Mumbai: Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, today announced that it has won integrated media agency of record duties for ZEE5 India, the fastest-growing over-the-top (OTT) platform in the country.

The key media mandate includes the subscription video on demand (SVOD) business, covering both the digital brand and performance mandates, as well as offline media and search engine optimisation duties for ZEE5 India. Led out of Essence’s Mumbai office, the ZEE5 business will be supported by the agency’s practice leads across business planning, strategy, analytics, experience, integrated media planning, media activation and advertising operations.

ZEE5 offers 12 navigational and featured languages across original features, live TV, catch-up TV, lifestyle shows, children’s programmes, exclusive short series and acclaimed plays. It offers an exhaustive array of content, with 80+ live TV channels and 125,000+ hours of viewing across the languages of English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Punjabi. ZEE5 also offers groundbreaking features like 11 navigational languages, a content download option, seamless video playback and voice search.

Cable TV ads for long have been about amateur astrologers, peculiar slimming medicines or local coaching classes. But with digitisation, the medium has caught the advertisers’ fancy and how. Given the reach of the medium, national brands have now aggressively started investing in the platform. With big brands entering the medium post digitisation, cable TV industry, as per industry estimates, is seeing ad spends of at least Rs 200 crore annually. 

The shift from analog has resulted in bandwidth increase and has also seen the quality of content go up on cable TV, making the platform a lucrative one for large players such as HUL, PNG and many others to advertise on.

According to Sharad Alwe, Managing Director at cable advertising agency Update, e-commerce giants have realised the potential of cable TV and its reach of 120 million households and are spending on the medium to attract their target audience at various levels. “Brands such as Flipkart, Ola and PhonePe are heavily active on cable TVs. Thanks to the huge e-commerce brands and their ad spends, by 2020, the investments in cable TV ads is expected to touch Rs 300 crore annually,

Zee Entertainment Enterprises on Tuesday reported a 62.6 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 529.8 crore for the quarter ended June 30, against Rs 326.4 in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The net profit was driven by a 108.9 per cent increase in other income of Rs 103.9 crore.

The firm also reported a 13.3 per cent increase in its total revenue to Rs 2,008 crore for the quarter ended June 30, against Rs 1,772 crore in the same quarter last financial year.

The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter was Rs 659.8 crore, up 16.6 per cent from Q1FY19 and Ebitda margin was 32.9 per cent.

Digital media is set to overtake filmed entertainment this year.

MUMBAI: Digital media is set to overtake filmed entertainment in India this year in terms of revenue. While TV will retain its pole position as the largest segment, digital will also overtake print by 2021 to reach $5.1 billion, according to a report from FICCI and EY report on ‘How a billion screens can turn India into a media and entertainment powerhouse’.

In this overwhelming growth of digital media, telecom operators will be the future MSOs. As per the report, while 60 per cent of total consumption today is through telco bundles, it is estimated to grow to over 75 per cent by 2021 and cater to over 375 million subscribers. Smartphone penetration is just 36 per cent in 2018, leaving massive room for growth. 30 per cent of phone time is dedicated to entertainment.

TRAI released its recommendations on entry level net-worth of MSOs.

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that there is no need to fix a minimum entry-level net worth for MSO registration. Moreover, it also added that there is no basis for introducing minimum net worth classification based on the area of operation for MSOs.

TRAI on Monday released its recommendations on "Entry level net-worth requirement of multi system operators (MSOs) in cable TV services". Based on the written submissions of stakeholders and discussions in the open house discussions, recommendations have been framed by the regulatory body.

MUMBAI: Odia GEC Sarthak TV founder Sitaram Agrawalla will be re-entering the TV broadcasting business in July 2020 once the non-compete agreement with ZEEL ends in June 2020.

In July 2015, ZEEL had acquired Sarthak TV for Rs 115 crore in an all-cash deal. The non-compete agreement barred Agarwalla from starting a new TV channel till June 2020.

Agrawalla has floated a new company Sidharth Broadcasting Pvt Ltd (SBPL) to launch TV channels in Odia and Bengali languages. The company plans to launch four channels – three in Odia and one in Bangla.

SBPL has applied for four TV channel licences and one teleport licence to the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB). The ministry has already granted two licences while the two other channel licence applications along with teleport licence application are pending.

The company plans to launch Sidharth TV (Odia GEC), Sidharth Bhakti (Odia devotional), Sidharth Music (Odia music), and Sidharth Bangla (Bangla GEC). It is pertinent to note that all four channels are already available on YouTube. The four channels collectively have millions of subscribers on YouTube.

