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  • Voot Select to stream original series ‘Halo’ from 24 March

    Voot Select to stream original series ‘Halo’ from 24 March

    Mumbai: OTT service platform Voot Select will be exclusively streaming Paramount+ original series “Halo” from 24 March.

    Based on the popular sci-fi video game series, “Halo” is set in a 26th-century universe dramatising a conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as ‘the covenant.’

    The upcoming nine episodic series features Pablo Schreiber of “Orange is the New Black” fame as the ‘Master Chief,’ alongside Natashca McElhone, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kenndey, Charlie Murphy and Danny Sapani. Also joining the cast as original characters are Ryan McParland, Burn Gorman, and Fiona O’Shaughnessy. Veteran Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi will also appear in a crucial supporting role in the series.

    “Halo defined the beginning of gaming culture in India and has a cult following across the world,” said Viacom18 head – SVOD and international business Ferzad Palia. “With Shabana Azmi helming a key role in the series, the show is even more special for Indian audiences. Having a series based around this legendary title will be looked upon eagerly by not only gamers but also sci-fi fanatics as well. We are delighted to be streaming this series and am certain that the outstanding production scale and enthralling storyline will surpass expectations establishing Halo amongst the best series of 2022.”

    “Working on this project has been a dream come true,” said Shabana Azmi. “The show deals in artificial intelligence, which is a completely new genre for me, hence it gave me the opportunity to learn and evolve. I thoroughly enjoyed working on set with stellar actors such as Natascha McElhone, Pablo Schreiber and Jen Taylor. The visuals in the series are stunning and I cannot wait for the release to see how it will be received by audiences across the globe.”

    “Halo” is produced by Showtime in association with 343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. The series is executive produced by Steven Kane, alongside Steven Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television in association with 343 Industries, director Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture, and Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven. Kiki Wolfkill, Frank O’Connor and Bonnie Ross serve as executive producers for 343 Industries. 

    The series is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

  • Dell partners with Voot to launch Dell XPS Youniverse Creators

    Dell partners with Voot to launch Dell XPS Youniverse Creators

    Mumbai: Dell Technologies and OTT streaming service Voot are coming together to launch Dell XPS Youniverse Creators.

    The show will focus on creators, who excel in various art forms, coming together in a creative residency to collaborate and create masterpieces using the Dell XPS. Dell XPS Youniverse Creators will be hosted by musician and actor Monica Dogra.

    “The aim of the series is to propel the youth to introspect about what inspires them by capturing a creator’s journey of diving deep into their creations and themselves,” said the statement.

    The show will revolve around 10 artists from different worlds who come together to create five masterpieces. The format of the show is such that in each episode two creators will collaborate and merge their creative templates to co-create a masterpiece. The participants will work on their creation using the Dell XPS laptop.

    The series will feature creators from a plethora of backgrounds – art, photography, music, filmmaking and dance to name a few. The creators include award winning chef Amninder Sahu and documentary photographer Hashim Badani, graffiti Artist Hanif Kureshi and spatial artist Asim Waqif, stylist and content creator Kayaan Contractor and spoken word poet Priya Malik, theatrical pianist Sahil Vasudeva and animator Sidhant Gandhi, actor and movement practitioner Faria Abdullah and visual artist Vimal Chandran.

    “At Voot we strive to ink partnerships with brands that share our vision,” said Viacom18 Digital Ventures head – AVOD (Voot) Chanpreet Arora.  “Dell XPS Youniverse Creators is a category disruptive format that aims to inspire the creative industry at large. The concept to propel young minds to get inspired by creators and their journey sets the show apart from others, creating a one-of-its-kind experience for our users. We are excited about this collaboration with Dell and look forward to bringing more such creative content to Voot.”

    “Dell has a great lineup of XPS laptops which are future facing and especially designed for the  young creators,” said Dell Technologies marketing director (consumer) Mayuri Saikia.  “Light but mighty, these sleek machines made from premium material, have a 4-sided InfinityEdge Display with 100 per cent Adobe RGB color gamut for an immersive screen experience, higher battery life and powered by the latest 11th Gen Intel core processors which propel creation.”  

    She further added, “This Youniverse campaign with Voot is a 5-episodic ode to the creators, shows how Dell XPS has been a clear partner when the ideas are taking shape. It’s a deep dive into their youniverse or process of creating before the eureka of a big creation. Reaching the young, creative, aspiring minds who are inspired by a mix of content was important to us. Which is why we always have a strong social leg. Our products are clear enablers in this journey and celebrate their process.”

