MUMBAI: Media conglomerate ZEEL is refining its consumer understanding to further improve its core skills and build new capabilities for the purpose of content creation.

In line with this strategy, the company has identified 53 distinct socio-cultural groups in order to understand and document their important aspects. These insights, the company said, will be extensively used for content creation and experimentation.

In its annual report for FY 2018-19, the company stated that understanding the consumer is central to the process of content creation. It also said that it has devised a systematic process to comprehend the socio-cultural milieu and day-to-day lives of viewers.

This process starts with selecting people for content teams belonging to similar socio-cultural backgrounds. It uses insights from cultural profiling to select storylines, build characters and render engaging narratives that connect with viewers subliminally.

Content is complemented with several on-ground events and customer outreach initiatives. It gets continuous feedback on content from viewership data, social listening, and focused group studies, amongst others.

Network18’s broadcast arm TV18 has posted a net profit of Rs 23 crore in the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20, compared with a loss of Rs 7 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. However, Network18 widened its losses to Rs 128 crore in Q1FY20 from Rs 112 crore in the previous year.

TV18 owns and operates the broadest network of channels – 56 in India spanning news and entertainment. Supported by election-related advertising during the quarter, the news business grew by 29% as the operating revenue from the news television stood at Rs 298 crore in Q1FY20 compared with Rs 232 crore in Q1FY19.

The entertainment bouquet (Viacom18’s 32 channels + AETN18’s 4 infotainment channels) and distribution arm Indiacast grew by 5% during the quarter as the operating revenues from this segment stood at Rs 899 crore compared with Rs 857 crore in the previous year. Viacom18 and AETN18 are 51% entertainment subsidiaries of TV18, while distribution-arm Indiacast is a 50:50 JV of TV18 and Viacom18.

According to the company, the revenue growth of the entertainment business was impacted by tepid ad-environment led by advertisers paring spends amidst weak markets/macro/regulatory flux, and concentration of advertising around sports.

Mumbai: Taking a step further towards building a better society, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) inaugurated its 24th Community WaterCentre at Koliwali village in Bhiwandi Taluka. This initiative is in partnership with Naandi Foundation, under the environment pillar of SPN’s CSR programme.

The Community Water Centre at Koliwali village,will provide access to clean drinking water to at least 3000 individuals in the village that houses750 families. To support the cause and to educate the habitants of Koliwali village, prominent actors from the network’s Marathi channel – Sony Marathi, Harshad Atkari and Mayuri Wagh along with Sony Pictures Networks’ Head CSR, Rajkumar Bidawatka, local authorities from the Gram Panchayat and senior members from Naandi Foundation were present at the inauguration.

SPN has always aimed at empowering communities and working towards building a better society. With this milestone, SPN in partnership with Naandi Foundation has been able to provide access to clean drinking water to 1.5 lakh individuals in Kolhapur, Sangli and Thane districts of Maharashtra. This initiative is one of the many steps taken by the network to support the creation of a sustainable environment.  SPN is committed to co-creating India’s social development agenda through its focus on various areas of social impact.

SonyLIV has launched 3 new web originals, Heartbreak Hotel, Holycross and 16. Gullak, another show which is already live on the platform was launched sometime back and has been able to captivate the audiences with the simplicity in its story telling.

While OTT platforms create original content and make the consumers pay for the same, all these four shows are available to all viewers on SonyLIV at no subscription fee, now that indeed is an interesting way to increase the user base and the time spent on the platform.

Medianews4u.com caught up with Uday Sodhi, Business Head – Digital Business, SPNI for a brief chat on the slate of the new and fresh original content.

On the brief that SonyLIV shared with the creators of the respective shows Sodhi said, “The brief to creators is always about good stories, relatable stories, stories which will bring in the audiences and will connect with the audiences.”

“I don’t think we want to restrict ourselves to one type of storytelling. When you look at the four shows we’ve sampled today are very different. One is a show has nine stories which are at some point inter linked, we have Gullak, Heartbreak Hotel, and Holy Cross, which is a sci-fi show. Then we have 16, which is a vigilante murder mystery.”

Bloomberg Media Group today announced the appointment of Mark Froude as Head of Ad Sales in Asia Pacific. In this role, he will lead Bloomberg Media Group’s sales organization and advertising strategy in the region, overseeing cross-platform sales initiatives and the advancement of Bloomberg Media’s strategic consulting services. Froude previously held the role for ten years prior to relocating to New Zealand in 2018. He will be based in Singapore.

