BBC World Service has reinstated its FM programming on the Sri Lankan national broadcaster SLBC from Thursday, April 15. This will be the first BBC programming on the SLBC FM network for 14 months.
Four years after its birth, ‘ETC Bollywood Business’, is all set to move into its new avatar. The trade show, which aired previews, reviews, BO collections, celebrity chats, will now don a new format and a new host in Komal Nahta. While Mondays will be about Box Office collections of the films released the previous Friday; Tuesdays and Wednesdays will air feature stories and debates with who’s who of the Indian film industry. Thursdays will be for the previews of the movies to be released the next day, while on Friday, Komal Nahta will review the films that have released earlier in the day. Taking a leaf out of the original, the new ‘ETC Bollywood Business’ will continue with industry chats on all days.
To engage more listeners, Fever 104 FM has launched iPlayFever, a service for listeners where the listener is not only able to choose the song that he wants to listen to, but they also get reminders about when the song has been scheduled. This will be available at the cost of a normal ‘non-premium’ SMS.
Bharti Airtel has launched Mirchi Mobile in partnership with Radio Mirchi. Airtel mobile customers can now choose to follow Radio Mirchi station from anywhere in India and can choose from 12 Radio Mirchi stations. To subscribe, they simply have to dial a particular number to listen to up to 100 minutes of Radio Mirchi content for Rs 10 per week. Through this initiative, every handset, even those without an FM receiver, can access Radio Mirchi content streamed through Airtel network. Mirchi Mobile will be initially available to Airtel customers in Delhi and Mumbai, to be shortly followed by the rest of the country.
Digital agency Quasar has roped in Naveen Verma as National Creative Director. Prior to joining Quasar, Verma was National Creative Director at Rediff.com, where he had spent 11 years out of his overall of experience of 15 years.
In keeping with the recent spate of account wins, Equus Red Cell has added another account to its portfolio – PA Time Industries’ Maxima Watches. The win comes on the back of a closely fought creative pitch that lasted a month and involved more than four agencies. Saatchi & Saatchi was the incumbent agency.
Move over Jaaved bhai and your ‘It’s different’ sauce. Here comes ‘stuntwoman’ Shefali Chayya, who is ready to go to any lengths to lay her hands on the newly launched Del Monte sauces. The new ad grabs the attention and leaves one curious to know what the sauces taste like.
Bangalore is witnessing a keen fight for the top spot between Big FM and Radio Mirchi among female listeners. This has been revealed by RAM data for all female 12 plus, all places of listening from Week 1 of 2010 (December 27, 2009-January 2, 2010) to Week 15 of 2010 (April 4-10).
Consumer electronics major LG is quite upbeat about growth in 2010. As LK Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, LG, declared, “Slowdown in 2009 didn’t affect us”, and added that the company had not cut down on its advertising budget during the year. Going forward, LG plans to have LCD TVs and mobile phones as the growth drivers in India.
UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) will now be known under the new brand name ‘Aadhaar’ (foundation). The new brand name and logo were unveiled at a function in the Capital on April 26, 2010. The logo design was selected following a nation-wide logo competition launched in February this year.
While there is an urgent need for print media vehicles to be future-ready and re-engineer themselves, there is nothing to beat a done-to-detail print report as was the ‘Outlook’ phone-tapping exposé, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari.
ASCI has released its report for the period February 2010 on the ads that were either withdrawn or modified. A total of six ads had been brought under its scanner, of which it had prohibited the airing of one commercial and instructed modifications in five others with immediate effect. These ads include brands like Dabur Chyawan Junior, Maruti SX4, Shanti Badam Amla Hair Oil, Tata AIG Insurance, IMS CAT Approach Program and Mahindra Flyte Power Scooter.
With IPL Commissioner Lalit Kumar Modi suspended and the huge controversy around the League, one wonders what the future for brand IPL would be. exchange4media speaks to a cross-section of the industry to find out whether Modi’s fall from grace would take down brand IPL with it.
Newsprint prices, which had dipped slightly last year, have started going up again and hovering around $600 per tonne. Though various global factors have made import of newsprint costlier, the print industry is not unduly concerned yet, given the strong performance of the rupee against the dollar. However, experts believe that further hike would put pressures on cover prices and page cuts once again.