BENGALURU: The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English news channels in week 27 of 2019 (Saturday, 29 June 2019 to Friday, 5 July 2019, week under review) or the week in which the first national budget of the re-elected Modi government was announced increased by just 46,000 or 2.4 percent as compared to the previous week. Data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India showed the combined ratings of the top 5 English news channels was 1.964 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2019 as compared to 1.918 million weekly impressions in week 26.

BENGALURU: GTPL Hathway Ltd (GTPL) reported 31.9 percent growth in revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2019 (Q1-2020, quarter or period under review) and almost three times the operating profit for its cable TV business (CATV business) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter Q1 2019. The company’s consolidated  revenue from operations for the quarter under review grew 50 percent year on year (y-o-y) while consolidated total income expanded 30.3 percent in Q1 2020 as compared to Q1 2019. Consolidated profit after tax more than doubled (grew 164.3 percent) to Rs 33.23 crore in Q1 2020 as compared to Rs 12.57 crore in Q1 2019.

GTPL reported consolidated revenue from operations at Rs 445.47 crore in Q1 2020 as compared to Rs  296.91 crore in Q1 2019. Consolidated total income for the period was Rs 454.30 crore as compared to Rs 296.91 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. CATV business revenue was Rs 344.16 crore in Q1 2020 as compared to Rs 260.93 crore in Q1 2-19. CATV business reported operating result of Rs 30.49 crore for the period under review as compared to Rs 10.17 crore for Q1 2019.

MUMBAI: Star India will be launching its next sports regional offering in the form of Star Sports Marathi. The sports channel is set to launch on 15 July.

Viewers who wish to opt for the channel can get it for Rs 19.

A tweet shared by the company's official handle said: "Star Sports 1 Marathi will launch on July 15. Please contact your service provider regarding its availability." 

A while ago, Star Sports received clearances from the ministry to launch its regional sports channels. 

Soon after it renamed Star Movies Kids and Star Movies Kids HD as Star Sports 1 Bangla and Star Sports 1 Marathi. Star Sports 1 Bangla was launched on 5 March with an a-la-carte price of Rs 19.

Separate data throws interesting viewership patterns for pay and FTA channels across genres.

 

For the first time in more than three years of BARC India’s operations, Week 27 saw the separate data on the ‘pay’ and ‘free to air’ platforms. BestMediaInfo.com had raised this demand from the industry long back in an article discussing how ranking pay and FTA channels together was hurting broadcasters .

While announcing the decision to report data separately for pay and FTA platforms earlier this week, BARC India said, “The pay and free viewers differ significantly not only in terms of demographics but also in their characteristics, values, lifestyle and psychographics. A study done in these homes by BARC India explicates the personas of these two audience types.”

“Reporting viewership from pay and free platforms separately would enable focussed targeting. Advertisers can plan more effectively by placing insertions on channels available on these platforms in the respective regions. Broadcasters can also make more informed decisions pertaining to content and distribution,” the viewership measurement body said.

With the separate data for pay and FTA channels released this Thursday, Star Sports 1 Hindi was the most viewed channels across pay platforms followed by Sun TV, Star Plus and Zee TV.

Mumbai: Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) launches its campaign, #MoreCricket, for the upcoming high-octane cricket series, India tour of West Indies and The Ashes. With over 275 days of live cricket this financial year, the sports network will serve fans ‘more cricket’ on SONY SIX, SONY TEN 1 and SONY TEN 3 channels. In their first appearance after the Cricket World Cup, India will take on West Indies in the Caribbean islands and USA from August 3 to September 3, 2019 and the historic rivalry between England and Australia will be revived for The Ashes from August 1 to September 16, 2019.

The campaign, #MoreCricket captures the story of every Indian cricket fan, who loves to watch India cricket but is also no stranger to The Ashes. Four great teams are going to play in two rocking series and make the monsoons even more exciting for audiences across the country. The 40-second on-air promo showcases a cricket fan bored with the channels assigned in his pack. The cricket fan in him gets excited when he learns about the two upcoming smashing cricket series on Sony Pictures Sports Network. The film derives a similarity between a cricket fan and a peacock as both are going to be massively excited this monsoon. The campaign will have television, radio, print, digital and social media rollout.

India tour of West Indies, comprising 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 2 Tests, will be played across five scenic venues in Florida, USA and in West Indies from August 3 to September 3, 2019. The 60-second on-air film, featuring Mahesh Manjrekar, takes on an amusing approach embodying every Indians undying love for cricket.

Mumbai: The Q1FY20 results announced by GTPL Hathway shows that the new tariff order by TRAI has result in a sharp increase in the pay channel charges paid by cable operators to channels while the same has been partly cushioned by an increase in subscription revenue from end consumers or local cable operators.

As a result, the net impact was largely neutral-to-slightly-positive on the cable company, especially for a company like GTPL that has a high proportion of direct customers, instead of indirect customers served via local cable operators.

Overall, the new tariff scheme seems to have been largely good for cable companies as well as it offers them a fixed revenue of at least Rs 130 per month which has to be shared between the local operator and the feed provider MSO.

In addition, the feed provider also gets to keep 20% of the pay channel costs paid by end consumers. In case of GTPL Hathway, for example, subscription revenue from its cable TV customers/partners jumped by 47% in April-June quarter compared to the same period of 2018, while placement revenue, paid by channels to cable operators, increased by only 7.6%.

Toby Jenner has been named Global CEO of GroupM agency Wavemaker. Jenner, currently MediaCom’s Worldwide Chief Operations Officer, will reportedly transition from his role over the next few months and begin his new stint at Wavemaker in September.

He succeeds Tim Castree who was named GroupM’s North American CEO in December.

Jenner will lead Wavemaker’s 8,600 employees and will be reporting to Kelly Clark, GroupM’s Global CEO.

 

MUMBAI: With the new tariff order bringing in a major change to India's television distribution, several broadcasters are adopting alternative ways to stay relevant in the ecosystem. Chef Sanjeev Kapoor-promoted FoodFood channel is among those trying to negate the impact of the new regulatory framework by converting it into a free-to-air channel from its current pay model to maintain its reach. Ahead of its 11 July FTA launch, Kapoor interacted with Indiantelevision.com to outline the reasons behind the decision and offered insights into the category his channels operates in.

MUMBAI: GTPL Hathway Ltd (GTPL), India’s leading digital cable TV and broadband service provider, today announced the financial results for the first quarter of financial year 2019–20, as approved by its board of directors.

Commenting on performance, GTPL Hathway MD Anirudhasinhji Jadeja said, “Q1FY20 was the first full quarter with new tariff order (NTO), which has led to significant growth in subscription revenue.  Subscription revenue grew by 47  per cent on a y-o-y basis. Overall, our first quarter performance was in line with our expectation and we see our next three quarters equally exciting. With NTO being stabilised, our focus on taking FTTH to more and more homes, re-launching industry’s first dual service product ‘GTPL GIGAHD’ to convert current customers along with adding new customers and concurrently launching hybrid set top box will help us to converge linear TV viewing with OTT usage. We will further increase the pace of growth momentum 

MUMBAI: The five pay direct to home (DTH) operators added 1.95 million subscribers to take the total net active subscriber base 72.44 million in Q4 of FY19, as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) Performance Indicator Report for the quarter. In the trailing quarter, the net active subscriber base was 70.49 million.

 

Bharti Airtel had reported that its DTH arm Airtel Digital TV had added 3.91 lakh net subscribers in Q4. Dish TV had reported additions of 47,000 net subscribers during the quarter. Tata Sky and Sun Direct added the bulk of the net active subscribers during the quarter as Independent TV is struggling to stay afloat.