Mumbai: In a first of its kind television series, ‘Capital Police – Beyond the Khaki’, scheduled to premiere on 23rd July at 9 PM on ‘Discovery’ & ‘Discovery HD World’ captures men and women in Khaki, on the go, as they fight crime to and maintain law and order.

To film the series, the Discovery crew was especially assigned to a select group of Police officers and stations. The crew captured the action as it happened live. This makes the show, its treatment and the way it is conceptualized different from any other show. Each of the 4 episodes of the invigorating series will focus on a specific issue.

 

Megha Tata, Managing Director – South Asia, Discovery Communications India, said, “Capital Police – Beyond the Khaki’ is Discovery’s endeavor to bring to light stories of tireless Delhi police heroes who do everything it takes to keep our capital city safe. The viewers will for the very first time, walk alongside a police official who is trying to solve a real-life situation.  The officials may not always succeed, but they also never give up. And for that we salute them and stand by them!”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa, said, “Through Capital Police – Beyond the Khaki, our aim is to give a deeper peep into the day to day functioning and the various challenges confronted by our police force towards their commitment in standing upto the expectations and trust put on them by the citizens of Delhi. It has been a fascinating experience for some of our officials who were part of this pilot as they have never before appeared before camera. They are not actors, they are real life heroes who went about doing their duties in a nonchalant way even while Discovery’s cameras were rolling.”

It has been nearly two months since the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) junked TRAI’s direction on the landing page issue, but broadcasters are still not at peace. All eyes are now set on the first report to be submitted to the BARC India board by the two-member committee set up to address the same.

While most of the industry, including BARC India, remains tight-lipped about the status of the first report to be submitted by Nakul Chopra and Praveen Tripathi to the board, there has been a sense of dissatisfaction in the broadcasting industry. 

Broadcasters have been complaining about ratings reported by BARC India even as the audience measurement body stays firm about how they cannot identify landing pages. Any abnormal reach is being considered as outlier by the body, and rationalised and moderated assuming it came from landing pages.  While BARC deviated from this age-old formula and published Week 22 ratings, inclusive of landing page viewership numbers, the following week it decided to neutralise landing page data and resort back to the initial counting technique. This yo-yo approach hasn’t gone down well with many broadcasters.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s video streaming service ZEE5 has made quite a splash since its entry in India’s competitive OTT landscape.

In just 15 months of launch, the Tarun Katial-led streamer has 61.5 million monthly active users (MAUs), clocking 31 minutes of average time spent per day.

In a bid to make even greater inroads into the Indian market, ZEE5 will now test cheaper mobile-only plans, reported news agency PTI.

"We are also planning to test mobile-only pack for consumers who want to watch content on-the-go at cheap prices and with limited ads with an option to choose the ad one wants to watch in exchange of a lower subscription rate," said Katial.

MUMBAI: News broadcasting network Network18 India has shot off a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (MIB) raising concerns over Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of India’s data validation and outlier policy, Indiantelevision.com has learnt.

According to those in the know, the network has brought to the ministry’s attention the subjective nature of BARC’s implementation of outlier policy and its impact on TV ratings of channels with a relatively smaller viewership base.

On its part, BARC has consistently maintained that it cannot identify landing pages. Hence, reliance on manual intervention in weeding out outliers makes the process susceptible to bias is a view held by a section within the industry.

MUMBAI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has directed broadcaster TV Vision to come forward with a time schedule for payment of multi system operator (MSO) GTPL Hathway’s dues by the next date. The matter has been posted under the same head on 23rd August.

TV Vision has admitted its liability to pay Rs. 2.16 crore to GTPL Hathway. “We hold that respondent is liable to pay that amount and, therefore, it should come forward with a time schedule for payment by the next date,” the TDSAT said in its order.

The tribunal noted that TV Vision appeared through a counsel on the very first day when this petition was admitted for hearing. On that date, GTPL wanted an interim relief to the extent of an amount emerging on the basis of an e-mail from the broadcaster. The tribunal granted TV Vision time to take a stand whether documents at pages 85-87 of the brief are admitted or not.

In the next hearing on 28th May, TV Vision’s counsel prayed for and was granted, four weeks’ time for the purpose of making efforts to settle the matter. It was indicated in the order that if the matter is not settled by the next date, the broadcaster must take a clear stand on the issue of admission in the e-mail by filing a reply/short reply by the next date when the matter was last listed on 2nd July.

