India Today Group has ceased the publication of its compact daily Mail Today from August 10, 2020. The newspaper was launched in partnership with Daily Mail of the United Kingdom in 2007.

Call for entries open for BuzzInContent Awards 2020 

In 2014, Mail Today became a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Today Network.

“The Board of Directors of TV Today approved to suspend print publication of English Daily Newspaper ‘Mail Today’ with effect from August 10, 2020, for now, given the viability of print media in the current situation. The content shall continue to be published in a digital format,” the company said in a statutory filing.

TV Today earned a little over Rs 2 crore in revenues from its newspaper business during the first quarter of FY21. For the year ending March 31, 2020, the overall revenue from the newspaper business was Rs 28.86 crore.

While Mail Today incurred a loss of Rs 2.22 crore in the latest quarter, it earned a profit of 37 lakh in FY20.

One of Hollywood’s biggest companies WarnerMedia has three top executives exiting, accoding to media reports.
The surprise moves came three months into the tenure of the WarnerMedia Chief Executive Officer Jason Kilar.
Robert Greenblatt, the Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment, is out after little more than a year on the job. Kevin Reilly, WarnerMedia’s Chief Content Officer, is also departing, as is Keith Cocozza, the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications, who worked at the company for 19 years, say reports.
On the departures, media reports quoted Kilar as saying, “disciplined companies have to make tough decisions.”
In a note to the employees on the decision, Kilar reportedly stated, the company would emphasize HBO Max. The company unveiled the streaming platform on May 27.
“We are elevating HBO Max in the organization and expanding its scope globally,” he reportedly stated.

KOLKATA: To regulate or not to regulate online content, that's the question. If yes then what should be the way forward? There has been no industry consensus on it yet. While in the earlier part of this year, Hotstar, Jio, SonyLiv and Eros formed an adjudicatory body Digital Content Complaint Council (DCCC), other platforms like Netflix, Amazon, MX Player, ZEE5, AltBalaji and Arre opposed it. Arre co-founder and CEO Ajay Chacko is strongly against DCCC model of regulation and said that they are now proposing an ombudsman model to the government.

“We have not agreed to something called as a DCCC model and we are now proposing an ombudsman model to the government which is actually a midway path. I am hoping that works,” Chacko said in a webinar called ‘Future of OTT content and its evolution in India’ hosted by Indaintelevision.com.

BENGALURU: Most corporates, and more so broadcasters, have reported red bottom-lines for the first full COVID2019 quarter and the first quarter of fiscal 2020-21 (quarter ended 30 June 2020, Q1 2021, quarter or period under review). The pandemic has hit revenues due to the almost global lockdown as humanity grappled with a new unknown danger. The India Today Group’s broadcasting company T. V. Today Network Ltd (TVTN) also reported decline in revenues, but, at the same time reported black in its bottom-line – consolidated Profit after Tax (PAT) for Q1 2021 declined 75 percent y-o-y to Rs 12.76 crore from the consolidated PAT of Rs 51.03 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter Q1 2020. Simple operating EBITDA in Q1 2021 declined 59.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 30.01 crore (17.9 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 75.45 crore (30.2 percent of operating revenue) in the corresponding year ago quarter.

BARC India data for week 30 for the rankings of the Top 10 Brands and Advertisers across all genres and all platforms are as follows:

Brands:

In the category for Top 10 brands we see Wheel Active 2 in 1 leading the chart this week followed by Dettol Toilet Soaps on the 2nd spot and LUX Toilet Soaps that has secured the 3rd spot this week. For the 4th and 5th spot in this category we have Dettol Antiseptic Liquid and Surf Excel Easy Wash. Rummycircle.com secures the 6th spot and Colgate SwarnaVedshakti is seen securing the 7th spot and for the last 3 spots on this category we have Lizol, Horlicks & Dettol Liquid Soap.

KOLKATA: A recent report from Kantar spoke about the massive surge in SVoD growth in urban India. Hence, it is clear that Indians have started loosening the purse strings for premium online content. As there is no single right pricing for a diverse audience, OTT players are adopting innovative pricing strategies. Experimentation in subscription packages seems to be the latest trend among both international and homegrown streaming services. However, they might have found a sweet spot below Rs 500 to woo the users, at least for now.

Streaming giant Netflix has become more aggressive about international markets since its growth in the home market started saturating. Realising the nature of the local market, it ignited the experimentation with pricing last year while announcing the Rs 199 per month mobile-only package. The platform recently started testing a low-cost HD plan at Rs 349 per month which allows accessing the service on a mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop but not on TV. If Netflix rolls out the subscription plan, the platform will have plans ranging from Rs 199 to Rs 799. Nevertheless, it remains most expensive among all players. 

Chennai: Sun TV Network has appointed renowned journalist M Gunasekaran (a) Gunaa as its new Editor-in-Chief. Gunaa left News18 Tamil Nadu recently ending his association with the channel since 2016.

With Tamil Nadu state gearing up for state assembly election in mid 2021, Sun News aims to re-build its popularity among the masses by roping in prominent face M Gunasekaran as its head of editorial affairs.

Gunaa holds the credit of being the first Tamil media journo to bag Ramnath Goenka award for his meticulous coverage on the damage caused by Cyclone Ockhi. As a founding editor, he was instrumental in commissioning News18 Tamil Nadu channel launch right from setting up office in Chennai to building up a robust team of top journalists and reports across various districts of Tamil Nadu.

Gunasekaran confirmed MediaNews4u that he is joining Sun News.

 

 

MUMBAI: Discovery Plus has strengthened its offering in the armed forces-led content by dropping new episodes of Tales of Valour in the month of August. Beyond Tales of Valour, another series which will enthrall audiences seeking investigation led content is ‘Autopsy: The Last Hours Of…’ which will explain what killed some of the most famous celebrities including the likes of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Whitney Hoston & Anna Nicole Smith. While, Planet Child, a three-part series, delves into the way children experience life exploring areas such as risk-taking, independence, morality, and gender awareness.

Independence day special

The line-up includes documentaries such as ‘India’s Paratroopers – Earning the Badge’, ‘Revealed: LOC’,’ Battle Ops’, ‘Revealed: National Defence Academy’, ‘Revealed Siachen’, ‘1965: India’s Battles and Heroes’ and Breaking Point franchise on Air Force Academy, Indian Submariners, High Altitude Warfare School, Women Fighter Pilots and Commando School Belgaum.

MUMBAI: It’s hoping to take Indian companies further into the cloud. Telco Bharati Airtel has signed a multi-year, strategic collaborateon agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS.) to deliver a comprehensive set of innovative cloud solutions to large enterprise and small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in India. The duo will offer industry-specific solutions to customers across different sectors including banking and financial services, manufacturing, IT/ITeS, and media and entertainment.

Airtel serves over 2500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging businesses and companies with an integrated product portfolio, including Airtel Cloud, a multi-cloud product and solutions business.