MxMIndia

Category: TV

  • We see a degeneration of the quality of spokespersons on news television with their need to speak more, interrupting others and talking over them, rues Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Prime Time News Is Facing Spokesperson Crisis

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    If you are a regular primetime news viewer, you will be familiar with the various “official spokespersons” that represent their political parties on these shows. The debate format, which will be associated with Arnab Goswami for years to come, is now a standard format across most channels, Hindi and English.

     

    Being an official spokesperson is not an easy job by any stretch of imagination. You have to be on upto four shows on the same day, for an average duration of 30-45 minutes each. So that’s potentially three hours of on-air time. Add the preparation time during the day and it’s a full-time job. It’s also a job of superhero proportions. Sometimes, you are “live” on two channels at the same time, saying different things!

     

    It would still be a rewarding job, but for the obvious problem. Spokespersons speak for less than 30% of the time that they are on-air. And of the time they speak, not more than 30-40% is actually audible in the perpetual din.

     

    To improve their player stats, they exercise their need to speak more, interrupting others and talking over them. It seems like a party boss is watching and evaluating their performance in real-time (very likely too) and there’s the pressure to perform.

     

    What it has resulted in is a perpetual degeneration of the quality of spokespersons. No self-respecting and intelligent man or woman would want to subject oneself to this futility night after night. What we get, hence, is second-rung talent.

     

    However, it’s not just the lack of quality that worries me. There’s a lot of arrogance at display every night. Spokespersons, taking a cue from each other and sometimes from the anchors (who are under their own pressures to be Arnabs), often talk in offensive tone and body language, sometimes talking down to unsuspecting non-politicians and even citizens invited on the show.

     

    If this style of talking is a party brief, then it reflects very poorly on our political class. Though I suspect political parties have left their spokesperson free to figure out their life on-air. In which case, the arrogance of behaviour displayed on TV reflects their character. In either case, it makes the citizen viewer feel more disillusioned about the political class.

     

    Not very long ago, the likes of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manish Tewari and Jayanti Natarajan used to be party spokespersons. While they too had their bouts of impudence, there was certain stature and grace that came with their personas. At least one heard them seriously, even if the content was not credible on many occasions.

     

    Why are parties not sending better talking heads on TV, or at least training those being sent to project a dignified image of the party on-air? Is dignity not in vogue, or are news channels too irrelevant in our politics for parties to worry about? I suspect it’s the former.

     

    Many of us comment on social media that we are losing interest in news television because of journalism in general, and the quality of anchoring in particular. What about the quality of political representation? For me, that’s the problem with more social gravity attached to it.

     

  • Text of the welcome address by Sudhanshu Vats, Viacom18 Group CEO and Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment

    Thinking beyond 2020: Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats at CII’s Big Picture Summit

     

     

    Sudhanshu Vats

    Text of the welcome address by Sudhanshu Vats, Viacom18 Group CEO and Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment

     

    Honourable Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Rajyavardhan Rathoreji, respected panellists on the dais and valued members of the audience. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this year’s edition of the Big Picture Summit.

     

    To start with, I have a disclosure to make. Disclosures are important, no? Particularly for media organisations. I have been in an extremely introspective mood and therefore what you’re about to hear might sound like a discourse on philosophy. The good news, however, is that I’m going to be extremely candid. It’s always a challenge to address a gathering of this nature. A gathering where leading minds from the private, public and academic sectors converge to paint the ‘Big Picture’.

     

    This event is one of the first events that I attended after entering our sector and it’s particularly close to my heart. If I can make an honest confession, I’d say that I spend much more time thinking about my speech for the Big Picture Summit that I do for other conferences. This time however, I took the exercise one step further. I went back and looked at almost all the speeches I’ve delivered since the turn of this millennium, first as an FMCG veteran and then as a media professional. You’ll be surprised to know what I found! One of the very first speeches I can recall was at HUL in 2000, my former organisation. I was addressing a bunch of analysts and spoke with great gusto about the organisation’s vision for 2020. There were a few more that I made around 2003-2005 – including some at my alma mater – IIM Ahmedabad and I referred to 2020 again as a benchmark year. Finally, since 2012, whichever industry event I’ve been a part of- Big Picture, FICCI, CASBAA, IDOS- you know the grind- 2020 has been the year at which most predictions stop.

