MxMIndia

Category: MEDIA

  • Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd has applauded the Delhi state government's stand on 'No postponement' for the deadline mandated by the government to convert to digital signals via set-top-boxes by June 30, 2012.

    [94 days to D-Day] Hathway applauds Delhi govt

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd has applauded the Delhi state government’s stand on ‘No postponement’ for the deadline mandated by the government to convert to digital signals via set-top-boxes by June 30, 2012.

     

    The Commissioner of Taxes and the other state officials of the State Government of Delhi had recently called a meeting of all cable TV service providers in Delhi. The purpose of the meeting was to confirm the readiness of cable TV service providers to roll-out Digitable Addressable System (DAS) to consumers across Delhi and review the current progress of implementation. The commissioner directed the service providers to deploy set-top-boxes in consumer homes by June 30, 2012 and reiterated that there will be ‘no postponement’ whatsoever in this deadline.

     

    As per The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011, the cable TV industry is required to convert all subscribers from analog signals to digital.

     

    Commenting on the directive by State Government of Delhi, K Jayaraman, Managing Director and CEO of Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd, one of the leading MSOs, said, “The industry is happy with the decision. The digital roll-out will enable consumers to watch high quality digital television channels of their choice.”

     

  • BIG FM launches 'Big Indian League' for IPL5; is exclusive radio partner to Kings Xi Punjab and Deccan Chargers.

    IPL 5: BIG FM takes on mania with ‘BIG Indian League’

    By A Correspondent

     

    BIG FM aims to create an overwhelming experience for cricket fans across the country with the ‘BIG Indian League’.  This campaign brings golden opportunity to listeners across its 45 station network, to not only relive their passion for cricket on radio by supporting their favorite teams, but also a chance to win a grand cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh and tickets to the IPL finale. BIG FM has already partnered exclusively with two leading IPL teams Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab promising listeners exclusive and interesting entertainment updates on these teams.

     

    BIG FM is said to give T20 on radio a new exciting twist built around the game, wherein listeners have to conclude the answer by putting forth a maximum of 20 questions to the RJ. The game will have four listeners representing one of the teams playing in the IPL that respective day with BIG FM RJ. The person who guesses the right answer using the lowest number of questions wins cricket goodies and also gets a chance to win the grand prize of Rs 1 lakh.

     

    In addition to this, BIG FM will recreate the magic of IPL with the BIG Indian League championship in metros including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai. The cities will witness a mall activity to shortlist top 8 teams of the city. These eight local teams will then fight for the title of BIG India league Champion for the city. In Hyderabad and Chandigarh, the winning team will get to play a real match with the respective city IPL teams. BIG FM will also include live updates and insights of the cricket including toss and scores updates and players’ performance for all the matches.

     

    Leading cricket expert Aakash Chopra will share the insights on the matches being played and give out player trivia while leading comic Surendra Sharma will add effervescence to the cricket fever with his witty one-liners.

     

    The initiative will be promoted aggressively across mediums and all the updates will have their digital foot print across social media platforms of BIG FM.

     

    This property offers a an exciting and extensive platform to all the marketers who are keen to showcase their brands around this cricket season and ride on its multi-media promotions and massive scale of BIG FM.

     

    The Company Spokesperson said, “In our country, cricket is the national passion and as a brand that celebrates people’s passions, BIG FM is going all out to entertain listeners during this cricket season like never before on air, on-ground and digitally. We are committed to delivering highly engaging cricket-listening experience on radio with innovations in programming and marketing. Our scale and ability to drive quality content during this season is sure to make it deliver huge value for consumers and customers alike.”

     

  • The Times Internet CEO tells MxMIndia that indiatimes.com plans to take its IPL tieup to more interactive lengths in the 2012 season.

    IPL 5: Indiatimes to make experience better: Rishi Khiani

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTWC38mFJB0[/youtube]

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    The Indian Premier League (IPL) has signed up with indiatimes.com to be its official online broadcaster for IPL 2012. Addressing the media in New Delhi, Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited shared the enthralling online cricket experience indiatimes.com is set to roll out with its unique new features this year. This is indiatimes’ second IPL season as official online broadcaster.

