Doordarshan held a World Broadcasting Meet in Delhi on October 26-28, 2009 to highlight its production and coverage preparedness plan for the 19th Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi from October 3-14, 2010. British company SIS Live has been awarded the contract for covering the Games in high definition TV, a first in the Games’ history.
Watch out, the slowdown is not over yet, cautioned industry experts at panel discussion on ‘Post Recession Strategies for Sustainability’. Presented by telecom firm SingTel in association with the Network18 Group, the event brought together some of the best thinking hats in the industry – KPMG’s Rajesh Jain, Doordarshan’s Aruna Sharma, SingTel’s Titus Yong, Homeshop18’s Sundeep Malhotra, exchange4media Group’s Anurag Batra and Times Group’s Mohit Jain.
Synovate organised an Expo in Delhi recently, wherein it provided an opportunity to marketers to know about the innovative tools to improve their marketing shares, understand consumer behaviour, brand differentiation and brand affinity. Synovate has pooled its research and consulting capabilities into a new product called Ideal Customer Experience (ICE).
Radio One 94.3, the joint venture between Mid-Day Multimedia and BBC Worldwide, has announced its quarter and first half financial results for 2009. Net revenue for H1 was stood at Rs 15.16 crore, a growth of 3 per cent over the corresponding period last year, which stood at Rs 14.66 crore. At the quarter level, the figures for H1 last year and this year were identical at Rs 8.02 crore.
Taking a tough stance, the Delhi Government informed the Delhi High Court on October 29, 2009, that the publisher of a surrogate advertisement on liqour would be slapped with a fine of Rs 10 lakh (up from the earlier Rs 200) and a jail term of six months as per the amended the Delhi Excise Act.
Colors is under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) scanner yet again, this time for its daily soap ‘Na Aana Iss Des Laado’. MIB has issued a showcause notice to Colors for showing a government official (a District Magistrate in this case) in a bad light in ‘Laado’. This notice comes barely four days after an MIB showcause notice to another show on Colors, ‘Bigg Boss – 3’.
Close on the heels of the Luxor and Giovani wins, Vizeum India, from Aegis Media Group, has been appointed as the media AOR for BSA Motors. Industry estimates peg the size of the media business at Rs 20 crore. Mindshare is the incumbent agency. A division of Tube Investments of India Ltd, BSA Motors is the latest entrant in the e-scooter category.
Candid Marketing has rechristened its trade marketing business as UBIQ Trade & Retail Marketing. Along with the new name, the company has also refreshed the division’s identity and logo. The business was previously known as ITM (Integrated Trade Marketing).
Media veterans Nitin Jain and Rema Harish have jointly set up a ‘strategy and ideation’ consulting firm, Domor Communication Consulting, to help advertisers and allied businesses improve marketing effectiveness. The new firm has been established in strategic partnership with international domain leader, R3. Domor has already engaged itself with the likes of Ferrero India and ZenithOptimedia.
The Board of Directors of Zee News Ltd (ZNL) has approved the proposed share swap ratio by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) for the de-merger of ZNL’s regional entertainment business (R-GEC) to ZEEL. The proposed de-merger would be funded by issuance of new shares by ZEEL to shareholders of ZNL and the share swap ratio has been proposed at 4 equity shares of Re 1 each of ZEEL for 19 equity shares of Re 1 each held in ZNL, as a consideration for the de-merger of the R-GEC business undertaking.
There is a brand new player in the crowded Tamil satellite television space – Polimer TV – which went on air recently. Promoted by Polimer Media, one of the largest multi-system operators (MSO) in Tamil Nadu, Polimer TV would offer a mix of films, film-based programmes, soaps, talk shows, news and current affairs, live events and others.
About the kind of channel we want to build, at this stage let me say we want to avoid the trend towards tabloidism. Our intention is to respect the viewers and recognise that a very large number wants good quality news… we’re not aiming to be the No. 1 channel, we are not driven by that. We aim to be big enough to be relevant to viewers and advertisers, but mainly focus on creating a different news experience for viewers. I like to tell our team ‘Let’s be like Aamir Khan. Let’s be big, but not obsessed with being No. 1. Let’s be different and better, but in a way that is widely appealing’. Of course, the trick here is not to become too different or too intellectual. That was the mistake I think the old NewsX made. It was so different and rarefied that it ended up alienating the viewers.