MxMIndia

Category: TV

  • Zee Entertainment pays Rs 40 crore plus for satellite rights of Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chennai Express for its upcoming channel '& Pictures'

    Zee pays Rs 40+ cr for Chennai Express for its upcoming channel ‘& Pictures’

    By Nandini Raghavendra

     

    Zee Entertainment has secured the satellite rights of soon-to-be-released Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chennai Express for a new movie channel it is launching next month under the bouquet ‘&’. The movie, which also stars Deepika Padukone, will be aired on ‘& Pictures’, the first channel to be launched in the new bouquet.

     

    “The price is Rs 40 crore plus for seven years, with a link to box-office performance of the film but it is a win-win situation for both the channel and the producer,” said Jayantilal Gada, who does all the buying of film rights for the Zee group.

     

    While the Zee network already runs four Hindi film channels – Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action and Zee Classic – and holds the rights to over 4,000 Hindi films, ‘& Pictures’ will primarily run on a premiere model with big new release titles, according to people close to the development.

     

    ‘&Pictures’ launch will be a precursor to the Rs 4,000-crore media conglomerate’s plans to add multi-genres to the network through different bouquets. For now, the Subhash Chandra-owned Zee has a huge bouquet with channels across genres as well as regional plus a sports bouquet under the Ten brand name.

     

    Zee’s new strategy follows Star Network, which launched its second general entertainment channel (GEC) ‘Life OK’ around two years ago, followed by ‘Movies OK’. It is said to be looking to extend the brand to other genres. Viacom, which runs the GEC Colors, is also looking to launch a second GEC, which it currently runs in the UK under the name ‘Rishtey’.

     

    The satellite rights of Chennai Express had seen a lot of buzz with industry sources saying deals had fallen through with other networks on price issues.

     

    The deal links the film’s satellite price to the box office collections. If Chennai Express crosses the cut-off amount, which is said to be around Rs 130 crore, then for every Rs 10 crore net collection after that, the producers get an additional Rs 2 crore. The producers of the film – Shah Rukh Khan and Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures – declined to comment.

     

    Satellite rights form a crucial component of a film’s revenue, contributing 30-35% of its total recovery. For broadcasters, movies generate critical gross rating points (GRPs). With almost all broadcasters vying to acquire rights of the top stars, price wars are not unheard of in the industry, with rights of films still on the production floors being signed up. Almost all films starring top stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have fetched satellite rights between Rs 40 and 45 crore.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • It is the same reality show across news channels, with nearly similar participants on all of them. What changes is the anchor or the NJ (news jockey), writes Ritu Midha

    Ritu Midha: News channels must build differentiators

    By Ritu Midha

     

    The event of the week for us in the advertising and media fraternity was the Publicis and Omnicom merger. In the ad world, it doesn’t get bigger than this.

     

    However, when one looks at a broader picture, the merger in its broadest terms would make difference to less than 1% of India’s populace. 0.1% or 0.01% perhaps

     

    There are, nonetheless a few pressing matters that are top-of-mind for the ad and media professionals (professionally) and the people they want to engage and connect with!

     

    While in an average year it would be a festive season that’s occupies centrestage in the media calendar, this year it is jostling for space with the general elections, most probably scheduled for the second quarter of 2014.

     

    While the marketing and sales teams of news channels and news publications might be going in circles to get as big a share of advertising pie as possibly this festive season, sponsored sections and supplements being one nice way to achieve the numbers.

     

    News watchers among us are willy-nilly set for the election drama for the next 10 months, and if it is a hung Parliament with loads to buy and sell, even longer. It is the same reality show – with nearly the same participants on all news channels. What changes is the anchor or presenter or should we call him or her the NJ (news jockey)

     

    Instead of putting the content and intent of news channels under scanner, my concern is more on the differentiators – why would people hang on one channel, and not move to the other. With measurement issues more or less resolved, and all the stakeholders on the same page, ratings would once again call the shots. Would the NJ be the only differentiator? Alas there can be no judges here, save the viewing masses of course.

     

    Differentiation is a must, come what may. And the faster it happens, the better it would be for the news channels, and of course, audiences. Let’s face it, Elections 2014 are emerging as the mother-of-all elections – and credit for the same, to whatever extent, goes to new channels as wells, the number of which has grown exponentially in the last five years.

     

    Another observation is news channels look similar on the social media too. Whey they need to make the most of interactivity, they seriously need to look beyond their followers’ tweets and comments scrolling on their channels.

     

    To their credit, newspapers manage to create differentiators – even if the key headlines are often the same or similar. Interestingly, their social media presence too is, in most cases, better than news channels.

     

    News channels have to realise that the game needs to move beyond ‘The louder I shout, the better I am’.  And remember that they would have just twelve minutes of ad time per hour – if audiences keep surfing from one news channel to another, ad breaks would be the first calamity.