     

    This got me thinking. Thinking hard. I wondered: Have my colleagues and I run out of imagination? Have we become too old to see beyond 2020? Has the internet made us all ‘intellectually lazy’?

     

    Trust me, my mind looked in several directions. Finally, the answer struck me. As ironical as it sounds, the future has become shorter. For the sake of clarity, look at it this way: 20 years ago, it took maybe 15 years for ‘x’ number of disruptions, 10 years ago it only took, maybe 10 years for the same number i.e. ‘x’ number of disruptions. Today, it only takes 5 years for the same number of disruptions. So, in a manner of speaking, our definition of the future has become more ‘condensed’.

     

    This very reality has enormous implications for all of us. 

     

    For private sector organizations, we need to improve our time-to –market for new products and services, we need to be able to quickly take aim, fire and reload, before repeating the process.

     

    For the world of academia, the sheer amount of throughput needs to increase. R&D cycles need to have shorter durations and allow for mid-way course correction. Inter-disciplinary learning is another area of focus. Several worlds are converging and academic disciplines should be no exception.

     

    For the government, and Rathoreji can shed more light on this, the public want the entire government machinery to be able to deliver on its expectations, sooner than they did before. This also means that policy roadmaps have to get shorter. Given the complexity of the Indian market, if we can’t crunch these roadmaps we need to at least ensure that we stick to them. The duration of political lifecycles generally hover around five years, now you see news channels looking at one year, 100 days and even one-month report cards! Sometimes I feel that the government faces more pressure from the electorate than public companies face from their investors for quarterly targets!

     

    It’s very important to understand these implications because when the public, private and academic worlds align, magic is created. We talk of USD ABCD billion as a target and so on and so forth. It’s simply a fictional goal post if we can’t get different stakeholders to work together. I understand the theme of this conference is aiming for a 100 billion USD target for our industry, but I’d like to challenge the status quo by asking a fundamental question that I hope you can ponder over these two days: what defines our industry? If our audience is empowered to buy the dupatta worn by Ragini while watching Swaragini on Colors on their mobile phones, how will it impact our target?

     

    I’d like to leave you with a way of thinking that I believe can be applied to any M&E organisation, irrespective of the sub-sector i.e radio, TV, digital etc.. It’s arguably a much simpler definition of our value chain. There are only three participants in this value chain: creators of content, content platforms and communities. Advertisers don’t need to be called out separately as they too are a community. All of these sit on the foundation of a regulatory framework created by the government. What’s even more interesting is that this value chain is no longer, necessarily linear. All three participants can interact with each other in different ways. An organisation’s understanding of where it fits in this value chain has a lot of bearing on the capabilities it needs to build and invest in.

     

    Content creators have to look at nurturing a dispersed universe of storytellers that is talented, loyal and always engaged. Platforms have to make investments in technology that allow them to reach out to communities. Communities are almost the reason as to why most of us exist, whether it’s our audiences or our advertisers. We have to figure out way of getting them closer to one another and developing a constant feedback loop mechanism to make our engagement more fruitful. Most importantly, we have to look at a voluntary, self-regulation framework in terms of what should be allowed and what shouldn’t – for advertisements and content.

     

    Thank you all for making it here today and for your undivided attention. You have invested valuable resources to be present for Big Picture 2015. The team from CII has curated an extremely insightful set of sessions for you. Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you, do take this unique lens as you participate in these sessions. The world of ‘realisable possibilities’ has just exploded. The Future has become shorter and our canvas has gotten bigger. Welcome to Big Picture 2015!

     

  • Sony SIX to televise up to 14 live NBA games per week

    Sony SIX extends partnership with NBA in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) announced a multiyear extension of their partnership that will provide fans with up to 14 live NBA games per week on Sony SIX. The NBA and MSM first announced their partnership during the 2010-11 NBA season.

