ITV

Tag: Zee News

  • CNBC TV18, Awaaz hold fort on Budget day

    CNBC TV18, Awaaz hold fort on Budget day

      MUMBAI: TV18 business channels – CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz – have maintained leadership positions in their respective genres on the Budget day.

    As per Tam data for 26 February, when finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was reading out the union Budget in the Parliament, the English business viewers preferred CNBC TV18 over competition.

    The channel commanded 43.2 per cent viewership (Tam, CS 25+, All India), followed by Bloomberg UTV and ET Now (20.6 per cent each). Surprisingly, NDTV Profit, the second in command for the week, could manage only 15.5 per cent viewership.   
         
      Meanwhile, in the Hindi business news terrain, CNBC Awaaz maintained its dominance on 26 February with 71.3 per cent genre share as compared to 28.8 per cent of Zee Business (Tam, 25+, HSM Market).

    Among the English general news channels (Tam, CS 25+, All India), Times Now led the pack not only on Budget day but also throughout the week. On 26 February, the channel dominated the genre with 31.4 per cent viewership, followed by NDTV 24X7 (30.9 per cent) and CNN IBN (29.1 per cent). Headlines Today got 7.3 per cent while NewsX managed to hold 1.4 per cent of the viewership pie.

    CNN IBN said it occupied the top position on Budget day in the C&S audience segment aged 15+ (0600-2400 hours). In its defined demographic, CNN IBN garnered a ratio of 0.12 per cent over Times Now (0.11 per cent) and NDTV 24X7 (0.11 per cent).

    The Hindi general news space was led by Aaj Tak with 21 per cent share, followed by Star News (16 per cent), Zee News (15 per cent) and India TV (13 per cent) on the day.

  • Zee News ropes in Amitabh Bachchan for ‘Love for the Nation’ campaign

    Zee News ropes in Amitabh Bachchan for ‘Love for the Nation’ campaign

    MUMBAI: Zee News has announced that Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan has lent his support for the channel’s campaign ‘Love for the Nation’.

    Through the campaign, the channel will attempt to appeal to the youth to make them realise their responsibility towards the nation. Zee News also will encourage the youth to make India their ‘first love’.

    Bachchan said, “I am an Indian, nationalism is my religion. We are Indians and we should be proud of it. We are known today because of our nation. Our first love is our country. Come let us all join hands and express our gratitude and love towards our Motherland, she truly deserves it.”

    As part of the campaign, Zee News is organising a series of musical concerts to spread the message of ‘Love for the Nation’ across the citizens of the country. Through the medium of music and dance, the channel will attempt to appeal to the youth to not only realise their responsibility towards the nation but will also encourage them to make India their ‘first love’, the channel said in a statement.

  • NewsX beefs up top rung

    NewsX beefs up top rung

    MUMBAI: NewsX, the Indi Media-owned English news channel, has made key appointments at the top rung as part of its revamp plan.

    While the channel has roped in former Triveni Media CEO Rahul Kulshreshtha as consultant for technical operations, it has also brought on board Shamya DasGupta as sports editor.

    During Kulshreshtha’s tenure at Triveni Media, the company had launched the Hindi news channel Voice of India. He has also worked with TV Today as director technology and operations.

    DasGupta, meanwhile, moves in from Headlines Today, where he was working in the same capacity. Prior to Headlines Today, DasGupta has worked with the Indian Express, Tehelka, and ESPN.

    Additionally, Nitin Sukhija, who was earlier with IBN7, has been appointed as entertainment and lifestyle editor in Mumbai and Monica Malik has joined as executive producer. As part of her new mandate, she will be responsible for news production and packaging of the channel. Prior to this, she was at NDTV as senior news producer.

    Also, Sukarno Sen has joined as Kolkata bureau chief. Prior to NewsX, he has worked with CNN-IBN, IBN7 and Zee News.

