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Tag: NDTV Group

  • The five-year deal ties NDTV Convergence exclusively to Taboola and involves a minimum guarantee of more than Rs 300 crores for the NDTV digital arm

    NDTV & Taboola sign 5-year deal worth Rs 300 cr-plus

    By A Correspondent

     

    NDTV Convergence has inked a five-year deal with content discovery platform Taboola.

     

    The five-year deal ties NDTV Convergence exclusively to Taboola and involves a minimum guarantee of more than Rs 300 crores for the NDTV digital arm.

     

    Said Suparna Singh, CEO of the NDTV Group: “Like NDTV, Taboola operates with the user at the centre of its universe which is what makes this such a natural fit. Taboola’s energy and innovation allow us to enlarge our own goals; we share their pride and excitement in learning, redefining, and then recreating all over again.  And this deal proves that Brand NDTV remains unchallenged and the go-to for world-class companies.”

     

    The new partnership is vastly north of the last NDTV-Taboola arrangement that lasted three years and was worth INR 100 crores based on traffic projections, notes a communique.

     

    Said Adam Singolda, founder and CEO of Taboola: “The growth of the mobile internet in India is skyrocketing, and with over half a billion smartphone users, its mobile adoption is second only to China. Mobile users are continually looking for those “moments of next,” and publishers such as NDTV are well positioned to deliver a dynamic, personalized content experience to their readers. We are humbled that NDTV, our oldest and largest partner in India, has made a long-term, five-year commitment to joint innovation in this most exciting market.”

     

     

  • NDTV India, NDTV 24×7, NDTV Profit /Prime and NDTV Good Timesnow available onYuppTV

    YuppTV announces content partnership with NDTV Group

    By A Correspondent

     

    YuppTV, the leading Over-The-Top (OTT) provider for Indian content, has announced its partnership with the NDTV Group. Under the move, YuppTV subscribers will be able to view the four channels – NDTV India (Hindi), NDTV 24×7 (English) and NDTV Profit /Prime (Business) and NDTV Good Times anytime, anywhere.

     

    The four channels of NDTV can be accessed by users on www.yupptv.com from outside India and www.yupptv.in from India, or by downloading the YuppTV app on their smart phones, smart TVs,smart Blu-ray players, streaming media players, tablets and gaming consoles. The move took the number of channelson YuppTV’s platform to 16, adding to its current repository of 200+ Indian TV Channels in 13 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Gujarati, Sinhala, Urdu and Bangla.

     

    Uday Reddy

    Speaking on the announcement, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV, commented, “We are the largest OTT provider for Indian content in the world, while the NDTV group is the preferred news channel for Indian expats worldwide. The association will allow us to add NDTV’s popular news and lifestyle programmes to our offeringsand will improve the selection choices for our users. We are confident of satisfying all India-centric news-related requirements of our subscribers with this partnership.”

     

    Rahul Sood, Head, Network Distribution & Affiliate Sales, NDTV, added, “We are pleased to partner with YuppTV, a leading digital content destinationfor Indian expats andthis association will serve to add even more options for the YuppTV usersand allow its users with anytime, anywhere access to our channels.”

     

  • Rajat Sharma appointed President while Ashok Venkatramani is Vice President

    NBA announces officebearers for 2015-16

    By A Correspondent

     

    The News Broadcasters Association has appointed the following Board Members as officebearers  for the year 2015-16: Rajat Sharma – President (Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, India TV); Ashok Venkatramani – Vice President (CEO – ABP News Network Pvt. Ltd.); Anurradha Prasad – Honorary Treasurer (Chairperson-cum-Managing Director, News24 Broadcast India Ltd.).

     

    The other members on the NBA Board are: K.V.L. Narayan Rao, Executive Vice Chairperson NDTV Group – New Delhi Television Ltd.; Ashish Bagga, Chief Executive Officer- TV Today Network Ltd.; M.K. Anand, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer– Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.; Ashish Kirpal Pandit, Chief Executive Officer – Zee Media Corporation Ltd.; A.P. Parigi, Group Chief Executive Officer, TV18 Broadcast Ltd.; MV. Shreyams Kumar, Whole-time Director, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd.

     

  • 25 outstanding journalists to be honoured with RedInk Awards on 30 April

    NDTV’s Dr Prannoy Roy to be honoured at RedInk Awards in Mumbai

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dr Prannoy Roy, Executive Co-Chairman of NDTV Group, has been awarded the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Award 2015 for Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Journalism for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television in India. Dr Roy will be honoured for his service to journalism at a glittering ceremony on Thursday, 30th April in Mumbai at the Jamshed Bhaba Auditorium, NCPA, by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis.

     

    Dr Roy along with his wife and journalist Radhika Roy in 1988, were the first to set up a television news production company called New Delhi Television, now called NDTV. In later years, Dr Roy made a mark for his incisive and pioneering coverage of election news and changed the way people consumed TV news with his ground-breaking programmes such as ‘The News Tonight’ and ‘The World This Week’. After years of producing the news for Star News, Dr Roy launched his own broadcasting network with NDTV 24X7, NDTV India and other channels in 2003.