     

    With the expanded partnership, Sony SIX will broadcast up to two regular-season games per day, in addition to NBA All-Star, the playoffs and The Finals. Sony SIX will also create customized lifestyle-oriented, off-the-court programming that engages Indian youth by bringing together talent from the NBA, Sony Entertainment and Bollywood.

     

    Prasana Krishnan

    “Our partnership with the NBA has seen basketball become the fastest growing sport in India over the last few years. This clearly indicates that the TV viewing audience for the NBA will continue to rise,” said Sony SIX and KIX Business Head Prasana Krishnan. “The launch of our customized local LIVE NBA wraparound program will also bring sports fans closer to the on-court action.”

     

    “We are excited to extend our partnership with Sony SIX to continue delivering comprehensive coverage of the NBA to our fans,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco. “The popularity of the NBA continues to grow and, through the diversity of NBA programming on Sony SIX, we will continue attracting and engaging with existing and new viewers alike across India.”

     

    Sony SIX will continue to broadcast daily and weekly NBA highlight shows and integrate daily content from NBA TV, including team previews and recap shows. The daily 30-minute highlight programs will be broadcast in primetime every day of the season. The weekly highlight shows, hosted by a local anchor, will recap all the happenings around the NBA during the past week. For the first time in India, the NBA and Sony SIX will introduce a customized, local live NBA wraparound program every weekend throughout the season, bringing viewers closer to the game. The program will be hosted by a panel of basketball experts that will provide analysis and insight on all of the latest NBA news.

     

    The NBA and Sony SIX will also continue their focus on the development of basketball in India, beginning with the return of NBA Jam – the league’s annual basketball festival – on Oct. 24. With the expanded partnership, more NBA players, legends and dance teams will visit India throughout the year.

     

  • An interview with the TAM CEO on the TeleWeb measurement service announced jointly with IMRB

    Panel-based measurement is better: LV Krishnan

     

    Last week, the Kantar Media-Nielsen jv TAM Media and Kantar-owned IMRB announced the TeleWeb ratings for an integrated study of viewership on television screens and the internet – desktop/laptops as well as on devices. We caught up TAM CEO LV Krishnan to understand the finer details of the offering…

     

    You had spoken about the multiscreen measurement earlier. But do you think it could’ve come in a year or two earlier?

    Well, it required a lot of work to put it together because one is a non-linear medium and the is a linear one. To bring together both into the same database and be able to tell an advertiser that using a combined medium maybe better than using one medium etc requires work. We did a lot of groundwork. If only publishing numbers in terms of saying which sites were getting hits and which sites were getting what kind of profile of audiences. it could’ve been easy. It could’ve happened much before than now. Probably about 4-5 months back. But to integrate both, this is the earliest we could’ve got to.

     

    Given that there is an MoU with BARC on meters the merger move is work in progress, what happens after the merger happens?

    We’ll see it at that time.

     

    BARC is also doing something similar, it is also looking at multiple screen measurement.

    From our perspective we are looking at the present moment of time. We’ve done almost a year-and-a-half of work into this exercise. Obviously, since we are still running the television panel, the idea was to launch it and help the industry use it. What will happen a couple of months down the road is something we haven’t thought about at all. From our perspective, the work on TAM BARC integration is going well at a high speed level. That’ll continue.

     

    Since IMRB’s digital measurement exercise has been on for some five years now, couldn’t this have happened earlier?

    Two important things. Before we launched something like the integrated data we also needed to ensure the fact that the two panels are stable. TV was completely stable. The online one was a new one launched around 2011-2012. So it took time for that panel to settle down and get used on a regular basis because at that time if you look at it the advertising online was hardly around 2-3% of the advertising that was going over there. So, even if we had launched at that particular moment of time, the integrated quotient, the usage could’ve been very low. The demands coming in from the advertisers that we need do it the integrated way. Only in the last one year, in the beginning of 2014, when we were interacting with advertisers that there was a huge push going towards digital. Probably also because of the fact that most of the advertisers were MNCs were also being pushed by the global directors saying that let’s get starting investing on digital because globally digital was picking up strongly.

     

    What we previewed at the press conference last week was about English channels and the Hindi news channels. But I’m sure the difference is significant with English GECs.

