair of the judging panel. “It took a lot of intense discussion to get down to 11 finalists – it was a very tough task and there were many excellent projects which did not make the shortlist, often by a very fine margin.”

    “The international spread of 2017 finalists reflects the global reach of IBC, and the global significance of these most highly-coveted awards,” Lumley added. “I look forward to congratulating all the finalists and hearing the winners announced on Sunday night at IBC.”

    Content Creation – three finalists

    ITV in the UK has been shortlisted for its Project Phoenix. The broadcaster needed to develop a system which managed the production of promos and trailers from commissioning to transmission. The result creates more than 1,000 marketing assets every month, with almost all versioning carried out automatically. Technology partners alongside ITV were 100 Shapes, Cantemo, Codemill, NMR, Pixel Power and Vidispine.

    Leading broadcaster Mediacorp made the shortlist for implementing a service-oriented architecture to break down silos across its global campuses and create a seamless production and delivery environment. Its new centre includes a 3,000 square metre newsroom producing online, television and radio news in four languages, together with six studios and a large theatre, more than 100 edit suites and OTT and broadcast delivery. Systems integrator Qvest Media brought in an enormous number of technology partners, including Actus, Adobe, ATCI, Autoscript, Avid, Axon, Baton, Blackmagic Design, Cisco, Dalet, DHD audio, EVS, Fairlight, Grass Valley, Harmonic, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Ihse, Lawo, Lund Halsey, Netia, Octopus, Oracle, Raritan, RCS, SAM, Scheduall, Shotoku, Sony, ST Electronics, Telestream, TriplePlay, TSL and Vizrt.

    Groupe Média TFO has transformed itself from a small, French language broadcaster in Ontario, Canada, into a major online presence producing much-loved children’s programming. Its Laboratoire d’univers virtuels, or LUV, took a fresh approach to virtual sets, using the power and cost-effectiveness of the Unreal games engine from Epic Games. Today TFO produces as many as 40 short videos, in real time, each day, from a single studio. As well as Epic, technology partners were CEV, stYpe and Zero Density.

    Content Distribution – four finalists

    Arena Television is a UK-based outside broadcast provider, and led the industry in Europe with its first all-IP truck. It is regularly used to originate BT Sport’s 4k Ultra HD coverage of the English Premier League. Technology partners for this pioneering truck (and a second which is now also in service) were Cisco, Grass Valley, Lawo and Videlio Video Solutions.

    Dutch media company DMC has migrated from broadcast playout centre to comprehensive media logistics service. As part of this it has migrated to a fully virtualised private broadcast cloud that provides DMC’s clients with the asset management, publishing and distribution services they need, linking international content owners with 700 million European viewers. The new platform was developed with Cisco, Equinix, Pebble Beach Systems, Red Hat, Super Micro and VMware.

    Sinclair Broadcast Group operates 233 television stations in 108 US markets. As part of its programme to provide a common platform for on air and online services, it has developed a revolutionary approach to terrestrial transmission. The usual American model is “high tower, high power”: a single mast and transmitter. The new approach – developed by TeamCast and ONE Media for Sinclair – takes a cellular approach, using mini-transmitters just where they are needed in a large single frequency network.

    Viacom 18 is a joint venture in India between media giant Viacom and local service provider Network 18, running a multi-channel OTT network called Voot. Faced with the prospect of delivering content to the 300 million smartphones in India, across networks which are often crowded and at high data costs, it took a fresh approach, developing a progressive web service that delivered high performance without taking valuable memory space. Within just a few days Voot saw a 77% increase in conversion from visitor to video viewer and a 39% increase in session time per user. Google provided technology support.

    Content Everywhere – four finalists

    BT Sport was host broadcaster for the 2017 Champions League Final in Cardiff, Wales, and went all in to engage with as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible. Separate trucks covered the game in HD and in 4k Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos sound – using the Arena truck nominated for the content distribution award. A unique 12 camera VR operation provided a rich 360˚ feed, including in-vision graphics, live replays and a separate commentary. The content was available online to all platforms as well as broadcast. Technology partners included Dolby, Ericsson, Moov, SAM, Sony, Telegenic and Timeline.