     

    Dr Prannoy Roy was chosen for the RedInk Lifetime Achievement Award from a shortlist of senior editors by a survey among 200 journalists all over India, and a final consideration by the Managing Committee of the Mumbai Press Club. RedInk Lifetime Achievement award winners in previous years include the late Vinod Mehta, Kuldip Nayar, N Ram, and Mrinal Pande.

     

    Judging for the RedInk Awards, which includes as many as 10 categories have just been completed, and as many as 24 journalists who have produced outstanding and impactful stories in calendar 2014 will also receive awards along with Dr Prannoy Roy on 30 April at the NCPA. The judging process proved to be a herculean task with over 800 entries in the print/online category and nearly 250 stories from television journalists. Each of the categories 10 categories had a dedicated jury of senior persons with domain knowledge assigned to judge the entries. A special curator was also assigned to sift the large number of entries in each section and guide the judges.

     

    The judging process brought in well-known names such as Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, for the Business category, Dr Kiran Shaw Mazumdar, chairperson of Biocon, for the Health & Wellness category, Justice Kode and former Mumbai Police commissioner M.N. Singh for the crime category and Sudanshu Vats, CEO of Viacom18 for the ‘Entertainment & Lifestyle’ stories.

     

    Star India is the Presenting Partner for the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2015. Some of the awards partners includes Aditya Birla Group, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment, Eros International, SevenHills Hospitals and JSW Steel.

     

  • Rajat Sharma is President while Ashok Venkatramani is Vice President

    Rajat Sharma is new NBA President

    By A Correspondent

     

    Rajat Sharma

    The NBA has announced its officebearers for the year 2014-15. These include Rajat Sharma - President (Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, India TV), Ashok Venkatramani - Vice President (CEO – ABP News, MCCS (I) Pvt. Ltd.), and Anurradha Prasad - Honorary Treasurer (CMD, News24 Broadcast India Ltd.)

     

    The other members on the NBA Board include K.V.L. Narayan Rao, Executive Vice Chairperson NDTV Group – New Delhi Television Ltd., Ashish Bagga, Director- TV Today Network Ltd., MK Anand, Managing Director & CEO – Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd., Bhaskar Das, CEO – Zee Media Corporation Ltd., Jagi Mangat Panda, Director, Odisha Television Ltd., and MV Shreyams Kumar, Wholetime Director, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd.

     

  • NDTV and Aircel announced the third season of Aircel NDTV 'Save Our Tigers' – the largest and the most comprehensive media campaign

    3rd edition of Save Our Tigers to highlight key issues

    By a correspondent

     

    Carrying forward the mission to ‘Save Our Tigers’ – the largest and the most comprehensive media campaign on tiger conservation till date, NDTV and Aircel announced the third season of Aircel NDTV Save Our Tigers. Launched in 2010, the campaign was successful in setting the tiger agenda for the Nation.

     

    The launch of the third season of Aircel NDTV Save Our Tigers initiative witnessed the coming together of well known personalities from different walks of life to participate in a panel discussion and set key focus areas for the season. Present on the occasion were Belinda Wright, Executive Director, WPSI, Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel; Dr. K. Ramesh from Wildlife Institute of India; S P Yadav, ADIG, NTCA; Dr. Anish Andheria, Director, Wildlife Conservation Trust; Bittu Sahgal, Editor of Sanctuary Asia; and was anchored by Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV Group.

     

    Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel said, “Aircel has been passionately working towards its initiative ‘Save Our Tigers’ with noted conservationists and organizations with an aim to create mass awareness on the plight of the magnificent tiger and rally efforts to save it. There is no denying the fact that ‘Tigers are Irreplaceable’ and are extremely crucial for securing the environment for our future generations. We are confident that like the past two editions, this year’s edition of Aircel-NDTV ‘Save Our Tigers’ campaign will further increase the level of participation and support for the cause.”

     

    Vikram Chandra

    Speaking on the occasion, Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV Group said, “NDTV is overwhelmed by the nationwide response received for the first 2 editions of the campaign. We are now coming up with the Tiger Agenda for the 3rd edition and will be looking at key factors such as reducing man-animal conflict, protecting tiger habitats, strengthening the forest department and more.”

     

    The current edition will focus on and highlight key factors – existing buffer zones and corridors to be clearly identified and control to be ensured by forest department; local community involvement; strengthening of forest department; human-animal conflict management solutions; bio-diverse forest areas to remain inviolate and push for political will.

     

  • The session on 'Television 3.1' on day 1 of FICCI Frames saw the panelists assess the future of the broadcast industry

    #FF14 Day 1: Seamless content delivery across multiple platforms the way forward

    By a correspondent

     

    With so much being written and said of the emergence of multiple platforms and content delivery mechanisms in India, it was only apt to gather opinion from those that are driving the change to get a firsthand feel of the effects being spotted. The session on ‘Television 3.1’ on day 1 of FICCI Frames saw the panelists assess the future of the broadcast industry, in terms of content, marketing and distribution strategies in the era of convergence and multiplatform delivery mechanisms.

