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  • He has been brought in to identify and build strategic relationships in the marketing and recruitment ecosystems

    LinkedIn India appoints Hetal Sonpal as Director, Strategic Sales

    By A Correspondent

     

    LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com, the world’s largest professional network with more than 135 million members worldwide and over 12 million members in India, on Tuesday announced the appointment of Hetal Sonpal, http://in.linkedin.com/in/hetalsonpal, as Director, Strategic Sales for India.

     

    With over 13 years of experience scaling world-class sales organizations, Mr Sonpal will work closely with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and LinkedIn Hiring Solutions. He will be focused on building and strengthening relationships with key clients and oversee the execution of strategic deals to help accelerate the growth of LinkedIn in India.

     

    “Having had operations in Indiafor over two years now, LinkedIn has emerged as a platform of choice for recruiters and brands seeking to engage with an influential and highly educated audience. We have built a strong business across India with high quality sales and marketing professionals and Hetal’s addition to the leadership team will add value to our operations. It reinforces our commitment to our customers in Indiaas we seek to build strong long-term relationships with our partners across the country,” said Hari V Krishnan, http://in.linkedin.com/in/harivk, Country Manager, LinkedIn India.

     

    Based in New Delhi, Mr Sonpal joins LinkedIn from Microsoft Corporation where he served as Lead, Telecom Alliances. Prior to that he worked with Wipro for more than 11 years and rose to leadership positions including Regional Sales Head for North India. During his tenure with Wipro, he also led Wipro’s Sales team in Japanfor over seven years and was instrumental in growing Wipro’s business with some of the largest technology and consumer electronics customers in Japan, including Toshiba, Cannon, Ricoh and Clarion.

     

    LinkedIn India is headquartered in Mumbai with offices in New Delhi and Bangalore.

  • Arvind Sharma's end-of-year wish list for the ad industry – agencies, creatives, clients… oh, and the consumer.

    The Anchor: 6 wishes for Santa from the advertising industry

    By Arvind Sharma

     

    #1 A year of bountiful growth for the economy: We really need Santa’s intervention on this. Only if the economy is good will clients put money into new launches. And support their current businesses with confidence. And help the advertising industry thrive.

     

    #2 Many dozen outstanding campaigns across categories: These become tougher to sell in a tight economy, which I anticipate.

     

    #3 Hundreds of high-quality young people joining the industry next year: Talented young people are the lifeblood of our industry. We need lots of them.

     

    #4 Emergence of a real alternative to cricket:  There is just too much of cricket. Audience interest in it is flagging, and so are returns from it.

     

    #5 Penetration of high-speed broadband internet across the length and breadth of the country: After the cellphone revolution, this can be the next big driver of growth for the country and the advertising industry.

     

    #6 Many more global campaigns out of India: Global recognition for Indian advertising talent has been growing. This should now convert into India becoming a major centre that MNC clients regularly look to for their global campaigns.

     

    Arvind Sharma is the Chairman of India Subcontinent at Leo Burnett.

  • Gouri Dange on a sub-species of consumer that is completely impervious to advertising ammo.

    Naming No Names: We don’t need no ad breaks

    By Gouri Dange

     

    Is there a name for some of us viewers-listeners-readers who simply cannot be bludgeoned into buying products by the advertising industry? While we do go out and buy stuff, and in that sense are consumers, we have grown an internal lock-out mechanism which makes us utterly impervious to advertising of any sort- inyourface repetitive ads, subliminal ones, funny-clever ones, oh-so-Indian mange more kind of stuff, manipulative tear-jerking advertising… none of it seems to stick to us. It’s as if we are Teflon-coated, and all attempts to grab our eyeballs and sing into our ears and play our hearts and seduce our souls simply slide away unregistered in our psyches.

     

    It’s probably genetic, and then again it is probably a defence mechanism that we developed in response to the relentless persuasion that we have been subjected to over the last some years. Ads in newspapers and magazines that come to us with the cover page in the form of some fussy pull-out, fold-in, pop-up flappy strips and straps? They don’t stand a chance. We simply tear off that part, so that we can read without the hindrance of this piece of persuasion.