    English GECs are basically international sites. So, we need to see what you want to track within that and how much of it is with the Indian audience largely. So, probably with time we’ll look at English entertainment also as a next step.

     

    Do you see a lot of viewing happening online in the case of all GECs?

    There is dailymotion.com, Hotstar, Sonyliv, Ditto, all of them are coming in the Top 50 sites. Platforms like Hotstar are among the Top 5.

     

    Now a channel like Colors has ‘Comedy Nights With Kapil’ which is among the most watched as per your numbers, but a channel like Colors which targets urban audiences is not in top channels list in tele-web, vis-à-vis Zee which is on the list?

    That’s because of Ditto TV. Ditto is the push for Zee. It has certainly got some audience in the metro markets. Colors is yet to have a platform that could be visible and for which audiences are walking in.

     

    So, will you say OTT is playing a big role?

    Yeah, certainly.

     

    What is the kind of response that you’ve seen from the advertising community, from the advertising agencies and media agencies?

    We don’t know yet the response because we just launched today but we’ve been working with the advertisers on this for almost a year now. We connected with them and we realised what they are looking for. So, therefore from that perspective this is exactly matching up to what their expectation was from a feasibility perspective of trying to alleviate a campaign on a multimedia level.

     

    There is no joint industry body to contend with the way you work. There is no industry association as such…

    No, there is no industry association involved in this. We are on our own and like any other research we are marketing it on our own for users to take their independent decisions whether they want to buy it or not or use it or not.

     

    There have been views on the entire element of panels. In the case of television, the cost of set-top boxes ensured that the sample size of panel homes couldn’t grow. But no such thing exists for the internet, so why only 6-8000 sample size? Do you think it can be browser-driven so that anyone can download and install?

    There are two different kinds of measurements that happen across all media. One is measurement based on universe and second one is measurement based on panels and specific sub-groups of profiles. The problem comes in when the universe study is when you don’t know who the individual is, who is responding to a particular viewing. So, most of the dynamics related to the universe measurement is already available with the publishers themselves like a Google or a Facebook knows about their customers largely and to that extent Facebook I could say knows it even better because age and gender is something they capture apart from the geographic location which is universally available to them. So, therefore, from a universe perspective, limitation is a fact that while you’ve a larger base you don’t know who that base is, who that individual is in terms of profile. So when you are targeting it, you are targeting more based on the behaviour pattern of the respondent rather than on the basis of demographics. In a panel0based exercise you are able to measure demographics as well as in terms of behaviour patterns together. So you know individually what the profile of the guy is, what profile of home he comes from, what are the numbers in the home, what are the platforms they have in the home that can be access point or a competitive perspective, a competitive touchpoint. So, all this kind of information is available on a panel-based exercise. Therefore, we are able to integrate between two mediums very effectively in this kind of a panel-based exercise. In a universe level it’ll be very difficult to integrate two measurement systems. So, largely speaking, for an understanding of a consumer behaviour and trying to monitor it on the basis of his behaviour, a panel makes sense actually. But in the longer run, we could actually do it the way it happens in television where the set top box data and the panel data work together. To therefore use a panel data is to optimize the set top box data. Similarly here too the panel-based data can be worked on to the universe data. You could mine better data at smaller discreet levels. These things will happen in future.

     

    How much of the TAM sample are you looking here?

    Six metros put together will be about 10,000 individuals actually, which is close to 2500 paneled homes.

     

    On a lighter note, had the news on NDTV scoring so high on TeleWeb come in earlier, things would’ve been much nicer for TAM?

    No, we take it as it comes. For us the most important thing is to indicate what is happening in the behaviour front. Business decisions are taken by users.

     

  • Week 41 had data for rural television audiences included for the first time in Indian television history

    Zee Anmol is the new #3 Hindi GEC as BARC goes rural

    On Friday, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India released the much awaited rural India. Data for Week 41 was released today for October 10 to 16, 2015 and the combined numbers for rural and urban were presented among the toplines.  BARC India, a joint industry body comprising the broadcasters, media agencies and advertisers, started rolling out ratings from April, 2015, and the release of rural numbers has been hailed as a significant achievement, even as there was a section of influential broadcasters who were trying to get it delayed.