    Said a channel spokesperson, “This is an important milestone for NewsX and part of our strategy of incrementally but continuously strengthening our leadership team. At NewsX, it’s our endeavour to deliver news and programmes that are informative, engaging and timely. The recent hiring will give a strong leadership to the team which has been delivering fresh content and programming.”

    Recently, NewsX got VK Shashikumar on board as head of special investigations and news programming, Nandita Kumar as GM strategy and planning, and Sanjay Singh as resident editor Mumbai.

  • Aaj Tak, CNN IBN win poll endgame ratings

    Aaj Tak, CNN IBN win poll endgame ratings

    MUMBAI: Though the verdict of the 2009 general election was far from what the news channels expected or projected, the endgame drama on 16 May certainly drew in peak viewers.

    The Hindi TV news genre jumped almost three-fold to 14.87 per cent on the counting day, up from the previous week’s standing at 5.08 per cent. This, however, remained lower than what the genre enjoyed as a share percentage last time round, according to Tam data for C&S 15+ in the Hindi speaking market. In 2004, the counting day on 13 May saw the share of the genre surging to 24.25 per cent from its previous week’s draw of 5.06 per cent.

    Aaj Tak led the pack with 27 per cent of channel share, followed by Star news with 19 per cent and India TV 13 per cent. IBN7 remained fourth in the viewership ladder with a 10 per cent share, while Zee News took a share of 9 per cent and NDTV India 7 per cent.

  • Zee News to drop ads during 9 pm bulletin

    Zee News to drop ads during 9 pm bulletin

    MUMBAI: How often have you been bugged by the commercial break which crops up just as the news anchor on prime time is about to take you over to a correspondent in another city? Pretty often enough for the Zee News management to take advantage of the irritation that viewers might experience.

    The channel has announced Nonstop@9 a prime time 9 pm news bulletin from 9 February which will offer “rapid-fire break-free and non-stop” news. All the important news stories of the day will be crisply wrapped up in 24 minutes without any commercial breaks, claims the channel.

    Zee News Ltd CEO Barun Das says: “Non-stop news at 9 is an effort to cater to the hard nosed news viewer by redefining the set parameters of news presentation. We have always believed in providing content which is not only informative but also presented in a unique format. Nonstop@9 is yet another approach from the Zee News stable to update its viewers about the happenings in a short and comprehensive format.”

    Will viewers sink their teeth into the new news offering? Well, we will find out after the commercial break.

  • ‘The downturn will bring in corrections not just in carriage but in every other aspect’ : Barun Das – Zee News Ltd CEO

    ‘The downturn will bring in corrections not just in carriage but in every other aspect’ : Barun Das – Zee News Ltd CEO

    Churn. The television industry has been going through turbulent times with the economy downsliding and ad growth decelerating. Like its peers Zee News Ltd (ZNL) too has been riding the wave of turbulence with its unique mix of national news and regional language channels.

    While Zee News, Zee Marathi and Zee Bangla have been growing rapidly and notching up profits, Zee Telugu has turned operationally cash positive. The management has managed to keep losses from its ‘new businesses’ (channel launches in the south and Zee Talkies) under control; full fiscal loss forecasts stay unchanged at Rs 700 million, even though it is planning to launch a regional channel targeted at Uttar Pradesh. Simultaneously, it has decided to pull the shutters down on Zee Gujarati from 30 April as it was bleeding.

     

    ZNL is also pursuing growth through the franchisee model, an experiment not tried yet by the other news broadcasters. After partnering with SB Multimedia for a regional news channel in Chattisgarh, the company is keen to tap local entrepreneurs who desire to get into the TV news space in regions which do not occupy Zee’s immediate direct expansion plans.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Sibabrata Das, Zee News Ltd CEO Barun Das talks about the success of the Zee News channel following a repositioning exercise, the turn around of Zee Business, the emergence of new driver channels within the bouquet, the challenges of tiding over the global economic turmoil, and the company’s growth plans.