     

    Mr Khiani shared the new product features that have been added to enrich the viewers’ experience this season. Citing the differentiating factors from last year, he said, “We have taken a lot of social features that we played with last year and the Facebook integration that we did last year and moved to a whole new level. We’ve got something called the IPL Battle Ground which is a far more community driven game-ified version of the Facebook chat that we had last year. So the whole community element is a big differentiator. We have taken the offline experience of watching cricket with friends and made it even more interactive. We have added far more features to the player this season. We have added cue points and a video scorecard below the player. Another functionality that has been built into the player this year is the DVR, Digital Video Recording, this allows you to go back in time to watch something you have missed.”

     

    Indiatimes observed a 79 percent increase in viewership in India last season, and is expecting a similar increase this season as well. Statistics suggest an equal split between the male and female viewership ratio online. To make this season bigger and better, certain innovations have been made to add to the wholesome IPL experience. The homepage is designed in a way that it has everything in and around IPL which makes it in a way, ‘destination IPL’, with all the touch points of IPL in one place. Other innovations include an interactive scorecard, DVR, a high definition video player and a Video on Demand (VOD) section. The VOD page will have a lot of editorial packaging in the form of celebrity moments in the match, fun moments in the match, packages of all Fours or all Sixes and so on. Some of the other content features that have been added this year are, latest tweets, Match key moments, Fun Facts, Player interviews, Pre-match shows and TOI RSS feeds.

     

    Addressing a concern on connectivity issues while viewing live feed online, Mr Khiani said, “The video player is built in with an adaptive streaming as per network availability. We have created a stream that would work for broadband connection but also work really well for people who have narrowband connections, so connectivity shouldn’t be an issue.”

     

    Mr Khiani also said that their idea is to create a 360 degree experience, a holistic experience which is something that TV cannot create. Indiatimes has partnered with All India Radio (AIR) for IPL commentary, so all cricket fans can tune into AIR to listen to commentary of IPL. The commentary will also be available on an IVR which will have the advantage of giving a recap of sorts every time one dials in.

     

    Mr Khiani stated that the total spends for this season would amount to around $6 million. Talking about the overall investment this year, Mr Khiani said, “We will probably spend less this year in marketing because last year it was just ten days before the tournament and we had to make sure that we got all eyeballs onto the site, but this year we know what works and what doesn’t work. We have a community base that’s already been built up last year that we can do some sort of targeting to. So the costs have actually come down in terms of marketing.” In terms of revenue, he said that a 40 percent increase has already been recorded from last year and they are expected to break even this year.

     

    Sponsors for this year who have already signed up include Coke, Samsung and Maruti as presenting sponsors. Out of these, Maruti and Samsung are repeat sponsors from last year. HUL and Hero have signed up as the co sponsors for this season, again both are repeat sponsors from last season. Sponsors under the New Partner Categories include, E Bay, Kotak Mahindra bank, Citi Bank and Karbonn Mobiles.

     

    Mr Khiani said that Indiatimes has observed a clear growth in terms of both page views and monetization through the sponsors. He also said that a tournament like IPL has a ‘halo effect’ in terms of returns on investment. He said, “The halo effect is something that we see not just from current monetization this season but from annual deals we do, like the video inventory that we sell. We also introduce new formats for potential advertisers who then get introduced to the Times Network and once they are introduced to the Times Network and they have seen return on investment, they are bound to advertise with us. We’ve seen them advertise with us through the year. So that halo effect kicks in. So in terms of monetization, it is a good investment and in terms of the brand association with IPL and the halo effect, it’s even better.”

     

  • Leading social media firm Social Wavelength findings reveal that even a single incident can make an airline’s rep soar, or plummet

    Tweets take wing in airline social media study

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Social media has transformed the customer into a powerful entity. No longer does one need to call customer service to express opinions or share concerns. The tendency of content on social media to spread at a rapid rate can easily build or tarnish the reputation of a brand. This is the single most important reason why brands have started to monitor conversations and manage their online reputations.

     

    The domestic airline industry in India is growing at a healthy rate of 12 percent annually, and serves 2 percent of the world’s population (an extremely high figure). Therefore, it becomes necessary to understand what the customers want and what their concerns are. This can not only help in better customer service, but also increases brand fidelity.

     

    Explaining this, Social Wavelength has monitored and analyzed conversations for the top 7 domestic air carriers in India to understand how they fare for different service types and departments, according to their customers. Using keywords that are most relevant to these carriers, they conducted a search of conversations on social media at the end of December 2011 and beginning of January 2012, and found 2712 relevant conversations. Each relevant conversation was classified into 6 verticals – Booking and Customer Service, General Feedback, Ground/Airport Service, Onboard Service, Punctuality, and Corporate (table shown in the Annexure). The output results were analyzed and the sentiment of each conversation was judged. The carriers considered for this study are Air India, Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, GoAir, Indigo Airlines, JetLite, and SpiceJet.