Prior to Bloomberg, Mark was Managing Director of Press Start Media, a company he founded in 2003 to provide a range of media services and event management for international media clients in the Asia Pacific. Mark has held Sales and Marketing management positions at Asia Business News, CNBC Asia Pacific, and TVNZ.

“We are pleased to welcome Mark back to Bloomberg and to Singapore,” said Parry Ravindranathan, Managing Director, International, Bloomberg Media Group.“His rehire reflects Bloomberg Media’s continued commitment to deepening our creative and strategic services throughout Asia, and to connecting with consumers and clients alike in innovative and exciting new ways.” 

Publicis Media India announced a senior-level appointment for overseeing its Global Distributed Delivery set-up - a centre of expertise catering to international markets on a full spectrum of digital, data and tech services. It houses over 300 specialists across Mumbai and Gurgaon and supports a host of Publicis operations across US, Europe and Asia and their multinational clients on Search, Programmatic, Data engineering, Data sciences, Ecommerce, Consulting and Development.
Sunish Jose comes with about 18 years of experience and is a multi-faceted Six Sigma Black belt professional with extensive experience in managing Digital Operations business across Programmatic Solutions, Search, Social, Display & Mobile, Analytics and Business Process Management. Some of the global clients he has had experience on include P&G, Sprint, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, Kraft, PepsiCo, Verizon, Toyota, Honda. With a proficiency in managing Service Delivery, defining SLA's, contracts, SOP's he also has a track record of partnering with Technology teams and leveraging automation to drive efficiencies. His last role was with Accenture UK & Ireland where he was based in Dublin and managed key businesses for Accenture EMEA, as the EMEA delivery leader with a 500+ member team based across Dublin, Lisbon and Krakow.

MUMBAI: The world of retail, for most of its part, has gone digital. People are scrolling and clicking for meeting every minute need of theirs. This will be an impediment for physical-only retailers. But for the owners of one of the largest shopping malls in India, this has come out as an opportunity to create a world where retail runs on instincts.

DLF Malls India head of central marketing Harshvardhan Chauhan, in the latest episode of ‘Media Minds’, shares how after an endearing journey of a decade, the brand is working on building ‘phygital retail’ spaces that will give the users a seamless shopping experience with tailor-made deals and offers.

BENAGLURU: Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd (Hathway) reported 38 percent growth in subscription revenue from its cable TV business (CATV) for the quarter ended 30 June 2019 (Q1 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter (y-o-y) Q1 2019. CATV subscription revenue for Q1 2020 grew 28 percent as compared to the immediate trailing quarter Q4 2019 (q-o-q). CATV subscription revenues for the period under review, the corresponding year ago quarter and the immediate trailing quarter were Rs 216.7 crore, Rs 157.4 crore and Rs 169.9 crore respectively.

MUMBAI: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is waking up from its slumber. With technology redesigning the media industry, the pubcaster has to quickly adapt to upgradations like ultra-high definition (UHD) along with focusing on over-the-top reach and tapping the huge digital base.

Several recommendations to boost DD were discussed in the first ever India International Broadcast Conclave 2019 held at Hyderabad in March under the aegis of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). Experts across the media value chain shared their insights for further growth of DD and the industry.

MUMBAI: The consolidation in the sports broadcast space with Sony buying Ten Sports from ZEEL is proving to be a challenge for sports bodies. A case in point is the English Premier League (EPL).

As has been reported earlier, Star Sports renewed the TV and digital rights deal for the Premier League for another three years till 2022. Star Sports will broadcast more than 250 Premier League games live across the network and beam all 380 games live on Hotstar.

However, it has been learnt that the deal value has once again seen a deflation. This time around, the drop in the value is to the tune of around 25%. The earlier three-year deal was worth $99 million or $33 million/year. This was a reduction from the $145 million that Star Sports’ predecessor ESPN Star Sports (ESS) had paid for the previous three-year deal.

An industry source noted that one of the key reasons for the drop EPL pricing is the consolidation in the sports broadcasting industry. Currently, there are only two major players in the sports broadcast market, Star India and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).

“Like the previous rights cycle, Sony showed little interest this time around as well. Their plate is already full when it comes to soccer with properties like the FIFA and Champions League. That left only Star. When multiple broadcasters vie for a property then you can expect the rights value to rise. But with fewer broadcasters, the price gets affected. Having said last season saw decent traction for the league given that there was a World Cup,” the source stated.