Viacom18’s Rishtey Cineplex Now In Europe & North America
Viacom18 had announced its plans to launch its Hindi movie channel, Rishtey Cineplex in the international markets. Kicking off with high-impact launches in Europe & North America (US & Canada), the channel is an extension of the well-established Rishtey brand, and will be targeted at global film enthusiasts. It was launched in Europe on 29th Sept, 2016 and in North America in Oct, 2016. Rishtey Cineplex will appeal to the sensibilities of global film enthusiasts with its blockbuster content. The channel will showcase the best from Viacom18’s wide library of films as well as newly acquired movies from across genres. The channel will air audience favourites like, Bajirao Mastani, Airlift, Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, Kapoor And Sons, Ki & Ka and upcoming films like, Force 2, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil amongst others.
Zee Classic Refreshes To Attract Mass Audiences
The Punit Goenka-led Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has got into a hyper-refresh mood, revamping its channels, one after the other. 1st, it announced the relaunch of Zindagi, and now it’s the turn of Zee Classic. Known for showcasing movies from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s & 90’s era, the channel is being revamped on 3rd Oct, 2016 with a new positioning & programming line-up. The reason: it has ambitious plans to expand its target audience, and thus its viewership. The management says it has come up with a disruptive programming idea: catalogue movies from each era into a separate time band. The channel claims that the Zee Classic is the 1st Indian Hindi movie channel to initiate this, and has roped in the Bollywood heartthrob Arjun Kapoor to be the channel’s ambassador.
Zeel Relaunches Zindagi With New Shows
Zeel relaunches Zindagi Channel with new shows; dual audio feedZee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s alternative Hindi GEC Zindagi, as announced earlier, is going in for a refresh. And in its new avatar Zindagi is rolling out a programming line-up consisting of South Korean, Latin American, Spanish Italian, Turkish and more home grown Indian shows from 3rd Oct, 2016. For the 1st time, it will be available with a dual audio feed – in English & Hindi. In another innovation, the channel will be streamed live on Periscope, along with the live television feed. The channel has garbaged the Pakistani shows for which it has been known. The new programs include a light-hearted Turkish drama, Little Lord at 7.30 pm, which is an endearing tale of a parent-child relationship seen through the lens of a 6 year old, Mehmet. And, the Turkish blockbuster Fatmagul is the story of an innocent girl whose fairytale life is turned into a nightmare when she is raped and is forced to marry the accused will continue to entertain viewers at 9.00 pm.
BARC India Ropes In Jamie Kenny
BARC India has appointed Jamie Kenny as the business head of its digital arm. The move is a part of BARC India’s plan of launching digital audience measurement in the country. Jamie has a distinguished career in digital measurement product rollouts from 18 countries spanning from New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Singapore and many more throughout Asia, EU, Latin & South America. Prior to joining BARC India, Kenny was working with Nielsen in America where he was responsible for strategic digital initiatives, new digital products, expansion & global digital rollouts, training technical client facing teams to support the rollouts on the ground in 10 countries around the world. He is an expert in the area of Digital Audience Measurement system and has diverse experience in multicultural markets.
NDTV 24 x7 Expands Its Presence
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) on 26 Sept, 2016 announced the launch of its flagship channel, NDTV 24×7, on Singtel in Singapore. The company formally released the information of the launch of its Hindi news channel in Singapore to the BSE today. NDTV India is the other NDTV channel already available on Singtel. With this launch, the channel is expanding its presence in Singapore. NDTV’s 3rd channel in the portfolio is India’s 1st ever 2-in-1 channel NDTV Profit-NDTV Prime (business news & infotainment). The 3 channels target Indians across the global with news. NDTV has had a roller-coaster ride as a media company-turned-broadcaster in the last 25 years.
DD Allocates Rs 4.5 Lakhs For Handloom Programmes
6 kendras of Doordarshan will receive a total amount of Rs 4.5 lakhs for telecast of programmes relating to National Handloom Day celebrated by the Textiles Ministry last month. The decision to reimburse the 6 stations for varying amounts was taken on 22nd Sept, 2016. The ministry has already remitted a sum of Rs 16.38 lakh. The additional sanction follows a note sent by additional director-general (development communication division) Ranjan Mukherjee to director-general Supriya Sahu. The kendras & the amounts each will receive are: Mumbai & Hyderabad (Rs 1 lakh for 2 locations by each kendra); Varanasi (Rs 1 lakh for one local, studio & set); Chennai & Bhubaneshwar (Rs 50,000 each ); and Delhi (studio & set).
Venkatramani New NBA President
ABP News Network CEO Ashok Venkatramani has been elected as the new president of News Broadcasters Association (NBA). Venkatramani was earlier the vice-president & director on the board of NBA India.
Venkatramani has replaced India TV chairman & editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma. Sharma will however continue to be a board member. Venkatramani also chairs the sales & HR committee of NBA and has been with ABP since 2008. Prior to that, he was the vice-president & business head for the consumer goods firm Unilever in India for 18 years. The board has also elected India Today Group CEO Ashish Bagga as the vice president & Times Network MD & CEO M. K. Anand as the honorary treasurer.
NDTV Gets Slapped With Higher Tax Dues Notice
NDTV India’s tax woes continue. The news network which has been under the taxman’s scanner, received another order from the department raising the alleged tax dues from it. The income tax department had issued an order earlier this year claiming Rs 47.27 crore in unpaid taxes on an investment by Fuse + Media Holding (in the assessment year 2007-2008), calling it a sham transaction. On 20th Sept, NDTV received a revised order from the tax folks saying that it had mistakenly under-computed tax to the tune of Rs 12.71 crore under section 234 B for a lesser period for the same financial year and transaction. Hence, the dues claimable by the tax department stand enhanced by that amount, it says. NDTV today informed the Bombay stock exchange about this development but added that it strongly believes that the Order under section 147/143(3) is untenable & misconceived and it has already filed an appeal against it before Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).
Zindagi Expands Programming Duration
Zee Le Zindagi. Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel), Zindagi, positioned itself as a premium Hindi-Urdu channel. Launched in 2014 as the channel for broadcasting short-run programming, it is now expanding the duration of programmes from 26 episodes to 96 episodes. The channel has also changed its slogan from “Jode Dilo ko.” to “Yeh Lamha Hi Hai Zindagi.”