     

    With the release of the All India data, BARC India has expanded its reach to 153.5 million TV households, representing All India and all modes of signal. Of this 77.5 million are urban TV households and 76 million are rural TV households. BARC India will now be reporting Megacities, 10-75 lakh towns, less than 10 lakh urban areas and rural.

     

    The BARC India survey shows that lesser time is spent on TV in rural areas. Two in five rural audiences fall in the NCCS AB category, rural India gives younger audiences in the age group of 15-40 years. Last but not the least, with rural India’s ‘Early to bed and Early to rise’ philosophy, the conventional definition of prime time for channels may change.

     

    Highlights of BARC India Week 41 (October 10-16) ratings:

    • Star Plus maintains its leadership with 804214 Rat (000s) followed by Colors at 708747 Rat (000s).
    • Zee Anmol jumps to number 3 with 609189 Rat (000s).
    • DD National registered an Average Time Spent (ATS) of 53 Min 39 Sec highest among Hindi GECs.
    • Rishtey is amongst top 10 Hindi GECs with 270072 Rat (000s).
    • In the news genre, Times Now maintains its leadership with 560 Rat (000s) followed by CNN IBN at 233 Rat (000s).
    • Sports sees major spike in ratings. Star Sports 1 holds number 1 position with 162592 Rat (000s) on the back of Paytm ODI Trophy 2015- India vs South Africa.
    • Star Gold becomes No 1 Hindi Movie channel with 486374 Rat (000s) with the premier of Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
    • Aaj Tak is number one in Hindi News genre with 72067 Rat (000s).
    • Sun TV with 1092231 Rat (000s) topped the Tamil GEC genre. It also becomes the No 1 channel on All India basis ahead of Star Plus and Colors.
    • ETV Telugu maintains No 1 position in Telugu GEC market with 424252 Rat (000s).
    • Colors Kannada maintains its ranking order in the Kannada GEC space with 211268 Rat (000s).
    • Zee Marathi with 116598 Rat (000s) leads the Marathi GEC genre.
    • In the Malayalam GEC genre, Asianet topped the chart with 413385 Rat (000s).
    •  Star Jalsha tops Bengali GEC space with 241463 Rat (000s).
    • Discovery Channel stays ahead of competition with 6433 Rat (000s).
    • Kids genre sees spike in ratings, Nick is the number one kids channel with 97227 Rat (000s).
    •  MTV is the No 1 Youth channel with 14219 Rat (000s).
    • ET Now tops the English Business news genre with 484 Rat (000s).
    • Movies Now maintains its leadership in English Movies genre with 3200 Rat (000s) followed by Sony Pix at 1893 Rat (000s).
    • Zee Café maintains its leadership in English Entertainment genre with 103 Rat (000s).

     

    “I am delighted to present to the Broadcast and Advertising industry the All India Ratings. We have been able to give to the country a view of “What India Watches” as promised,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

     

  • The data itself has enough meat to keep conversations going, writes Shailesh Kapoor in this special analysis

    Shailesh Kapoor: With Rural Ratings, India is Split Wide Open

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    BARC India released the first rural ratings data Friday morning. There have been some delays in the rural rollout, and they have been understandably under some pressure here. But now, that’s all a thing of the past. We are in the rural data regime. October 23, 2015 could go down in our television history as the before-after date. Congratulations to those who made it happen.

     

    The data itself has enough meat to keep conversations going. That FTA (free-to-air) channels will benefit from rural data was evident, but the extremity of this “benefit” was perhaps underestimated by everyone. Sample this:

    1. In Rural HSM, four private FTA channels (Zee Anmol, Star Utsav, Rishtey and Sony Pal) have more combined viewership than the seven Hindi GECs that run original content.

     

    2. These FTA channels get 71% of their viewership from rural India, while the “mainline” Hindi GECs get only 37% of their viewership from rural India.

     

    3. As a result of this turnaround, Sun TV (despite just 1 GRP in HSM) is the No 1 channel at an All India level, and by a clear margin too.