     

    Share of Voice

    The two most prominent carriers in India by volume on social media are Air India and Kingfisher Airlines. Together, they accounted for 72 percent of the total volume of results. As observed in many other scenarios, the Pareto rule is found to be true here. (This rule states that, for many events, roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes.)

     

    Jet Airways and Indigo Airlines come in at the third and fourth positions respectively. JetLite and SpiceJet were found in a very low number of results.

     

     

    The SWL Index

    Social Wavelength said it has derived the Social Wavelength Index (SWL Index) to calculate the sentiment share for each carrier with respect to the airlines industry. It is calculated as explained below:

     

     

    On the basis of the SWL Index for conversations, we ranked each carrier vertical-wise and overall. Air India, due to the high share of positive and neutral conversations, ranked at the top of the table. Kingfisher Airlines, on the other hand, was the lowest in terms of SWL Index, having the maximum share of negative conversations in the overall data. Apart from Kingfisher, Jet Airways was the only carrier that had more negative conversations than the sum of positive and neutral conversations.

     

    How The Verticals Fare…

    Punctuality was the biggest concern among customers for almost every carrier monitored. This vertical had the lowest SWL Index at -9.07% and more than 85 percent of the conversations in this vertical were negative in tone. However, Indigo Airlines was mostly praised for timely arrivals and departures. In fact 89 percent of all punctuality-related positive conversations pertained to Indigo Airlines.

     

    Onboard Services too had a substantially negative SWL Index, at -5.48 percent. Kingfisher ranked better in this department, due to mostly neutral results. Air India, though having more conversations about its onboard services, had more negative results too, which affected in its SWL Index falling to the lowest amongst carriers (-18.38 percent). A recent incident, where the in-flight crew of Jet Airways was in news for being fined for refusing to serve alcohol to a female passenger, decreased its SWL Score to -14.23 percent. Without these results, Jet Airways’ SWL Index would have been better by 7.10 percent. This shows that even one incident can greatly affect the overall reputation of a brand.

     

    Although there were fewer conversations for the Booking and Customer Service vertical, the share of its negative conversations was second only to the punctuality vertical. The reason it fared better than the Onboard Services vertical was because it had fewer negative results out of the total volume. SpiceJet had the best ranking for its Booking and Customer Service, while Jet Airways had the lowest. Social Wavelength’s analysis of this showed that that there were a few customers that were unhappy with the online booking procedures for Jet Airways, and few complained about not getting refunds for cancelled flights.

     


    Conversation Sources

    Twitter accounted for the most number of conversations – 9 out of every 10 conversations. This platform has been very popular to share ideas and opinions, due to short updates that people find easier and less time-consuming to read. Mainstream media followed with 7.2 percent of the total relevant conversations, consisting mainly of news websites and articles.

     

    Sentiment Analysis of Conversations on Twitter

    Twitter, due to the high volume of conversations in the data, was the most influential platform for the overall sentiment of every carrier. When carriers were ranked based only on their conversations on Twitter, the results were very similar to the overall table. Almost half of the conversations found on the micro-blogging site were negative in tone. Being the single most prominent source of conversations, Twitter needs to be actively monitored by carrier companies.

     

    Demographics (Twitter)

     

     

    Top News

    There were a lot of mainstream news articles in the period between December 19 and December 26, 2012. These are the top news items for this period. (Since the number of conversations for Indigo Airlines, GoAir, JetLite, and SpiceJet is low, they have not been included.)

     

     

    Influencers

    Social Wavelength found a few notable Twitter users and bloggers who tweeted about the services of carriers.

     

    *True Reach is the number of people a twitter user influences, both within his/her immediate network and across their extended networks. Source: Klout.com

     

    Synopsis:

     

    The details of the verticals considered when analyzing conversations:

     

    Social media agency Social Wavelength was founded in 2009 and its clients include Channel [V], Kotak Mahindra, Idea Cellular and Havells, among others.

