MxMIndia

Tag: Bennett

  • Library of original content on love for stories in India

    Mirchi audio OTT launched

    By Our Staff

     

    Mirchi, the city-centric music and entertainment company, has launched Mirchi Plus, a mobile app. The app offers a large library of original audio stories, podcasts, videos, entertainment news and more across 10 different languages – English, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.

     

    Said Vineet Jain, Managing Director, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd: “Mirchi has always been the audience’s go-to choice for all things music; with the launch of ‘Mirchi Plus’ we now enter the exciting & evolving space of story-telling and original content. This transforms Mirchi into its full digital avatar, allowing us to pick, analyse and act on consumer signals in real time.”

     

    Added Prashant Panday, MD & CEO, ENIL: “Mirchi has dominated the radio industry for over two decades with its best-in-class audio entertainment. With the evolving needs of our consumers and the rapid adoption of digital avenues for entertainment, we wanted to expand our consumer engagement and be present where our consumers are. Mirchi Plus strengthens our digital play. Through the launch of the app, we look forward to building a multi-lingual and immersive audio experience for our listeners. Moreover, Mirchi Plus is a significant addition to Mirchi’s digital properties aiding Mirchi in fulfilling its goal of generating 25% of our revenues from digital.”

     

    Added Nandan Srinath, Executive President, ENIL: “The team at Mirchi is so excited with the launch of Mirchi Plus! This is a major stride for us in delivering new and original content, gathering data for action, and providing measurable & actionable outcomes for our advertising partners. The Mirchi Plus app is crucial to the enduring success of our company, brand and people in the coming decade.”

     

  • The Board also elected Avinash Pandey, Chief Executive Officer – ABP Network as VP

    Rajat Sharma re-elected NBDA President

    By Our Staff

     

    Rajat Sharma
    Rajat Sharma

    At the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) Board Meeting held on Monday, Rajat Sharma has been elected as its President. The Board also elected Avinash Pandey, Chief Executive Officer – ABP Network Pvt. Ltd., Vice President and MK Anand, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer – Times Network – Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, Honorary Treasurer of the NBDA for the year 2021-2022.

     

    Other members of the managing committee include:

     

    The other members on the NBDA Board are: –

    > Anuradha Prasad Shukla, Chairperson-cum-Managing Director – News24 Broadcast India Ltd.

    > M.V. Shreyams Kumar, Managing Director – Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd.

    > Rahul Joshi, Managing Director – TV18 Broadcast Ltd.

    > I Venkat, Director – Eenadu Television Pvt. Ltd.

    > Kalli Purie Bhandal, Vice-Chairperson & Managing Director – TV Today Network Ltd.

    > Sonia Singh, Editorial Director, NDTV – New Delhi Television Ltd.

    > Sudhir Chaudhary, Chief Executive Officer – Cluster 1 – Zee Media Corporation Ltd.

     

    In a message issued with a communique, Sharma has said: “Despite several months having passed, BARC ratings have not been restored as yet. The NBDA Board and BARC have had several rounds of discussions to ensure that reliable credible, tamper free data is made available to the news broadcasters. NBDA has stated that the corrupt, compromised, irrationally fluctuating data will not be acceptable as the false narrative puts pressure to take editorial calls that run counter to the principles and ethics of journalism. NBDA believes in editorial standards of ensuring objectivity, neutrality, fairness and accuracy in reporting.”

     

  • RIP, Indu Jain. Conscience-keeper + Tribute by Sunil Lulla

    Picture courtesy Twitter. Copyright unknown

    Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited chairperson Indu Jain passed away late on Thursday evening after a Covid-related situation. She was 84. Ms Jain will be best remembered in the Indian media for her contribution to ensure that one of the largest and most successful media organisations in the country that she owned and spearheaded with her two sons – Samir and Vineet – also had a purpose. She is widely regarded as the conscience-keeper of the media empire, and helped mainstream spirituality and world peace into the newspapers her group ran. Our deepest condolences to the Sahu Jain family, specifically her sons, and the large number of people -—in the media and outside of it — whose lives she touched, and impacted.

    We invited Mr Sunil Lulla, CEO, BARC India, who has spent nearly a decade with BCCL and had a strong linkages with Ms Jain, to share a short tribute. 