     

    5. Zee Anmol, the No. 38 channel in the big metros, is the No. 1 channel in rural HSM.

     

    The dichotomy is apparent. India has been split wide open, into rural and urban India. This will change many things in and around the television business. For starters, it will change the idea of how data is viewed and analysed. Each genre has an operating TG in which the leading players measure their performance. It’s been CS 4+ HSM (Hindi-speaking markets) for Hindi GECs and Hindi Movie Channels for ages, and CS 4+ state equivalent for mass regional channels (e.g. CS 4+ TN for Tamil channels).

     

    HSM is no longer HSM, though. It is a combination of HSM Urban and HSM Rural. Many advertisers are understandably not interested in the rural ratings, addressing a target audience that’s still predominantly urban. E-commerce is one such category. However, categories like FMCG and telecom would be interested in rural India too. But even for them, the messaging in rural India and urban India (especially the bigger towns) would tend to differ significantly. Imagine Vodafone running the same commercial to entice a Mumbai customer and a rural customer in UP.

     

    Hence, a logical outcome could be that GECs would get naturally classified as Urban GECs and Rural GECs. The Rural GECs will attract brands targeting rural India, and will be measured in their “category”, while the Urban GECs will continue to operate much like they used to, in the pre-rural era.

     

    One could argue that rural penetration of pay channels will increase with time, and the gap between the two types of GECs may look much smaller a year from now. But an Urban GEC playing in the Urban+Rural space would bring its own share of confusion, like that commercial that would target a Mumbai customer or a UP rural customer, but play out to both. Having said that, technology solutions to localized ad targeting are available and likely to become a lot more relevant now than ever before.

     

    The dust will settle down over the next few weeks and a broad consensus on working definitions of categories and their target audiences is likely to emerge with time. For once, niche channels (not targeting rural India) would have more clarity on how to use the ratings data than their mass counterparts.

     

  • The channel will work on inventory of 12 minutes per hour giving more content and news to the viewers that brings knowledge and empowers them.

    Zee launches FTA Hindi news channel, India 24×7

    India 24x7

    By A Correspondent

     

    Zee Media Corp Ltd has launched India 24×7,  a national Hindi Free to Air (FTA) news channel today (Oct 24).

     

    While the news genre is traditionally seen as largely an individual viewing space, India 24×7 wishes to create a family appointment viewing experience, noted a communiqué.  Said Channel Editor, Vasindra Mishra “India 24X7 will choose clarity over aggression, Jankari over sensationalism. It endeavours to offer ‘distinctive news’ as opposed to breaking news, or sensational news. With our family viewing objective, the flavour of coverage will focus on the positive side of every story and also enliven us through its entertainment quotient,” adding: “If you look at existing news programmes, you will find that majority of the news channels are busy proliferating negativity in the society as if there is no hope available for them. But, India 24X7 believes in hope. We will try to fish out hope even from the tragic incidents.”

     

    The channel will work on inventory of 12 minutes per hour giving more content and news to the viewers that brings knowledge and empowers them. The channel will be available on most leading cable and DTH networks.

     

  • The brand identity for Voot has been created by transnational brand consultancy Brand Gym and Pune-based Elephant Design

    Viacom18 announces plans for OTT platform ‘Voot’. To be only source for all network content

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s the last of the big GEC-led broadcast networks to announce an OTT platform. But, then, the time is possibly just right to be in the business. Viacom 18 Digital Ventures, the digital arm of Viacom18, the brand name and identity of its OTT platform. The soon-to-be-launched service has been branded Voot,  “an expression used by the digital generation to express happiness, enthusiasm and triumph”. The brand identity for Voot, which is expected to go live in the next quarter, has been created by transnational brand consultancy Brand Gym and Pune-based Elephant Design.

     

    Voot will be the exclusive destination and source for all of Viacom 18 network’s content portfolio, including an independent and aggressive original programming strategy spearheaded by the seasoned broadcasting professional Monica Shergill.

     

    According to a communique, Viacom18 Digital Ventures has been working for the last few months with its set of strategic partners on the brand designand logo with the aim of keeping it distinctive, differentiated andin-sync with the brand mission to create a fun filled world of entertainment.

