Mumbai: Star Bharat is thrilled to announce its second mammoth mythological offering ‘Jag Jaanani Maa Vaishnodevi – Kahani Matarani Ki’. The show, which is produced by Rashmi Sharma Telefilms, narrates the untold story of Maa Vaishno Devi, from the onset of her journey on earth as a child to her becoming Maa Vaishno Devi, our universal mother as she is now acknowledged. The show is scheduled to premiere on September 30th and will air daily – Monday to Saturday at 9: 30pm.

Jag Jaanani Maa Vaishnodevi – Kahani Matarani Ki – is a story set in mythology. It commences in the background of the end of Devasur Sangram – the biggest war and how the Asurs (demons) were seeking a safe haven on earth.  A troubled Bhudevi seeks help from Lord Vishnu. When Mahadev gets to know of her predicament he says the only solution is the destruction of prithvi. At this point, Maa Lakshmi, Maa Kali and Maa Saraswati come forward to stop Mahadev and propose to combine their powers – – a new force who would strive to save humanity in her role as an intermediary and help the crucial circumstance that they were faced with. Thus, was born Vaishnavi (the Shakti of Vishnu), the daughter of King Ratnakar Sagar.

Mumbai: Viacom18’s digital business has upped the ante on language content offering and is all set to launch 1200+ hours of Telugu content across movies, non-fiction, popular Viacom18 IPs and Voot Originals on Voot with Colors Telugu. What’s interesting to see is that Viacom18 is going launching this Colors Telugu on Voot only – without the backing of a Colors Telugu TV channel, hence the digital-first approach.

Colors Telugu will go live on Voot with the Telugu version of Voot’s original IP, Feet Up with the Stars Telegu, with Telugu movie actress Lakshmi Manchu. The show has got Asian Paints and ace2three as the sponsors on board.

The landing page row may have gone silent for a while, but it is far from over. While some broadcasters are continuously striking deals with DPOs, others are condemning it. Many channels, especially the news genre, have seen a spike in viewership, thanks to landing pages. But when it comes to advertisers, does this spike matter or they have different parameters to position their ads on television channels? 

MUMBAI: TV viewership measurement company, BARC India, which also operates the largest TV panel in the world, recently collaborated with India’s premier management institute Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to undertake a review of the current sample design and methodology.

The statistical review team at IIM-A led by professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay suggested the implementation of a new design which takes into account the cost of data collection and heterogeneity across markets.

However, no significant deviation was found in the sample size arrived at through the new design and the one being implemented by BARC India presently, thereby validating the representativeness of the panel. The team also expressed its pleasure with the overall sample allocation mechanisms put in place by BARC India.

MUMBAI: India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has assigned ‘IND A1+’ rating to TV18 Broadcast’s (TV18) commercial paper (CP) worth Rs 750 crore.

Ind-Ra has taken a consolidated view of Network18 Media & Investments and its subsidiaries including TV18 Broadcast (TV18), Viacom18 Media, IndiaCast Media Distribution and AETN18 Media, collectively referred to as Network18 Group, while assigning the rating owing to strong operational and strategic linkages among them.

Key to Network18 Group: TV18 is the broadcast arm of the Network18 Group, and operates across news, entertainment and infotainment genres. TV18 contributed about 97% to Network18’s consolidated revenue in FY19. It also houses the group’s motion picture business and over-the-top (OTT) platform (Voot).

MUMBAI: Distribution platform operators (DPOs) have made certain suggestions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the Draft Amendment of the interconnection regulations.

The authority has proposed a draft amendment to modify certain aspects of the technical and system requirements of DPOs (as per the Schedule III of the Interconnection Regulations) basis certain concerns that have been gathered during the various meetings with the stakeholders with TRAI.

On the issue of generating itemised bills for each subscriber through subscriber management system (SMS), direct to home (DTH) operator Tata Sky has submitted that bill generation is a Postpaid concept.

Off late, the OTT space in India has been buzzing with activity. Two unlikely players, Flipkart and Zomato have entered the playing field, making this a very interesting time for content creators and consumers alike. Indian advertising-led video-on-demand platform VOOT is all set for its foray into the Telugu market with the launch of COLORS Telugu on VOOT.

In the past, we've seen Viacom 18 push for regional content in the broadcast space with the introduction of Colors Marathi, Colors Gujarati and so on. But the release of Colors Telugu is different — it will not be broadcast on television; the channel's content will directly be available for streaming on the VOOT platform. The platform’s new language play will introduce Telugu audiences from AP/Telangana and the rest of India to 1200+ hours of Telugu content. The content line-up will include VOOT Originals, popular Hindi and regional Viacom18 IPs and a library of 150+ Telugu movies for its viewers to begin with. COLORS Telugu on VOOT is set to go live starting September 23, 2019.

MUMBAI: Google country director – India Nitin Bawankule will be joining Star India as head of ad sales from October. Bawankule has around 25 years of experience combining digital, IT, telecom and consumer electronic space.
A source has confirmed the appointment of Bawankule in Star India to Indiantelevision.com. Prior to his role as country director - India, he was the industry director leading the E-commerce (online retail) and online classifieds (local, real estate, jobs and matrimonial), technology, education and government verticals at Google India.

After the English and Hindi genres, regional channels are now getting affected due to the usage of the landing page and are raising their voice against it. In markets such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the landing page was in the fourth position and competing with leading channels.

Several broadcasters have again written letters to TRAI, demanding fair play, and limiting landing page to just promotional activities and not include it in ratings.