The broadcaster’s prayer for two week’s time for filing reply appears to be an attempt to buy time. However, by way of last opportunity, we granted two weeks’ time to the respondent to file reply/short reply as already communicated in the order dated 28th May, otherwise necessary orders shall be passed on the presumption that the respondent has no suitable reply.

eBay has assigned its global media account to WPP’s Mediacom.

Globally, the online retailing giant had been working with both Mediacom and Publicis Media, however at the time of the review the company has decided in favour of consolidating its media agency partners as it will allow the brand to streamline its marketing approach around the world.

eBay has moved its US$250m worth account solely under Mediacom

“eBay’s regional marketing teams are working together more closely than ever, and consolidating our media business will help us operate more quickly and efficiently as a global organisation,” an eBay spokesperson said. “Mediacom has a long history with eBay, and we look forward to continuing our work with them around the world.”

Forty-seven golds were won at the first edition of afaqs!' Media Brand Awards held in New Delhi last evening.

The results of the Media Brand Awards were announced at a fun-filled evening at the Holiday Inn (Aerocity), New Delhi. The idea behind this entire effort was to celebrate the exceptional work by media brands across Print, TV News, TV Entertainment, Radio, Online Publisher, and OTT.
The media and entertainment business in India has been growing at an unprecedented rate. But while the audience/consumers are having a gala time due to the diverse options at their disposal, brands are indulging in a cut-throat competition to secure the top spot. Identifying the efforts by the Media Brands and apprising the consumers about the special initiatives while rewarding the extraordinary work - is what afaqs! Media Brand Awards looked out for.

BENGALURU: The combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English news channels declined to the third lowest total in week 28 of 2019 (Saturday, 6 July 2019 to Friday, 12 July 2019, week or period under review) since week 13 of 2019. Calendar year 2019 has been an eventual year as far as publication in the public domain of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly viewership data is concerned. First, the ratings agency stopped publishing ratings in the public domain from week 6 of 2019 after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) New Tariff Order (NTO), ostentatiously to give time for viewership to stabilise and hence prevent ‘misuse’ of data. On coercion from TRAI, BARC started putting up data in the public domain from week 13 of 2019 onward, only to revert to an older version of treating data on the landing and outliers from week 23 of 2019.

During the six weeks since BARC’s adoption of the older method of treatment, ratings of a number of genres have been impacted. The three lowest combined ratings of the top 5 English news channels have happened post week 23 of 2019 – 1.948 million weekly impressions in week 24; 1.918 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2019 and 1.929 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2019.  However BARC’s reloaded method of treatment alone cannot be said to be the only reason for lowering of ratings – the last few weeks have seen the ICC’s World Cup 2019 being played in England and Wales, and the timings of cricket matches being played in the tourney often overlapped primetime of a number of genres. The week under consideration saw the last match being played by India – the rain affected match that India lost against New Zealand and was ousted from the tourney at the semi-final stage. The period over the past few weeks has also seen heavy rains and flooding in a number of places across the country. These factors and maybe some others could have had an adverse effect on television viewership.

MUMBAI: Sun TV continued to be in the leading position in Tamil (urban + rural) HSM with 779347 weekly impressions (000). The channel was followed by Star Vijay, Zee Tamil, KTV and Star Sports 1 Tamil at second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively. 

Established in the year 2010, Digitalabs became a part of 21 year Communication conglomerate, Laqshya Media Group in the year 2018. Serving more than 1000 clients, Digitalabs has helped brands like LG, Jaquar Lightning, Religare, FICCI, Macmillan, Century Ply, Lenovo, M3M, Discovery Channel, TLC, Patanjali, Forever Mark to create and engage in meaningful conversations thus build relationships with the customers.

In an exclusive chat with MediaNews4U, Agam Chaudhary, CMO, Digitalabs, the Digital arm of Laqshya Media Group speaks on the way marketers see social media campaigns.

Edited excerpts.

While there are still many brands in India who are yet to mature on traditional advertising, what is your take on their awareness of digital?

I believe that nearly all brands who advertise on traditional media have a fair sense of how it behaves and how best to leverage it. There always will be outliers in any situation, and it is so here as well. However, the majority of brands understand and use traditional media pretty well.

Awareness about digital advertising is not as widespread as vis-a-vis traditional media. Big brands have all come to grips with the reality of the digital era. It’s the SMEs that are still playing the catch-up game.