“We have got licence for two TV channels while two more TV channel licences and 1 teleport application are pending with the MIB. We will launch the channels once the non-compete period ends in June 2020,” a source in SBPL stated.

MUMBAI: Video streaming platform ZEE5 has entered into a strategic tie-up with Optimove, to bolster the performance of the platform based on a suite of services backed by insight, engagement & optimisation.

Under the partnership, Optimove will work closely with ZEE5 to build a customer data platform for the 61.5 million-strong monthly active user base that the platform has garnered over the past year and a half. With its advanced marketing tech solutions, Optimove will micro-segment ZEE5’s customer base by customer lifecycles broken down by behavioural patterns and other predictive data generated by Optimove’s Relationship Marketing Hub.

The insights gained from the customer model will be collated by the platform across its 100,000+ hours of content and used to personalize content, offers, recommendations and more. By autonomously transforming customer data into actionable insight, Optimove will orchestrate hyper-segmented campaigns, helping drive measurable growth. Optimove will also provide strategic thought leadership on driving engagement for ZEE5.

Optimove Founder & CEO Pini Yakuel said, “ZEE5 is one of India’s leading brands in entertainment. I’m certain that the partnership between ZEE5 and Optimove will yield great success and will help address the growing challenge of customer engagement and personalization in the competitive entertainment market in India. ZEE5 has content and data, and Optimove can leverage those to empower ZEE5’s marketing team to personalize customer interactions, and offer better value to each of its customers, and increase Customer Lifetime Value.”

Timex India launched its new brand ‘TMX’ recently to expand its footprint in mini-metro cities with a vision of ‘great design and quality for every Indian’. A digital campaign has kick-started for TMX ‘Khushiyon ki ghadi’ to connect with its audience through a heart-rending film on its social platform. The new TMX watch is positioned as an affordable gifting option for consumers.

Timex has also announced cricketer Suresh Raina as its new brand ambassador. With Raina on board, Timex hopes to reach out to and win the love of even more Indian households.

To celebrate the power of mini-metros, TMX is available in some states across India. Deploying the precision of Japanese movement, the new TMX watches serve as ideal amalgamations of unmatched quality, attractive design and impeccable service. Positioned for special occasions, the TMX range of watches is available in 75 different models in the price segment of Rs 725- 1,495.

A+E Networks | TV18 has promoted Arun Thapar as President, Content and Communication. In his new role, Thapar will additionally manage brand marketing, digital and branded content of A+E Networks | TV18 along with his current portfolio of content strategy management, creative and production for the network. He will continue to report to Avinash Kaul.

Avinash Kaul, Managing Director A+ E Networks | TV18 and CEO, Broadcast for Network18, said, “Arun has consistently played the role of a key growth driver for the business. His strong understanding of the genre has ensured that A+E Networks | TV18 got the required traction and contributes positively towards the growth of factual entertainment and lifestyle genres. His expertise is central to further strengthening and expanding the A+E Networks | TV18 portfolio.”

Under his stewardship, the network has produced best-in-class originals, and broken new ground in factual entertainment, with History TV18 clocking tens of millions of views online.

Mumbai: ZEE5, the fastest growing OTT platform in the country, today announced a strategic tie-up with Optimove, to bolster the performance of the platform based on a suite of services backed by insight, engagement & optimisation.

Under the partnership, Optimove will work closely with ZEE5 to build a customer data platform for the 61.5 million-strong monthly active user base that the platform has garnered over the past year and a half. With its advanced marketing tech solutions,Optimove will micro-segment ZEE5’s customer base by customer life cycles broken down by behavioural patternsand other predictive data generated by Optimove’s Relationship Marketing Hub. The insights gained from the customer model will be collated by the platform across its 100,000+ hours of content and used to personalize content, offers, recommendations and more. By autonomously transforming customer data into actionable insight, Optimove will orchestrate hyper-segmented campaigns, helping drive measurable growth. Optimove will also provide strategic thought leadership on driving engagement for ZEE5.

Pini Yakuel, Founder &CEO, Optimove said, “ZEE5 is one of India’s leading brands in entertainment. I’m certain that the partnership between ZEE5 and Optimove will yield great success and will help address the growing challenge of customer engagement and personalization in the competitive entertainment market in India.  ZEE5 has content and data, and Optimove can leverage those to empower ZEE5’s marketing team to personalize customer interactions, and offer better value to each of its customers, and increase Customer Lifetime Value.”