Malayalam GEC Surya TV started airing a family entertainment show, Ayalathe Sundari, from 11th Sept, 2017 at 9.30 pm, every Mon – Sat. Directed by K K Rajiv, Ayalathey Sundari is a family drama set within the confines of a tumultuous family relationships. The serial explores the challenges, the trials & the tribulations that a woman undergoes in her daily life.
Broadband Subscribers Increased
The number of broadband subscribers in India has increased 3.33% to touch 310.87 million from 300.84 million a month ago. Top 5 service providers constituted 89.79% market share of the total broadband subscribers, according to TRAI data. Reliance Jio Infocom led the pack with a subscriber base of 128.58 million, followed by Bharti Airtel (58.91 million), Vodafone (42.50 million), Idea Cellular (27.70 million) & BSNL (21.45 million).
Star Plus To Air Ted Talks India: Nayi Soch
Hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, Hindi GEC Star Plus is all set to air Ted Talks India: Nayi Soch by the end of Oct, 2017. In Feb, 2017 Star India had announced that it would be producing the Indian version of the popular Ted Talk show. The launch date & lineup of speakers, however, was not disclosed. The shoot for the show has already begun.
Dish TV launches Al – Enabled Chatbot
DTH operator Dish TV has announced the launch of Advanced Dish TV interface (ADI), the world’s 1st AI – enabled pay TV Chatbot. Built for issue redressal & service lifecycle management, ADI provides a virtual interface that acts as a 1 – stop solution window to subscribers, and guides them instantly to address their queries. ADI is an omni – channel interface with customer experience as a core tenet.
Zee TV To Unveil New Logo
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Zee TV will wear a new logo from 15th Oct, 2017. Subhash Chandra owned Zee TV was launched on 2nd Oct, 1992 as the 1st ever Hindi – language channel in India. Zee TV’s new logo was unveiled at the recently held Zee Rishtey Award 2017 ceremony by the popular actor Ankita Lokhande. The award ceremony will be aired on 15th Oct, 2017 at 7 pm.
ASCI Pulls Up Times Network
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has pulled up Times Network for its misleading ad claiming that Times Now is the #1 English news channel. According to ASCI, while the graphical representation in the ad “The Ruling #1” appears to be in line with BARC principles and the figures shown are technically correct, the relative share data shown is itself not a permissible extrapolation, and is therefore misleading and not compliant with BARC Guidelines.
BBC World News Launched For The 1st Time Ever In Laos
BBC Worldwide Asia recently announced a deal that will, for the 1st time ever, see international news & current affairs television brand BBC World News, premium factual brand BBC Earth & award winning pre – school channel CBeebies available in Laos. The channels, broadcast on Laosat DTH, will be available in the country’s 17 provinces including Vientiane.
Sky Launches Streaming Service In Spain
UK pay TV service provider Sky has launched a TV streaming service in Spain, offering entertainment & contract – free viewing to customers to watch on all their devices. The new service will offer Spanish pay TV channels, TV series & on – demand films from around the world in Spanish, predominantly in HD quality, and for only €10 a month. Customers will also be able to enjoy 1 month’s free trial as standard.
AETN18 Slips Into Loss
TV18 launch AETN18 Media, the 51:49 joint venture (JV) between TV18 & A+E Networks, slipped into loss in FY17 on account of higher expenses incurred due to the launch of its lifestyle channel FYI TV18 in the 2nd quarter of the fiscal year. The company saw a marginal rise in its revenue from operations in FY17 while expenses rose due to the launch of FYI TV18. Loss stood at Rs 25.86 crore versus a profit of Rs 8.91 million a year ago. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 66.13 crore in FY17 compared to Rs 64.92 crore in the prior year.
DishTV Becomes 1st Ever DTH Service Brand
DTH service provider Dish TV has joined hands with home – grown e – commerce major Flipkart to bring to its customers a hassle – free Dish TV connection anytime, anywhere, just a click away. Dish TV has thus become the 1st ever DTH service provider to be listed on Flipkart. Voted as one of the most popular e – commerce brands in India by RedSeer report, Flipkart will be opening the windows for its users to DTH services on its platform through this partnership.
MIB Cancels 19 TV Channel Licences
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) knocked off 19 TV channel licences, between 1st Aug, 2017 & 5th Sept, 2017 from its list of permitted TV channels. Consequently, the total number of cancelled licences shot up to 216, as on 5th Sept, 2017. In Jul, 2017 2 licences were cancelled, taking the total to 197. The ministry cancelled 3 licences of Star India. These are Star Movies Premiere, Star Movies Premiere HD & Fox Crime HD. The company had not operationalised these licences. Star had received the licences for these channels in Mar, 2016.
ZEEL Enters Premium English Movie Genre
For many years, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has had just 2 English channels, Zee Café & Zee Studio. But that is now going to change with the launch of the premium English Movie Channel &Privé HD. Coming under the “&” brand, the channel was launched on 24th Sept, 2017 with the premiere of Moonlight at 1 pm and then again at 9 pm. This film won 3 Oscars earlier this year including that of “Best Picture”.
