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Tag: Zee Entertainment.

  • Rajesh Sethi succeeds Wadhwa as ED & CEO of SITI Networks

    NEW DELHI: Senior media expert Rajesh Sethi has been appointed Executive Director CEO of SITI Networks Limited, as V D Wadhwa is stepping down.

    Wadhwa has been asked by the management to help in smooth transitioning by being with Sethi over the next couple of months.

    Sethi has over 22 years of experience in varied industries like Media, Insurance and Automotive sector across India and South East Asia.

    Sethi joined Ten Sports (Taj Television – a then subsidiary of Zee Entertainment) in July 2013 as Chief Executive Officer, where he spearheaded the turnaround and divestment of Ten Sports from multi year losses to a profitable entity and has placed the Distribution & Placement Business on a consistent growth path.

    Before joining Zee Entertainment, Sethi has been associated with large conglomerates like Tata, General Electric and Allianz with a proven track record of progressive leadership and entrepreneurial success. He specializes in enhancing Stakeholder value through large-scale Business Transformation, Leadership Development, Innovation, Organization change management and Customer strategies.

    Sethi completed his under graduation in Mechanical Engineering and received his Executive Education from Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management & INSEAD and is a GE certified Quality Green Belt.

    He has been conferred with prestigious awards of “Rashtriya Udyog Ratna” by N.E.H.R.D.O. and “Global Indian Achievers Award for Business Excellence 2012″ by Economic Development Forum.

    Speaking on his tenure at SITI Networks, Wadhwa said, “It was one of my most satisfying careers at SITI. Under the guidance of the Board, we have managed to establish SITI as one of the leading profitable players today. I thank the Board for the opportunity and wish Rajesh and his team all the success.”

    Commenting on his new role, Sethi said “Post our very successful turnaround & divestment of Tensports and thereafter implementation of Digitisation of our broadcasting business, I am very excited to further transform our Delivery Platform with SITI Networks which has immense growth possibilities & opportunities. The sector is on the cusp of reinventing itself with smarter Business Models and ways of delivering & connecting to customers with varied products and services”.

    In a statement, the Board placed on record its appreciation for the role played by Wadhwa during his tenure in turning around the business profitably and inculcating the highest ethical standards and professional work culture in the Company.

  • Zee Entertainment certified ‘Great Place to Work’

    MUMBAI: Leading Indian content company, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), today announced that it has achieved the certification as a Great Place to Work® by the Great Place to Work® Institute, India. The Great Place to Work framework assesses an organization on employee perception through Trust Index© dimensions namely, credibility, respect, camaraderie, pride and fairness. It further evaluates and benchmarks people practices through culture audit.

    Based on this framework, it was revealed that Zee Entertainment had significantly positive employee perception and robust people practices, which identified it as an organisation with a great culture.

    ZEEL MD & CEO Punit Goenka said, “At Zee, we consider our employees as our most valued asset and this certification only goes to reinforce the fact that we are taking focused and proactive steps in nurturing our talent.”

    ZEEL chief people officer Praveer Priyadarshi said, “With the Group philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World Is My Family” woven into the fabric of Zee culture, we believe in fostering the growth and development of every member of the Zee family.” Great Place to Work Institute CEO Prasenjit Bhattacharya said, “This certification showcases Zee’s dedication to winning its employees’ trust and creating a great workplace.”

    Every year, over 8000 companies from across 50 countries participate in the certification program conducted by the Great Place to Work® Institute.

  • Tug of war between AVoD & SVoD, who will win?

    MUMBAI: Content is the king and distribution is the queen. The year 2016 saw this phrase being used several times by the Over-the-top (OTT) players. But, does the struggle end there? Not really.

    While content remains to be crucial, changing consumption patterns is inevitable. Having the right content mix is still a challenge for the players in the digital eco-system.

    Discussing the importance of content and what can work well at the CASBAA OTT Roundtable Summit 2017 were Zee Entertainment Z5 India Business head of digital Archana Anand and Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gaurav Gandhi, moderated by TriLegal partner Nikhil Narendran, the session kick-started with the two leading players discussing their evolution.

    While Anand spoke about the ‘BeesKaTV’ app in detail, Gandhi mentioned how the year 2016 saw OTT players burning cash to acquire consumers while it was a fabulous year for them.

    “There is a a lot of demand for content consumption on mobile devices. As an advertising-led video-on-demand (VOD) service, we want to play on our strengths. Acquiring users comes with a heavy cost. There is a streaming cost, technology cost, content cost, etc. A platform has to bare the cost of a stream per user. Voot rides on four pillars – fandom around our reality and drama content available on our TV channel, Kids, Original play, and various languages content. We have built ourselves around content, and are still learning. The market can have 5-6 players with different strategies and we are enjoying a nice slice of the market,” said Gandhi.