     

    As for ads on TV, some of us have channel-switching or snack-fixing or loo-going or quick phone-calling down to a fine art. This way, we don’t have to watch the ad world pretending to be oh-so-concerned for our skins, our hearts, our safety, our kids’ education, our old age security and yadayadayada while reaching out to pick our pockets.

     

    Of course, the crafty fellows now have synchronized ad breaks, so if you switch channels, you can avoid being told what oil to buy, but you will have to watch happy families choosing wall paints. And on a bad day, the same ad will be playing simultaneously on three channels, so the message is ominously clear – you can run, but you can’t hide. Well then we always have the option to sprint into the kitchen, fix ourselves a drinky, make bhurji (no, not 1.59 minute noodles) and be back in our seats just as the movie or programme is back on air. I love it.

     

    My least favourite ads are the ones in which children are recruited to sell stuff; for some of us, this borders on child-labour/porn in frilly clothing. And when those come on, I mute the TV and exit the room for that loo break and can abandon a programme or a movie if it all gets too much.

     

    Making ourselves ad-proof has become such a way of life, that sometimes I can be sitting right there, right through a serious attack of advertisements on my TV, and will not be able to recall what product an ad was for, 10 seconds later. Absolutely not a clue, if we’re asked. Zilch, nada, negative, illay, nahi. And if we’re asked what brand of soap-oil-rice-sauce-atta-insurance we use, a researcher would again draw a blank. Nothing. Yes we do eat that stuff, but we simply buy stuff in rotation, and are more likely to buy things that don’t shout ‘pick me, take me, buy me, use me’ or make seductive sounds from the store shelves. So giving us the come-hither doesn’t work too well for a product.

     

    And if we’re sold something that we liked for the first time, but was less than good the second time, we’ll dump it without a second thought or a backward glance. We don’t know the concept of fidelity, faith and loyalty when it comes to stuff that has to be bought and used. We buy what works for us, and will stop buying it when it doesn’t.

     

    Nostalgia doesn’t work on us either when it comes to advertising, so anything that tries to evoke some decade we’re supposed to be all gooey-eyed about, we will simply yawn and go to the loo.

     

    How do we make consumer choices when it comes to buying larger things like cars and computers and such-like? I call my friend Bonnie (everyone should have a Bonnie). Because he knows about these things. And he knows what works for me; he puts himself in my shoes, and gives me advice. He is himself ad-proof! He too only ever buys things that have shown that they work, rather than things that strut on television and preen in print. He ruthlessly throws out goods and services that don’t deliver on promises and rarely gives them a second chance.

     

    And no, this is not an advertisement for Bonnie. Go find your own Bonnie.

     

    Naming no Names is the mid-week column where novelist, columnist and counsellor Gouri Dange presents her tongue-in-cheek view of our world.

  • While I can understand the producers wanting to promote Don 2 – even planting those cheap 3D glasses inside newspapers is okay to a point – Shahrukh must understand that his continuous presence in the media is going to hurt his charisma in the long run. How much of the star can we take?

    Anil Thakraney: Doesn’t SRK get it?

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Oh no! Don 2 (it actually should be Don 3, because the earlier Don was a rip-off of the original Bachchan film) is all set to hit the cinemas and we will have to sit back and ‘enjoy’ Shahrukh Khan’s nautanki, as he shuttles from one TV studio to another, desperately hawking the flick. He just did ditto for Ra.One and pakaoed the hell out of everyone. The popular Twitter joke at the time was: The only thing left for SRK to do is to insert breaks during the film’s screening, so that he can plug it!

     

    Did the media hero’s 360-degree effort for Ra.One save the film? Despite all those tall claims on initial collections (which would have happened even if Khan didn’t do the studio rounds… his name anyway gets lots of folks interested), the film was dissed by all and sundry and reportedly lost some money. So what is the use of all this mad self marketing?

