• Pay-TV revenue surpasses FTA TV turnover in Spain

    MUMBAI: Spanish pay-TV revenues outrun free-to-air (FTA) TV services in terms of revenues

  • Sab TV spends five to ten per cent of revenue on marketing across all media

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 01
    indiantelevision.com Team

    NEW DELHI: Sab TV spends around an average of seven per cent of its revenue on marketing its programmes, ranging across all channels and other media.

    Sab TV EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor told indiantelevision.com that the amount may vary between five to ten per cent.

    He also said it was erroneous to say that Sab TV was advertising its promos only on Sony channels as efforts were made to reach out to other channels like the news channels as well.

    He said there had been a 600 per cent growth since it was taken over by Sony. This was despite the fact that this was the only television channel in the world which had only comedy series at prime time.

    Kapoor was speaking on the sidelines of press meet to announce the launch of the second series of the popular series ?Lapataganj? which had ended in January this year but had been brought back on popular demand. Several of the actors were also present.

    He said the Indian advertiser was not tailored for rural audiences, but ?Lapataganj? had managed to gain good commercial support despite being based in a village in an era when almost all the series were urban and based in high middle class or high society.

    Asked why there was little advertising for the old classic films that the channel showed at weekends, he said this would take away the attention from the channel being comedy-centric.

    Referring to the revived series, he said ?Lapataganj? had moved on six years in the new series, and therefore now had electricity, water, mobile phones and even cable television.

    However, the frustration of the average Indian about electricity and water being there with cuts, mobiles that take away the attention from the immediate family etc. would continue to be reflected. In other words, he said the revived series was also satirical in its style.

    The new series also has some new characters, but this also brings new problems for the villagers. The show will continue to trace the journey of the common man who struggles for basic amenities yet lives a fulfilled life. The show, based against the backdrop of rural India, is directed by Ashwini Dhir and produced by Garima Productions and will go on air starting 10 June at 10.00 pm.

    Continuing with the premise of ?Aam Insaano Ki Zindagi Se Judi Khass samasyaaen?, Lapataganj Ek Baar Phir brings back the everyday struggles of the common man.

    Lapataganj Ek Baar Phir captures the essence of rural India through the beloved couple Indumati (Sucheta Khanna) and Mukundi (Rohitashv Gaur), with popular characters such as Kachua Chacha (Vineet Kumar), Chukundi (Sanjay Chaudhury), Eiji and Biji Pandey (Abbas Khan), Surili (Aditi Telang), Mishri Mausi (Shubhangi Gokhale), Chotu Mama (Anoop Upadhyay), Elizabeth Yadav (Krishna Bhatt) and Lallanji (Rakesh Srivastav).

  • Prasar Bharati witnesses increasing disparity between its revenue and expenditure

    Submitted by ITV Production on May 28
    indiantelevision.com Team

    NEW DELHI: Concerned of the huge gap between revenue and expenditure, a parliamentary committee has refused to accept the excuse that Prasar Bharati being a public service broadcaster is not principally guided by commercial consideration.

    In its report on the budget of the information and broadcasting ministry for 2013-14, the parliamentary standing committee for information technology has expressed regret that ?nothing concrete? has been done despite the ministry itself expressing the apprehension that ?if this trend continues it would result into wiping out the entire available reserve of Prasar Bharati and the organisation may find itself in immense financial distress.?

    The committee noted that the gap between the revenue projected and the revenue earned by Prasar Bharati has been increasing year after year. It expressed concern over ?the increasing disparity between the revenue earned and expenditure year after year.?

    During the year 2011-12 and 2012-13, the revenue projection was Rs 1650 crore and Rs 1815 crore respectively and the revenue receipts for the years were Rs 1409.54 and Rs 1263.56 crore (up to February 2013). This meant a gap of Rs 240.46 crore in 2011-12, and Rs 551.44 crore in 2012-13 up to February this year.

    The committee finds that during the year 2010-11, the gap between revenue earned and expenditure was Rs 1633.73 crore which increased to Rs 1931.03 crore in the year 2011-12 and further swelled to Rs 1376.32 crore in 2012-13.

