Afternoon daily Mid-Day recently hosted a celebrated event, The Mid Day Trophy, a day at the races held at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai. Actor Akshay Kumar was the guest of honour on the occasion.
UTV Global Broadcasting is set to up the action ante on television with the launch of a new Hindi movie channel, UTV Action. The channel, which will go live from January 1, 2010, will showcase Bollywood and Hollywood action thrillers dubbed in Hindi. So confident is UTV about the action genre that it is expecting the new channel to open with nearly 30 GRPs.
Yashraj Films (YRF) has taken the fourth key milestone in its 38-year old journey by entering the television domain through its newly launched division YRF TV. YRF has associated with long time partner Sony Entertainment Television for this initiative. Beginning January 2010, YRF TV would bring six hours of content to Sony’s weekends.
In a nation where food prices have just about everyone teetering on the ropes, to first ‘bribe’ foreign delegations and then get an unlimited financial commitment from the Union Government to host the Games is a criminal waste of time, money and effort. Fiscal deficit be damned, the nation’s prestige is at stake after all. And media needs to target the real meaty issues in its crosshairs. Issues that affect you and me, says veteran journalist Sandeep Bamzai.
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN Network, has been re-elected President of the Editors Guild of India for a second term at the elections held in the Capital on December 22, 2009. Coomi Kapoor, a columnist with The Indian Express Group, has been elected the General Secretary. Rohit Bansal has been re-elected the Treasurer for yet another term.
Cornel Fernandes has been given the additional responsibility of heading the other SBUs for clients under Mumbai region at the Patrika Group. Fernandes will be reporting to Arvind Kalia, National Head – Marketing, Patrika Group. He is replacing Anil Malik, who has quit the organisation.
Sun TV has restructured its distribution business with the creation of two verticals – one focused on managing the South operations and the international business, and the second on expanding the Sun TV bouquet in the North, West and Eastern markets of India. The media behemoth has also appointed two senior distribution professionals – Mohammed Mujeebuddin and Jawed Akthar.
Shefalee Vasudev has put in her papers as Editor of Marie Claire India. Prior to joining the Outlook Group to head Marie Claire India as its first Editor, Vasudev had been a news journalist for 15 years and had worked with various newspapers and magazines.
Vivek Gaur, Executive Director, India Today Group, has quit and joined Hindustan Times. Confirming the news to exchange4media, Gaur said that he joined HT on December 21, 2009 as Business Head for the North-East region and would be reporting to Rajeev Verma, CEO, HT Media.
IDFC Mutual Funds, a private sector diversified financial institution, is on the lookout for a new creative partner. It is believed that a few leading agencies are part of the pitch call. Neither the account size nor any official confirmation was forthcoming at the time of filing this report.