     

    Now, while I can understand the producers wanting to promote the film – even planting those cheap 3D glasses inside newspapers is okay to a point – Shahrukh must understand that his continuous presence in the media is going to hurt his charisma in the long run. How much of the star can we take? In fact, I gave Ra.One a quiet miss because the last thing I wanted after his full-on blast in the media was more Shahrukh Khan. Sure, the content-starved TV channels will welcome him with open arms. Because it gives them a chance to talk about all issues unconnected with the film, including SRK’s opinions on how to end communalism in this nation, and how to send a man to Uranus (okay, I made the last one up). But what good does all that fluff talk do for the film’s fortunes?

     

    Dear SRK and all the other stars: Guys, spend all this moolah and energy on creating sparkling content. Two, zealously protect the mystique around your own image. And three, leave the TV studios to the netas and to Mr Suhel Seth.

     

    ***

     

    PS: I sincerely hope Anna’s Jan Lokpal bill gets passed in toto by the government. Not because I believe it will end corruption, but because I don’t want Team Anna doing their number from Mumbai. The traffic is already a mess out here, and we just can’t handle another frenzied public spectacle.

  • The capital's symposium on media and new technology eventually found itself discussing freedom of speech and the current bugbear of Indian new media – censorship.

    Video Report: Chaining the modem, gagging the router

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    The second annual symposium on ‘Media and New Technology – New Technologies, New Challenges: Indian Media Issues in Global Perspective’ hosted by Star India in New Delhi, on December 19th and 20th, set the ground for exploring international and comparative perspectives on the current media regulation debate and the role of information in the society in the times to come.

     

    The symposium, an initiative of Oxford University’s Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (PCMLP), in cooperation with its academic partners – the National Law University-Delhi, the National University of Juridical Sciences-Kolkata, and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, brought together the diverse views of academics, bureaucrats, policymakers, industry leaders, civil society and legal experts to discuss such issues as law and responsibilities of self-regulation of media entities, regulation of the Internet, and emerging technologies in the context of freedom of information, privacy, and freedom of expression.

     

    Setting the tone of the two-day seminar, in his opening address, Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting announced the government’s roadmap both for digitization and content regulation.

     

    Some of the other key speakers who addressed the participants at this symposium included Mark Stephens, Former Legal Advisor for Wikileaks; Osama Abu-Dehays, Head of Legal Affairs, Al Jazeera; Arvind Rajagopal, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, NYU; Blair Levin, Communications & Society Fellow, Aspen Institute; Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor at The Hindu; Siddharth Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore; Manoj Mitta, Senior Editor at The Times of India; Sevanti Ninan, Founder of TheHoot.com; and Monroe Price, Director, Center for Global Communication Studies, University of Pennsylvania.

     

    From trends in media regulation over the past year to the changing role of regulators, to the number of new challenges posed by evolving technology to media companies and the lawyers who represent them, a flurry of viewpoints were exchanged in the extensive debates.

     

    Deepak Jacob, EVP & General Counsel – Legal & Regulatory Affairs, Star India said, “I think this debate keeps the entire discussion and controversy around media regulation, it keeps it on the boil. You get different viewpoints, you get the contra viewpoint, you get the ‘for regulation’ viewpoint. So I think it’s healthy to keep this debate alive.”

     

    Panelists from different disciplines added to the flavour and scope of discussions. Nicole Stremlau, Coordinator, Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, University of Oxford said, “We tried to bring together the different research streams that are active here in India. So we brought together academics from universities, researchers from think tanks, as well as others working in the industry. So we very much tried to have a discussion across disciplines and across institutions. On the one hand, we had anthropologists, sociologists talking about the vast changes in the media policy and media regulation in India and on the other hand we also had a legal stream. So we had emerging lawyers discussing some of the pressing legal issues here and how they do research on these issues.”

     

    Is self-regulation possible?

    Following the recent controversy on content regulation sparked by Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, interesting points on self-regulation of the media came up during the course of discussions. While Blair Levin, Communications & Society Fellow, Aspen Institute thought that it’s important to look at the particular issue to determine whether there is a need for the govt to step in or whether the industry can regulate itself, Deepak Jacob, EVP & General Counsel – Legal & Regulatory Affairs, Star India felt that the implementation of the self-regulatory mechanism is the biggest challenge. He said, “That’s always going to be a challenge, to educate, to make people aware of how self-regulation is the best way forward. I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge because people really intuitively don’t believe in self-regulation. They always believe that the govt has a huge role to play and should be censoring content.” Deepak Jacob also added that people are reading too much into Kapil Sibal’s move.