     

    Spiritual Angel, Ms Indu Jain. A Tribute

     

    Sunil Lulla

    My life is privileged to be touched by the Spiritual Angel , whom we called Mataji and sometimes Chairperson – Ms Indu Jain. I was a latecomer to the Times group, where most have spent a few decades mastering the craft Times teaches so well.

     

    She was very enthusiastic in supporting the new/ to-be-started television network  with the rapid acquisition and build out of a generous studio space, in Mumbai.  Her passion has always been to  spread positivity messaging, be it in news or  via music to the youth. She understood the business compulsions and marketplace needs. In balance, she actively encouraged and facilitated by inviting her wise associates Sri Sri Ravishankar  and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to spread their contemporary and positive message of well-being to millions of viewers.

     

    She bought balance to the space of heated debate and pulsating music in her own sagacious and peaceful way. When she learnt the architects had not followed the right protocol in the construction of the studio and office, she wisely suggested changes. As she stated, the right light, the right direction, sets the tone of success. I have always believed her action gave wings to the success of the Times Television Network.

     

    She will remain Mataji – forever. May her soul rest in peace.

    Sunil Lulla

    Chief Executive Officer

    BARC India

  • So are the achche din back in printland? We speak to the President – Response at Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd and find out

    MxM Live with Partha Sinha. Free, Frank, Freewheeling

     

    So on Saturday, August 15, The Times of India had a blockbuster of an edition across many centres. Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad and perhaps a few others. We thought it was a good time to pitch for an interview with Partha Sinha, President – Response at Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL), better known as The Times of India group.

     

    Sinha had joined BCCL with much fanfare in March this year, just a few days before the Lockdown was effected. We had wanted to interview him on the day we first heard of the news – sometime in late Jan or early Feb, but guess it had to be under wraps. And then the Lockdown happened, and we didn’t think it right to stress him.

     

    When we learnt from his team about the super-thick editions, we thought it would the right time to pitch. They agreed. And so did he.

     

    So without further ado, here’s the interview. Free, frank and freewheeling. The interview talks about the blockbuster edition but delves into his views on the print business. Heck, why are we telling you this. Watch. Enjoy. Like.

     

    (PS: if you’d like to share, here’s a short link: bit.ly/MxMParthaSinha)

     

     

  • Raj Jain will be concluding his tenure with the media group today (March 31, 2020) after a tenure of five years

    Sivakumar Sundaram to take charge as CEC, BCCL from tomorrow

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sivakumar Sundaram will take charge as Chairman, Executive Committee (CEC) at leading media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL). Raj Jain, who is CEO of BCCL, will be concluding his tenure with the media group today (March 31, 2020) after a tenure of five years.

     

    Sundaram will take charge on April 1. In the new role, all functions of the company will report to him as CEC (word used in office advisory was not report to, but relate with). In addition, the RMD (short for Research & Market Development) team will relate with Mohit Jain who in turn will relate with Sundaram.

     

    According to an office advice, both Sundaram and Jain will join the Board of BCCL as Executive Directors.

     

    Sundaram has spent some 30 years with BCCL, across various roles. He incubated and grew Brand Capital after which he was elevated as President – Revenue. As has been reported, leading advertising captain, Partha Sinha, is scheduled to join BCCL in Sundaram’s position from tomorrow (April 1).

     

     

  • Raj Jain will be concluding his tenure with the media group on March 31, 2020 after a tenure of five years

    S Sivakumar to take charge as Chairman, Executive Committee (CEC) at BCCL

    By A Correspondent

     

    S Sivakumar to take charge as Chairman, Executive Committee (CEC) at leading media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd. , BCCL. Raj Jain will be concluding his tenure with the media group on March 31, 2020 after a tenure of five years.

     

    Sivakumar will take charge on April 1. In the new role all functions of the company will report to Sivakumar as CEC. In addition, the RMD team will relate with Mohit Jain who in turn will relate with Sivakumar.

     

    According to an office advice, both Sivakumar and Jain will join the Board of BCCL as Executive Directors.

