Reliance Communications has launched the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Smartphone in India. It has also become the first CDMA provider in India to carry the Bloomberg Professional service on BlackBerry via Reliance Mobile.
International music and lifestyle channel Vh1 brings to India the reality series ‘Laguna Beach’. The show premieres on September 11, and will be aired every Tuesday at 9 pm.
Kids channel Nick has launched a new on-air contest ‘Aflatoon Afternoon’ from September 10, in the time slot of 12 noon-3 pm. The channel plans to attract new viewers and keep themselves engage with kids all the time through various contests and merchandise.
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a technology venture capital firm, has appointed Niren Shah as Managing Director. Shah will focus on local investments in the consumer Internet, digital media, next-generation services and mobile sectors.
Sargunan Venugopal has moved to Chitra Publicity, an outdoor media house based in Gujarat, as President-Marketing. Prior to this, he was President-Marketing with Sambhaav Media, Ahmedabad.
Equus Red Cell has elevated Associate Vice President Ajay Uthaman to Senior Vice President-West and South. Uthaman, who took charge of the Mumbai operations 18 months ago, will now be squarely in charge of both the Mumbai and Bangalore operations.
vJive Networks has announced a partnership with ScreenRed, a part of the John Ryan International Group, for providing digital communication solutions to the banking financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector in India.
Radico Khaitan’s flagship brand ‘8 PM’ whisky is taking the entertainment route for promoting the brand through outdoor theater branding with cinemas in Andhra Pradesh as well as tying up with Big FM in Bareilly.
Shavon Barua joins JWT Delhi as VP and Client Services Director. Barua, a seasoned advertising professional, joins JWT from Euro RSCG, where she was heading the Reckitt business. Barua has worked on category brands like Colgate, Lakme, Parle-G and Dettol.
Radio Choklate 104 FM, which currently has its operations in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack, will soon broadcast BBC’s programming, specifically produced for India’s FM market. This will be extended to listeners in Rourkela once the station starts its operations there.
TNS Media Intelligence, a division of global market information provider TNS, has acquired PressWatch GmbH, the reference for media monitoring and evaluation services in Germany. This move gives a boost to TNS’ offering and market share in Western Europe.
Tehelka, the investigative tabloid-sized newspaper, has been relaunched as a weekly magazine. The price has been hiked to Rs 20, but it would be available at an invitation price of Rs 10 for some time.
Suhel Seth, Managing Partner, Counselage, has been nominated to the Global Advisory Board of British Airways. This is the first time an Indian has been included on the Advisory Board of British Airways.
Wunderman India has elevated Satish Sathyanarayana as CEO following the resignation of Rajat Sethi, who was CEO and Director on Board. In his new role, Sathyanarayana’s focus will be to strengthen the talent base and make the processes robust enough to handle the burst of growth that the company is experiencing.
The gap between Star Plus and Zee TV is closer than ever. In targets like the female 15+, Zee TV has beaten Star Plus on the all day, weekly channel share. Media experts, however, state that with the launch of other Hindi GECs, the game will no longer be just about two players.