     

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

    Deepak Jacob of Star India on challenges of self-regulation

     

    ‘Informal censorship is happening’

    Another interesting point was made by Chinmayi Arun, Assistant Professor, National University of Jurisdical Sciences, Kolkata who feels that there is state-driven censorship taking place at an informal level. She said, “When we discuss censorship or interception of data, basically govt influence of information online, we tend to think of it in formal terms, that has the government officially asked for a certain amount of information, has the government officially asked certain sites to block a certain kind of information. But there’s actually a vast amount of blocking and interception that may possibly be done through informal mechanisms. And I think that perhaps this is one of those informal mechanisms surfacing.”

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmNH3tZgPJc[/youtube]

    Prof Chinmayi Arun on state-driven censorship

     

    Speed, affordability… and freedom?

    Talking of broadband access and the debate around filtering content, Blair Levin, Communications & Society Fellow, Aspen Institute agreed that the issue does get trickier with the nature of broadband but particularly in India, he said, “The debate is in a very early stage, in part because there is so little broadband, and in part frankly because the wireless technology, that’s going to be the necessary tool to bring broadband to most people in India, really is very early on in the game. It is only now that we have the kind of technology that can deliver real broadband speeds over wireless platforms. And really only now that the costs of the devices have come down to a level where a number of people can afford them.”

     

    Citing his personal experience with working on the National Broadband Plan in the US, Mr Levin stated that the situation and the challenges in India are very different from that in the US. He said, “In India, the great challenge is how do you get, first the underlying infrastructure in a number of places. Though I would say that infrastructure ought to be much more wireless than wired but then there is really the challenge of how do you make sure it’s a productive infrastructure? It’s a similar challenge in the US but the details are quite different.”

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdQDkQQaU2E[/youtube]

    The debate on whether the govt can filter or block content in both broadcast and broadband mediums, Mr Levin feels, will continue, as it has for the past so many decades, but he hopes that “the government here, as well as elsewhere, can get the balance right”.

     

    Dr Blair Levin on the debate in India on filtering content

  • NCT Data Wk 50 ’11

    Source: News Content Track – A service of TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd

    Channels: Aaj Tak, CNN IBN, Headlines Today, IBN 7, India TV, NDTV 24/7, NDTV India, Star News, Times Now, News 24 & Zee News

    Period: Wk 50 – Dec 4 to Dec 10, 2011

    Note : Analysis is based on the Telecast duration

     

    About TAM Media Research

     

    TAM is a joint venture between Nielsen Company & Kantar Media Research. Besides measuring TV Viewership, TAM also monitors Advertising Expenditure of Television, Print & Radio through its division AdEx India. Since 2004, it extended its presence in the PR Measurement & Analysis space for Corporate/Marketing Clients by setting up a separate division Eikona PR Measurement.

     

    In 2007, the joint venture introduced RAM (Radio Audio Measurement) service to track Radio Listenership for the Indian Radio Broadcast Industry. In year 2009, TAM launched a division, called TAM Sports that specializes in monitoring Sports Sponsorship ROI.

     

    TAM Media Research’s objective is to fuel media insights that will drive the growth of the Indian Media Industry.

  • Everybody wants to be a part of the action and the media is the vehicle to fame. Unfortunately there has been a tendency for single numbers to be blown up and the complete picture obfuscated to drive home a point.

    Newswatch by Madan Sabnavis: In media showbiz, real figures take a backseat

    By Madan Sabnavis

     

    Media is not unlike showbiz. Everybody wants to be a part of the action and the media is the vehicle to fame. Given the intense competition, it is but natural that every newspaper wants to be one up and every television channel would like to be the first to flash breaking news. Suddenly, even a standard release from the government becomes breaking news for the first channel that flashes the story. From politics to economics, it is the same story.