    Today, OTT is not just limited to mobile, and the fact that linear TV is not going away yet cannot be denied. How do the consumers consume content is important for which discovery is essential. “Content is crucial and discovery continues to be important. It is beneficial to throw recommendations around one type of content. Curation of original content requires humongous marketing strategy. In the recent Oscars, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video grabbed several awards. What better way to applaud the OTT industry than this,” added Anand.

    It is given that, more than discovery or being a device-agnostic platform, there is a mindset shift required. Making people pay for content remains to be one of the many challenges for the SVOD players. With the data prices coming down, more and more people are going to consume digital video. Though, there is a segment of people who are not part of the data bandwagon, but they have consumed content. So, does it lead to the exit of linear TV in India? Perhaps, not.

    “The next 24 months are going to be crucial for the digital space. TV is here to stay for a long time. There are some segments that will grow faster than the rest. Ad-supported OTT platform complements TV perfectly. We create fandom around our popular TV shows on Voot which gets us more eyeballs and, at the same time, boosts our TV business. There is a lot of headroom for television,” said Gandhi.

    Anand resonated with Gandhi’s point of view on whether digital can replace TV framework.

    But, who will determine the right pricing for each of these platforms? Are the advertisers ready to buy slots? For advertisers to hop on board, the platform first needs to monetise its content, grab maximum number of eyeballs, and then measure it. “The choice is with the players whether they want to play by volume or margin. Indians are ready to pay for transactions than subscriptions. The transactional business will get its value, but the subscription business will take its time. Newer and better models will emerge in the market. The volumes are growing large, but the challenge is — pricing. The advertisers require volume for which more watch-time is a given,” added Gandhi.

    Contradicting that, Anand said, “The real challenge is: value for money. Even the advertisers are invisible in videos. Selling inventories to other broadcasters or platforms becomes difficult.”

    It remains to be seen who’s content will work in the long run, and which model proves to be successful for the players in the digital space.

  • Star India goes whole hog on mobile

    MUMBAI: Even as fierce rival Zee Entertainment continues with its ban on the use of mobiles in its corporate headquarters at Marathon Futurex in Mumbai, Star India has taken steps to make its HQ mobile friendly – a stone’s throw away from the Subhash Chandra promoted firm. 2,500 employees, who work in the 32 floor swanky Urmi Estate in central Mumbai,  can  enter the Star India premises using their handsets. Last year, the media conglomerate issued mobile IDs to employees and also installed numerous iCLASS SE readers at doors and gates throughout the building  (apparently 19 or 20 floors of it are occupied by Star India).

    The solution was provided by HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions  courtesy its HID Mobile Access solution, powered by Seos, “As India’s largest multimedia company, we have extremely high security standards,” says Star India senior vice-president (administration & facilities) Sumir Yadav. “HID Global, known for being the market leader of access control solutions, was able to fulfill all our requirements. With HID Mobile Access, we can now take advantage of the latest technology in this mobile-first age and achieve better security without being intrusive or compromising the user experience.”

    He reveals that the company relied on smart cards for building access in the past. The cards were easily damaged and often misplaced, resulting in costly re-issuance of badges. Another weakness of the card-based access system was its inefficiency. Each new or replacement card had to be provisioned manually, costing Star India time and money as it continued to grow over the years.

    With the popularity of smartphones and other smart devices soaring in India in recent years, Yadav started to look for a new solution that could enable Star India to make use of employees’ smart devices for better physical security. “Mobility has always been rated highly in our offices, so from the get-go we knew the new access control solution had to work with smartphones,” adds Yadav.

    The deployment, from the initial planning to the solution going online, took Star India only 12 weeks, and has been in operation since January 2016.

    Mobile IDs, a core component of HID Mobile Access  were provisioned via the solution’s robust online portal, making it possible for Star India’s IT administrators to issue or revoke mobile IDs quickly, easily and efficiently. Whenever a new employee joins the company, the IT administrators can effortlessly enroll them into the system by simply sending the employee an email invitation. The system-generated email contains directions and an activation code for the recipient to download and use the HID Mobile Access App. Upon entering the code and successfully activating the app, the employee can begin using his or her mobile device to unlock doors and gates at Star India.

    “HID Mobile Access is very intuitive to use and helping to create a mobile-driven and secure workplace is the goal of our mobile access solution,” says HID Global India & SAARC director of sales, physical access control Vishwanath Kulkarni. “We are pleased that both Star India employees and the company’s IT administrators managing the solution are enjoying the experience.”  