     

    Specifying the need for an exclusive new platform, Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, said “As one of the fastest growing media companies in the country, for us at Viacom18, digital content creation, delivery and access are essential focus areas for driving growthThe brand mission of Voot is to create a whole new world of entertainment, filled with happy discoveries and addictive content”

     

    Said Gaurav Gandhi, COO, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures: “The idea of creating this new brand comes from our desire to create a new, alternate and differentiated world of entertainment for audiences in the digital space. The core essence of the brandis ‘infectious fun’ and ‘happiness’, and this is something that not only flows through in our bright and colorful logo, but will also resonate in our content philosophy.

     

    Working with strong technology, content & branding partners in India & across the globe, the new service will deliver high quality content to consumers on a wide variety of connected devices over Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G and 2G networks.

     

    ABOUT VIACOM18 DIGITAL VENTURES

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures is a newly created division within Viacom18 with a mandate to build consumer facing digital businesses for the company. In addition to building direct-to-consumer streaming businesses, Viacom18 digital ventures will also manage all digital licensing and monetization for the company’s content assets. The division will also look at expanding the group’s digital businesses and partnershipsvia both organic and in-organic routes.

     

    The mission of Viacom18 Digital Ventures is to entertain and enrich the lives of every online Indian, by bringing personalized world-class entertainment experiences on their connected screens

     

    For further information

    Siddharth Bijpuria

    Director – Corporate Communications

    Phone: 9920706646

    Email: siddharth.bijpuria@viacom18.com

  • Urban Development minister M Venkaiah Naidu launches real estate and property business news channel – Magicbricks Now

    Times property channel ‘Magicbricks Now’ to launch on Nov 1

    By A Correspondent

     

    The real estate business is said to on a low. Don’t get fooled by those big ads in the papers. Apartments aren’t selling as well as they should. But that hasn’t deterred Times Network to launch what is being billed as an “unbiased, trustworthy and authoritative perspective on the property business and will help its viewers ‘Be Un-Confused’ about the sector.

     

    This is tough to believe given that the Times group has pioneered offerings like Medianet which deals with editorial space in certain sections of the group’s publications being sold like advertising. Even discerning and values-driven business groups have embraced the cash-for-content innovation. In the light of this, it will be interesting to say how much the new channel will ward off the pulls and pressures of advertisers, and still offer unbiased and trustworthy content.

     

    While Minister Venkaiah Naidu said good things about the Times group and on the need for a property channel, here’s what others from the network said.

     

    Note: MxMIndia wasn’t present for the event held in Delhi, though we were invited to it. The invitation had the name of Editor-in-Chief and President – News Arnab Goswami, but the communiqué we received doesn’t bear his quote.

     

    M K Anand

    This is part of the quote from M K Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network:, “Magicbricks Now has been launched to guide the consumer through the complex and seemingly intimidating world of real-estate transactions.  While real estate is of paramount importance in the life of every Indian, equally, the space is full of complexities, jargon and confusion.  Magicbricks Now will provide unbiased, trustworthy and the most authoritative perspectives on the property business to help the consumer ‘Be un-confused’.”

     

    Faye D’Souza Editor, Magicbricks Now, said: “Magicbricks Now is here with a singular focus – on the end-consumer. Magicbricks Now will offer a rich array of programs that range from News bulletins to property hotlines, debates, leadership insights and more.”

     

    Sudhir Pai, CEO, Magicbricks.com added: “Magicbricks is delighted to be a part of this initiative with the Times Network. Our endeavour has always been to make our brand ubiquitous across media so as to provide consumers with rich and in-depth information when it comes to matters of property. With this association we leverage the visual appeal of television to communicate our rich data and analytics in an easy-to-consume manner for the consumer. With this launch, we strengthen the offering and make ourselves available at every touch point to consumers.”

     

    It may be remembered that Magicbricks.com is the popular online property transaction portal set up by the Times group.

     

    Meanwhile, the channel has has partnered has got on board Lotus Greens Developers Private Ltd and Mantri Developers Pvt.Ltd, as key sponsors from Day One.

