MUMBAI: 2020 as a year, has been etched in everyone’s minds, for all the wrong reasons. However, it’s for us to decide how to overcome these setbacks and march ahead. The will and determination to move forward come from within, and this year, the season 12 of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) gears up for the most celebrated comeback with the thought – Jo Bhi Ho, Setback Ka Jawaab Comeback Se Do.

As we navigate through the "new normal" in 2020, the world is opening up, slowly but surely. The joy of driving holidays is making a comeback! But after months of localised lockdowns and extensive contact tracing in the wake of the global pandemic, travelling in or among crowds is a no-go. The silver lining, though, is that road-trips of years past are back in favour. With its finger on the pulse of the Indian viewer and in tune with the sentiment of the times, History TV18 premieres a unique, digital-exclusive travel vlogging series. On '#RoadTrippinWithRnM', Rocky and Mayur get behind the wheel for a 14-day road-trip across Rajasthan, bringing followers exciting experiences and memorable moments in real-time, on History TV18‘s and their own, social media accounts. 

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Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma, Indian television's acclaimed travellers and foodies, are known as much for touring far and wide in search of great food experiences, as for their humour. Quirky, jovial, energetic with a never-say-die attitude, they are masters of the impromptu! Childhood friends and collaborators, the duo's exceptional camaraderie is all set to light up screens once more, on personal devices.

After Mumbai Police on Thursday booked a senior management official of Times Network for allegedly sexually harassing a female entertainment journalist, the company called it a malicious attempt and blackmailing by a disaffected employee who has been terminated.

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In her complaint to police, the journalist said the accused had touched her inappropriately and demanded sexual favours. When she refused to comply, the complainant said, she was sacked. The complainant further said she was sexually harassed from April 2008 to August 2020.

“There is a malicious attempt to use Sexual Harassment as a blackmail chip by a disaffected employee who has been terminated as part of Covid-related restructuring. We have an annual post-appraisal forced attrition of repeat low performers,” Times Network said in a statement.

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s Kannada News Channel, News First is set to launch on 20th September. The channel has revealed Pratikshana Nimondhige, translated to Every Moment With You., as its tagline.

 

Speaking on the occasion, News First CEO S Ravikumar said “Our brand name signifies our intention, while our tagline is a promise to the people of Karnataka that we will go the extra mile to be there for them, every moment.The extra mile will be in terms of audience focus, content, quality, credibility and flexibility while catering to our various stakeholders.”

 

Echoing Ravikumar’s views, SH Maruthi – Editor-in-Chief added “Good content always finds takers. Quality content will find more.News First is focussed on this core aspect.Be it on our channel or our digital platforms, we intend delivering quality news that has somewhat taken a backseat in the current rush for numbers alone”

The new normals in a world where Covid-19 unfortunately is becoming a part of our life will bring about many changes in the way businesses will be conducted, and more importantly the way we live our life.

In a world post-lockdown where the rules of the game are set to change, or rather have already changed, the way forward for the DTH players is also entering an unknown road.

Sugato Banerji, Corporate Head – Marketing, D2H, Dish TV India Limited spoke to us in our series Back to Business and shared their plans of coming back to normalcy after the crisis.

Read on.

How are you coping with the impact of Covid-19 on your business? How effectively have you used the lockdown period?

In this unprecedented continuing sporadically severe lockdown conditions all over the country, a majority of our customers are stuck at home. During this period, we have seen a surge of customers recharging and coming back onto our platforms as also a segment of customers who are downscaling their expenses in view of the prolonged uncertainty. This is because every household wants to be abreast of the latest news about the pandemic and lockdown as also conserve financial resources. We see this as a positive part. However as lockdown progressed and impacted wider and wider swathes of the country, we encountered challenges in running our call centres, ensuring recharge availability as retailers were closed for a long time, and on the ground in both, the availability and the ability of our technicians to visit homes for service calls.

Times Network has issued statement after a former employee levelled allegations against senior management.

 The statement said, “There is a malicious attempt to use Sexual Harrassment as a blackmail chip by a disaffected employee who has been terminated as part of Covid related restructuring. We have an annual post appraisal forced attrition of repeat low performers. This person has been with us 12 years. She was found incompetent in an earlier role and demoted once in 2017 with a salary cut. She has been wanting at several levels since 2018 and we have had repeated communications about non performance. All these are on record."

 

"During her entire tenure she has never ever mentioned any such Harrassment and has conveniently brought it up now. Even after her termination on 9th August,she had been negotiating with us for higher severance compensation. When her attempts failed she has resorted to frivolous allegations," it added.

Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) has launched a new campaign for the upcoming Australia tour of England, starting from 4 September, to honour the ‘Real Fans’ of cricket.

The network has launched  two campaign films that feature Real Fans vs Fake Fans for the series to capture the passion and the sentiments of Indian cricket fans which transcends all geographical boundaries, SPSN revisits its tenet ‘Love for Cricket Knows No Boundaries’ to win the hearts of real cricket fans with its campaign “Asli Fans ke Liye”. 

 

In 2019, SPS conceptualized and launched the ‘Love for Cricket knows no Boundaries’ campaign to tell the poignant, heartwarming story of one such fan of the sport. Taking the same thought forward, the network launched the ‘Asli Fans Ke Liye’ campaign. 

The big merger in the entertainment industry is all but done. The wait is expected to be over soon. The deal for the merger of Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India and Viacom18 is likely to be announced in the third week of September, bringing down curtains to months of speculation, it is learnt.

The merger will not just boost efficiency but also exploit synergies, creating value for all stakeholders. The merger of three brands, which has been in the talks since the end of last year, will apparently create a single entity that would have a wide bouquet of offerings under their umbrella. The merged entity will together own 77 TV channels, two OTT platforms, three film studios and two digital content studios, making it a strong competitor for all major industry leaders.

NEW DELHI: With the world grappling with a slowdown and a potential recession, companies have been tinkering around with their domestic and international strategies. India’s leading broadcaster Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zeel)- which had been grappling with its own ownership issues -  is no different. Even as it has realigning its domestic business to build its digital.

According to BARC Ratings of South GEC for week 33, the following are the ranking of various Regional GECs.Asianet leads the Malayalam GEC category followed by Surya TV on the 2nd spot. Flowers TV secure the 3rd spot while we have Mazhavil Manorama and Zee Keralam as the last 2 contenders in this category.