     

    By the way do you think there can be in-programme product placement opportunities on news channels this Election Season?

     

    Ritu Midha is a senior journalist and web strategist based in Mumbai. She is also Consulting Editor and Editor – Special Projects, MxMIndia.

     

  • The key to the success of &pictures is how many new movies the channel acquires. And how its interests work with that of the flagship GEC.

    1 Minute View: Ek aur naya movie channel!

    Our appetite for Bollywood content is so huge that there has been some cheer for the announcement of Zee Entertainment’s fifth film channel. ZEEL runs the flagship Zee Cinema along with Zee Premier, Zee Action and Zee Classic.

     

    But &pictures, as the channel is to be called, may well be able to meet the kind of promise which one had thought at least one other Hindi film channel had launched with some years back: Premieres and high blitz events.  A mail from the channel’s spokesperson tells us that &pictures is “keeping up with its target of being a noteworthy and a clutter breaker in this space and as a testimonial to that the channel has gone ahead and obtained the most awaited blockbuster of the year”.

     

    The key to the success of &pictures is how many new movies the channel acquires. And how its interests work with that of the flagship GEC – Zee TV. So, for instance, where will the first ‘World TV Premiere’ of any film happen – the GEC or the film channel?

     

    In the recent past we’ve seen some aggressive marketing employed by movie channels for their big film premieres. Zee Cinema for Barfi! And Max for Aashiqui 2.

     

    Guess, we can expect similar and more action from &Pictures.

     

  • The channel will exclusively air more than 500 hours of wrestling content across key Asian markets

    Sony Six acquires rights to TNA Wrestling

    If wrestling is what excites consumers after cricket and tennis and soccer and F1 and whatever else, here’s news: Sony Six has acquired exclusive broadcasting rights to Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling for the Indian sub-continent.

     

    The channel will hence air TNA Wrestling programming every week including Impact Wrtestling, Xplosion, Greatest Matches and Unfinished Business, along with four episodic Pay Per View programmes and eight One Night Only specials throughout the year.

     

    To those not in the know: TNA is home of ‘The Immortal’ Hulk Hogan, ‘The Icon’ Sting, ‘The Charismatic Enigma’ Jeff Hardy, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Bully Ray, Magnus, AJ Styles, Gail Kim, TNA Knockouts Champion Mickie James and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin. Phew!

     

    Man Jit Singh
    NP Singh

    On acquiring the rights, both Man Jit Singh CEO, MSM and N P Singh, COO, MSM were ecstatic. And TNA Wrestling President Dixie Carter was quoted in  a press release saying: “The Indian sub-continent is home to some of the most passionate and dedicated wrestling fans on the planet – and they now have more than 500 hours of the very best in professional wrestling to enjoy. We can’t wait to debut!”

     

  • The movie channel space is set to hot up with &pictures buying rights for Besharam, Ghanchakkar & Zanjeer along with Chennai Express

    &pictures also acquires Besharam, Ghanchakkar & Zanjeer!

    By A Correspondent

     

    Soon after the report on MxMIndia that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd has acquired the much-awaited Shah Rukh Khan film ‘Chennai Express’ for its proposed channel &pictures, ZEEL has now announced some more new films for the soon-to-be-launched channel.

     

    It has got the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer ‘Besharam’ produced by Reliance Entertainment, the Priyanka Chopra- and Ram Charan-starrer ‘Zanjeer’ and UTV’s Vidya Balan–Emraan Hashmi-starrer ‘Ghanchakkar’, &pictures is being billed as India’s first interactive movie channel

     

  • Why should any advertiser, besides at best the title sponsor (that too arguable), buy onto an India-Zimbabwe series, by paying rates that would be at significantly higher CPRPs than most other genres, asks Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: India-Zimbabwe: As Dull As It Gets

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    In my almost 30 years of cricket following, this week has been a new low. India is playing a five-match ODI series in Zimbabwe. Out of sheer habit, I tried sampling one of the games. Within seconds, I was out of it. Dead grounds, players going through the motions and commentators from the B-league… There was nothing on offer at all.

     

    I have written a few months back on ‘Too Much Cricket’ and how pointless cricket creates that perception. But here, the question is even larger. It makes one wonder: Who funds this cricket? And whether indeed any such cricket can ever make money?

     

    In our IPL advertising equity research Ormax Trac20, we found that only about 20 brands managed to attract viewer attention over the course of the 45-day tournament, out of the 200+ brands that associated with IPL or its franchises in various ways. The 2011 World Cup was not very different, where about a dozen brands controlled 80% of the recall share.

     

    So, even in the most high-profile, high-interest tournaments, only the big sponsors and innovators stand out. Why should any advertiser, besides at best the title sponsor (that too arguable), buy onto an India-Zimbabwe series, by paying rates that would be at significantly higher CPRPs than most other genres?

