It's been three months since the shooting of TV shows began with Government guidelines after a lull of three months due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Despite growing numbers of positive cases in the country, production houses have continued to shoot for shows. 

In June, Maharashtra Government allowed production houses to resume shoots for TV and web series followed by strict compliances to all necessary government rules, regulations and safety protocols. However, the production house owners say that they are not only following Government protocols but also making necessary arrangements to ensure safety procedures.

Bengaluru: News First, the youngest channel in Kannada News media space with an experienced team of News Makers onboard open with a Big Bang on launch day as their focus story on day one reverberated in the Karnataka State Legislative assembly the very next day.

The channel chose to live up to its tagline of Pratikshana Nimmondhege, Every Moment with You, with a sting operation that showed the rampant spread of drug usage amongst children and youth alike, in government and private schools.

While most Kannada channels are going to town with an overdose of Sandalwood linked drug stories, News First decided to go the societal benefit route. The hard-hitting story exposed the modus operandi of drug peddlers luring and addicting vulnerable children between class 5 and 12.

The opposition too saw reason and made sure it was a talking point in the monsoon session of the Karnataka assembly, which started a day after the channel’s launch.

In the end of March when the lockdown was announced most organisations went into a WfH mode. There was a feeling of relief and many felt life would be easier with no long hours of daily commute and work pressures. In the beginning life was a party with everybody enjoying the freedom and getting into things they had never had the time before. Things like cooking/gardening etc became the ritual and OTT viewing spiked. As the lockdown entered the second month things changed. Work pressures mounted, time lines blurred and stress started taking its toll.

We also heard of people getting anxiety attacks, many with mental health issues or with a history of depression the conditions got aggravated. This was not just in the Media but across industries.

We spoke to HR heads, a workplace counsellor and others on what is leading to this stress, anxiety attacks and even heart attacks and as organisations what are the remedial measures being put in place for employees to make WFH a much more comfortable and stress free.

More than a year after BARC India’s ambitious digital measurement project titled Ekam was apparently shelved owing to various objections from top platforms, including the likes of Google, Facebook and Hotstar, the Indian Society of Advertisers is planning to work with BARC India to create a multimedia measurement system.

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“With digital advertising having ascended as second only to TV and growing even further, our endeavour this year would be take forward our efforts in the area of digital measurement. The ISA has plans ahead to work with BARC to create a Multimedia Measurement that can be implemented very soon,” said Sunil Kataria, Chief Executive Officer, India and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, in a press statement after being re-elected the Chairman of ISA for the fifth consecutive term.

Hoichoi, the three-year-old Bengali OTT platform, is expanding at a brisk pace with the video platform seeing its revenue doubling in the last one year. The company that has 13 million subscribers aims to scale up in the festive season and expand the subscriber base further.

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“We aim at October as it is Durga Puja, followed by the festive period and Christmas in December. We will focus on renewing subscriptions as people’s subscriptions would have ended. The next six months are important to us and we want to maintain the attention of the audiences through great content,” said Vishnu Mohta, Co-Founder of Hoichoi.

Mumbai: With 2020 being a window for many firsts, &pictures takes a refreshing step in setting a benchmark in the broadcast space to maximize the movie viewing experience with a TV first initiative. ‘Footfairy’, an &pictures original film is all set to send chills down your spine with its release this October on &pictures. This murder mystery explores the dark side of how far an absurd obsession can make you go. Set against the backdrop of Mumbai, the edge of the seat psychological crime thriller is an intriguing cat and mouse chase between a CBI officer and a mysterious serial killer with a absurd fetish. Written and directed by Kanishk Varma, this edgy and gripping movie features the versatile actor Gulshan Devaiah(seen in Commando 3, Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota Hain, Afsos and Shaitan)and the beautiful Sagarika Ghatge (Chak De India fame) in lead roles.

As Ram Sevak Sharma walks away from the centrestage, it is time to sum up his tenure as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman and the legacy that he leaves behind. Sharma talks to Ruhail Amin about his five-year stint, sectoral regulation, the digitisation of TV and maintains that the body has always promoted transparency and followed the concept of light-touch regulation.

Excerpts from the conversation

 

What would you call the key achievements of your five year stint at TRAI?

TRAI is an autonomous statutory body and functions as per the mandate given by the TRAI Act, 1997. The primary function of TRAI as sector regulator is to create a conducive environment for all service providers so that world-class telecommunications services are made available to the consumers at affordable prices.
A lot of efforts have gone into achieving the stated objectives during the last five years. This is evident from the availability of affordable 4G services across the country and complete digitisation of B&CS services. Internet data utilisation per subscriber has been the highest in the country.

The Free-To-Air (FTA) space has turned into a more competitive arena since the comeback of major broadcasters on DD FreeDish this June. Channels like Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Star Utsav and Colors Rishtey, which were re-launched on DD FreeDish on June 3 after winning MPEG-2 slot bids, have been witnessing viewership as high as what they used to enjoy in the pre-NTO period.  

According to BARC data for Week 19-22 (before return of the Big Four), Dangal was the leading channel with 2,74,17,085 viewing minutes, followed by Big Magic with 16,22,751 viewing minutes. The other channels among the top five were DD National, DD Bharati, DD Retro and Manoranjan Grand. Now, post the re-entry the data for the average of week 33-36 shows Star Utsav has emerged as the leading channel with 2,25,62,666 viewing minutes, followed by Zee Anmol on the second spot with 1,73,72,880 viewing minutes. (Market: HSM (U+R), TG: 2+, Platform Type: Free)

Bigg Boss is all set to return to the television with its season 14 starting 3 October 2020. The show commands a massive loyal audience that loves to watch the participants locked in the house. Every year, when it launches on the Hindi general entertainment channel, Colors, there is a lot of chatter around the show, its host - Salman Khan, the participants, politics, fun, fights and a lot of other things. There is no doubt that Bigg Boss  has been earning loyal sponsors and huge earned media year-on-year for the network. As a result, the teams at Viacom18 are putting their entire might to make it even more entertaining and exciting for the audiences. 

Viacom18 Hindi mass entertainment brand solutions, marketing & digital head Sapangeet Rajwant says, “Bigg Boss is one show that over the years has brought the viewers together and been the most sought after entertainment reality show. But the pandemic has bought a change in consumer sentiment wherein they’ve made a seamless transition to digital mediums. Digital is the most growing medium, I think marketing, therefore, will be redefined.  We would now look at investing in the right places to ensure the mediums we choose hereon are more effective and collaborative.”

he pragmatic and cheerful boss of Eros International’s (Eros STX Global corporation) Indian operation had come on board at a very crucial time. Within a few months after his joining in January 2020, the big merger of Eros International and US-based STX Entertainment was announced. While a corporate merger comes with its own challenges, the SARS COV2 induced crisis has just multiplied it. Despite the obstacles, the efforts are underway for smooth integration. Eros International Media Ltd India CEO Pradeep Dwivedi gleams with the hope of making an Indian studio that will be recognised globally.

Other than typical profit and loss benefits, Dwivedi believes the merged entity should be able to build the first compelling Indian studio that will capture worldwide attention both in terms of theatrical and streaming business. Starting 23 September Eros International will be known by its new corporate name Eros STX Global Corporation. The brand is launching a new website along with it. Against this backdrop, the media veteran spoke elaborately on the ongoing integration efforts, possible outcomes of the merger, digital business during a virtual fireside chat with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.