Prasar Bharati Board Approves Policy
The Board of Public service broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, has decided to finalize the FreeDish policy in a meeting held recently. The Board has given approval to Doordarshan which operates the entity. It is understood that the finalized version will be presented to Information & Broadcasting Ministry (MIB). The decision was delayed in the previous meeting with a hesitation that the directive could “wreck the finances of Prasar Bharati, as the policy is likely to consider MIB’s direction to stop all e-auction of channels, according to the referred report. The broadcaster was asked earlier by MIB to review the continuation of FreeDish. As they had a feeling that only private channels will find this programme beneficial & the government would undergo recurring liability. FreeDish has a reach of 22 million subscribers. FreeDish was looking to adopt MPEG4 technology to carry more channels as it presently carries 80 channels only. The issue had been put into the sight of the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal last year when channels reacted to its decision to suspend auctions after which an interim order allowed channels to continue to a pro rata basis till it decides on a new policy.
Pro Kabaddi League Makes 1st Ever Player Auction
India’s 2nd most watched sporting league, Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), has entered its 6th season auctions. Riding on the back of 5 phenomenal seasons, the auctions are taking place on 30th May, 2018 & 31st May, 2018 in Mumbai. The salary purse of the franchise remains the same as Rs 4 crore per team with a minimum of 18 players mandatory in the squad. The teams are strategising to build their strongest teams. A total of 422 players will be drafted into the auction pool of which 58 are overseas players & 87 are players from the Future Kabaddi Heroes Programme (FKH), a nationwide talent scouting programme. The auctions will witness player representation from 14 other countries including Iran, Bangladesh, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Malaysia & Sri Lanka.
Industry Optimistic About RPD Technology
Across the world, efforts are on to make audiences measurement systems more reliable & tamper-proof so that advertisers can get the right value & content providers can tailor content as per market demand. Return Path Data (RPD) is a globally used system for collecting viewership data and is used by distribution players to study consumer behavior in UK, US, Canada & South East Asia. India’s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Den Networks & Siti for including its subscriber homes on the BARC India RPD Panel. The partnerships will provide a fllip to BARC India’s plan for scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000. Zee Melt 2018 saw a session on “how return path data will turbo-boost television audience measurement globally” with panellists DEN Networks Group CTO Sanjay Jain, IndiaCast EVP Amit Arora, Tata Sky CCO Arun Unni, Star India head data science & IT Kaushik Das, Numeris Canada VP research Ricardo Gomez-Insausti & TRAI principal advisor Debkumar Chakrabarti. The panel was moderated by Castle Media executive director Vynsley Fernandes.
ZEEL Gets Aggressive
And now following in the footsteps of &Prive HD, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has announced that it is rolling out &flix come 1 pm on 3rd Jun, 2018 on major DTH & digital cable TV platforms. The target audiences for the new offering: the striver, which the channel de×nes as those who are always pursuing new experiences, are ready to upgrade and take that quantum leap. Thus &fix will feature 52 premiers of hit movies, amongst a total roster of 400 – that have stories that show not just what is, but what could be. Among the top notch titles – that it has acquired from 10-11 independent Hollywood players & studios such as Sony, Paramount & Disney – that will debut on &fix feature: Spider-Man: Homecoming, Baby Driver, Life, The Emoji Movie, The Atomic Blonde, Jumanji & Blade Runner 2049. &flix is initially seeking a market in the 6 metros and will be available on Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Sun TV, Hathway & TCCL to name a few to start with. According to ZEEL premium channels-business cluster head Aparna Bhosle, 60 per cent of the total English content viewership comes from mega cities and has been growing at a CAGR of an impressive 35% over the past 3 years. “Out of the 183 million TV households, 51 million households consume English movies in India,” she elaborated.
The Rise And Rise Of SOL Productions
Fazila Allana & Kamna Menezes, who have been running top TV production house, SOL Productions, for the past one & a half decade. Word on the street is that they are like the goddesses of the unscripted TV genre. So much so that whenever a TV channel commissioning editor even considers a factual or unscripted show, one of the 1st ever production house’s doors they come aknocking at is SOL’s. With an overall turnover of more than Rs 35 crores, the big shows that have emerged from its banner are: Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, Koffee With Karan, Comedy Nights with Kapil & Nach Baliye. This apart, it has been behind several years of the Star Parivaar Awards, Zee Rishtey Awards & Colors Golden Petal Awards. Amongst the 1st ever shows it line produced was Indiantelevision.com’s The Indian Telly Awards in 2002-2003.
Enterr10 To Launch 2 Bengali Channels
There was a time when Hindi speaking market was much preferred by the Indian audiences, whereas regional markets weren’t much spoken about. Considering the increasing viewers’ interests towards regional space, broadcasters have also planned to shift their focus on launching regional channels for viewers. Enterr10, an Indian media & entertainment company which already has a Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) called Dangal TV, a Bhojpuri & Marathi movie channel named Bhojpuri Cinema & Fakt Marathi in their cluster. The company has added another feather to its cap by launching 2 more Bengali channels, which will be GEC & a movie channel. A source close to the development confirmed the news and revealed that Enterr10 Bangla will be a GEC channel & Shaandaar Cinema will be a Bengali movie channel.
Colors Makes A Push Into Bangla & Kannada
The Mukesh Ambani majority owned Viacom18 is firing ahead on 2 regional markets: Kannada & Bangla. Its flanking Kannada GEC Colors Super is all charged up to roll out 8 show come 11th Jun, 2018, while Colors Bangla is unveiling a new season of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire format – Ke Hobe Banglar Kotipoti. The reason: the channel’s management is hoping to build up on the momentum the 2 have been gathering. While Colors Super has grown by 280% in terms of reach & viewership in just the past year, Colors Bangla has seen its viewership double while its reach has gone up from 28% to 40% and its share has leapfrogged to 8%. So much so that it ranks 3rd in the regional pecking order after Colors Kannada & Colors Marathi for Viacom18.
Sony Opts For Interactivity
The debut TV show of actor Salman Khan nearly a decade ago, is back with a bang but promises to take the offering up a few notches. After 9 years, he will be back on screen on Sony Entertainment Television (SET) with Dus ka Dum. While the initial seasons depended on the entertainment factor, SET EVP & business head Danish Khan said that this time it will be socially-driven. Several heads were put together to decide the right set of questions. The brands on board till now are Kamla Pasand which is the presenting sponsor & Priyagold SuperStar & Syska LED as powered by sponsors.