  • Digital Brand Fest 2022: Decoding digital transformation for tech-led future

    Digital Brand Fest 2022: Decoding digital transformation for tech-led future

    Mumbai: Indiantelevision.com is organising a five-day event ‘Digital Brand Fest 2022’ from 21 to 25 February to explore and understand the new forces driving the digital transformation for a tech-led future. The week-long virtual summit is presented by Voot. Interakt, Josh and Pixis have joined as industry partners.

    The industry stands at a crucial juncture today. As the internet empowered consumers with more choices, digital became the new battleground for brands to test their marketing skills and retain their connect with consumers whose preferences were changing faster than ever. Whether it was the boom in influencer marketing or the popularity of short-video platforms, brands did not hesitate in jumping onto the digital bandwagon to up their marketing game.

    As we enter into 2022, Indiantelevision.com is taking this opportunity to bring a host of industry experts together on one platform to discuss these trends shaping the future. Digital Brand Fest 2022 will have brands, advertisers, tech platforms discuss all these developments and more. The virtual event will also look at the changes in consumer behaviour and how it has impacted the industry’s growth.

    The event will begin on Monday, 21 February with a keynote on ‘Decoding Current Digital Trends’ by Google industry head – telecom, media and entertainment Siddharth Shekhar.

    It will be followed by two-panel discussions – ‘Human X Machine’ and ‘SMS, Notifications and Whatsapp Marketing’. The first session moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari will have Bharat Arora (Taboola), Nikhil Kumar (mediasmart and Affle company), Mehul Desai (Integral Ad Science), Rohan Chincholi (Havas Media Group India) and Salil Shanker (Amnet India) as panelists.

    On the second panel moderated by Niraj Ruparel (GroupM) are Ahshad Jussawala (Jio-Haptik), Jayant Kshirsagar (CleverTap), Madhur Acharya (WOW Skin Science), Priya Patankar (PhonePe), Ritesh Ghosal (Soptle) and Suchit Sikaria (SUGAR cosmetics).

    The discussion on 22 February will commence with Rapido’s Amit Verma, BigBasket’s Arun Jayaraman, Pixis’ Neel Pandya, Essence’s Sonali Malaviya, Snowflake’s Vimal Venkatraman, and Fresh to Home’s Vanda Ferrao deliberating on ‘Performance Marketing, Partnerships for good ROI’. The panel will be moderated by Xaxis India’s Dimpy Yadav.

    The second session will explore ‘Digital Marketing – The New Dynamic Shift Post Pandemic’ with BharatPe’s Ashish Agarwal, Omnicom Media Group’s Bharat Khatri, GoKwik’s Chirag Taneja, Godrej’s Michelle Francis, Adlift’s Neha Pandey and Network 18’s Puneet Singhvi as panellists and Chetan Asher of Tonic Worldwide Media as the moderator.

    Day three (Wednesday, 23 February) will witness another insightful session on ‘Engaging Communities and Driving Culture through Social Media’ moderated by Kosal Malladi from Madison Digital. Panellists include Sharechat’s Akshat Sahu, Cleartrip’s Himanshi Tandon, Zivame’s Khatija Lokhandwala, Trell’s Manikanta Yadavalli, Kalyan Jewellers’ Rupesh Jain and Puma’s Shreya Sachdev.

    On Thursday, 24 February a TBA-moderated panel will delve into ‘Content Marketing’ trends with Kunal Bhardwaj from Upstox, Maninder Bali from Vedantu, Pallavi Chelluri from Moglix, Samir Sethi from Policybazaar.com and Sharmin Ali from Instoried.

    ‘CTV 101’ and Gen Z X Short Video’ will be key themes discussed on the last of the summit, Friday, 25 February. The first panel moderated by Anil Wanvari includes Gijsbert Pols from Adjust, Mete Bargmann from Magnite, and Vijay Anand Kunduri from PubMatic.

    The second session will have Lenskart’s Anupam Tripathi, OML’s Gunjan Arya, Verse Innovation’s Nakul Puri, Bombay Shaving Company’s Siddha Jain and WATConsult’s Sahil Shah as speakers.

    For registration, click here.

  • Nick announces ‘Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2021′

    Nick announces ‘Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2021′

    Mumbai: Kids’ entertainment franchise Nickelodeon is all set to empower and entertain kids with its flagship brand initiative ‘Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2021’. The award show, which allows kids to vote for their favourites across multiple categories, witnessed the highest ever voting (1.5 million) in its virtual avatar in 2020. The 2021 edition will also be held virtually.