    Feedback on HID Mobile Access from Star India employees has been positive, and the company is currently exploring options to deploy it to secure its canteen as well as its collaboration spaces. It is also considering expanding the scope of the solution to cover the management of its visitor and enable secure printing in the future.

    HR managers are all praise for Star India’s initiative but they question how long Zee is going to continue with its mobile fatwa issued a couple of years ago wherein employees were barred from using their mobile phones at their desks; the devices are kept in custody and calls forwarded to their land lines.

    Also Read :

    Star India channels outshone in English entertainment, movies genre

    Star reignites ‘World Cupwali feeling’

  • Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats new BARC India chairman

    Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats new BARC India chairman

    MUMBAI: BARC India board has elected Viacom 18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats as its new chairman. The move comes after Zee Entertainment MD & CEO Punit Goenka successfully completed his tenure as the chairman.

    BARC India, the Joint Industry Company (JIC) of broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies, launched TV measurement currency and expanded measurement of TV viewership to rural India. BARC India recently also launched monitoring of geo-targeted ads through its split beam monitoring service.

    Vats heads Viacom18 which is one of India’s fastest growing media organisations with a 40X growth in topline since inception. Under Vats’s, leadership the group has expanded its channel footprint from six to over 36 channels and has set up three new lines of business. A management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad, Vats is a Hindustan Unilever (Unilever India) veteran and invested around 20 years in the organisation in varied roles.

    Vats has been associated with BARC India since its inception and has been a part of all the developments as a member of the Board of Directors.

    “It is indeed an honour to be elected as the chairperson of BARC India. In a span of two years, BARC India has been able to build a strong TV viewership measurement system. I feel privileged because this comes at a time when our industry is about to enter its next growth orbit and a robust, comprehensive measurement system will only accelerate this transition. Finally, measurement and analytics is an area of personal interest and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to learn more about it,” said Vats.

    “Being the chairman of BARC India has been a great experience. We started off with certain ideologies of being transparent, robust and being able to measure “What India Watches”. We brought in a lot of changes in the TV viewership measurement system in order to make it comparable to global standards and, to a great extent, have been able to achieve that. I wish Sudhanshu (Vats) all the best for all the future endeavours,” said Goenka.

    “We welcome Sudhanshu as our new chairman. Being a veteran in the industry, Sudhanshu will bring in his larger perspective in the media and entertainment space. Punit, as the first chairman, has given the team the right thrust and the BARC team thanks him for his whole-hearted support,” added BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

    BARC India is a joint venture bringing together the three key stakeholders in Television Audience Measurement, Broadcasters, Advertisers and Advertising & Media Agencies. Their respective apex bodies, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), represent the three industries.

  • Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats new BARC India chairman

    Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats new BARC India chairman

    MUMBAI: BARC India board has elected Viacom 18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats as its new chairman. The move comes after Zee Entertainment MD & CEO Punit Goenka successfully completed his tenure as the chairman.

    BARC India, the Joint Industry Company (JIC) of broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies, launched TV measurement currency and expanded measurement of TV viewership to rural India. BARC India recently also launched monitoring of geo-targeted ads through its split beam monitoring service.

    Vats heads Viacom18 which is one of India’s fastest growing media organisations with a 40X growth in topline since inception. Under Vats’s, leadership the group has expanded its channel footprint from six to over 36 channels and has set up three new lines of business. A management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad, Vats is a Hindustan Unilever (Unilever India) veteran and invested around 20 years in the organisation in varied roles.

    Vats has been associated with BARC India since its inception and has been a part of all the developments as a member of the Board of Directors.

    “It is indeed an honour to be elected as the chairperson of BARC India. In a span of two years, BARC India has been able to build a strong TV viewership measurement system. I feel privileged because this comes at a time when our industry is about to enter its next growth orbit and a robust, comprehensive measurement system will only accelerate this transition. Finally, measurement and analytics is an area of personal interest and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to learn more about it,” said Vats.

    “Being the chairman of BARC India has been a great experience. We started off with certain ideologies of being transparent, robust and being able to measure “What India Watches”. We brought in a lot of changes in the TV viewership measurement system in order to make it comparable to global standards and, to a great extent, have been able to achieve that. I wish Sudhanshu (Vats) all the best for all the future endeavours,” said Goenka.