Star Plus To Shutter Afternoon Band
Leading Hindi GEC Star Plus, which created the afternoon band “Star Dopahar” less than 6 months back, has decided to wrap it up on 30th Sept, 2017. Star Plus has informed producers about the closure and has asked them to wrap up their respective story lines. The afternoon bandwidth currently airs 4 shows: Kya Kasoor Hai Amla Ka?, Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee, Dhhai Kilo Prem & Love Hai Intezaar.
Hathway Partners IL&FS Education
Multi – system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable & Datacom has teamed up with education solutions provider IL&FS Education to launch TVTeacher, an educational service channel catering exclusively to children, youth & home makers. The channel features a combination of curriculum aligned school content, vocational education & spoken English modules bringing schooling & education round the clock to every home.
The Quint Clocks 54 MN Page Views & 47 MN Video Views
Raghav Bahl promoted bi – lingual digital news platform The Quint clocked upwards of 54 million page views in Aug, 2017. It also crossed 47 million video views with a unique social media reach of 83 million. The Quint offers a combination of content with topics ranging from business & politics to sports & entertainment. Strong & innovative videos are one of The Quint’s big offerings. Since its inception, The Quint has created strong connections with its viewers, and has been on a growth trajectory.
GTPL Hathway Gets RBI Nod
Multi – system operator (MSO) GTPL Hathway has got the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to increase foreign investment limit in the company. The RBI has hiked foreign institutional investors (FII) / foreign portfolio investment (FPI) limit in GTPL to 49% from the earlier limit of 24%.
Discovery Boosts Digital Team
Discovery Communications has appointed Francis Keeling, a leading digital music executive, as senior VP, International Digital. Jay Trinidad, currently running Discovery Northern Asia, takes on the additional role of managing director, Digital Ventures & Eugene Huang, is appointed to the role of senior VP, Product & Technology. All 3 roles report directly to Michael Lang, President, International Development & Digital.
TVA Sports & WWE In Broadcast Deal
Sports entertainment brand WWE & TVA Sports today announced a multi – year agreement to televise a weekly, 1 hour edition of WWE’s flagship programme Raw, in French, in Canada beginning 18th Oct, 2017. All of the action for TVA Sports’ presentation of Raw will be called by Patric Laprade, who will be joined on commentary by social media sensation Kevin Raphael.
MIB Grants 10 New TV Channel Licences
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has permitted 10 new TV channel licences between 10th Aug, 2017 & 5th Sept, 2017. 9 out of the 10 licences were issued in Aug, 2017 while 1 licence was issued in Sept, 2017. Cinema 24×7, a company linked to TV shopping & e – commerce company Naaptol, got 7 non – news uplinking licences. Media Worldwide, the company that runs a clutch of music channels, got a non – news uplinking for Bangla Talkies.
Star Bharat’s Good Start Signifies Importance Of DD Freedish
Star Bharat, Star India’s recently rebranded Like OK channel which is available on Doordarshan’s subscription – free DTH platform Freedish, has started off remarkably well. The channel, which went live on 28th Aug, 2017, occupied #5 spot in the Hindi GEC hierarchy, according to BARC data for the week ended 1st Sept, 2017. This despite missing the 1st couple of days of BARC’s ratings for the week.
Nick Lloses Crown To Disney Channel
In BARC’s rating charts, Kids TV was the only genre where the top position seemed locked. Nick was reigning supreme for a long period. But in the week ended 1st Sept, 2017 Nick lost the crown to Disney Channel in a tight battle. Disney Channel took the lead with 9.789 crore weekly impressions while Nick fell to the 2nd spot with 9.697 crore weekly impressions, seeing a drop of 6.25%. Cartoon Network moved up to the 4th rank with 6.192 crore weekly impressions, followed by Pogo TV at 5th with 5.637 crore weekly impressions.
Disney Channel Is #1 Kids Channel
Disney Channel continued to rule the kids TV genre for the 2nd straight week. The channel garnered 10.78 crore impressions thus collecting 10.07% more than the preceding week. Nick, which enjoyed numero uno status for a long while before Disney Channel raced past it, mopped up 10.11 crore impressions. This was 4.28% more than what it collected in the prior weeks. Incidentally, the top 2 kids channels crossed the 10 crore mark in the week under review. Disney Channel clocked 9.78 crore impressions while Nick collected 9.69 crore impressions.
Sony Max Reclaims #1 Position
Sony Max reclaimed the #1 position in urban + rural Hindi – speaking market (HSM) from its free to air (FTA) sibling Sony Wah. Zee Cinema & Star Gold moved a spot up while Rishtey Cineplex fell to the 5th position, according to BARC data.
Zee News Returns To #2 Position
Zee News has upstaged ABP News to reclaim the #2 position in urban Hindi – speaking market (HSM). ABP News has slipped to #3, according to BARC data. In rural HSM, Zee News has edged out India TV to occupy the #3 position. India TV settled in the 5th place.