     

    Excerpts:

    Media companies are reeling under a severe ad slowdown. How has Zee News Ltd bucked this trend so far?
    We are helped by the fact that the regional language markets are growing faster. What is working for us is the composition of the bouquet. Some of the new regional channels have started delivering while the driver channels continue to post strong growth. The positive thing is that more channels like Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Business are positioning themselves to get into the driver category over the next 12-18 months.

    Isn’t the economic downturn affecting regional markets as well?
    There is an overall slowdown. But regional television media markets are still in their nascent stages. The size of these markets is small and there is a lot of potential to grow them. The Marathi news market, for instance, is new. Even in the general entertainment space, the regional channels arrived much later than the invasion of private satellite television in national languages. Outside the southern region, it is the Marathi and Bengali markets that really matter. The other regional markets are small and I don’t see them growing to any significant size in the near future.

    Is this the time to take hard calls like shutting down Zee Gujarati?
    We critically reviewed the channels that are not likely to make profit in the near future and decided to close down Zee Gujarati with effect from 30 April. Our learning in that market shows that the revenue is too small as entertainment consumption happens primarily in Hindi. It didn’t make sense to linger with the channel and burn cash any more. We would rather focus on the bottom line of the company while strategically expanding our presence in other markets, products and services.

    Has the break even success of the Telugu general entertainment channel put you in a comfort zone in the southern region to launch more channels?
    We are backing up the progress of Zee Telugu with the launch in this quarter of Zee 24 Ghantalu, a Telugu news channel. Though Zee Kannada will not break even this fiscal, it would happen in the first or second quarter of FY’10. So yes, we have managed to open up the southern space for ourselves.

    How bullish are you about cracking the Tamil market, particularly when the Marans (Sun TV promoters) and DMK party chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi have smoked the peace pipe?
    We are investing Rs 900 million for the Tamil channel in the first year (capex+one year opex). We expect Zee Tamil to break even over 36-48 months. We have signed up with Sun Group’s cable TV arm SCV and the channel is well distributed. We are also in talks with Sun Direct for a presence of the channel on the DTH platform.

     

     

    What makes us stay bullish is that Tamil Nadu is the biggest regional market. Besides, there is only one player (Sun TV) in that market, giving us space to climb the ladder. We feel we have a good opportunity to be a strong No. 2 or No. 3. Also, we have started understanding the nuances of the southern market from our experience, planning and research in running a Telugu and a Kannada channel.
    ‘What is working for us is the composition of the bouquet. Some of the new regional channels have started delivering while the driver channels continue to post strong growth. The positive thing is that more channels like Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Business are positioning themselves to get into the driver category over the next 12-18 months‘

    How much is ZNL going to lose from its new businesses this fiscal?
    We are sticking to our original guidance of an EBITDA loss of Rs 700 million from our new businesses (Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee 24 Taas, Zee Tamil, Zee Talkies and Zee 24 Ghantalu) this fiscal. There is no revision upwards despite us planning to launch a regional news channel in Uttar Pradesh.

    With the Indian economy coming under the shadow of a global recession, have you shelved plans to launch an English news channel?
    There is no additional expansion plan at this stage outside the launch of Zee 24 Ghantalu and a regional news channel in Uttar Pradesh. But we are exploring opportunities in the English business news space. There is a lot of potential, but we have not concretised our plan as yet.

    Marathi movie channel Zee Talkies got transferred from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) to ZNL. Will the company launch regional movie channels in each market where it runs a GEC?
    Theoretically, we should have a GEC, a news, a movie and a music channel in each regional market where we have a presence. But we are not getting into that gear at this stage. Our Marathi presence is the most widest, followed by Bengali where we are involved in two GECs. While we have the market leader in Zee Bangla, we have taken a 26 per cent stake in Akaash Bangla along with a channel management agreement.

    Will you be expanding in the near future through the franchisee model?
    After launching Zee 24 Ghante Chattisgarh under this model, we are exploring more such opportunities. There is a huge upside in revenues when the economic climate is more favourable; and the money goes straight into the bottom line.