    “We welcome Sudhanshu as our new chairman. Being a veteran in the industry, Sudhanshu will bring in his larger perspective in the media and entertainment space. Punit, as the first chairman, has given the team the right thrust and the BARC team thanks him for his whole-hearted support,” added BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

    BARC India is a joint venture bringing together the three key stakeholders in Television Audience Measurement, Broadcasters, Advertisers and Advertising & Media Agencies. Their respective apex bodies, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), represent the three industries.

  • Kyoorius’ 2nd edition of Zee MELT is scheduled for August 2016

    Kyoorius’ 2nd edition of Zee MELT is scheduled for August 2016

    MUMBAI: Kyoorius is all set to host Zee MELT 2016 on 26 and 27 August with a brilliant line-up of speakers and panel discussions. Its first time in Delhi, the unique festival aims to bring together advertising, digital, marketing, emerging technologies, media and PR industry to celebrate creativity. MELT is a 2-day rollercoaster event conceptualized in partnership with Zee Entertainment, Hindustan Times, GroupM, and D&AD.

    This year MELT 2016 will feature some of the most influential names in the business of creativity and marketing communications. It will have sessions curated for different interests, skill sets and audiences. From advertisers, industry experts such as Ted Mellström (Art Director, Forsman & Bodenfors, Sweden) to leading marketers like Per Nilsson (Corporate Communication & Marketing Director at Semcon, Sweden) and Mark van Iterson (Global Head of Design & Concept at Heineken, Amsterdam), the top professionals, will be presenting and engaging at the anchor events of melt. Some other speakers to watch out for are Tom Betts (Chief Data Officer, Financial Times), Andrew O’Dell (CEO & Co-Founder, Pereira & O’Dell), Karrelle Dixon (Director of Emerging markets, Wieden+Kennedy ) to name a few.

    MELT 2016 will consist of a range of conferences, seminars, exhibitions, showcases, workshops and networking sessions for delegates from across marketing and communication genres by industry experts, catering to all experience levels. The organizers are expecting more than 2000 creative, marketing people will convene to discuss, inspire and learn through sharing and interaction.

    The stimulating line-up of speakers and the agenda for the second edition of ZEE MELT 2016, is ready to be browsed through at Readytomelt.com, a dedicated website for the festival. This website boasts of a full line up of speakers from all over the world, spanning a variety of events throughout the 2 days.

    The content for MELT 2016 is divided across four key pillars i.e. Learning, Showcase and Gallery, Networking and Celebration. Each of these pillars will be driven by content partners and participating brands at MELT 2016.

    Commenting on the line up, Kyoorius CEO and founder Rajesh Kejriwal said, “The aim of MELT 2016 is to spoil its attendees with choice of multiple sessions that not only excites and informs but also engages them. What sets this edition apart are the best speakers and presenters from the industry with the addition of experience zones and workshops. We want our partners and all attendees to get the most out of their time at MELT 2016.”

    All delegates can sign up for individual events which can be bookmarked. Zee MELT 2016 welcomes everyone to create their own itinerary for each day in accordance to their predilection.

  • Kyoorius’ 2nd edition of Zee MELT is scheduled for August 2016

    Kyoorius’ 2nd edition of Zee MELT is scheduled for August 2016

    MUMBAI: Kyoorius is all set to host Zee MELT 2016 on 26 and 27 August with a brilliant line-up of speakers and panel discussions. Its first time in Delhi, the unique festival aims to bring together advertising, digital, marketing, emerging technologies, media and PR industry to celebrate creativity. MELT is a 2-day rollercoaster event conceptualized in partnership with Zee Entertainment, Hindustan Times, GroupM, and D&AD.

    This year MELT 2016 will feature some of the most influential names in the business of creativity and marketing communications. It will have sessions curated for different interests, skill sets and audiences. From advertisers, industry experts such as Ted Mellström (Art Director, Forsman & Bodenfors, Sweden) to leading marketers like Per Nilsson (Corporate Communication & Marketing Director at Semcon, Sweden) and Mark van Iterson (Global Head of Design & Concept at Heineken, Amsterdam), the top professionals, will be presenting and engaging at the anchor events of melt. Some other speakers to watch out for are Tom Betts (Chief Data Officer, Financial Times), Andrew O’Dell (CEO & Co-Founder, Pereira & O’Dell), Karrelle Dixon (Director of Emerging markets, Wieden+Kennedy ) to name a few.

    MELT 2016 will consist of a range of conferences, seminars, exhibitions, showcases, workshops and networking sessions for delegates from across marketing and communication genres by industry experts, catering to all experience levels. The organizers are expecting more than 2000 creative, marketing people will convene to discuss, inspire and learn through sharing and interaction.