     

    And if indeed no one should, why should such a series be held in the first place? If it were to promote cricket in Zimbabwe, an India A team would have been a good idea too.

     

    This brings me to the larger question of media bias, where media choices of several brands are influenced by individual perceptions. I know of brands who would like to be on cricket, because certain senior executives, including the CEO at times, “feels” cricket is the right choice for them. And if they can’t afford the IPL or an India-Pak series, they settle for whatever comes their way.

     

    In an interesting case a few years ago, I heard about a CMO who bought into cricket series and then planned an extensive travel itinerary for himself, so that he can give out the Man of the Match awards. This, while his new product launch, which was being advertised in the series, should have taken his time and attention at the marketing office.

     

    I wonder if CMOs sometimes buy into such properties to make their CVs more attractive. “Spearheaded the launch of the new handset through the title sponsorship of an India-Sri Lanka series” sounds more attractive than “Delivered the most cost-efficient TV campaign in the mobile phones category in 2012-13”. Maybe not!

     

    In another case, a sales executive at a channel (not a GEC) managed to sign a 30 lac sponsorship deal for a reality show by luring the MD of the brand to be the “Chief Guest” in the season finale, where he will give out the cheque to the winner, and speak about the brand. The MD spoke for about three minutes, and all of that had to be retained in the actual show.

     

    Even as the big agencies continue to grapple with larger questions related to measuring advertising effectiveness that goes beyond just CPRP benchmarking, we have a universe of ad hoc advertisers providing us enough entertainment on the sidelines.

     

    Come to think of it, if you watch the fifth India-Zimbabwe ODI tomorrow like you watch a B-grade film that’s so bad, it’s good, you may end up having a good time anyway!

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

     

  • The India-Zimbabwe ODI series has served no major purpose for the channel, the advertisers, the viewing public and our cricketers.

    1 Minute View: Is anyone interested in India-Zimbabwe cricket?

    Yes, that’s the question which we’ve been asking ourselves ever since Virat Kohli and team left Indian shores last fortnight. India has won the series, but other than help identify the weaklings as it’s clear that those who are consistently poor in Zimbabwe do not deserve a place against stiffer opposition, the series has served no major purpose for the channel, the advertisers, the viewing public and our cricketers.

     

    Coicincidentally our columnist Shailesh Kapoor has also written on the same issue, and we would strongly recommend a good read of his column.

     

    We reproduce excerpts from the column

     

    So, even in the most high-profile, high-interest tournaments, only the big sponsors and innovators stand out. Why should any advertiser, besides at best the title sponsor (that too arguable), buy onto an India-Zimbabwe series, by paying rates that would be at significantly higher CPRPs than most other genres?

    And if indeed no one should, why should such a series be held in the first place? If it were to promote cricket in Zimbabwe, an India A team would have been a good idea too.

    This brings me to the larger question of media bias, where media choices of several brands are influenced by individual perceptions. I know of brands who would like to be on cricket, because certain senior executives, including the CEO at times, “feels” cricket is the right choice for them. And if they can’t afford the IPL or an India-Pak series, they settle for whatever comes their way…

    Even as the big agencies continue to grapple with larger questions related to measuring advertising effectiveness that goes beyond just CPRP benchmarking, we have a universe of ad hoc advertisers providing us enough entertainment on the sidelines.

     

    Read the full column here: http://www.mxmindia.com/2013/08/shailesh-kapoor-india-zimbabwe-as-dull-as-it-gets/

     

  • Saath 7 is the new tagline of the show as promos on for Salman Khan-hosted reality show

    Colors gets act together for Bigg Boss Season 7 with Salman Khan as host

    By A Correspondent

     

    Over the last six years, Bigg Boss has earned the reputation of being Indian television’s biggest reality show. It’s the most controversial and creates a buzz like no other TV programme, is huge in terms of scale and resources deployed and there is an effort made to raise the bar every year.

     

    Leading general entertainment channel Colors has announced Season 7 of Bigg Boss, unveiling a glimpse of what is in store with Salman Khan as host yet again.

     

    The concept planned is of ‘Heaven or Hell’ with the megastar seen in the guise of an angel personifying the pleasures of heaven, as well as in the garb of a devil, representing the negative world of hell.

     

    Speaking on the promos, Rajesh Iyer, Marketing Head, Colors said: “The message is simple – pleasure or pain, both are inevitable and there is nothing to be taken for granted this season.”

     

    The television campaign has been created by Orchard Advertising in association with Prashant Issar of Tubelight Films. It comprises a series of creatives with fun stories enacted by Salman on the theme of the show this season.  Said Hemant Kumar Sivan, Executive Creative Director, Orchard Advertising on the effort: “We worked with the simple truth of life that, Heaven and Hell are of man’s own making. It all depends on how one deals with what life has to offer.”