     

  • According to sources the deal may be announced formally before the fiscal year-end

    Nai Dunia acquisition set to be announced

    By A Correspondent

     

    The much-awaited Nai Dunia acquisition by Jagran Prakashan, which is reported to have been inked a while back, is set to be announced. Nai Dunia insiders tell MxMIndia that discussions with Jagran insiders on sales planning and execution has been happening for around a quarter.

     

    The Indore-based group has also suspended its Delhi NCR-Ghaziabad edition which, according to reports, the Jagran group wasn’t keen on acquiring since it is still in investment mode. “The objective is to dominate the regional space and not the high cost Delhi market,” said a source close to the development. “That Nai Dunia was making losses in Delhi NCR is not a negative against the group… even today some high profile publications are in losses, but the promoters continue to invest in them given brighter future prospects.”

     

    The deal may be announced formally before the fiscal year-end, the source said. The Delhi NCR-Ghaziabad edition suspension is effective today. The March 29 edition carried a short announcement.

     

  • The OOH veteran has huge plans for Laqshya's growth

    Satish Singh back @ Laqshya as President, plans rapid growth for OOH major

    By A Correspondent

     

    Veteran out-of-home industry captain, Satish Kailash Singh is back at Laqshya. He took charge as President of the company earlier this month.

     

    Mr Singh, an alumnus of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, was until recently Managing Director at Realm Media, a company which he and a former colleague, Mr Yuvraj Agarwal had set up.

     

    Mr Singh has been with the outdoor sector since 1998 after 11-year stint in print – at Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day and Sterling Newspapers. He spent a decade at Outdoor Media Integrated (OMI) where he was CEO and later moved to Laqshya as President.

     

    “The out-of-home industry is at a very interesting juncture and at Laqshya we are equipped to attain greater heights,” said Mr Singh, highlighting that his company has some seasoned professionals holding key roles and portfolios.

     

  • The campaign was aimed at creating awareness on the menace of female foeticide by educating the masses

    Dainik Bhaskar’s Save the Girl Child campaign in Punjab,Chandigarhand Haryana

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dainik Bhaskar, as part of its social responsibility, conducted a month-long educative drive against female foeticide and abandonment of girl child at birth. The ‘Beti Bachao Muhim’ (Save the Girl Child) initiative is concentrated in the state ofPunjaband Haryana, where this practice has lead to a serious gender imbalance.

     

    The campaign was aimed at creating enhanced awareness on this social menace of female foeticide by educating the masses through a series of editorial articles and public rallies and to create the much needed social impact through participative ground movement.

     

    The campaign saw relentless editorial coverage for 23 days. Additional local level focus group discussions among eminent personalities of the region were conducted and shared with the readers. Other than the local social and political influencers, 23 Bollywood celebrities like Vidya Balan, Bipasha Basu, Shilpa Shetty, Kiran Kher, Preity Zinta, Juhi Chawla, Divya Dutta, Shabana Azmi, Lara Dutta and Aishwarya Rai shared their point of view on the initiative.

     

    A series of interactive activities were conducted to further enhance awareness across 40 centres inPunjaband Haryana. Among the activities conducted, a signature campaign on March 20 saw 4 lakh people signing an oath against this social menace. On March 22, a candle light vigil was organized across 40 centres inChandigarh,Punjaband Haryana.

     

    The culmination of the campaign saw a ‘Beti Bachao’ March on March 23 with collective participation of more than 3 lakh people.

     

    Dainik Bhaskar will keep working on its agenda of socio-economic changes, catalyzing the mass psyche on social and economic issues. Speaking on the ‘Beti Bachao Muhim’ Ashu Phakey, COO, Dainik Bhaskar said: “Declining sex ratio is a serious problem in the state ofPunjaband Haryana. As an enabler of socio-economic change, Dainik Bhaskar has a responsibility to create awareness against this social menace and making more people aware of this social evil. This endeavour from Bhaskar is small step to uproot this social evil from society. We will continue our work against this social menace”

     

    Kamlesh Singh, State Editor, and the force behind the critical editorial environment for the initiative said: “Punjaband Haryana are industrious and prosperous states but always figure at the bottom in case of gender ratio. Female foeticide is rampant and known but the two states have not woken up to the harsh reality of a crisis. We were overwhelmed by the response and to quote a reader from Ambala who sent a message the following day, it was organized in “an unprecedented manner. The scale of coverage and number of people involved is unbelievably large.” That quite sums it up”.