     

    The panelists comprised speakers like Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast, Vikram Chandra, CEO, NDTV Group, Mathieu Bejot, Executive Director, TV France International, Bharat Ranga, Chief Content and Creative Officer, ZEE Entertainment, Ashok Mansukhani, President, MSO Alliance and Todd Miller, CEO, Celestial Tiger Entertainment. The session was moderated by Janine Stein, Editorial Director, Content Asia.

     

    Vikram Chandra began by highlighting how 4G and smartphones will be the next big change agents in the Indian media landscape. “The recent months have witnessed a lot of people moving to the second screen to access content of their choice and with the access becoming more fast and affordable, smartphones will be the next big thing where content consumption is concerned,” he said.

     

    For Todd Miller, what will drive India in the months ahead will be the explosion of HD technology. Assisting that would be content from China that would be finding its way around the world, including India.

     

    Providing a different perspective, Bharat Ranga said that the way his network functioned it was a matter of tackling markets on a ‘meta’ level. Meta-national approach by companies that caters to market-specific conditions will drive the growth for broadcasters. Also, it will be essential for broadcasters to have a consumerist understanding of data and not marketing understanding. With the emergence of new platforms, Ranga noted that the industry will see the emergence of budding talents who will be able to bring in a different perspective.

     

    Ashok Mansukhani proposed that each stakeholder should be able to make money from the digitization exercise but that the consumer should have the final say. He said that the phase 3 and 4 of digitization will see a lot of players going fiber. While that will boost output, it is essential that the distribution rights of such an exercise are retained with the distributor, he noted.

     

    Tarun Katial said that India was ready to see content as the core subject that can be created for various platforms. The ability to have good investment strength and also the right mix of talent and content will help companies achieve the goal faster, he noted. Mr Katial added that while earlier ‘Content was King and Distribution was God’, the phrase has now changed to ‘Content is king and Technology is God’. Going forward, it is important that broadcasters have a hold on the IPs as that is what will matter in the future. And while much of the content at Reliance is being rented, Mr Katial added that very soon they will be working on producing content that would be their own.

     

  • In addition, directors may have to be cleared by the MHA every time an existing TV company launches a new channel

    Home min tightens screws on TV channels. Director credentials to be reverified every 3 yrs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Television channels will have to get the credentials of their directors re-verified by the Union home ministry every three years, creating a major stumbling block in their smooth functioning. Adding to the bureaucratic hurdles, sources also said that directors would have to be cleared by MHA every time the same TV company launches a new channel.

     

    At present, the process of clearance of directors’ credentials by MHA has no time limit and can meander on for months, even years.

     

    Until now, security clearances given by the home ministry to TV channels was not time-bound, and companies were only required to report any change in their board of directors to the I&B ministry, which in turn would seek a clearance from the home ministry. There was also no requirement to have fresh MHA clearance every time the same company launched a new channel.

     

    Every broadcaster is granted a licence for 10 years, but after the home ministry clears all the directors on the company’s board.

     

    A few months ago, the I&B ministry had sent a letter to the home ministry seeking information on the validity of clearances for broadcasters. There was no such validity prescribed by the home ministry until then, but after I&B ministry’s query, MHA replied that security clearances would be valid only for a three-year period.

     

    KVL Narayan Rao

    KVL Narayan Rao, executive vice-chairperson, NDTV Group and president, News Broadcasters Association, said he is yet to see the ministry order but said all broadcaster will be affected. “If true, it’s bizarre, absurd and will affect the operations of all broadcasters – both proposed and existing.”

     

    He said approvals from the MHA take up to two years and if the nod for a director has a validity of just three years, existing broadcasters too will be affected. “Is this some way to regulate the media?” he questioned.

     

    Ashok Venkatramani, CEO of Media Content & Communication Services, that owns channels such as ABP News, said the move could cause delays in the launch of new channels as such approvals require 3-6 months. He questioned the rationale of the move: “Why does an Indian broadcaster, all directors of which are Indians, require an approval from India’s home ministry? Such a stipulation might be reasonable for an MNC broadcaster with foreign directors, not otherwise.”

     

    There are close to 300 companies running over 800 television channels in the country today. This move would mean that all clearances given to channels prior to October 2010-a majority of channels received clearances before this date -will be reviewed again by MHA and is likely to have a major impact on running of businesses.

     

    “We would visualise that the ministry should streamline processes, rationalise them rather than increase them. This is a repetition of a process,” Sunil Lulla, managing director and chief executive officer of Times Television Network.

     

    The query by the I&B ministry a few months back has also meant all new permissions issued by the ministry have stopped for the last six months, the last one being granted in May 2013.

     

    Another important fallout is that the I&B ministry has now started referring all new applications by broadcasters to MHA for their clearance, even if the application is by a registered broadcaster. Earlier, the ministry used to process new applications of registered broadcasters without any reference to MHA, unless if there was a change in the Board of Directors of the company.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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