MUMBAI: Media conglomerate ZEEL, FM radio broadcaster Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL) and broadband player Atria Convergence have figured in the top 100 list of great companies to work for, according to Great Place to Work Institute’s rankings for 2019.

MBL, the owner of FM radio brand Radio City, has ranked fifth while Atria is at the 18th position in the top 100 table. ZEEL, which has Rs 2952 employees, is at the fifth position. MBL and Atria have 693 and 7032 employees respectively.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Gozoop Online, MBL, ZEEL, and Zee Media Corporation Limited are the best workplaces in the media industry

MUMBAI: Sun TV Network Ltd (STNL) is planning to spend up to Rs 1700 crore between FY20 to FY22 as part of its capex plan. The cash-rich company will fund the capex through internal accruals.

According to an ICRA report, STNL has strong liquidity with zero debt, a sizeable cash balance of Rs. 2,686.5 crore as on 31st March 2019 compared to Rs. 1,896.9 crore in FY18 and fund flow from operations of Rs. 1,882.2 crore in FY2019 (based on abridged financials), aided by its strong accruals and moderate capex undertaken over the last several years.

“Going forward, STNL has capex plans of Rs.1,700.0 crore over FY2020-22, to be funded through internal accruals. The company’s liquidity position is expected to remain strong over the medium term, despite potential revenue impact during periods of economic slowdown,” ICRA said in its report.

What we want to do is offer variety. You don't want to watch the same thing every night, as much as you like it," said Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, in an interview in April 2018. #SoWhatAreYouWatching is Netflix India's latest ten-ad TV campaign that delivers an overall message that the OTT platform has offerings for all age groups, i.e. from the kid cartoon fan to the elderly.

MUMBAI: In the last few years, diversity and inclusion have caught heightened attention in organisations across the world. Although diversity is less of a concern for media companies, inclusion is what needs to be addressed. The motive behind this should its relevance today and the impact it has on business.

At the recently concluded Media HR Summit hosted by Indiantelevision.com, a panel discussion moderated by D&I evangelist and founder and MD Vividhataa Diversity Hiring Consultants Ratnaprabha Sable revolved around the issues regarding D&I. Voices of Inclusion author Deepa Shankar, Mondelez International diversity and inclusion lead (independent consultant) Priyadarshini Gupta, NeoSeven Solutions global HR expert Monika Navandar took part in the discussion.

MUMBAI: Questions and controversies around TDSAT’s ruling on landing pages and BARC India’s subsequent flip-flop over implementation of its data validation and outlier policy refuse to die down. In a bid to allay transparency fears of a section within India’s broadcast sector, the BARC board approved a recommendation to set up a two-member committee to review the TV audience measurement body’s outlier policy.

“As you are aware, there has been a lot of confusion around the landing page in the market. Therefore in order to give confidence to the industry and the stakeholders, BARC board approved a recommendation to set a two-member committee. Mr Nakul Chopra and Mr Praveen Tripathi are industry leaders and their appointment only reiterates the BARC board’s reassurance to give confidence to the industry.

Three months after taking charge as the MD of Discovery Communications, South Asia, Megha Tata who was earlier COO of BTVI has got her strategies in place.

In this Leaderspeak, Tata talks about the plans for her “Dream Job” at Discovery Communications and a lot more.

Edited excerpts.

How’s it been at Discovery?

It’s been about two months, actually a little over two months and it’s been an extremely exciting and a superb experience so far. Like I keep saying that it is like a dream job for me.Discovery is something I have,grown up watching, and by watching I say, not only as a consumer but also in the industry, because I think Discovery happened about 25 years ago in India. I have spent almost 28 years in the in the media industry. So Discovery and I have sort of grown together.

MUMBAI: Audience measurement body BARC India has launched its new product ‘PrimaVU’ which is aimed at measuring viewership from premium homes. Through ‘PrimaVU’, BARC India also introduces the industry first concept of ‘Viewing Minutes’ which is basically the sum of all individuals watching an Event basis the time spent by them.

In a statement, BARC India also informed that PrimaVU is a separate product and not part of the currency panel measurement. It further stated that PrimaVU caters to audience measurement solutions exclusively for premium homes.

MUMBAI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has restored the four TV channel licences of Sudarshan TV Channel Limited (STCL).

In May 2018, the ministry had revoked the licences of Sudarshan, A to Z, A to Z Documentary and Telefilms, and Dharma (Sai TV). The licences were cancelled due to non-response of the company and non-submission of permission fees.

Sudarshan and A To Z are news licences while A to Z Documentary and Telefilms and Dharma (Sai TV) are non-news licences.

The English entertainment cluster is a key focus area for broadcaster Zee Entertainment. It has three key brands Zee Café, &Privé HD, and &flix. While Zee Café is an English entertainment channel, the other two brands operate in the English movie genre. Zee Café and &flix target English speaking audience at a mass level while &Privé HD has a more premium positioning.

ZEEL English cluster business head Shaurya Mehta said that the English cluster is faring well under the TRAI’s new tariff order (NTO) regime. The broadcaster has created a dedicated English language pack priced Rs 15 for SD channels and Rs 25 for HD channels. The idea was to drive subscription through affordable pricing.

BENGALURU: Pubcaster Doordarshan’s English news channel DD India was ranked second in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly list of top five English news channels in week 25 of 2019 (Saturday, 15 June 2019 to Friday, 21 June 2019, week or period under review). DD India made it to second spot after a hiatus of four weeks. Earlier the Doordarshan Network’s English news channel was involved in a dingdong battle for the pole position with the Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV between weeks 13 and 19 of 2019 until Republic TV overtook it.