    The committee was also ?dismayed? to note that during the year 2012-13, the revenue generated by All India Radio and Doordarshan was Rs 1263.56 crore and expenditure incurred from Internal and Extra-Budgetary Resources (up to February 2013) was Rs 1583.43 crore leading to a gap of Rs 319.87 crore between the revenue earned and expenditure met out of IEBR.

    For the Twelfth Plan, the proposed IEBR was Rs 5000 crore while the approved IEBR was Rs 1000 crore. For the year 2012-13, Rs 400 crore had been earmarked under IEBR component but was reduced to Rs 200 crore at Revised Estimate Stage.

    The committee said: ?It is astonishing to note that despite widening gap between revenue receipt and expenditure, the target for IEBR during Twelfth Plan have been reduced to mere Rs 1000 crore.?

    The committee therefore wanted to know the rationale behind the steep reduction in IEBR target and how it is proposed to meet the burgeoning expenditure without generating IEBR. It wants the Ministry to re-visit this vital aspect. The Committee would await necessary details in this regard.

    The committee appreciated the aggressive marketing strategies being adopted by Prasar Bharati, and noted that Prasar Bharati is also exploring the feasibility of revenue generation by utilizing the extra space commercially by installation of ATM machines, installation of electronic displays for advertisements of private parties, launching of IVR/SMS based services to provide news headlines and letting of FM transmitters to private parties.

    While these were good initiatives, the committee said it was ?not satisfied with the pace of progress as so far only one office of Prasar Bharati has been identified for installation of ATM and the Ministry/Prasar Bharati are yet to make a survey of their total land and buildings to assess spare infrastructure.

    The committee wants Prasar Bharati to make ?more rigorous efforts in the asset management area and try to generate more revenues by adopting aggressive marketing strategy and better professional handling of the marketing division which in turn will make it financially more viable and secured?.

  • India, China prime drivers of pay-TV revenue growth in Asia, says MPA

    MUMBAI: Asian tigers China and India together are expected to contribute almost 69 per cent of pay-TV revenues in the

  • Over 60 per cent growth in worldwide OTT video revenue in 2012, ABI Research

    MUMBAI: Companies like Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and Amazon have helped drive the over-the-top (OTT) video market past $8

  • TV18 offers Viacom option to buy remaining stake in ETV?s GECs

    Submitted by ITV Production on Mar 09
    Indiantelevision.com

    MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl-promoted TV18 Group has offered Viacom to buy the remaining 50 per cent stake in ETV?s general entertainment channels (GECs) as part of the plan to broaden its joint venture partnership with the global media giant.

    Viacom is conducting a due diligence of the ETV assets before it decides to participate in TV18?s regional-language entertainment ambitions. Early last year, TV18 inked a deal to acquire 50 per cent stake in ETV?s Marathi, Bangla, Kannada, Gujarati and Oriya entertainment channels, along with the option of picking up the balance 50 per cent interest. It also has 24.5 per cent stake in ETV Telugu and can add a similar equity interest in the Telugu GEC.

    ?Viacom has the option to acquire stake in ETV?s entertainment channels. They are looking at it,? Viacom18 Group chief executive officer Sudhanshu Vats tells Indiantelevision.com.

    After getting Viacom?s equity participation, the ETV GECs will get housed under Viacom18. The new owners will, thus, get full ownership of the five ETV GECs (ETV Marathi, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada, ETV Gujarati and ETV Oriya) while half of ETV Telugu?s equity will get transferred.

    Viacom18 is an equal joint venture between TV18 Broadcast and Viacom. The company owns and operates a clutch of channels including Colors, MTV, Vh1, Nick, Comedy Central, Sonic and Nick Jr. It also runs a film production business through Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

    In a deal valued at Rs 21 billion, TV18 Group agreed to also acquire 100 per cent stake in ETV?s five news channels ? ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya Pradesh, ETV Rajasthan, ETV Bihar and ETV Urdu. Besides, it will have 24.5 per cent stake in ETV Telugu News.

     
    Viacom will not be part of the news venture of TV18.

    "We are poised for strong growth across all our broadcast and film production businesses. Digitisation will help us drive subscription revenue growth while bringing carriage fees down. Regional-language channels will also form an important pillar of growth once we integrate the ETV channels," says Vats.

    In FY12, Viacom18 posted operating revenue of Rs 15.69 billion. The financial figures obviously did not include the ETV channels.

Subscribe to