     

    The economic travails that we are facing today have grabbed headlines as well as eyeballs, thanks to the media, which is a powerful tool for conveying an idea, as we have witnessed in 2011.

     

    The media’s main focus has been on the policymakers and critics, which added zing to otherwise insipid developments. It is not thatIndiais crawling this year. Growth is reasonable, inflation is high, though not unusual as we have had such patterns in the past and the entire hullabaloo on exchange rate is again not really happening for the first time. But all this has come to the fore due to incessant media attention, and in a way, has gotten exaggerated. How fair has this exposure been?

     

    The interesting fact here has been the prevalence of the same basic laws of economics – demand and supply of such views in the media industry. TV channels have hours dedicated to business and economy. As every economic indicator is supposed to affect the stock market, it merits fixed hours of discussion. There are time spaces to fill in with views which get in the big names. This has led to constant interactions with government officials, policy makers, bureaucrats, ex-bureaucrats, economists, CEOs, CFOs, journalists, academicians, journalists, and so on.

     

    More importantly everybody wants the top names in the field, though the rather amusing outcome is that we have the same set of 10-20 experts in each of the fields who circulate the same, standard views.

     

    There is, in a way, nothing really wrong here, but there may have been a tendency to over-react at times as we have started viewing every economic detail on a realtime basis.

     

    Today, economic data in India comes with lags. There is a two-week lag for wholesale prices, a month for exports, consumer prices and industrial data. The lag becomes almost a quarter for GDP numbers. To top it all, there are revisions which can be quite horrendous, since the experts look like having contradicted themselves as they comment based on the information provided at that particular point of time. Now the broader question is whether we should believe such data.

     

    Why do we want to minutely dissect such high frequency data when we know that there will be changes subsequently? This is important because all such data and interpretations invariably affect stock market and investment decisions. If all experts say that interest rates will rise, then individuals will shift to bank deposits, just like how mutual funds may become attractive in case the majority view is that the economy is on track and booming.

     

    With a tendency for over-exposure and the willingness or over-enthusiasm of experts to come online, there may have been a situation of overstating cases. Generally speaking, theory will say that economies do not function in one week or month, but on a cumulative basis during a year. This being the case, in the past we have been looking only at cumulative numbers.

     

    But today if one channel looks at month-over-month numbers, all have to do it to stay in the race. This means forcing the speakers to comment or give their forecasts which they have to do once they are on the phone or on camera.

     

    This has led to a proliferation in the numbers being given on each and every economic indicator by the same person in a short span of time, say one month. When queried on reactions to a dismal number, which is actually a tautological question, the answer has to be that the person is dismayed or surprised or shocked or concerned. But actually, they may not really know why the number turned out to be abysmal.

     

    The official stance always talks of recoveries in the rest of the year while the corporates will always paint a doomsday picture when interest rates have risen. This, in turn, can drive an opinion.

     

    Things have hence been magnified throughout the media on account of relatively higher frequency of economic releases which still are subject to revisions.

     

    Unfortunately there has been a tendency for single numbers to be blown up and the complete picture obfuscated to drive home a point. We have not really had any novel solutions offered in this plethora of debates.

     

    Let us see some of them: We need to have reforms. But did we not have a good economic picture without these reforms in the past? We need to lower interest rates to help industry. Is industry the only sector driving the economy and is this the only constituency that matters? We should stop predatory competition fromChinawhich affects us. But if the product is an import going into your product, would the stance be the same? There is policy paralysis. But this cannot be a solution when the world is going through a slowdown and everyone has to adjust.

     

    Surprisingly, we do not hear western critics saying that there is policy paralysis in the Eurozone which is holding back growth – there as it is understood that all crisis situations take time to resolve as there are various constituencies involved.

     

    How then does one evaluate the performance of the media in bringing to the fore the economic crisis that we are living with? There is a plethora of views, with few interpretations. The viewer or reader has to make a choice and often times, by virtue of selection of the commentators or experts, ends up getting confused.

     

    As the media invariably represents a single view in a market economy, it has helped to bring to the fore the issues, though admittedly, government action is based on a larger public concerns and hence has remained susceptible to media bashing.