     

  • He will be taking on this new role in addition to his existing duties as the head of English Entertainment at Viacom18 which includes channels such as Vh1, Comedy Central and the recently launched Colors Infinity

    Ferzad Palia to also head MTV and Pepsi MTV Indies

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ferzad Palia

    Viacom18 has announced the appointment of Ferzad Palia as Head of Youth Entertainment with immediate effect. In his new role, Palia will head the MTV and the indie platform Pepsi MTV Indies. He will be taking on this new role in addition to his existing duties as the head of English Entertainment at Viacom18 which includes channels such as Vh1, Comedy Central and the recently launched Colors Infinity.

     

    Speaking about Palia’s appointment in this new role, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18 said, “Appointing Ferzad as the head of Youth Entertainment, along with being a logical move for us – considering his extensive experience in broadcast, is also a strategic one as we drive further synergies between Youth Entertainment and English Entertainment. Ferzad has been instrumental in transforming the English Entertainment landscape in India with Vh1, Comedy Central and Colors Infinity and I’m sure he will take both MTV and Pepsi MTV Indies to new heights of success.”

     

    Expressing his pleasure regarding his new role, Palia said: “MTV, is an iconic brand and it’s my pleasure to have been appointed to take it further on its journey to success. Pepsi MTV Indies with its pulse on the indie subculture in India has been a key driver of change and I’m really looking forward to working closely with the team on it. It’s a new and exciting role for me and I’m really looking forward to creating interesting brand customizations for the youth demographic while driving growth for both, youth and English entertainment brands at Viacom18.”

     

  • Paritosh has since been working on number of Industry initiatives including the BARC

    Paritosh Joshi appointed CEO of India TV

    By A Correspondent

     

    India TV has announced the appointment of Paritosh Joshi as CEO. His last assignment was as CEO Star CJ Network. Paritosh has since been working on number of Industry initiatives including the BARC.

     

    Ritu Dhawan, Managing Director, India TV commented, “Paritosh has been part of India TV family for well over three years. It’s is a pleasure to welcome him home.”

     

    Paritosh Joshi

    Paritosh Joshi said, “I have been privileged to work alongside the terrific team here for several years and when Ritu asked me to take up this responsibility, it seemed like a natural next step.”

     

  • BBDO India CEO Ajai Jhala on how the best technology brands create stories that are salient and simple

    3 reasons Tech Brands should keep it Simple

     

    By Ajai Jhala

     

    Albert Einstein famously said that the wire telegraph ‘is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles’. Radio operates in exactly the same way: You send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

    A memorable and simple story by one of the greatest scientists of all time, explains a technology of an earlier time. Today, so many decades later, there are still compelling reasons for technology brands to keep the message simple when communicating on TV. This has to do with three primary things – the nature of TV, the nature of people and the nature of brands.

    1. A plug-in drug

    TV is essentially a low-involvement medium which is best for story showing. That is why it has often been referred to as a ‘plug-in drug’. Television is about lean-back entertainment and works really well when information is delivered emotionally, and the absorption of it is implicit rather than explicit. The beauty is that emotions are so important for our survival and well-being, that they work best when we are in a low-involvement mode.

    2. Irrational rationalisers

    People are fundamentally emotional beings. We are not so much rational but rationalisers. We have been referred to as cognitive misers. Processing information is very exhausting and consumes a lot of our energy. That is why humans are hardwired for storytelling and not for data retention. We love to hear stories, not a recitation of a laundry list of specifications and features.

    3. Nature of Brands

    Brands are like leaky buckets, constantly having to recruit more people than they lose. Most consumers are promiscuous and are always shifting between a shortlist of brands. As heretical as it sounds, recent research demonstrates conclusively that differentiation matters less than standing out in a compelling way. Therefore, brands have to create salience in a manner that can incite feelings by owning a simple and powerful theme that is constantly refreshed with new TVCs.

    These three reasons, based on the nature of the medium, people and their relationship with brands, is why the best technology brands create stories that are salient and simple. The next time someone is crafting a TVC for a technology brand, it might be worth reflecting on something else Einstein said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

     

    Ajai Jhala is CEO at BBDO India

    This article first appeared in dna of brands dated November 2, 2015