     

    Dainik Bhaskar is the leading newspaper in Chattisgarh with editions fromRaipur, Bilaspur, Jagdalpur and Bhilai. The Dainik Bhaskar Group has a strong presence in newspapers, radio, event marketing, printing, short code, Digital, services andMobileapplication. Its flagship Hindi daily newspapers are Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and DNA. It covers 13 States with 64 editions reaching across 19 million readers every day.

     

    Additionally, it publishes 3 other newspaper – Business Bhaskar, DB Gold, DB Star. In magazine sphere it publishes Aha! Zindagi, Bal Bhaskar for young readers and Lakshay.

     

  • New initiative to commemorate legends of Indian cinema with handprints, signatures and statues.

    UTV Stars launches Walk of the Stars

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Indian Film Industry has earned immense admiration and loyalty of people of not only in India but worldwide. To immortalize this legacy, the official channel of Bollywood has launched a landmark which will bring Bollywood fans closer to their favourite stars.

     

    UTV Stars Walk of the Stars, similar to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, is a premium property that will encompass renowned celebrities’ handprints on a customized slab and specially designed brass statues of iconic legendary actors. While customized slabs bearing the handprints will be dedicated to the living legends of Indian cinema, customized slabs with signatures will be dedicated to the legends who have passed away.

     

    March 28, 2012 marked the launch of the property in India, Mumbai, at the Bandra Bandstand Promenade. The launch was a grand affair that witnessed the felicitation of the ‘Kapoor Khandaan’ one of the legendary families of Indian cinema that is synonymous with and has contributed immensely to the Indian Film Industry. Prithiviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor’s slabs were installed on the day. And as a special honour, brass statues on a bench of the great Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor were also installed.

     

    The property was inaugurated by Kareena Kapoor along with Madhur Bhandarkar.

    Commenting on the Launch of the prestigious Property, MK Anand, C.E.O, Broadcasting, UTV, said, “The launch of the UTV Stars Walk of the Stars marks an important milestone in our efforts to bring Bollywood closer to audiences nationwide. Thereby, reinforcing the channel positioning, i.e. ‘The official channel of Bollywood’. It gives us immense pleasure to know that we are making a truly noteworthy tribute to the industry that we’re such an integral part of.”

     

    Commenting on the Launch of UTV Stars Walk of the Stars, Zarina Mehta, Chief Creative Officer, Broadcasting, UTV, said, “UTV Stars, has in 6 months of launch, created a strong brand for itself as a knowledgeable Bollywood Insider. We are of and for the Indian Film Industry. And the UTV Stars Walk of the Stars is our tribute to this vibrant and wonderful dream world of movies.”

     

  • Nets the entire creative communication mandate, acquires the business in a multi-agency pitch

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia bags Net4

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia has been awarded the complete creative mandate for Net4 India Ltd, India’s leading data centre, cloud hosting and network services provider, in a multi-agency, creative and digital communication pitch that encompassed strategy; creative and execution plan presentations.

     

    Confirming the news, Alok Agrawal, COO Cheil Worldwide SWAsia, said: “The win is yet another testimony to Cheil’s integrated expertise. We provided a 360-degree solution to the client’s brief. The challenge is to enhance awareness for Net4 and make it a top-of-mind choice in its fields of business. More than just advertising the brand requires active engagement with the consumers to get into their consideration set. At Cheil, we always lay emphasis on ideas that energise people into action. Net4 is one of the earliest Internet companies in India with a solid heritage and proven business models. Our solution focused on building a stronger brand franchise across all segments of a fully integrated communication plan to drive business to Net4.”

     

    Speaking on the appointment of Cheil WW SW Asia as Net4’s creative communication partner, Jasjit Singh Sawhney, Chairman & MD, Net4 said: “Net 4 is a leader in most of its areas of operations, especially Web Services to SMEs. It is the only fully integrated Internet Company providing solutions to businesses of all sizes, across a wide spectrum of technology services. We feel the market for our services is currently highly underpenetrated and is poised for explosive growth. To capitalize on this opportunity, we are embarking on an aggressive marketing plan and floated a brief to identify the right partner to build our brand and image. Cheil’s understanding, clear strategy and impactful creative for Net4 clearly demonstrated superior thinking. We are looking forward to our partnership with Cheil for driving business on the back of a solid brand” Cheil has already begun work with Net4 on its various projects.