    Is the flagship Hindi news channel growing at a slower pace?
    Along with the growth in viewership share, there is a significant revenue growth as well. After we relaunched the channel with a game-changing strategy, premium brands from sectors like cosmetics, automobiles, and IT – who were earlier not present as our advertisers – have come on board.

    How are you planning to push Zee Business which is considered as a laggard in comparison to its competitive channels?
    Zee Business has made rapid strides over the last several weeks and has moved up from a 11 per cent share in a four-channel market to a 26 per cent share in a five-channel market scenario. We have changed the look and feel of the channel, beefed up our research team, took it beyond a eight metro approach, targeted specific audiences, and focused on the SME sector. We have also concentrated on events; we would have conducted 47 events in the second half of the year. All this seems to be working for us.

     

     

    In fact, 2008 is also the year when 24 Ghanta went ahead to emerge as a leader in the Bengali news market with its focus on content, events and communications. We nullified Star Ananda’s strength in football coverage by acquiring the rights of the National Football League.

    Do you have plans to launch add-on channels like Tez to guard your flagship Hindi news channel?
    Primarily, our strategy is to have state-based news channels. This will continue to be our going-forward direction in the near future.
    Is subscription revenue looking positive with the entry of more DTH players?
    DTH is a growing segment and we stand to benefit from it. It currently accounts for 32 per cent of our subscription income.
    Will carriage costs continue to climb as more channels launch and continue to jostle for space on cable networks?
    With digitalisation growing, carriage rates will continue to slide. The downturn will bring in corrections not just in carriage, but in every other aspect.
    Including downsizing staff?
    Retrenchment is not required. But going forward, we will see how much we need to rationalise on our costs. We will scrutinise every cost, review every deal, and re-negotiate with our suppliers.
    In such a tough market, will you cut down on rates and play the volume game to consume ad inventory?
    The right strategy would be to provide better value than cut rates. Our plan is to offer tailor-made solution for clients and work on innovations. We are, for instance, getting four co-branded programmes on Zee News channel. The truth is that all of us have to stretch more than what we have ever done so far.
    How do you plan to survive the woes of 2009-10?
    It will probably be the worst year any of us have ever seen. Our endeavour will be to strongly hold on to the ground and use this period to prepare ourselves for being able to take the next big leap when we finally move out of the global recession.
  • Zee News inks content deal with Voice of America

    Zee News inks content deal with Voice of America

    NEW DELHI: Zee News has inked a deal with Voice of America for syndication of content.

    As part of the syndication, Zee News will air a five-minute daily segment ‘America Live’, which will be a part of the 8 am news bulletin.

    Zee News will also telecast relevant stories in the afternoon 2 pm and prime time news bulletin, News Top 10. Apart from the regular news feed, Voice of America will also develop half-hour specials on topical issues for Zee News.

    Zee News CEO Barun Das said, “Our alliance with Voice of America will expand our reach in the international market. We strongly believe that adding value to viewers depends on our leverage, access and global leadership.”

    Added Voice of America director Danforth Austin, “In our first broadcast, the Indian audience heard US leaders condemn the violent acts in Mumbai and expressed solidarity with India in this difficult time. America live also relayed to Zee News audience the sentiments of members of the Indian-American community in the US as they shared the grief experienced by the people of India. Through this new partnership, Voice of America hopes to contribute to Zee News’ programming with leading news from the United States and its reaction to events that shape the world today.”

    In addition to the routine stories on business, human interest, politics and special half-hour reports, Voice of America will be covering all the major events and news stories live from different parts of the United States to give Zee News an informative peek into daily affairs.

  • Zee News to invest $5 mn in UP news channel

    Zee News to invest $5 mn in UP news channel

    MUMBAI: Zee News Limited (ZNL) will invest $5 million in its news channel for Uttar Pradesh, a market where only Sahara operates.

    Zee 24 Ghante plans to launch by the end of the fiscal. “We are investing $5 million in the channel. We aim to break even in 18-24 months as the marketplace has just Sahara which makes around $4 million,” a senior executive in the company said.