     

    We have not really had workable solutions coming forth in these discussions. But, nonetheless it has helped to stoke a lot of debate and create awareness of issues which hitherto would have been confined to only a certain section of people. To this extent, it is a job well done. What about the experts who keep giving their views relentlessly on the same lines? To quote Oscar Wilde, to be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy. It’s showbiz after all.

     

    Madan Sabnavis is Chief Economist, CARE Ratings. The views expressed are personal.

  • Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi is touted as the biggest ever TV property in Tamil

    Star’s Vijay TV hopes to win big with Tamil KBC, nets superstar Suriya as host

     

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Star India’s Vijay TV is looking at its next leap with its biggest property Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi or Kaun Banega Crorepati in Tamil, to be hosted by superstar Suriya. In fact, this is touted as the biggest property ever not just for Vijay TV but for the Tamil television industry too. The channel is pinning its hope on the show to weave its magic and catapult Vijay TV to garner good numbers. If one looks at the channel share, the scenario among Tamil entertainment channel is that Sun TV leads and relies mainly on its fiction whereas KTV, the movie channel from the Sun TV network is clearly at number two though at times on really rare occasion may be toppled by Vijay TV. Then there is Sun Music and Kalaignar TV which again was positioned as rival to Sun TV placed somewhere in between. However, in this entire number game one thing to keep in mind is that the gap between the leader and the second channel is huge and not easy to bridge.

     

    For Vijay TV to come up with KBC which is a popular game show and has been played across 116 countries in 83 languages in the past 13 years is definitely a big move. Six years ago, Sun TV had introduced a show with a format similar to KBC, with Sarath Kumar, which had not fared well and could not go beyond its first season. However, much has changed in the Tamil GEC since then and Vijay TV has been the one that has experimented with talent-based reality shows earlier and given audience a taste of non-fiction shows. Now this time with Suriya who makes his television debut and is much revered by the Tamil audience, they definitely have an ace. Also the show is being produced by Big Synergy, the producers of KBC in Hindi, thus ensuring the same high quality in production, sound and sets.

     

    Bridging the gap

    K Sriram, General Manager, Vijay TV said, “This by far is the biggest investment by any South Indian channel as we have bought the rights from the original to bring out KBC in Tamil. We are looking at bridging the gap with the leader with this property. The treatment of the show is fantastic and it’s a superior product offering to the Tamil audience. We have also tied up with ITC’s Sunfeast as the presenting sponsor.” This year KBC 5 saw all the big brands riding on it and Sriram says that even though the format has its limitations when it comes to getting brands on board, but they along with Synergy are working out ways to provide greater value to brands on the show.”

     

    The show will be launched in February 2012 and Vijay TV is leaving no stone unturned to capture the minds of its audience. It is breaking a high-decibel campaign starting today (December 21) inviting people to participate in the show which will then be followed by a highly visible 360-degree campaign that will continue till the show debuts on TV. The show will air Monday to Thursday from 8-9.30 pm. The tone of the show will be similar to what Sony has done this year to give voice to unsung heroes and bring out stories from people who have financial constraints but emerge winners on the show, thus the prize money of Rs 1 crore gives wings to their dreams. Sairam however adds that the participants will be a careful mix, thus providing equal opportunity to all.

     

    The launch of KBC will also see simultaneous launch of the two biggest fiction shows on Vijay TV to ensure audience stickiness post-KBC.

     

    Vijay TV’s tryst with reality

    Narendra Alambara, Vice President, Starcom Chennai is of the opinion that KBC being a knowledge based show will pull in Tamil audience initially but the real task for Vijay TV will be to sustain viewers once the novelty value of popular host, new show and winners fades. Giving his take on why Vijay TV is probably the best channel to showcase KBC, he said, “The channel has had winners in the past in its talent based reality shows so in that sense it’s in the DNA of Vijay TV as Sun is seen more tuned to fiction.” He added, “Within trade circles KBC has been received well. I think interest will pick up among viewers once the promotion starts. Vijay TV has invested in producing superior quality shows and the quality of KBC will determine the channel’s position as an option for quality programming.”