     

    To add to the fun element, the promo lines have been improvised by Salman himself as he says ‘By God’ in his inimitable style

     

    There have been rumours of the actor being paid Rs 5 crore per episode, but sources close to the channel say that the actual amount is not even close to that figure. Industry sources suggest the amount is more in the region of a crore and each episode will be shot live on Friday. But what if Salman is indicted in the 2002 Mumbai car accident case (popularly referred to as the hit-and-run case, but Salman and his family strongly contest the reference saying he did not run away)? The actor’s camp is hopeful that he will not be indicted.

     

    The format stays the same with 14 strangers in the house over 90 days and captured by 70 cameras in the Bigg Boss house.

     

  • Star Pravah launches monthly airing on TV versions of new and original short stories

    Marathi telefilms on Star Pravah Premiere

    By A Correspondent

     

    Marathi GEC Star Pravah announced the launch of ‘Star Pravah Premiere’ last week with televised versions of new and original short stories with feature film-like production quality. The first of these was aired last night (Sunday, August 4).

     

    Said Shrabani Deodhar, Creative Director – Star Pravah, on the occasion: “Short stories is a new format for us and we are looking at working with subjects that are not easily adaptable to a serial format. We will try and present a fresh and new aspect to relationships in every story that will be showcased under the Star Pravah Premiere initiative.”

     

  • Starting tomorrow, and until further notice, we will be carrying the 1 Minute View in our Daily Digest or 'AM Newsletter'. Look out for it there!

    1 Minute View: Reaching adults via kids

    There’s no rocket science to it. You can reach people best in the places they cohabit. Or patronize. Like parents do with kiddie channels. They are on it because of their children, and they are on it because the channels help transport them to their younger days. They are also on it because some of the content is excellent.

     

    Whether it’s the toons on Cartoon Network, the adventures on Discovery and Nat Geo, the wild stuff on Animal Planet, Chhota Bheem on Pogo,  Disney, Hungama etc etc, parents don’t mind watching the content. And even if they won’t admit it, they are often hooked to the programming.

     

    So we weren’t surprised to learn that some big-name advertisers are putting their monies on the children’s channels. And this isn’t because the kids are decision-makers (well, many of them are), but it’s because their folks watch the shows.

     

    Three cheers to that!

     

    PS: Starting tomorrow, and until further notice, we will be carrying the 1 Minute View in our Daily Digest or ‘AM Newsletter’. Look out for it there!

     

  • Steve Marcopoto to step down as President and Managing Director, Turner International Asia Pacific

    Now Steve Marcopoto to step down at Turner

    By A Correspondent

     

    Steve Marcopoto

    It’s almost like one of those cartoon films where big cats keep jumping out from the barrel at frequent intervals. Turner International has announced one more major exit, and this is concerning the big man himself. Yes, Steve Marcopoto has announced he will step down as President and Managing Director, Turner International Asia Pacific at the end of his contract in December 2013. He’s not going away immediately though as he will stay on as a Senior Advisor to Turner International President Gerhard Zeiler to ensure a seamless transition and provide continuity on current new initiatives. The succession will be announced in due course.

     

    Said Gerhard Zeiler, President Turner Broadcasting System International: “I thank Steve for his outstanding achievements in his 15 years with Turner Broadcasting. Steve has guided Turner Asia Pacific through a period of rapid change.”

     

    Steve Marcopoto added: “Turner is poised for a great run and now is the best moment for the company to put a fresh set of hands in charge. It feels right to initiate the handover now as I complete 15 years in this job, and I intend to hand over Turner Asia Pacific to my successor in an optimal state.”

     

  • Havas Media India wins back media mandate of Bloomberg TV India

    Bloomberg TV India back with Havas

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sriram Kilambi

    Havas Media India has won back the media mandate of Bloomberg TV India. For a short while the account was with Aegis Media’s Vizeum India.

     

    “Bloomberg TV India is all about catering to the elite key decision makers. Havas has demonstrated expertise in using media innovatively and we look forward to a great new relationship,” said Sriram Kilambi, President, Bloomberg TV India in a statement.

     

     

    Anita Nayyar

    “It is wonderful to renew ties with Bloomberg TV India. We are closely tuned in to their brand philosophy and keen growth path. Our meaningful brands framework is perfectly suited and will increasingly be applied to create connections to further enable Bloomberg TV India to talk to their audience on this trajectory”, said Anita Nayyar, CEO Havas Media Group, India & South Asia.

     

     

     

    Mohit Joshi

    “We are glad Bloomberg TV India thought us the correct people to partner with for their future plans. It is an interesting product and they are good people to work with; it is wonderful to have them back,” added Mohit Joshi, Havas Media Managing Director.