    To enable a larger set of audience to voice their choice this time, KCA 2021 will open the voting gateways through multiple platforms such as Voot, Voot Kids and Jio App.

    Nominations were gathered from a research conducted to determine ‘who’ and ‘what’ were the kids’ favourites while they were indoors during the lockdown. In addition to the existing categories such as Favourite Youtuber, Favourite Dancer, Favourite Mobile Game, etc, new ones like Favourite Environmentalists, Favourite Sibling Jodi and Favourite Fashion Icon have been introduced in the 2021 edition. The introduction of South-focussed categories is intended at recognising talent from across the country. Winners will take home the Nickelodeon ‘blimp’ and get ‘slimed’ as a mark of honour.

    The award show will be supported by on-air promotions across the franchise, platform specific engagements on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and MX TakaTak, influencer activity, and specially curated superfan contests and sessions. Winners will be given a masterclass by celebrities on social media platforms. Nickelodeon has also partnered with 99 Pancakes to curate special combos for KCA 2021.

    Viacom18 head, Hindi mass entertainment & kids TV network Nina Jaipuria said, “Year-on-year, the Kids’ Choice Awards has grown to become a unique brand IP in the kids’ genre. We believe that the young minds are our future and empowering them with an opportunity to voice their choices is of utmost importance. The Nickelodeon KCA 2021 edition promises to be a fun and innovative initiative with interesting categories and unique virtual experiences and interactions.”

  • VooT Kids brings new animation series ‘Blazing Team’ to India

    VooT Kids brings new animation series ‘Blazing Team’ to India

    Mumbai: The new high-octane superhero series “Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do” went live on Voot Kids with 20 new episodes in English and Hindi, and a ‘watch and win’ contest on 26 January. The boy-skewed animation offering for pre-teen audiences, produced by China-based Alpha Group and animation studio Guangdong Alpha Animation and Culture, has been well received internationally.

    Blazing Teams in this reimagined avatar transports viewers into the mystical world of ‘Yo Kwon Do,’ a practice that brings the skills of the ‘yo-yo’ together with martial arts. The torchbearer of these adventures is the cool quartet of Parker Bates, Maddie Stone, Scott Hardy, and Wilson Tisch who form the Blazing Team, mentored by the wise master Lao- Shi. These ordinary teens explore the extra-ordinary capabilities as the mystery of doomsday looms large over their hometown of Union City.

    “We are thrilled to be partnering with Voot Kids/Viacom 18 on “Blazing Teams”, such an amazing brand which has as already an important track record internationally and will enjoy a wide marketing support in the Indian market to secure a successful launch plan,” said Alpha Group VP international, media, TV/VOD and CP Antoine Erligmann.

    Viacom 18 has the licence for Blazing Team’s consumer products and the toys are already in the market. The content partnership was to further have network leverage.

    “With the addition of ‘Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do’ we continue to focus on building a robust global content roster and further strengthen our position as India’s one-stop destination for favourite characters and entertainment for children who are inherent digital natives,” stated Voot Kids head of content Ashutosh Parekh. “Crossing age barriers, this action-adventure-fuelled animated series in its reimagine avatar captivates young viewers and instills a sense of power and responsibility in them. Bringing fresh stories and the best of characters on our platform is a natural progression to stay a strong category leader that both parents and children lean on.”

  • Network18’s revenue up by 16.5% YoY at Rs 1657 cr in Q3 FY22

    Network18’s revenue up by 16.5% YoY at Rs 1657 cr in Q3 FY22

    Mumbai: Network18 Media and Investments on Tuesday announced the third-quarter results for FY 2022. The media company reported its highest ever EBITDA at Rs 373 crore with margins of 22.5 per cent. It reported the highest ever quarterly revenue of Rs 1657 crore up by 16.5 per cent year-on-year.

    Network18’s entertainment business margin was at 21.4 per cent and revenue was up by 16 per cent year-on-year. Its TV news business saw a sharp improvement in margin to 27.2 per cent and revenue was up by 13 per cent year-on-year.

    The company’s digital news revenue grew by 41 per cent year-on-year and margins were at 21.2 per cent. Its profit before tax rose by 31 per cent YoY to Rs 337 crore driven by growth in revenue, controlled operational expenditure and lower finance costs.

    “TV industry saw record high advertising volumes in the third quarter driven by strong consumer demand, increased spending by existing brands for a higher share of voice and new advertisers using the medium to widen their reach,” said the company in a statement.

    “domestic subscription revenue for the quarter was flattish YoY while international subscription revenue saw a decline. The implementation timeline of NTO 2.0 regulation was postponed during the quarter by the regulator to 1 April ’22 even as the litigation regarding its validity continued in the Supreme Court of India,” it further added.