     

    John Britto, Business Manager, Mindshare, explained, “The buzz on KBC is positive and this should have a positive impact on Vijay TV. As it is the biggest property and will be marketed well, the brands will be keen to get on it.”

     

    Giving an insight on why KBC should work this time even though in its earlier avatar it didn’t in TN, he said, “The awareness level this time is much more and the anchor Suriya has a great following. Even earlier, Vijay TV has adapted Koffee with Karan, Laughter Challenge and Talent competition with success.”

     

    KBC in other regional languages

    It’s not just Vijay TV which is gearing up for KBC in Tamil but there is also Suvarna which is readying for launch of KBC in Kannada with superstar Puneet Rajkumar. KBC had made its debut in Bhojpuri on Mahuaa TV as Ke Bani Crorepati with Shatrughan Sinha as its host and in Bengali as Ke Hobey Banglar Kotipoti hosted by Sourav Ganguly on Mahuaa Bangla. While the Bangla KBC averaged TVR of 2.29 (period June 6 to August 12, 2011), the Bhojpuri version saw an average TVR of just 0.45 (period June 6 to August 12, 2011). (Data source TAM).

    With Suriya as host and Big Synergy ensuring that production and programming standards are standards, Sriram is hopeful of the Tamil KBC delivering rich dividends: not just for the programme, but for the channel too.

  • Fetise.com raises $5 million from SeedFund on ET Now's Super Angels

    Online retailer Fetise nets $5mn live on ET Now show

    By Sudhir Syal

     

    In a deal that was sealed on television, early-stage investment firm SeedFund has committed to taking a minority stake in online men’s apparel retailer Fetise.com

     

    The fund has committed to invest $5 million in the Mumbai-based company after a pitch made on Super Angels, a television series on the ‘Starting Up’ show broadcast by ET Now. (ET Now is part of the Times Group, which also publishes The Economic Times).

     

    The show provides a platform for start-ups to make pitches to Angel Investors. And even before the show’s finale scheduled for March 2012, it has seen a start-up already raise capital on the show. Mahesh Murthy, one of the Super Angels on the show, is a co-founder of Seed Fund.

     

    Fetise.com was also one of the shortlisted start-ups at the Proto. in, an industry event for startups that took place at Chennai in July this year.

     

    The startup was founded in March 2011 by Chetan Bafna, Abhishek Shah, Somya Tambi and Subir Ghosh, college-mates who met at the ICFAI Business School in Gurgaon. In nine months, the start-up is clocking over 500 transactions per day at a revenue run-rate of Rs 2-2.5 crore per month.

     

    Mr Mahesh Murthy, Managing Partner of the Seed Fund, said: “What attracted us to Fetise was a clear focus on Men’s Apparel, very often we see start-ups in the e-commerce space who want to sell everything, but here they’ve picked a category and built a large product line.”

     

    Fetise.com’s product line includes men’s apparel, footwear and accessories, which has helped the company rack up average billing amount of Rs 1,500. Mr Anand Lunia, Executive Director of the Seed-Fund, who worked closely on the deal said, “Men’s fashion is a large category and the margins in this business also makes this vertical of e-commerce far more profitable than some of the others, we are looking closely at other private labels start-up within the space.”

     

    Fetise.com has two warehouses and is planning to open more over the next 6-12 months. Mr Chetan Bafna of Fetise.com said, “Our fundraising process started six months ago on Super Angels, and we’re overjoyed that the fundraising has closed on the TV platform too.”

     

    The next phase of Super Angels will be beginning in January 2012 with 10 start-ups making a bid to follow Fetise and raise funds successfully on the platform. Super Angels is a part of Starting Up which plays out every Tuesday at 11 pm, Saturday at 9 pm and Sunday at 10 am.

     

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • She will be responsible for ensuring product launches, channel strategy, marketing strategy, technical training and development

    Anku Sharma joins Milagrow TabTops as Product Marketing Manager

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ms Anku Sharma has been appointed as the Product Marketing Manager for Milagrow TabTops. As the Product Marketing Manager she will be responsible for ensuring product launches, channel strategy, marketing strategy, technical training and development.