     

  • Sinha takes over from Sivakumar Sundaram who is tipped to be CEO of the group

    Partha Sinha quits McCann to head Response at BCCL

    Partha Sinha
    Partha Sinha

    By A Correspondent

     

    We were sworn to secrecy, so we kept our word. But it’s now confirmed and public: Senior media professional Partha Sinha is all set to join Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (aka the Times of India group) as President, Response. Sinha is set to join the group next month (April 2020). Sinha takes over from Sivakumar Sundaram who is tipped to be CEO of the group. Sundaram is currently President, Revenue, BCCL

     

    A product of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Kharagpur, Sinha is currently serving notice as Vice Chairman and Managing Director, McCann Worldgroup. He has earlier held senior positions at BBH, Ogilvy and Citibank.

     

    As has been reported, McCann has elevated Jitender Dabas as Chief Operating Officer. In the report we carried last week (Link), we did indicate that there is a transition likely… remember, we were sworn to secrecy.

     

    Last Monday, we also asked veteran mediaperson Dr Bhaskar Das, who does the series ‘Das ka Dum’ on MxMIndia on what would his recommendation be if he were asked by a media group on who to hire – an adsales honcho or someone from another field (Link). Once again, since we couldn’t talk about it, we just put in this teaser… but those in the industry who knew about the move had a hearty laugh.

  • Leading the INMA shortlist with finalists are News Corp; Jagran; Schibsted; Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd.; Russmedia; and Stuff

    INMA unveils Global Media Awards finalists

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International News Media Association (INMA) announced 173 finalists for the 2020 Global Media Awards competition, which rewards innovation and excellence growing audience, brand, and revenue.

     

    This year’s competition generated 824 entries from 242 news brands in 44 countries. Finalists hail from Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America. India has the highest number of finalists with 29, followed by the United States with 27, Norway with 14, and Australia with 12.

     

    In terms of companies, leading the INMA shortlist with finalists are News Corp; Jagran; Schibsted; Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd.; Russmedia; and Stuff.

     

    About 42 media experts from 20 countries judged the competition in February, focusing on breakthrough results, unique concepts, strong creativity, innovative thinking, and winning synergies across media platforms.

     

    First place winners, regional winners, and the coveted global ‘Best in Show’ will be unveiled on April 28 at the 90th Annual INMA World Congress of News Media  in Paris.

     

    All 824 entries in this year’s Global Media Awards competition are live on INMA.org in the association’s Best Practices archive. Finalists may be viewed publicly, while all other entries are reserved exclusively for INMA members.

     

     

  • Ajay Nair will continue in his role as Managing Director of the company, focusing on new opportunities for the company

    OML beefs up leadership team

    By A Correspondent

     

    OML has announced the appointment of Gunjan Arya as its Chief Executive Officer, Dhruv Sheth as the Chief Operating Officer and Saurabh Abbi as the Chief Business Officer (New Initiatives and International Business). The newly elevated leadership team — all Managing Partners at OML prior to these appointments — will take on their new roles with immediate effect, leading OML into its next phase of growth and expansion. Ajay Nair will continue in his role as Managing Director of the company, focusing on new opportunities for the company.

     

    Said Rajesh Kamat, MD, Emerald Media, and a board member to OML:

    “OML, as an industry leader, has accomplished massive growth in the past decade. The new leadership team led by Gunjan has a proven success record and I’m sure that they will continue to excel in their new expanded roles at OML to ensure high momentum business growth.”

     

    Added Ajay Nair, MD, OML: “OML has had its best performing couple of years in FY 18 and FY 19 and is poised to grow at over 30 per cent over last year in FY 2020. These three years have been remarkable for the new businesses OML has built and for the multiple new live, branded and content experiences it has executed. This has been largely due to the excellent leadership of Gunjan, Dhruv and Saurabh along with a very talented, experienced and resourceful team and it gives me great pleasure to announce their new roles. I am confident in their abilities to take on these expanded roles and lead such a diverse portfolio in today’s dynamic environment.”

     

    Added Sanjeev Shah, Executive President, Corporate and M&A at Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., one of the investors at OML: “OML continues to remind us of its outstanding ability to build businesses with its “customer n people first” approach. The new leaders are a testimony to its management depth and maturity. Hats off to Ajay for developing the business with such redundancy and future-proofing.”

     

     

  • The salon has teamed up with renowned experts Namrata Soni, Dr. Mickey Mehta and Saanchi S. Nayak

    Digi Osmosis to manage digital duties of Femina Flaunt salon

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd has mandated Digi Osmosis for the digital and social media mandate of its recently launched Femina Flaunt Studio Salon in Mumbai.