    The company’s entertainment business portfolio under Viacom18 is expanding into sports broadcasting by acquiring rights to NBA, footballing events such as FIFA World Cup 2022, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Cinch Premiership, and other sporting events like ATP Masters Tennis, Abu Dhabi T10, World Boxing Championship and Road Safety World Cricket Series.

    Viacom18’s OTT platform Voot reported strong growth in its paid subscriber base during the quarter driven by the new season of Bigg Boss. The show garnered 15 billion+ minutes of watch time (AVOD+SVOD) with a daily TSV of 64 minutes during the quarter.

    The company noted its share of the entertainment network in the non-news genre was 11 per cent with Colors being the second best channel in the pay Hindi GEC genre.

    “We are building a strong and sustainable media franchise which not only delivers quality content to Indian audiences but also value to the shareholders,” said Network18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai. “Over the last few years, we have taken several significant steps which have helped us achieve the turn around on the profitability front and it is really encouraging to see the business now consistently deliver healthy margins, especially the digital news business which has been growing in a profitable manner. As we have seen over the last several years, content consumption is an integral part of consumers’ lives and there is a willingness to spend more time and money, provided they get access to quality content at an affordable price. Also, consumers are increasingly becoming platform-agnostic, with both TV and Digital growing simultaneously. Our endeavor is to cater to all consumers looking for news and entertainment content in their local languages, movies and leading sports events, on platforms of their choice.”

  • Voot inks three-year digital exclusive content partnership with Ullu

    Voot inks three-year digital exclusive content partnership with Ullu

    Mumbai: Viacom18 and Voot have announced a content partnership with on-demand streaming platform Ullu. As part of the partnership, Voot will showcase 100 titles from the Ullu library starting from 14 January.

    As a part of the three-year digital exclusive deal, Voot will get access to popular original shows from the Ullu library across thriller, crime, horror, and comedy genres in different languages. These shows are headlined by popular faces such as Rakesh Bapat, Hina Khan, Sharib Hashmi, Rohit Roy, Sharad Malhotra, Anupriya Goenka, Iqbal Khan, Tanushree Dutta, Ashmit Patel, Hiten Tejwani, Minissha Lamba, Rashmi Desai, Devoleena Bhattacharjee, among others

    Voot titles such as “Tandoor,” “Assi Nabbe Pure Sau,” “Panchali,” “Cyanide,” “26th January” will be available on Ullu’s platform from 14 January and other titles like “Peshawar,” “Paper,” “The Bull of Dalal Street,” “Tadap,” and “Pratiksha” will be available from 21 January 2022 onwards.  

    “Our partnership with Ullu will help us to widen our content library and meet the ever-growing demands of our viewers,” said Viacom18 Digital Ventures head – AVOD (Voot) Chanpreet Arora. “This partnership gives us access to quality content across genres and languages and is a step forward in cementing Voot’s leadership in the AVOD ecosystem.”

    “It has always been our intent to make our content widely accessible and available. Our partnership with Voot provides us an excellent opportunity to do so,” Ullu’s CEO and founder Vibhu Agarwal. “Most of our Ullu Originals have a binge factor and it matches the consumption pattern of binge-watching on Voot. We are sure that Voot viewers will certainly benefit from this association as it offers them content that is fresh and exciting.”

    The shows will be available in multiple languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, English amongst others. 

  • Voot head sales strategy & agency business Samir Karpe moves on

    Voot head sales strategy & agency business Samir Karpe moves on

    Mumbai: Voot head of sales strategy and agency business Samir Karpe has moved on after serving for over five years at the Viacom18-backed streaming service platform. 

    With over 12 years of work experience, Karpe is a digital marketing professional and tech enthusiast. At Voot, Karpe was tasked with managing the sales strategy.

    “After over 5 years, it is time for me to move on from Voot! I am #grateful to the entire team at Voot! I have had a fulfilling and rewarding journey,” said Kapre in a LinkedIn post.

    He had joined Voot in July 2016 as a senior manager and was elevated to head of sales strategy and agency business in June this year. Prior to Voot, Karpe had spent almost six years at Radio Mirchi where he managed key client accounts. 

    His next move is still unknown. 

  • Viacom18 launches marketing blitz to build fandom for Abu Dhabi T10

    Viacom18 launches marketing blitz to build fandom for Abu Dhabi T10

    Mumbai: Viacom18 will begin airing the Abu Dhabi T10 league on 19 November starting at 7 p.m. The network has started a marketing blitz to build a fandom for the league amongst cricketing fans in India. The Abu Dhabi T10 league is co-presented by Dream11 and has onboarded Fairplay as a digital sponsor on Voot.