    The stimulating line-up of speakers and the agenda for the second edition of ZEE MELT 2016, is ready to be browsed through at Readytomelt.com, a dedicated website for the festival. This website boasts of a full line up of speakers from all over the world, spanning a variety of events throughout the 2 days.

    The content for MELT 2016 is divided across four key pillars i.e. Learning, Showcase and Gallery, Networking and Celebration. Each of these pillars will be driven by content partners and participating brands at MELT 2016.

    Commenting on the line up, Kyoorius CEO and founder Rajesh Kejriwal said, “The aim of MELT 2016 is to spoil its attendees with choice of multiple sessions that not only excites and informs but also engages them. What sets this edition apart are the best speakers and presenters from the industry with the addition of experience zones and workshops. We want our partners and all attendees to get the most out of their time at MELT 2016.”

    All delegates can sign up for individual events which can be bookmarked. Zee MELT 2016 welcomes everyone to create their own itinerary for each day in accordance to their predilection.

  • &pictures HD premiere ‘Fitoor’ on 18 June

    &pictures HD premiere ‘Fitoor’ on 18 June

    MUMBAI: &picturesHD constantly strives to offer its audience a distinct and unmatched movie viewing experience. Its unique offering&HD Exclusive showcases carefully handpicked movies for its viewers to provide them with maximum quality entertainment. Continuing with its efforts to bring the cinematic experience to the comfort of households and keeping ZEE’s (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.) promise of #HDfirst, &picturesHD comes up with the World HD Premiere of ‘Fitoor’ onSaturday, 18th June at 8 PM.

    Set in the tranquil locales of Kashmir, Fitoor is a story of love, longing and obsession that transcends time and age. An adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Fitoor is directed by the endowed filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor and starsAditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, and Tabu in lead roles with an ensemble cast including Rahul Bhatt, Aditi Rao Hydari and evenAjay Devgn in pivotal roles.

    Speaking about the movie, director Abhishek Kapoor commented, “Fitoor is a different film trying to capture a different world. It’s a very fantastical story which needed a certain look, specific kind of sets, and a certain kind of lighting. Kai Po Che was mostly shot on real locations, but here, when you make locations and sets from scratch, it’s an entirely different thing. As a director, I don’t want to repeat myself. The challenge is to be versatile.”

    In the mystic corners of a valley, Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) grows up in the shelter of Begum (Tabu) and is completely smitten by her daughter Firdaus (Katrina Kaif). On realizing this, Begum sends Firdaus off to London and urges Noor to be successful in order to win Firdaus. 15 years later, their paths cross and Noor, a successful artist now, is still mesmerized by Firdaus. But, she is now destined to marry Bilal (Rahul Bhatt) at the whims of Begum.

    Will their love overcome societal limits as obsession, like they say will always finds its way.

  • &pictures HD premiere ‘Fitoor’ on 18 June

    &pictures HD premiere ‘Fitoor’ on 18 June

    MUMBAI: &picturesHD constantly strives to offer its audience a distinct and unmatched movie viewing experience. Its unique offering&HD Exclusive showcases carefully handpicked movies for its viewers to provide them with maximum quality entertainment. Continuing with its efforts to bring the cinematic experience to the comfort of households and keeping ZEE’s (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.) promise of #HDfirst, &picturesHD comes up with the World HD Premiere of ‘Fitoor’ onSaturday, 18th June at 8 PM.

    Set in the tranquil locales of Kashmir, Fitoor is a story of love, longing and obsession that transcends time and age. An adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Fitoor is directed by the endowed filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor and starsAditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, and Tabu in lead roles with an ensemble cast including Rahul Bhatt, Aditi Rao Hydari and evenAjay Devgn in pivotal roles.

    Speaking about the movie, director Abhishek Kapoor commented, “Fitoor is a different film trying to capture a different world. It’s a very fantastical story which needed a certain look, specific kind of sets, and a certain kind of lighting. Kai Po Che was mostly shot on real locations, but here, when you make locations and sets from scratch, it’s an entirely different thing. As a director, I don’t want to repeat myself. The challenge is to be versatile.”

    In the mystic corners of a valley, Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) grows up in the shelter of Begum (Tabu) and is completely smitten by her daughter Firdaus (Katrina Kaif). On realizing this, Begum sends Firdaus off to London and urges Noor to be successful in order to win Firdaus. 15 years later, their paths cross and Noor, a successful artist now, is still mesmerized by Firdaus. But, she is now destined to marry Bilal (Rahul Bhatt) at the whims of Begum.

    Will their love overcome societal limits as obsession, like they say will always finds its way.