     

    Said Sandeep Dahiya, CEO, Femina Flaunt: “Femina Flaunt Studio Salon is designed to be a hotspot to ignite ideas for self-expression. It’s a place where beauty meets bravado, glam meets gusto, comfort meets creativity, chic meets street and expertise meets experimentation.” He further added, “As we go about redefining the beauty service landscape, we’re glad to have on-board Digi Osmosis, to help us create a differentiated consumer experience on the digital platform too.”

     

    Added Manish Kumar, CEO, Digi Osmosis: “We are at an exciting phase of our journey and I believe that the work we have on the table and have done till now will make our clients proud. Beauty and Wellness market in India is a rapidly evolving and a growing market. We see a lot of scope of interesting digital campaigns which will help Femina Flaunt Studio Salon reach out to a larger customer base across the globe. We look forward to our association with them.”

     

     

  • Reasonably reliable sources have confirmed that Das is moving on after his five-year contract is due to expire next month

    Bhaskar Das set to quit Zee

     

    By A Correspondent

    Veteran mediaperson Dr Bhaskar Das is reportedly moving out from the Zee group with effect from end-October 2017.Das joined the Zee group to helm Zee Media Corporation Limited and is currently President and Chief Growth and Innovation Officer of Zee Unimedia.

    Although both Das and Zee PR were not available for a confirmation, reasonably reliable sources close to both the Zee group and Das have confirmed that Das is moving on after his five-year contract is due to expire next month.

    Das exited Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL) in end-september 2012 after having worked for 32 years with the organisation. He joined BCCL as a management trainee in 1980 and worked his way up to be President from 2005. For a short while he also took on the additional responsibility of working with BCCL Managing Director Vineet Jain’s office.

    Active in the advertising industry associations, Das has been President of the Advertising Club for four years and is currently an officebearer with the Ad Club and the IAA India Chapter. He is part of the Governing Council of MICA, Ahmedabad and is one of the few seniors in the marketing services domain with a PhD in marketing from Pune University. He is reportedly working on his second PhD in marketing.

  • It is evident from the report that the high timespent of Republic is a sore point for Times Now

    BCCL fires fresh salvo against Republic. ET report raises doubts on timespent in BARC data

    By A Correspondent

    Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, the owner of The Times of India, Economic Times, Times Now and a slew of topselling media brands, has fired a fresh salvo against former Times Now editor-in-chief and President News’s entrepreneurial venture, Republic TV.

    The clip of the report on Page 8 of The Economic Times Mumbai dated June 12, 2017

    Since the data for the first week of Republic TV’s launch, Times Now, which was the highest rated amongst English news channels, found itself ousted from the top spot by Goswami’s channel. Consequently, the channel along with a few others, prevailed upon the News Broadcasters Association to act on the usage of dual LCNs and advise that they remove the watermarking on their channels thereby opting out of the BARC measurement.

    Other than NBA, many channels are also part of the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF). Interestingly, IBF in turn is 60 per cent owner of BARC India, which is a joint industry body.

    The channels came back to the BARC fold after they felt assured when Republic TV is said to have told the Court that is not taking multiple LCNs. Interestingly, India Today TV also filed a complaint with TRAI about Times Now using the dual LCN route to boost ratings.

    Last Thursday, BARC released date for Week 22 which marked the return of all English news channels to watermark-led measurement.

    While there is a sentiment that even this data is boosted by channels employing landing pages, an Economic Times report has cautioned media buyers and advertisers that all isn’t well with BARC viewership data. It is evident from the report that the high timespent of Republic is a sore point and Times Now hasn’t gone up in terms of timespent.

    There are questions that need to be addressed now:

    01.Will BARC probe the charges in the ET report?

    02.What does BARC think about the ET report? While ET is not indicting BARC in any direct way, the fact that the timespent data has been questioned, it impacts the reputation and credibility of the joint industry measurement body. What do BARC and owners IBF, ISA and AAAI have to say on this?

    03.Is this a misuse of sibling media by Times Now? If it was such a grave issue, how come other business dailies haven’t taken it up?

     

    It’s perhaps time for NBA and/or IBF to bring order in the house. It should bring together the four or five top English news channels and get them to stop throwing muck at each other and more importantly conduct their business in a fair manner.