The M&E industry got to know on Tuesday that BARC India’s first CEO Partho Dasgupta has stepped down after six years of establishing and running the world’s largest Television Audience measurement company, which is a Joint Industry Company of Broadcasters, Advertisers and Agencies.

Many, who couldn’t think of a person as sharp-minded as Dasgupta— since a few months, rumours were rife that the industry body was finding his replacement—wondered what went wrong. After all, he was managing the show despite all sorts of pressure, including from TRAI and the government.

Broadcasters have welcomed Sunil Lulla as the new CEO of BARC and expressed hope that he will address all their concerns. Lulla, who has over 35 years of media and marketing experience, already has the industry expecting him to take up matters that may not have found too much prominence in the past.

The top five areas that the industry wants Lulla to look into are equal representation of small and medium broadcasters in important decisions taken by the body, strengthening of measurement on broadcast in the wake of new tariff order (NTO), ensuring there is no foul play in reporting viewership numbers, integrating new distribution platforms, and unlocking of the true potential of viewership data.

MUMBAI: With an aim to offer engaging and differentiated content catering to young audiences across the country, Dish TV India Ltd, the world’s largest single-country DTH company, has expanded distribution of its OTT app Watcho to Amazon Fire TV Stick. Effective immediately, Amazon Fire TV Stick customers can access Watcho app to discover original web shows, short films, more than 100 Live TV channels and various other regional shows and movies.

Watcho provides access to a large VOD content library of originals, movies and popular shows along with linear TV service. It is also the first OTT service to feature user generated content allowing users to create and upload their own content to Watcho. The flexible service was designed to address the large base of over 23 million subscribers of DishTV and d2h and is also open to new users.

MUMBAI: As per BARC India data, Sony Yay! continues to remain in the top three positions for the past few weeks. In week 41 the channel grabbed second position with 87898 weekly impressions (000s). The channel says its extensive plan starting from Dussehra to New Year has been one of the reasons in getting the top-three position. As part of its plan, the channel is airing three new movies of Honey Bunny during Diwali and four movies to be launched during the Christmas–New Year period.

Sony Yay! launched Honey Bunny in Gangs of Filmcity on 6 October, Honey Bunny & The Cricket Gang on 13 October and Honey Bunny in a Crazy Family Adventure on 20 October.

MUMBAI: Major direct-to-home (DTH) operators spoke against the imposition of any registration fee or annual fee for the platform services (PS) offered by them. Tata Sky, Dish TV, Bharti Telemedia the holding company of Airtel Digital TV are of the view that as DTH operators already pay license fee and furnish bank guarantee, there should not be any requirement of any additional payment for PS. The companies have also delivered their views against capping the number of PS channels.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a consultation paper (CP) on issues related to PS aimed at a proper regulatory framework for the services in late August. Before the CP was floated, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), in a letter dated 2 July  2019, sought the recommendations of TRAI on various issues related to PS with reference to DTH guidelines. TRAI also mentioned in the consultation paper that unlike private satellite TV channels which are permitted and regulated under the uplinking and downlinking guidelines of MIB, PS is not subject to any specific regulations or guidelines as of now.

After Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) dominated the pre-festive season, Viacom 18 plans to dominate Diwali. The English GECs of both networks are leaving no stone unturned to engage the audience. The two networks have lined up premieres of their new shows and will bring back their flagship shows with new seasons.

Colors Infinity will premiere the sixth season of the much-awaited ‘The Flash’ and the third season of the equally awaited ‘Black Lightning’ on October 27 and 28, respectively. Along with the flagship shows, Viacom 18 plans to premiere a brand new show titled ‘Batwoman’.

MUMBAI: Direct to home (DTH) operator Dish TV and broadcaster Sun TV Network have told the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that they are engaged in talks to resolve the issue of outstanding dues.

Dish TV owes roughly Rs 132 crore to Sun TV Network. Due to the accumulation of dues, the broadcaster issued a disconnection notice to the DTH operator. Dish TV moved TDSAT seeking protection against the disconnection of signals.

In its order dated 17th October, the TDSAT stated that the parties are engaged in talks and it is not possible to grant a short adjournment. The matter has been posted under the same head on 21st November.

As the festive spirit peaks, over-the-top (OTT) players are all gearing up to make the most of the season by launching Diwali programming. Different OTT players are adopting different marketing techniques to promote their content. BestMediaInfo.com spoke to a few OTT Heads about their content and marketing plans for this festive season.
Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head of TVF Originals, believes collaboration is a good option to reach out to a bigger audience as they released ‘Flames’ Season 2 and plans to launch the second season of much-awaited series ‘Father’. With innovations in genres such as horror and thrillers, Saxena said their target is to keep fresh content for their consumers.

News network Republic Media Network and financial exchange disruptor EbixCash announced a brand-integrated news studio – the EbixCash Studio.

With this unique tie-up, EbixCash has partnered with the largest studio in the country with 6,000 square feet of space — a first in news television industry across the world, wherein a news channel and a brand seamlessly integrate to rebrand a studio. As a part of this strategy, breaking news, interviews, round-the-clock bulletins, and customised news integrations will be delivered from the EbixCash studios, which will enable the brand to penetrate over 100 million homes. EbixCash Studio will mark high visibility across all the platforms of Republic Media Network — Republic TV, Republic Bharat, Republic HD OTT and Republic World.

Digital and regional will be growth drivers for TV news broadcasters in the months ahead, which should particularly benefit channels having a pan-India presence, says Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP News Network.

In an interaction with BestMediaInfo.com, Pandey, talking about the overall health of the broadcast sector, said the implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) tariff order at a time when there was stress in the economy turned out to be a double whammy for the industry.

The monetary situation has been so bad for companies that even Diwali and the assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana have not been able to lift the sentiment.