     

    CheilIndia has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last two years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies inIndia. Cheil set up the agency office inIndia in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 85 talented and passionate team members with a never-say-die attitude. Cheil is a truly integrated agency executing some of the largest cross-functional integrated campaigns, providing 360°implementation across all facets of marketing services. Cheil Worldwide Inc isKorea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups.

     

    Net4 is India’s leading Data Centre, Cloud Hosting and Network Services Provider. It is a NSE & BSE listed business enterprise with consolidated revenues to the tune of R 304 Crores (2010-11). Net4 focuses on providing services to businesses (small, medium and large) and its offerings include Data Centre & Cloud Solutions, Web & Application Services and Network & Systems Headquartered in Noida, Net4 has a PAN India presence with offices in 11 major business cities & an ever-growing clientele which includes 850 Corporate Data Center Customers, 800 Internet Bandwidth customers, 2800 Business VoIP customers, 88,000 hosted websites, 1.2 million business e-mail accounts & over 350,000 registered domain names. Net4 is amongst the largest provider of hosted email, web hosting and domain name registration (www.net4.in) in the Asia-Pacific region.

     

  • Variety entertainment channel BIG Magic is now the most watched TV channel with 1.14 cr of cumulative audiences (4-week average) in the Hindi heartland, thus fortifying its position as the No 1 channel in the region.

    BIG Magic is No 1 in Hindi heartland

    By A Correspondent

     

    BIG Magic, India’s first variety entertainment channel for the core Hindi heartland from the Reliance Broadcast Network stable, featuring locally relevant entertainment around Humor, Movies, Reality, Talent Hunts and Action Sports, is now the most watched TV channel with 1.14 cr of cumulative audiences (4-week average) in the Hindi heartland, thus fortifying its position as the No 1 channel in the region.

     

    The latest TAM results Week 12’12 demonstrates a tremendous increase in reach.  A statement from the channel said this quick growth can be attributed to its locally produced shows BIG Bal Kalakar, Hasya Panchayat and newly launched shows Hum Hai Bajrangi and Police Files. The channel continues to stay ahead of established channels like Mahuaa, Dabaang, Sahara Samay, ETV UP, ETV Bihar, ETV MP etc.

     

    BIG Magic’s locally relevant devotional children singing talent hunt show, BIG Bal Kalakar built around the thought of Sangeet Mein Sanskaar, has demonstrated phenomenal growth with 45 lakh viewers, striking a chord with audiences. Hasya Panchayat introduced in February, and woven around a range of enjoyable poems on modern-day issues such as inflation, corruption and unemployment has also been received excellently by audiences, registering 45.3L audiences in the same period. Besides, newly launched shows Hum Hai Bajrangi, a perfect blend of mythology and comedy, and Police Files based on real crime shows from the region, have picked up well with 22 lakh audiences in just two weeks.

     

    BIG Magic is being distributed across all cable operators across the states of UP, MP and Bihar.

     

  • Entertainment brand Bindass is co-authoring the Indian edition of the book, ‘Generation Einstein’, along with international author and speaker Jeroen Boschma.

    Bindass co-authors Indian edition of Generation Einstein

    By A Correspondent

     

    Entertainment brand Bindass is co-authoring the Indian edition of the book, ‘Generation Einstein’, along with international author and speaker Jeroen Boschma.

     

    The book describes a new generation, ‘Generation Einstein’ that was born during the last decade of the previous century. The youth and young adults of today aged 12 to their early or mid-twenties represent a new generation with positive characteristics and values which are shared amongst young people all over the world and therefore the first real global generation.

     

    The book stresses upon the significance of the youth as an important part of the market. It’s about a faster and more social generation that understands the world better than anyone else. The book aims to decode this generation and help marketers reach out to them.

     

    Keith Alphonso, Business Head, UTV Bindass said, “Technology and communications have brought global aspirations to the Indian youth and a lot of the international trends witnessed abroad are evident here as well. But, there is and will always be a certain Indianness that sets apart the Indian youngster. We at UTV Bindass have our finger firmly on the pulse of the youth and understand this Young India. By co-authoring this book with Jeroen we have opened up our vast archive of research based insights to make the book’s Indian Version truly relevant and contemporary. As a part of Bindass Open Source, we believe that by sharing our insights with brands and partners like Jeroen, we will all be able to get a robust understanding of Young India.”

