MUMBAI: Covid2019 had a devastating impact on GECs with close to no advertisement revenue for almost three months. Now, television shooting has finally resumed and TV channels have begun to telecast fresh episodes of the shows.

According to Viacom18 network sales head Mahesh Shetty, in the month of April and May, advertising was severely impacted due to the lockdown. However, with considerable relaxations from June, retail markets opening up and supply chains for brands stabilising, advertising spends have moved up. He points out that more brands are now willing to advertise and even spend more. Shetty also thinks that though new advertisers are queuing up, most of them are still FMCG brands. However, there has been a jump as compared to lockdown levels.

Tata Sky Binge, an aggregator app platform from the house of DTH network Tata Sky, has assigned its creative and digital mandate to digital agency Chimp&z Inc. The account was awarded following a multiple agency pitch.

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Weaving in all the distinctive features of Tata Sky Binge, Chimp&z Inc proposed to create a separate entity for Tata Sky Binge on the digital platforms. Keeping it independent from its parent brand Tata Sky, the agency curated a launch plan to take Tata Sky Binge live on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by creating a social media-specific brand persona and line of communication.

The agency has been further mandated to handle the brand’s content marketing, ORM, influencer outreach programmes as well as media planning and buying to ascertain its digital and social media presence.

Complying with the directives issued by the Tamil Nadu State government, Zee Tamil, a Tamil general entertainment channel from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., has resumed shoots of fiction shows. Viewers of Zee Tamil can expect original content from July 27.  Ever since the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 23, shoots of fiction and non-fiction shows had come to a complete halt.

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Zee Tamil is set to present novel and original content, taking viewers further along in the lives of their favourite characters from their loved shows. As an initiative to spread cheer and positivity among their viewers, Zee Tamil has also launched a digital and on-air comeback campaign with the tagline ‘Idhaythal inaivom, idhaiyum kadapom’, meaning ‘if we come together in spirit, this too shall be overcome’.

As part of an ongoing evolution, ABP News Network has changed its brand name to ABP Network. Along with its redesigned logo, the new name comprises part of a comprehensive repositioning strategy with a novel brand identity, designed to mirror the growth and transformation of the company.

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This brand identity represents an evolution from the organization’s previous roots. In its new avatar, ABP Network will be expanding its offerings ‘beyond news’ to allied spheres such as content creation, production, brand solutions, and more. While driving its innovative offerings, the media conglomerate will invest in cutting-edge technology, providing best-in-class solutions to clients and crafting engaging experiences to nurture an empowered society.

Advertisements are back on television after a dry spell, courtesy the lockdown. Free Commercial Time (FCT) and ad revenues are finally looking up. Broadcasters are getting more ad queries but they are also offering discounted rates to long-term investors to help them tide over difficult times. But are the discounts here to stay? Perhaps yes. At least till the festive season, say people in the know.

Ad rates have been slashed by 35 to 50% even for genres that have performed well during the lockdown, industry experts said. To keep up with the rise in ad volume, broadcasters are giving in to advertisers’ demands for discounts, which are expected to continue through the second quarter as well. 

According to media planners, while local TV channels charge anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and 10 lakh for a 30-second commercial, for national broadcasters the rates go up to crores. “While the market average for discounts is close to 50%, in a bid to beat competition some broadcasters have offered discounts as high as 60-70%,” said a North India-based media planner. 

The quantum of FCT, which had hit rock bottom, is now looking up. “For a 30-minute show, FCT had gone down to 5 minutes. Thanks to the improving market situations backed by discounted ad rates, FCT for the same shows are showing 50% growth. Channels are again pitching for 10 minutes of ad slots,” said another media planner on conditions of anonymity. “The trick is to get the advertisers back. Once the demand supply chain is stabilised, ad rates will also follow suit but it will take time,” he added. 