    ESL, the Electronic Sports League, is an eSports company that organises gaming competitions worldwide. For the finals of the 2017 Intel Extreme Masters tournament, held in Poland, it needed to find a delivery partner that could deliver live feeds to 13 broadcasters in multiple regions, with additional OTT and digital cinema delivery to some territories. ESL partnered with Deluxe to enable the delivery of live ESL broadcast feeds over the public internet. The eSports tournament reached more than 46 million viewers.

    For a decade Google Earth has given us the ability to explore the world using just the internet. Now we can immerse ourselves in its wonders using Google Earth VR. The new app uses touch, sight and sound to engage the viewer and to receive control feedback. New techniques render imagery smoothly, maintaining the immersion without confusion or motion sickness. Technology partners were Ant Food, Even/Odd, Joshua Moshier and Richard Devine.

    The final project on this year’s shortlist is a real content everywhere application – ensuring consistent media delivery on trains travelling in excess of 300km an hour. Renfe, Spain’s national railway operator, worked with Telefonica to ensure its 19 million high speed rail passengers can access premium content and live sports on trains and at stations as if they were at home. The project was led by Telefonica, with technology partners including Accedo, Cires21, Cisco, Hispasat, Iecisa, Indra, Nagra, Signiant and Teldat.

    The winners of these three awards will be announced during the IBC2017 Awards Ceremony, on 17 September. Special guest host for the evening is scientist and broadcaster Dr Helen Czerski. As well as the Innovation Awards, the ceremony will see the announcement of the Judges’ Prize, also in the gift of the same panel of international editors and consultants who have judged the Innovation Awards. Other awards to be presented during the ceremony include the IBC International Honour for Excellence, IBC’s highest award.

  • Zee’s Nikhil Sane joins Viacom18 after 11 yrs

    MUMBAI: After 11 years of service with Zee, Nikhil Sane has joined Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Sane has been appointed as the business head to lead its enhanced focus in Marathi cinema. He will report to Viacom18 Motion Pictures COO Ajit Andhare.

    Andhare said, “Viacom18 Motion Pictures is the only studio that operates in all the three Hindi, Hollywood & Regional segments. Our success in Hindi & Hollywood is well established. Our endeavour is to make a similar impact in regional cinema. As a first step we are going after Marathi Cinema which has tremendous potential & clear synergy with our broadcast business. Nikhil with his keen understanding of this market will be an asset to spearhead our move.”

    In 2006, Sane joined Zee Marathi and Zee Talkies as the programming head, and was later elevated as the business head of the channels. In 2013, Zee promoted Sane as the head of Marathi film division as Essel Vision.

    Sane’s producer credits have some of the Marathi industry’s most commercially successful films which includes the biggest box office grosser in Marathi cinema ever – ‘Sairat’. The other prominent films include Natsamrat, Lai Bhaari, Time Pass, Katyar Kaljat Ghusli & Duniyadari and critically-acclaimed award winning films such as Natarang, Fandry, Killa & Elizabeth Ekadashi. During his career spanning 18 years, Sane has contributed immensely to the notable growth of the Marathi entertainment genre by bringing innovative content that has carved a niche for Marathi TV and cinema in the regional space.

    Speaking about the new position, Nikhil Sane said, “Marathi film industry is going through an amazing phase of resurgence and evolution. I have had the privilege of working with some of the best talent in the industry. With Viacom18, I intend to combine the strength of the organisation’s experience in the Hindi & English film industries with the remarkable strength of the Marathi film industry in storytelling and experimentation. I look forward to channelising my best efforts and strengths into taking the next big leap in Marathi cinema.”

  • PromaxBDA: Rishtey Cineplex only Indian b’caster to bag ‘on-air branding’ gold since ’09

    MUMBAI: Rishtey Cineplex, Viacom18’s exclusive Hindi movie channel, has been awarded the ultimate honour at the 2017 PromaxBDA Global Excellence Promotion, Marketing and Design Awards held at Los Angeles — Gold for the Best Channel Image On-Air Branding. The Best Packaging category has been an elusive one as it is the coveted trophy that the biggest channels across the globe aspire to win.