    “The Abu Dhabi T10 tournament has emerged as one of the most entertaining spectacle events in the sporting calendar since its launch,” Viacom18 head of marketing and digital – Hindi mass entertainment Sapangeet Rajwant. “Our aim will be to enhance the overall experience of viewers and reach out to the mass, cricket-crazy audience in India to increase the fan base and popularise the event in the country.”

    Abu Dhabi T10 league will premiere from 7 p.m on 19 November, live on Colors Cineplex, Rishtey Cineplex, and Voot. The six teams that will be a part of this series represent 20 nations and include cricketing legends like Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, David Wiese, Faf Du Plessis, Chris Gayle, Babar Azam, Wahab Riaz, Imran Tahir and many more.

    Viacom18 has initiated a 360-degree mix of marketing initiatives starting from 15 November to build up the excitement for the tournament. The network is driving communications on TV for the league across 50 channels in the movies, music, regional GECs, and news genre along with a promotional plan for cable across Maharashtra and Gujarat markets as well as collaboration with several DTH providers. Along with OOH hoardings across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai markets, there is also a robust print ad plan underway.

    Moreover, the network is driving instream inventory and interstitial ads across social media, gaming apps, and short video platforms and placing GDN banners on cricket-focussed websites. While on radio, RJ mentions, spots, and score updates have been planned with leading stations across Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot markets.

    Leveraging the digital outreach, carousel ads and push notifications will be driven across Jio platforms. On social media, push across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are targeted towards reaching out to cricket and sports fans, as well as engagement, which will be driven through hashtag challenges. Digital impact amplification will also be done through channels/platforms with Google products and a host of cricket websites.

  • In a first, major OTT platforms to participate in IFFI

    In a first, major OTT platforms to participate in IFFI

    Mumbai: The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will see participation from major OTT platforms, for the first time in its history. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Zee5, SonyLIV, and Voot will participate at IFFI that is being held in Goa starting 20 November.

    The festival will offer exclusive masterclasses, content launches, previews, and much more. The 52nd edition of IFFI will be held in hybrid format considering the present Covid-19 situation.

    Netflix has organised a three-day virtual masterclass by the Paris-based renowned school of image and arts, Gobelins – School L’image. It facilitated the India premiere of the film “The Power Of The Dog” by Jane Campion, a special screening of the film “Dhamaka” including an introduction of the film by Karthik Aryan and a preview of the first episode of its upcoming crime thriller series “Aranyak” starring Raveena Tandon and Ashutosh Rana. SonyLIV is organising a masterclass by “Scam 1992” screenplay writers Sumit Purohit and Saurav Dey.

    The union minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur announced that actor and member of parliament from Mathura Uttar Pradesh Hema Malini and lyricist and chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Prasoon Joshi will be conferred the Indian film personality of the year award 2021 at the festival.

    IFFI will feature 148 films from about 73 countries in the international section. The festival will have about 12 world premieres, about 7 international premieres, 26 Asia premieres, and about 64 India premieres. IFFI received 624 films from 95 countries this time, up from 69 countries in the previous edition.

    Global cinematic giants Martin Scorsese and Istevan Szabo are being honoured with the first Satyajit Ray lifetime achievement award. They will not be attending the festival physically but their video messages conveying acceptance of the award will be played.

    The opening feature film of Indian Panorama 2021 is the film “Semkhor,” directed by Aimee Baruah. This is the first-ever film made in Dimasa (dialect from Assam) to be featured at IFFI. “The Visionary” (English) directed by Shri Rajiv Parkash is the opening non-feature film in the Indian Panorama section. “The King of all the World” (El Rey de Todo El Mundo) directed by Carlos Saura will be the opening film and this will also be the film’s international premiere. IFFI 52 will come to a close with the screening of Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero,” which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

    There will be about 18 specially curated films presented as part of the ongoing celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The festival director informed that the international jury chaired by the Iranian filmmaker Rakhshān Banietemad is coming to attend the festival. The BRICS Film Festival is being held on the sidelines of IFFI for the first time. There will be a special package presenting films from the five countries.

    The 52nd edition of IFFI is paying homage to the prominent Kannada film actor Puneet Rajkumar and iconic James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery.

    IFFI will open with a star-studded inaugural ceremony, featuring Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, amongst others. Karan Johar and Manish Paul will host the event.