Hyderabad: Zee Telugu and Zee Telugu HD to air the World Television Premiere of ‘Akasha Ganga 2’on Sunday, 19th July at 6:00 PM .

Arathi Varma (Veena Nair) the current heiress of the Maanikesseri royal family and the daughter of Unni and Maya, is an MBBS student and an atheist. She doesn’t believe the stories told about her family or the evil spirits that reside in her house. Soumini, played by Ramya Krishnan, daughter of Mepaddan who helped Arathi family in the past, tries to explain to Arathi about the negative energies and how she can speak to souls. Listening to this, Arathi accepts the challenge that her friends, Gopi, Titus and Jithu put forward and decides to communicate with the soul of her mother who died while conceiving her. As dark spirits untangle, she is pulled into the grim and wretched ways of Akashaganga, the evil soul that once tormented her family. Will the evil spirit once again be successful in carrying out the revenge against Arathi’s family?

BENGALURU: Among the bigger networks that have channels feature in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, on the Pay and Free Platforms are DD, Network18/TV18/Viacom18 (or simply Viacom18) Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), The Sun TV Network (Sun Network), and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel).  Many of the channels from these networks, as well as other networks were now available on Pay and Free Platforms, on the latter mainly because of their presence on Prasar Bharati’s free DTH service DD Free Dish.

MUMBAI: The young and wiry-looking Barun Das is in a pretty belligerent mood. The CEO of Associated Broadcast Networks that runs the No 2 news channel in India TV9 Bharatvarsh has responded to the allegations that have been hurled against its meteoric rise by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

In a release issued today, Das has stated that the NBA’s reasoning about TV9 Baratvarsh’s rise in ratings possibly reveals “a lack of basic understanding of the television news business. The fundamental reason behind our success is a concerted strategy of content, distribution and promotion aided by the astronomical rise in viewership during the early weeks of the lockdown.”

MUMBAI: With the huge audience shift from television to digital, staying relevant in the broadcast industry is challenging. With that goal, TV9 is all set to venture into the digital medium for its English news. In a fireside chat with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari, TV9 Network CEO Barun Das said that the company will shut down its English channel News9 to focus on expanding its digital platform.

He said, “Traditional format of television would go and it will get more into the digital space. People below the age of 18 years are not watching news channels. If you see English news channels have shrunk to an extent that they will not sustain. We had News9, a Bangalore-based channel, but I believe city-based English news offerings in the Indian market are not ready yet. We had to take a business call, so we are coming up with a national version of that but on a digital platform. We are coming up with digital web TV.”

Zee Marathi, the Marathi GEC from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, announced the return of its original content with an innovative campaign that celebrated Marathi entertainment’s relaunch with the overarching campaign thought of ‘Zee Marathi ata haath dhu-un manoranjan karanar’ (Zee Marathi will stop at nothing, to truly delight its audiences).

The campaign emphasised the importance of haath dhu-un (washing hands) in the current Covid times, linking it to providing undisrupted entertainment to its viewers.

The campaign built up the excitement for the original telecast of all episodes of all shows from the channel with the ‘Original mhanje Zee Marathi’ brand thought. (Original means Zee Marathi)

TV9 Network is the largest news network in India in terms of viewership numbers. The Hindi news channel TV9 Bharatvarsh’s viewership growth in the last few weeks reached the No. 2 position in the Hindi News genre in Week 25 as per BARC data. This has caused ripples in the industry. As per BARC data for Week 26, in 22 out of 30 markets in HSM, TV9 Bharatvarsh holds the Top 3 positions. An incredible feat, considering that the channel is just over a year old and is already way ahead of most of the legacy news channels in these markets.

Medianews4u in conversation with Barun Das, CEO, TV9 Network, on the TV9 Bharatvarsh’s viewership spike in the last few weeks, the content strategy and the issues raised by NBA and NBF against not just the channel but the TV9 Group as well.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a collective of news channels of which TV9 Network is not a part, has complained to BARC about the authenticity and veracity of their rating system.

The letter is addressed to BARC, a professional body of which all broadcasters, including the complainant, are stake-holders. We are sure BARC has very valid justifications for the way it works and would have responded to NBA suitably.

But since NBA’s letter also contains pernicious allegations about TV9 Network, its legacy and its people, we are constrained to point out that this defamatory act will be addressed in an appropriate manner very soon.

The BBC Global News webinar hosted by the Exchange4media Group, held on July 14, shined the spotlight on why advertising on news platforms leads to more effective outcomes for brands. The webinar, ‘Recovery in a Recession’, featured Rahul Sood, Managing Director, India, BBC Global News and Sally Wu, Research Director, Audience & Business Insights (Asia Pacific), who discussed the impact of news on brands, especially during an economic downturn. They aimed to answer key questions which are important to marketers, agencies and publishers in the current economic environment. The session was moderated by Ruhail Amin, senior editor, exchange4media.

NEW DELHI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of India has released its data for top advertisers and brands for the period between 27 June to 3 July 2020, respectively.

The data reflects the top 10 advertisers and brands across genres on India television, 2+ Individuals, NCCS All demonstrating ads that were inserted the most in the 26h week of 2020.

Top advertisers:

Hindustan Unilever continued to be the biggest advertiser with 317861 insertions as compared to 292536 insertions in week 25, followed by Reckitt Benckiser which ranked second with 78007 insertions.

The following spot was acquired by Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd with 47425 insertions.