    This spectacular win puts Rishtey Cineplex at the helm of engaging entertainment bringing international accolades to not only the channel but also the network on a whole.

    PromaxBDA is a global community, linking 70 countries, of marketers and creative minds from the media and entertainment industry who strive to drive and celebrate excellence while providing an outstanding platform for networking.

    The award was won in the category of Total Package Channel Image — On-Air only (Art & Design). The design objective of Rishtey Cineplex was to create a branding that is active yet non-intrusive.

    Created in collaboration with New Zealand based visual artist and designer- David Frearson who introduced the idea of simply using a bulb and the team then translated the simplicity and beauty of this idea throughout the branding and communication.

    In all Viacom18 bagged 7 awards in total:

    1.     Total Package Channel Image Branding – On-Air Only (Art Direction & Design)

    Gold: Rishtey Cineplex

    2.    Clip Based Comedy Promo

    Gold: Comedy Central – Troy & Abed

    3.    In house program campaign                       

    Silver: Comedy Central – Friends in 2016

    4.    3D promotional or Sales Kit

    Gold: VH1 Umbrella

    Silver: Comedy Central Umbrella

    Bronze: Comedy Central Annual diary

    5.    Press Kit

    Silver: Comedy Central Diary 2016

    A powerful Hindi mass entertainment offering, Rishtey Cineplex showcases the best from Viacom18’s wide library of films as well as newly acquired movies from across genres including soulful dramas, heart-warming romance, adrenalin-packed action, rib-tickling comedy and much more.

     

  • Effective story-telling in India is yet to evolve, says Viacom18 SVP Anu Sikka

    MUMBAI: The animation services market in 2016 mostly continued to be dominated by outsourced projects from television and film sectors, which accounted for around 85 per cent of the total animation services turnover in India. However, there are a few exceptions such as Nick, which has been the leader in the genre for years according to audience measurement data.

    `Motu Patlu’ films on Nick, which is part of the Viacom18 family, have been ruling the roost mostly in the top-five list. `Motu Patlu 36 Ghantey Race Against Time’, `HFF-Motu Patlu In Double Trouble’ and ‘Motu Patlu Kung Fu Kings’ have all been leading in the kids’ genre. The broadcaster along with Viacom18’s movies division also introduced the first 3D theatrical of Motu Patlu i.e. Motu Patlu King of Kings, that was a success.

    “We have always conceptualised our own content allowing us to develop our own IPs. The quality, uniqueness and strength of our concepts and stories have ensured that our content remains relevant and sticky, establishing a strong connect with our young viewers, Viacom18 head, programming & content – kids entertainment cluster Anu Sikka told indiantelevision.com.

    While dwelling on programming strategy for Nick, she added: “With our strategy, we have managed to drive the trend and take on the leadership mantle in the highly under-indexed kids category.”

    Adventure and mystery show `Gattu Battu’, which is the fourth made in India character from Nickelodeon, has been running successfully after an encouraging opening on 1 May, 2017. `Pakdam Pakdai’, `Motu Patlu’, `Shiva’ and `Gattu Battu’ are shows that cater to the discerning entertainment needs of the young viewers.

    “We aim at creating differentiated kids content for the age-group between 2 and 14 years, investing significantly in television movies such as `Motu Patlu’ and `Pakdam Pakdai’,” Sikka informed.

    Apart from boasting of one of the most popular shows in the kids’ category, `Motu Patlu’, which is produced for Viacom18 by its partner Cosmos-Maya, the company also holds a record of having a large homegrown, made in India content bank within a short duration. `Motu Patlu’ followed by Pakdam Pakdai and then `Shiva’, which launched during Diwali last year, has created a new success yardstick for animation content in the Indian market, Viacom18 claimed.