    ZNL expects to suffer a loss of Rs 700 million from new businesses during the fiscal. For the first half of the year, the company has already incurred losses of Rs 280 million. While the newly-launched Tamil general entertainment channel, Zee Tamizh, booked a loss of Rs 50 million in the quarter, this is expected to go up in the subsequent quarters as the investments climb.

    “We are in talks with SCV, Sun Group’s cable TV company, for carriage of our channel. The distribution costs would go up as we aggressively push the channel,” the source added.

    Zee Telugu, the Telugu GEC, has broken even and plans are afoot to launch Telugu news channel Zee 24 Ghantalu in November. ZNL is also looking at innovative strategic investments to further expand the business in regional markets.

    Marathi movie channel Zee Talkies, which has been transferred from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd to ZNL from 1 August, is close to break even. “We are not revising our loss guidance from new businesses despite adding a few new channels during the fiscal,” the source said.

    Zee News posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 114.7 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2008, up 104.4 per cent from Rs 56.1 million in the previous year. Revenue jumped 60 per cent to stand at Rs 1.27 billion as compared to Rs 798.1 million in the prior year.

  • Zee News Q2 net up at Rs 114.7 million

    Zee News Q2 net up at Rs 114.7 million

    MUMBAI: Zee News Limited (ZNL) has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 114.7 million for the quarter ended 30 September, 2008, up 104.4 per cent from Rs 56.1 million in the previous year.

    During the period, the company’s revenue jumped 60 per cent to stand at Rs 1.27 billion as compared to Rs 798.1 million in the prior year.

    Advertisement revenue increased 60.8 per cent to Rs 1.01 billion while subscription revenue grew 56.2 per cent to stand at Rs 234 million.

    Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra said, “In this time of a perceptible global economic slowdown and challenging macroeconomic environment during which investor confidence is certainly not at its peak, Zee News Limited has delivered excellent results in the second quarter of FY’09. The company has maintained its growth momentum and recorded a healthy 60 per cent increase in top line of Rs 1.27 billion. Consolidated EBIDTA stood at Rs 212 million, up 99.3 per cent. As per our guidance given, the Telugu channel has broken even in this quarter.”

    After launching the Tamil general entertainment channel on 12 October, ZNL plans to launch the Telugu news channel, Zee 24 Ghantalu, in November. Plans are also afoot to launch UP news channel Zee 24 Ghante. “In line with our vision of regional expansion, we may as well look for certain innovative strategic investments in the coming period,” Chandra added.

    Marathi movie channel Zee Talkies has been transferred to ZNL with effect from 1 August.

    Commenting on the results, ZNL MD Laxmi Narain Goel said: “The existing businesses continued to grow and recorded around 45 per cent growth in operating revenues while the same for new businesses was 226 per cent. Viewership too experienced an upward spiral with almost all the Zee News Limited channels experiencing a growth in channel share compared to the corresponding quarter last fiscal.”

    Added Zee News CEO Barun Das, “In our new businesses, both Zee Telugu and Zee Kannada are gaining traction in their respective markets and delivering growing revenues and GRPs. While Zee Telugu has broken even, Zee Kannada is strongly on the path to break even as per our previous guidance.”

  • Zee News to launch regional channel in UP

    Zee News to launch regional channel in UP

    MUMBAI: Zee News is stepping up its regional foray. The news broadcasting company is launching a regional channel in UP.

    It has recently launched Zee 24 Ghante Chhatisgarh on 1 October where Zee News is offering consultancy to SB Multimedia. Housed under Zee News, News Consultancy Services Division (NCSD) will provide operational and strategic advice on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis to entrepreneurs desirous of launching news channels in markets which do not figure in Zee’s immediate expansion plans.

    With the tag line Sawaal Aapka Hai, the channel will highlight issues particular to the state. State-focussed shows will constitute 70 cent while the rest will cover national and international stories.

    Desh Hamara, Khabar Chhatisgarh, City 36 and Nau Ki Baat, Singhasan Chhatisi are some of the shows that the channel is telecasting.