BENGALURU: News consumption has been declining in the past few weeks from the highs of the COVID2019 weeks according to the BARC-Nielsen Reports. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) and information, data and measurement company Nielsen or BARC-Nielsen have used the average consumption between Weeks 2 and 4 of 2020 as the yardstick to compare the growth of television consumption in the weeks starting Week 11 of 2020 onward. Of the four major genres that together garner 90 percent of television consumption in India – GEC, Movies, News and the Kids genre, News is the third most consumed genre. 

During the lockdown weeks that commenced midweek 12 of 2020, television was one of the most important and credible sources of what was happening for a world that was just grappling with the concept of a true new global pandemic that was to change the way of life to the many living generations of humanity. Life as most knew changed forever as social distancing became one of the new normals. Man is a social animal – a true cliché, now humanity had to relearn how to continue being so and at the same time not come too close to other humans. A majority of humans worked from home, stayed at home and television along with the internet became the two biggest sources of news and entertainment. Theater, restaurants, resorts, hotels, malls, public places, places for recreation, parks, gardens, tourist places were shut down, production of new entertainment content stopped. News was the new currency for ‘drama’ as channels beamed content that showed how the challenges posed by the pandemic ware being faced in different geographies. Heartening stories of the survivors of the virus, of the people, the COVID2019 warriors who made life bearable for the rest of us were aired across news channels. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s speeches drew never before imagined eyeballs to the news channels that aired them ‘live’. Slowly humans started to know more and more of the devil that forced them to stay at home.

NEW DELHI: With shooting and other production activities kept on hold during the three-month-long lockdown, Bhojpuri channels resorted to innovative content strategies until shootings finally resumed. Now, the sector is finally seeing a revival.

“Overall, as an industry, and specifically talking about Zee Biskope and Big Ganga, everyone in the team pulled themselves up and reacted to it and implemented new ways of coping with this situation both in terms of content and marketing strategy,” Zee Biskope and Big Ganga’s business head Amarpreet Singh Saini says. “Within the Bhojpuri cluster, we saw a huge increase in viewership, about 30-40 per cent increase during the lockdown. Zee Biskope gained leadership position and we benefited a lot during this period.” 

India Today is bringing its youth summit in its digital avatar this time on July 25, Saturday, as ‘India Today e-Mind Rocks’.

The youth summit was a ground event for 10 years traveling to nine cities. This time it has been reinvented to unite all mind-rockers in one pan-India virtual event. 

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India Today e-Mind Rocks has lined up stars and youth icons. This edition will be held on India Today’s YouTube channel. The youth summit will go online to help the confined youth beat the lockdown blues. It will see a host of young faces candidly talk about their life, and their journey and inspirations to deal with the world that has changed. 

India Today e-Mind Rocks 2020 will have 12 sessions. These sessions involving a line-up of star icons are interspersed in a range of topics across fitness, health, comedy and entertainment. This year the stars include Jacqueline Fernandez, Sonu Sood, Sonakshi Sinha, Rana Daggubati, Kusha Kapila, Papon, Rahul Bose, Bhuvan Bam, Sanya Malhotra and Armaan Malik. 

Hindi News channel, ABP News, is raising the engagement quotient through a special interactive initiative —integrating audience polls into its programming to better engage viewers.

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Providing them a special platform to express themselves, ABP News conducts a ‘daily poll’ on pertinent issues. Under this daily poll, ABP News shares a few questions with CVoter (Centre for Voting Opinion & Trends in Election Research) which runs them via CATI in an audience of wide geographic and demographic reach. By 4:30pm, the results of the daily poll come out, which then go live on the evening show at 5:00pm presented by show-host and renowned ABP Anchor Rubika Liyaquat.

With 28 districts submerged and more than 45 Lakh residents affected, Assam flood situation continues to remain grim, painfully displacing both human and wildlife. Drawing the nation’s attention to the calamity, Times Network, India’s premium broadcast Network, announced ‘India For Assam’, a special initiative to create awareness and raise funds for the relief efforts for the state bearing the brunt of this flood fury year after year.

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With an extensive editorial focus on its news and digital platforms, India for Assam also urges every Indian to stand united and help Assam by contributing to relief funds.