    The Indian animation and VFX industry grew at 16.4 per cent in 2016 to reach a size of INR 60 billion, driven primarily by a 31 per cent growth in VFX, with animation remaining steady at a growth rate of nine percent, as per the KPMG-FICCI Report 2017.

    Dwelling on the investments Viacom18 generally makes for producing an animation show for kids, Sikka said that it could range between Rs 5 million and Rs 20 million, depending on various factors such as the intricacy and complexity of the animation, graphics and the script. “We have focused on creation of IPs allowing us to extend our characters to beyond television into other categories such as consumer products and movies etc., allowing us to create an entire ecosystem and facilitate monetisation,” Sikka said.

    The uptake of domestic / Indian content may be a key growth driver for the animation industry, and the expected uptake of digital consumption through OTT platforms will add to the increasing demand for localized content. The animation IPR production segment, in 2016, grew at a faster rate owing to increasing demand for localised animation content and characters developed for the Indian market across OTT and TV.

    According to Sikka, the ratio of local to foreign content was between 50 and 60 per cent in favour of Indian content.

    “We are the pioneers in owning the intellectual property rights (IPRs) by producing our own shows with the intent of building an ecosystem and in the process, started a trend,” Sikka said. Once Viacom18 has the IPRs in place, it commissions different production houses to execute the projects, preferring to buy out entire rights than get into joint productions.

    The Indian animation and VFX industry is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 17.2 per cent over 2017–21 to reach a size of Rs 131.7 billion, driven by a steady 9.5 per cent growth in animation and a 25 per cent growth in the VFX segment. Although animation in India has come a long way as compared to the situation 10 years ago, Sikka was of the opinion that the audience would lap up stories if those were well told, and that’s why Viacom18 prefers curating its own concepts and owning the IPRs too. “Occasionally, we hear out concepts and stories when some production houses approach us, but there are very few that strike a chord,” she added.

  • Viacom18 elevates Namrata Tata & Mandar Natekar

    MUMBAI: Viacom18’s national brands aimed at youth and the adult audience, viz. Hindi, youth, music and English entertainment under the leadership of Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak, has announced a rejig of its business and revenue leadership team.

    Namrata Tata, who was responsible for ad sales for English entertainment, will now take on the new and expanded role of head, ad sales – youth, music and English entertainment.

    Mandar Natekar, who was earlier heading Ad Sales – Youth and Music, will be moving into a business role and will be responsible for one of the newest ventures of the network, the MTV Music Project.

    Both Namrata Tata and Mandar Natekar will continue reporting into Ferzad Palia.

    Speaking on the management restructuring, Nayak said, “With the recent consolidation of Hindi, Youth, Music and English Entertainment clusters, Viacom18 is carving out anidentity for itself in the ecosystem that cohesively speaks to adults, youth and millennials, and create opportunities that are multi-dimensional and multi-platform. Namrata and Mandar have been instrumental to the success of the youth, music and English entertainment genres and as we look to dial up synergies and expand to capture white spaces within the genres, they are best suited to support Ferzad in further strengthening our influence in these genres.”

    Under Mandar’s leadership, the MTV Music Project will nurture an ecosystem of new and established artistes and create original music content. Namrata, who has been associated with Viacom18 for the past 6 years and has been instrumental in growing the revenues of the English Entertainment unit will now oversee sales revenue for the consolidated cluster of Youth, Music and English Entertainment.

    Speaking about the role expansions, Viacom 18 Youth, Music and English Entertainment head Ferzad Palia said, “In an increasingly dynamic environment, these genres need to look beyond traditional avenues to dial up growth. As a network, our leadership plays in the Youth, Music and English Entertainment genres have set the ground for us to explore synergies within them to dial up revenues. Namrata, with her understanding of the genres particularly and broadcast as a whole, is well equipped to lead the charge for maximizing the revenue opportunities for these related business units. Mandar, with his nuanced understanding of the youth and music genre – both from content and revenue POVs, is best suited to lead the MTV Music Project, as we look to explore our latest business opportunity in this genre. I am confident that we can further dial up our plays across these wide set of brands and solutions in this space.”