     

    Milagrow offers support as a venture catalyst to fill the ‘management capital’ need gaps of growth seeking – micro, small and medium businesses. Under industry specific consulting practice, Milagrow has special focus on retail and consumer electronics.

     

    Ms Sharma joined Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions as a venture catalyst in the consulting division in 2009. She has successfully worked on clients across segments like white goods, electronics, tractors, kitchen & small appliances and lifestyle and modern retail.

     

    Some of the clients that she has managed include Arcelik (Turkey), Havells, Sonalika, Eurostar (Dubai), Jindal Arc, Biglife, Chhabra 555 and Electrospark.

     

    Talking about her new role at Milagrow, Ms Sharma said: “I am delighted to be a part of the Milagrow family. With our strong customer base, wide range of offerings, and strategic alliances, I believe that we are optimally positioned to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the Indian market. My immediate goal would be to position all our divisions equally and help them realize their fullest potential as the company moves to the next level.”

     

    Ms Sharma has graduated with B.Com & Economic Honours from Punjab Universityand is a post graduate from the Birla Institute of Management Technology in retail management.

  • The Wall Street Journal reports that the Reliance Industries chairman is in talk to buy Network 18

    Mukesh Ambani in talks to buy Network 18: WSJ

    Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, India’s biggest conglomerate, is in talks to buy Network 18, the television and internet company, the Wall Street Journal said quoting people familiar with the situation.

     

    Ambani, the paper said, has been in talks with Network 18 founder and controlling shareholder Raghav Bahl on the issue.

     

    “The talks may yet lead to nothing. It also isn’t clear what the value of Ambani’s investment would be and whether he is operating on behalf of Reliance Industries or whether he would put his own cash into a deal. Network18 Media and Investments, the holding company for the conglomerate, has annual revenue of about $300 million but isn’t profitable,” said the paper.

     

    A spokesperson for Reliance Industries told ET that the report is not true. Speculation has been growing in recent weeks about possible takeovers and consolidation in the Indian television and media space as ad industry revenue shrinks due to the slowdown and costs remain stubbornly high.

     

    Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries have been linked to several transactions not just in media and entertainment but also in other industries after RIL surprised everybody by buying a small stake in EIH, the hotel company that runs the Oberoi group of hotels last year.

     

    RIL has more than Rs 60,000 crore in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet and it is widely expected to buy some assets in its core businesses and outside.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • The slowdown chill notwithstanding, vc firm Accel Partners has announcement an investment in Trivone Digital Services

    Accel Partners invests in digital media firm Trivone

    By Biswarup Gooptu

     

    Marquee venture capital firm Accel Partners, announced on Wednesday that it has invested an undisclosed amount in a round of Series A funding in Bangalore-based digital media and content firm Trivone Digital Services.

     

    The investment will be used to fund Trivone’s working capital requirements as well as pushing growth through the inorganic route in the months ahead, according to a press statement released by the VC firm.

     

    “Trivone, given the media and Content expertise of the team, is well set to build a best in class Digital Media Company”, Mahendran Balachandran, partner, Accel India, said.

     

    Trivone, which has been looking to grow through the acquisition route, had acquired the management rights for the three information technology portals – Techtree.com, ChannelTimes.com and CXOToday.com – from media conglomerate UTV in May earlier in the year.

     

    “We are delighted to have Accel Partners on board and look forward to working closely with them as we chart out a growth path for ourselves,” Subu Subramanyan, chief executive, Trivone, said.

     

    The Trivone investment is the second such investment for Accel Partners in December, following its $1 million (Rs 5 crore) investment in SaaS-based social customer support start-up Freshdesk.

     

    The VC firm, which has also backed global Internet majors such as Facebook and Groupon, announced in November that it had raised a $155 million fund focused on seed and early-stage investments in India  Its investments in India include, Kaatizone, Babyoye.com (Nest Childcare Services Private Limited), Exclusively.in, Flipkart, Probe Equity Research Pvt Ltd, LetsBuy.com, among others.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved