MxMIndia

Author: mxmadmin

  • ECOA, for those not in the know, is a comprehensive apex body dedicated to the causes, growth, promotion, protection, and welfare of all the "Entertainment Content Owners of India" across all genres, languages and formats

    Hiren ‘Shemaroo’ Gada is Prez of Entertainment Content Owners Association

    By Our Staff

     

    The Entertainment Content Owners Association of India (ECOA) has elected Hiren Gada, CEO of Shemaroo Entertainment as its new President. This was announced at the recently held 58th Annual General Meeting of the association. The other officebearers of the association who were elected includes RK Duggal, Vice President, Ashok Jain – Hon. Secretary and Narendra Hirawat – Treasurer.

     

    Hiren Gada

    Said Hiren Gada, CEO-Shemaroo Entertainment: “It’s an honour to be elected as the President of this prestigious association that has been safeguarding the interests of the entertainment content owners of India. I am grateful to all my colleagues and members of the ECOA to entrust me with this responsibility. I look forward to working with the industry leaders to future proof the ownership and distribution of the content with the emergence of technology and web 3.0.”

     

    ECOA, for those not in the know, is a comprehensive apex body dedicated to the causes, growth, promotion, protection, and welfare of all the “Entertainment Content Owners of India” across all genres, languages and formats.

     

  • The emerging digital ecosystem is calling for urgent applications of voice and video in vernacular, writes Indrani Sen

    The Future of Digital India lies in Voice, Video & Vernacular

     

     

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Indrani SenThe IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE report published in 2020 predicted that internet users in India would increase by 45% between 2021 to 2025 and will touch 900 million. The report also made a forecast that the growth will be driven by higher adoption of internet by users in small towns and rural areas. In 2020, two out of every five active internet users in the country came from small towns and there was a 13% growth in the number of rural internet users between 2019 and 2020. The report also estimated that by 2025, the number of rural internet users will surpass the number of urban internet users. In a country with 29 states based on linguistic divisions and 22 major regional languages (including Hindi), the emerging digital ecosystem is calling for urgent applications of voice and video in vernacular to reach out to the new internet users.

     

    An article in Economic Times by Rahul Sachitanand published on October 7, 2018 did an excellent analysis of India’s  changing internet landscape covering its past, present and future (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/voice-video-and-vernacular-indias-internet-landscape-is-changing-to-tap-next-wave-of-users/articleshow/66102478.cms). The article talked about the three waves of internet adoption in India, the first wave (1995-2005) saw the arrival and early adoption of internet and digital content in India followed by the second wave (2005-2015) when internet took the centre stage and a variety of new businesses were built in travel, e-commerce and fintech riding on internet which not only attracted international players and investors but also laid the foundation of Digital India. The third wave, which began from 2015 (2015-2025), saw the validation of Indian Internet market with Flipkart’s sale to Walmart for $16 bn. Data prices crashed as reliance Jio entered the telecom market and mobile became the main device for accessing internet across the country breaking geographic and demographic boundaries.

     

    I wrote two articles here, the first one “The Deep Divide” published on February 5, 2018 dealt with the difference between the language of communication used by our advertising industry and the language understood and appreciated by their target audience across India in the digital age (https://www.mxmindia.com/2018/02/the-deep-divide/); and the second one published on November 4, 2019 dealt with the inevitable upcoming process of localisation of Indian digital market (https://www.mxmindia.com/2019/11/localisation-in-indian-digital-media-market/). However, in 2019 I was not able to foresee how fast the timeframe of reaching out digitally to the rural internet users would shrink during the three waves of the pandemic, national/ regional lockdowns and forced online education at primary and secondary school levels. A lot of water has passed under the bridge during the last two years and today a number of new entrepreneurs are ready to offer AI solutions for enabling Voice and Video in vernaculars for reaching out to the new Indian internet users from small towns and rural areas.

     

    The Indian internet which was initially designed in English for the top end of the market is now going through an explosion of vernaculars enabling usage of voice and video for enabling the new users to graduate from utility services to online transactions. Today, it is estimated that more than 60% of smartphone users in India consume various content in their mother tongue and about 30% consume content in multiple Indian languages along with English. Only 10% of the smartphone users consume content only in English and this percentage is expected to decrease with the increase in the number of smartphone users. According to Google, there has been a four-fold increase in rural internet users. India’s data consumption now can be easily compared with developed countries at an average of 8GB per month per user. The transacting audience kas gone beyond the large cities to touch 170 million. The next generation of Indian internet users would prefer to have content, communication and ecommerce in non-English vernaculars and would be more comfortable with voice rather than typing messages in their mother tongues.

     

    Google has introduced India First and India-only apps to bring in new users to its fold. It has launched support on its Gboard handset keyboard in all Indian languages; its voice assistant can understand and interact in eight Indian languages and its web browser Chrome can translate web pages into eleven Indian languages. More Indian languages would be added to the Google apps in near future.

     

    For over 10 years, Reverie Language Technologies, a vernacular language venture, has been building capabilities for search and discovery in multiple languages. They have gone beyond translation and have built interfaces to engage via voice the need of the new users of internet by focussing on customer relationship management (CRM) of this emerging digital consumer segments. Over the last couple of years, a whole new B2B sector with digital organisations like vernacular.ai offering AI enabled use of voice and video in vernacular has opened up.  VIVA or Vernacular Intelligent Virtual Assistant is one of the services which are offered by vernacular.ai today. All large ecommerce companies operating in India have started voice enabled transactions in vernaculars.

     

    YouTube, Hotstar, Voot, etc. along with first TikTok and then desi versions of TikTok have shown us the operations with videos, particularly videos in vernacular can reach a massive scale. Research has shown that close to 90% of marketing companies use videos as the main tool for digital marketing. More than 75% of all B2C content is delivered through videos which have higher engagement rate leading to greater penetration of the messages. In future with technological developments, search operations will be done through voice search or video search in multiple Indian languages.  While voice and video will be adopted in future by the entire digital world, Digital India will be clearly different market by the use of at least a dozen of vernacular platforms.

     

  • A week of some heavyduty questions. Let's start with the first one and the response by Dr Bhaskar Das in the October 10 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das | With the CCI nod, the Zee-Sony merger is now a certainty. Are the fears of a monopolistic hold over advertising and content pricing unfounded? Given that in the entertainment, you are only as good as your last big hit show

    Bhaskar DasA week of some heavyduty questions. Let’s start with the first one and the response by Dr Bhaskar Das in the October 10 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

     

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

    Q. With the CCI nod, the Zee-Sony merger is now a certainty. Are the fears of a monopolistic hold over advertising and content pricing unfounded? Given that in the entertainment, you are only as good as your last big hit show.

     

    A. The news of merger between Sony and Zee Entertainment is estimated ti create a $10 billion TV enterprise. With the combined power of 40% plus market share of audience across various genres in urban and rural markets of the combined entity might give an unparalleled competitive advantage al. But it’s too early to even speculate on that aspect as the Combined entity leadership team has agreed to conform to the regulatory protocols of CCI. So best is not to generate businessdust on a premature basis.

     

    Coming to your second part of the question, it is quintessentially true as audience are spoilt with a surfeit of choices across formats and genres. When market is the final arbiter, assuming sustained leadership can be a chimera as audience approval can’t be taken for granted.  And as you mentioned correctly one is as good as the last game.

     

  • To build various frameworks, platforms, and business processes

    Benny Augustine appointed COO of Dentsu Creative India

    By Our Staff

     

    Benny Augustine
    Benny Augustine

    It’s announcements time from Dentsu Creative India. A new one each day. Well, almost. It has now elevated Benny Augustine to the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will report into Amit Wadhwa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

     

    Augustine will oversee the operations of Dentsu Creative in India. His objective will be to build various frameworks, platforms, and business processes that promote efficiency and effectiveness for clients using Modern Creativity. Furthermore, he will aim to foster the company culture by leading internal initiatives and implementing training programs to help develop talent. He will work closely with Dentsu Creative’s Global Operations community led by Global COO, Andrea Terrassa.

     

    Amit Wadhwa
    Amit Wadhwa

    Said Wadhwa: “While we move into this new era of a strong brand like Dentsu Creative in India, it is important to have someone to spearhead the operational transformation who understands people as well as the business. To be honest, I don’t think I could have asked for a better person than Benny to do this.”

     

  • Moves on to explore other professional avenues

    India TV Group CEO Vinay Maheshwari steps down

    By Our Staff

     

    Vinay Maheshwari
    Vinay Maheshwari

    India TV has announced that Group CEO Vinay Maheshwari has stepped down after a six-month tenure with the broadcast network. Maheshwari, who had joined India TV in March this year will move on to explore other professional avenues.

     

    Said Ritu Dhawan, the Managing Director of India TV: “India TV thanks Vinay for the passion and commitment he brought to the Company. We appreciate his immense contribution in such a short time. We wish him the best in all his future endeavours.”

     

    Added Maheshwari: “It was great working with India TV group though for a short tenure. Working with Rajatji and Rituji was a wonderful experience. Enjoyed every bit of it. I wish India TV all the success.”

     

  • Contract Advertising creates documentary to start conversation on gut health

    Lupin unveils new campaign for Lupizyme Plus

    By Our Staff

     

    Contract Advertising has rolled out a new campaign for Lupin’s over the counter Lupizyme Plus digestive aid syrup.

     

    Speaking on this, Anil Kaushal, Head OTC Business, Lupin said: “Lupizyme Plus has been a category leader for years. To take the brand to the next level, it’s important to make the brand a conversation leader. This idea is the next step in that regard, to build engagement with our audiences, start conversations and make the brand top of mind when it comes to gut health.”

     

    Added Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising: “The story of a life told in the format of documentary has a different level of engagement. And with the Gut Whisperer, we got a chance to disrupt traditional OTC communication conventions.  And with Lupin, we had a great client who immediately saw the potential of this idea.”

     

  • Film created by Luminant Media

    Candere online jewellery portal launches Diwali campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    Candere, the online jewellery portal by Kalyan Jewellers, has announced the launch of its Diwali campaign. The 82-second Diwali film titled ‘Khushiyon kfe Gehno se, #RishtonKoSajayein’’ has been crafted by The Luminant Media.

     

    Sharing his thoughts on the launch of the Diwali campaign, Rupesh Jain, CEO of Candere, said: “Growing up, we have heard from our parents and grandparents how festivals used to be much more fun back then, with the entire family together. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, people had to stay away from their loved ones, even during the festivities. With things slowly falling back to normal this year, Candere wants to encourage families and friends to celebrate togetherness. Our tagline, “Khushiyon ke Gheno se, #RishtokoSajayein, is an attempt to spread joy/ happiness this Diwali by gifting Candere’s special festive collections to thei close ones.

     

    Added Anant Rathi, CCO, The Luminant Media: “It’s that time of the year again when everyone gets together to celebrate the festival of lights. This Diwali, through the campaign, we wanted to showcase an emotion of nostalgia. In this fast-paced world, we want people to recreate memories like the old times urging them to celebrate the bond of togetherness.”

     

  • The question says it all. No further comment. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the October 11 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das | Would you say that for news media in India esp Mumbai doesn’t show some of its prized jewels in any shade of grey. For instance, when was the last time you read about Amitabh Bachchan’s reported links with Rekha?

    Bhaskar DasThe question says it all. No further comment. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the October 11 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

     

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

    Q. Would you say that for news media in India esp Mumbai doesn’t show some of its prized jewels in any shade of grey. For instance, when was the last time you read about Amitabh Bachchan’s reported links with Rekha?

     

    A. You should read Stardust/ or any other film magazine or other city-centric publications. Besides, you may go through a lot of Bollywood-based websites. You may relish them. But news channels are supposed to show news and they are not supposed to indulge ostensibly in speculative gossip. A political grapevine falls in the domain of news specially when a topical subject is being debated or during election results analysis. So the subject you have mentioned in your question should be complete anathema for a news channel. And I hope it doesn’t happen ever. Real news should update and upgrade and not pander to gossip.

     

  • The cricket tournament will be broadcast on ZEE's 10 channels and its OTT platform ZEE5

    ILT20 unveils trophy for inaugural season in 2023

    By Our Staff

     

    International League T20 (ILT20) a 20-over cricket tournament unveiled the coveted trophy for the upcoming inaugural edition of the league, which will be held in United Arab Emirates from January 13-February 12, 2023. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Chairman, Emirates Cricket Board, unveiled the silver trophy.

     

    Talking about the trophy and the much-anticipated tournament, Rahul Johri, President – Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) said: “The unveiling of the ILT20 trophy by His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan in the presence of all team owners and cricket legends marks a momentous milestone in our journey with the Emirates Cricket Board. This distinctive trophy is symbolic of the league’s unparalleled scale and ambition. We are humbled and thrilled that ILT20 is the coveted vehicle for Zee’s re-entry into sports broadcasting. We are enthused with this opportunity to entertain millions of cricket fans across India and globally on both linear television and streaming platform ZEE5.”

     

    The 34-match tournament will have six teams competing to win the coveted ILT20 trophy. The tournament will exclusively air live on Zee’s 10 linear channels in English, Hindi, and Tamil languages as well as on its OTT platform Zee5. The event will be broadcast on Zee Cinema (SD & HD), Zee Anmol Cinema, Zee Therai, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Zest (SD & HD), & Pictures HD, &Flix (SD & HD) and Zee5 in India and globally.

     

  • 'Live more, Bank less'

    DBS launches new brand campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    DBS has launched a new brand campaign. Speaking on the campaign, Shoma Narayanan, Managing Director – Group Strategic Marketing & Communications at DBS Bank India, said: “DBS continues to break boundaries and reimagine banking to provide a seamless experience to customers. We constantly innovate to meet evolving customer needs while also supporting the community we live in. Rather than fitting into the conventional notions of a ‘traditional bank’, we are a bank for the times – digital, agile and sustainable – a different kind of bank for a post-Covid world.”

     

  • The government also knows that with its massive success in containing traditional media to its own narrative, the digital fortress, such as it is, will eventually fall, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: When algorithms get hyperactive, selectively

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Ranjona BanerjiThe expose by TheWire.in that Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT cell gets special privileges from Meta should hardly surprise anyone.

    https://thewire.in/tech/amit-malviya-instagram-meta-xcheck

    The expose by Jahnavi Sen suggests that Malviya can dictate to Instagram – owned by Meta, as the Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire was recently renamed after one more round of bad publicity – which posts to take down, regardless of their content. He also is allowed to post what he likes regardless of Instagram’s rule because he has been placed under Instagram’s special XCheck programme for celebrities.

    This is not the first instance of the BJP dictating to Facebook/Meta or other digital platforms. And Facebook/Meta has a long history of pandering to rightwing ideology, allowing it to spread lies and manipulations in order to manipulate minds and thoughts. The Cambridge Analytica case of Facebook’s involvement in both Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidential election are not so far away.

    Mark Zuckerberg had approached India to allow its “free basics” plan to go through, where Facebook would be able to control internet content on the premise and enticement of free internet for subscribers. The plan was carefully disguised as a welfare scheme to open the internet to all. That the plan did not overtly succeed was only because of the courts of the time and a small group of free internet activists.

    Soon after this appeared to vanish was the case of the BJP placing people within Facebook India, who could control how the BJP is portrayed on social media and then remove content which was critical or questioning. Ankhi Das was India’s policy head and was accused by the Wall Street Journal of taking down content which showed the BJP in a bad light, or which was critical of the BJP.

     

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54715995

    Ankhi Das resigned and was replaced by Shivnath Thukral who was also said to be pro-BJP.

    https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/shivnath-thukral-profile-ankhi-das-facebook-india-interim-replacement

     

    Thus the alleged leeway shown by Meta to the BJP government is no surprise. Meta and Malviya have not spoken to The Wire yet. Meta’s Andy Stone has questioned the story on Twitter but not more than that.

     

    We know that the government has tried over and again to control social media and to rein in digital platforms. It also knows that with its massive success in containing traditional media to its own narrative, the digital fortress, such as it is, will eventually fall. That there is some resistance is only because of a very small group of activists and journalists.

    The Wire story is largely about one account whose posts were taken down. There must be several others. Judging from Meta’s weak defence of algorithms controlling what counts as “offensive”, we fall into that amorphous terrain where it appears that massive digital platforms have no ways, by their own admissions or their own excuses, of controlling content. Which often is shown up to be a lie since they somehow manage to police anti-fascists, anti-hate and anti-rightwing content without any issues at all.

    It is only when you flag hatred, whether against women or caste discrimination, or race discrimination or Islamophobia or anti-Semitism that these “algorithms” suddenly get hyperactive.

    The more things change…

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal

     

  • To expand South Asian content among customers in America

    Sony Kal Hindi launches on Xumo in US

    By Our Staff

     

    Sony Pictures Networks (SPN), in association with Sony Pictures Television (SPT), has announced that Sony Kal Hindi, a free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel, has launched on Xumo, an American over-the-top internet television service. This comes on the heels of Sony Kal Hindi’s debut on TCL Channel in the US and Canada in August.

     

    Said Jaideep Janakiram, SVP, International Business- Head of the Americas, SPN: “After Sony Kal’s successful launch in the US as one of the first South Asian FAST channel in the region, we’re excited to grow the reach of the channel. Now Xumo customers in the US and Canada will be able to enjoy free access to our robust lineup of premium South Asian content that is subtitled and available across multiple devices.”

     

    Added Stefan Van Engen, SVP of programming and partnerships at Xumo: “The Sony Kal Hindi channel on Xumo is the perfect complement to our rich library of internationally-focused content from key regions around the world. There’s a growing interest in programming like this, and our ability to deliver premium, subtitled South Asian content to millions of viewers across several popular genres is a valuable addition.”