     

    Already published and immensely successful in the international market, the version co-authored by Bindass will be specific to the Indian market and will speak about the emergence of a global generation in India, their likes, dislikes, lifestyle and what sets them apart from the others.

     

    The book will also throw light on new-age communication strategies like ‘Increation’ which is a more effective method of communicating with a youth segment. It involves putting many ideas to test, then trying to use the reactions to narrow down the ideas.

     

    Young people are ultimately suited to working with in-creation projects. They are extremely creative because of the world in which they live and their present stage of life.

     

    The Indian edition of Generation Einstein also goes on to explain the communication strategies that marketers could adopt in reaching out to the youth with the help of India specific case studies such as Tata Docomo, Bindass and Virgin Mobile, among others.

     

    The announcement of the Indian edition of Generation Einstein is another step by Bindass in creating awareness about internationally recognized methods of understanding and engaging brands in India with this generation, the book is expected to hit stands by end of April 2012.

     

  • The senior editor (news) at Times Now who recently resigned has set up Studio Talk which aims to prepare young journalists in all areas of TV journalism.

    Mahrukh Inayet quits Times Now, starts school for anchors

    By Archita Wagle

     

    If you thought anchoring was just about sitting in front of the camera and talking, Studio Talk, a finishing school for those looking to make their career before the cameras, will prove differently to you. “A lot of youngsters believe that anchoring is not serious journalism and I want to break that myth. It’s time one understands that anchoring is impossible without knowledge,” said Mahrukh Inayet Rizvi, Course Director, Studio Talk, who recently resigned as senior editor (news) at Times Now.

     

    Ms Inayet was part of the core team at Headlines Today, that helped set up the channel. From the TV Today group, she joined Times Now, again as part of the core team that set up the channel. Her 72-hrs non-stop reportage from outside the Taj Hotel during 26/11 earned her much acclaim and was appreciated as an example of unbiased coverage of the Mumbai terror strike. She has reported extensively on national politics with special focus on the Kashmir imbroglio.

     

    From the breathlessness of breaking news to understanding the nuances of business and sports anchoring to the intricacies of entertainment and live events anchoring – Studio Talk aims to prepare the young journalists in all genres. ‘This programme is a must for anyone and everyone looking to work before the cameras in the television,” said Ms Inayet.

     

    Ms Inayet believes that journalism schools teach you how to be a good journalist. But few teach what to do before the cameras and fewer prepare you for what to expect once the cameras start rolling. That’s exactly what Studio Talk aims to do- prepare and polish newbies with an intensive 14-day program on how to be a television anchor/presenter.

     

    The course is aimed at teaching youngsters how to anchor news, business, sports and entertainment stories. The course will have studio simulated environment and the students will be taught how to work in front of the cameras and connect to the audience, ‘either as an on-field reporter who has 60 seconds to connect to the viewer with his/her story or as an anchor who has to present the final product to the audience. The students will also be taught basic make up skills so that they don’t look washed out in front of the camera.’

     

    “The camera is ruthless and does not allow you to rewind and press record the second time. Being on television is hard work. Anchors and presenters have to face all kinds of situations. From just one-line information on breaking news to anchoring in live situations,” Ms Inayet added.

     

    And, Ms Inayet definitely knows what she is talking about, given her rise from a reporter to being among the senior most anchors at Times Now. It is this extensive experience that has allowed the former Times Now Senior Editor to develop perhaps the only such training program in the country.

     

    While Ms Inayet, as the course director, will personally oversee the 14-day hands-on-training program, Studio Talk will also have some of the best names from the television industry such as Mandira Sawhney Lalwani, former presenter, Times Now, ESPN, Ten Sports & Star News; Prerana Thakur Desai, Producer, Aamir Khan Productions; Ragini Kumar, former sports anchor, Times Now; Mikhail K Vaswani Presenter, Neo Cricketer and Ameet Sawant, Producer & Director, 96 Karatz Productions as guest lecturers to share their experiences on topics like Inside A Television Newsroom, Teleprompter Training, Fundamentals Of News Anchoring, Handling ‘Breaking News’, On Field Reportage and other such relevant topics.

     

    At the end of the 14-day course, the student will be awarded a certificate and a demo CD on completion of the workshop. “Earlier we could learn from our mistakes on the job. But now there is no time to make mistakes. The demo CD ensures that the recruiters realise that the person knows what in required to be in front of the TV,” concluded Ms Inayet.