Zee Digital Convergence launched OZEE, a video on demand platform. Available both on Android and iOS, the OZEE app is focused on the 18-24 year olds who seek ‘entertainment now’. Check the list of available shows here. » Zee Media Corporation is acquiring 80% stake in India Today group’s loss-making ecommerce and TV shopping entities. With infrastructure development in progress for a TV shopping channel and complementary website, Today Merchandise Pvt Ltd (TMPL) and Today Retail Network Pvt Ltd (TRNL) will be a good fit in the Zee bouquet. » Meanwhile speculations are rife about Zee taking the load off Ambani by acquiring stake in his media business, RBNL. Here’s why Zee, earlier trying to enter the radio business with Radio City, will see a synergy with RBNL’s Big FM. » Investopedia, popular financial content brand, is partnering with Times Internet. Aimed at curating a blend of local and international content, this partnership will utilize TIL’s readership to grow the Investopedia amongst the Indian audience both on desktop and mobile. » Read how industry bigwigs interpret the Union Budget 2016 and what it means for the Media & Entertainment sector here.
Radio city
Radio Veteran Quits
Satyanarayana Murthy, after serving for more than 5 years as National Marketing Head and Executive VP at Radio City, has decided to put down his papers. Having more than 20 years of experience he has also worked with Adlabs Films, Radio Mirchi, Bharat Shell and L&T Ltd. » Keeping in mind the ongoing trends in kids’ entertainment, Zuckerberg Media is looking to India for original home-grown kids shows, partnering with local production houses and content creators. Randi Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO, shared her interest in entering the Indian content market stoking curiosity about which of the key broadcasting players will ink a deal with the international production house first. » Kerala’s ‘She-Taxi’, owned and operated by women entrepreneurs won the ‘Chief Minister’s Award for Innovation in Public Policy 2015’ on Wednesday. The taxicab service ensures safety and security concerns of women travelers and also adds to the socio-economic empowerment of women in the state. The award was received by She-Taxi representatives from K Muraleedharan, MLA, at a function in Thiruvananthapuram. » Facebook celebrated its 12th birthday on February 4th, by rolling out personalized ‘Friends Day’ videos for millions of people and encouraging them to share on the network with the hashtag #FriendsDay.
Twitter Townhall
The Advertising Club (TAC) and Twitter India in partnership are all set to launch their digital initiative ‘Twitter Townhall’ on 12th February, 2016. Aimed at facilitating inspiring interactions with industry leaders for young minds, this virtual Twitter Townhall will boost the growth of digital India. TAC with their twitter handle @TheAdClub_India will invite questions on a pre-decided time. Shortlisted questions will be answered by the business leaders every Friday. » Radio City Lucknow has associated itself with the Lucknow Mahotsav which started on 27th January 2016 and will continue till 7th February 2016 at Regional Park, Ashiana, Lucknow. Adding a spark to the celebrations Radio City, through its mobile studio, plans to reach out to their listeners with their evening show which goes live from the venue. » Google has beat Apple to become the world’s most valuable listed company. The company announced a rise of 13% in its global revenue and a fall in group’s tax rate to just 17%.
BBC Reshuffled
The BBC has announced a major reorganization of the top management of its television channels, as BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore will become the creative, editorial and strategic lead for all of the BBC’s channels as well as BBC iPlayer. Meanwhile, BBC2 and BBC4 boss Kim Shillinglaw has chosen to leave as the decision of separate channel ‘controllers’ was scrapped. Moore will report to Mark Linsey, acting director of television, and will take up the post on January 25. » Radio City 91.1 FM has come up with a specialized creative client solution agency – ‘AudaCITY’. The newly formed agency headed by Kartik Kalla, national programming and creative director, Radio City will provide creative and media solutions for radio, print, outdoor and BTL platforms. The platform intends to provide superior audio/sonic branding/mogos (musical logos) and brand solutions for brands with the catchy tagline ‘Be Heard’. » TRAI is set to conduct and open house discussion on ‘differential pricing for data’ services today at PHD House, New Delhi. It has invited interested stakeholders to participate on its consultation paper which received a record 24 lakh comments on the paper.
The Freedom Awards
Radio City 91.1 FM, has announced the 3rd edition of Radio City Freedom Awards – a platform to recognize & reward independent music artists across genres and languages. Entries are now open & Radio City has invited all the independent artists to submit their compositions for the extravagant show to be held at Mumbai in February end. Visit www.planetradiocity.com/rcfa for more details. » IMPACT has scheduled January 21st as the date for unveiling of its much anticipated ‘Top 30 Under 30’ list. To be held in Mumbai, the event will recognize the most talented group of 30 individuals from the field of Creative, Media and Digital agencies. The list of winners for this year was screened by a high-powered jury on August 26 2015. » Alphabet Inc has appointed Clay Bavor, Vice President of Product Management at Google to run their latest Virtual Reality division. Bavor oversaw some of Google’s key apps, including Gmail, Drive and Google Docs, which will now be taken over by Senior Vice President Diane Greene.
The Public Verdict
The people of India have spoken, and 81% of them have said no to ‘Free Basics’ or any such program while opting for an unbiased internet for themselves and their fellow citizens. The stats are from a survey conducted with over 14,000 respondents by Local Circles – a community networking portal. The poll further states that, 78% of citizens want their Government to provide free conditional internet access covering essential citizen services, news, education, etc. » It’s that time of the year when the audience can dishonor the best of the worst in Bollywood. Planet Radio City Slappies is back for its 5th season – an award show where public votes & decides which were the most sinfully boring acts or talents in 2015. Voting ends today and the final list of winners will be announced on a special show called the ‘’LOL Room’’. » Dainik Bhaskar group has announced an advertising rate hike of 25% for 94.3 MY FM, starting February 1st. The decision has been taken to address the current inventory crunch and will be applicable across all 17 stations of MY FM.
India’s Most Hated
Goonj Labs, a mass media research startup, has tracked down the trends, popular mentions, Google searches and YouTube viewership to map the popularity of Brands in India. In a report called ‘The Goonj India Index 2015’ Facebook was the most wanted brand in India in 2015 with 24,505.93 GPM (1 GPM = Estimated reach of 1,00,000 on Digital Media). Airtel meanwhile saw itself at the bottom as the most hated brand with 137.03 GPM. Among other popular brands were Dainik Bhaskar and TOI with 808.30 GPM and 662.06 GPM. » Taking advantage of the ‘odd-even scheme’ in Delhi, Radio City 91.1 has launched a clever campaign themed ‘Odd ya Even, Gaadi Dega Radio City 91.1’, providing free cab service to the selected lucky listeners. With this initiative Radio City is not just offering convenience, but also facilitating carpooling and encouraging listeners to contribute their bit to ease pollution ridden Delhi. » As New Year resolutions go, we all have our own goals set for the year. Some decide to read more while others decide to build ‘artificial intelligence’, well at least Mark Zuckerberg does. The Facebook billionaire in a recent post revealed that his personal challenge for 2016 is to build a virtual assistant to help run his house and assist him at work, “kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man”. Zuckerberg is known to take such personal challenges every year, last year it was read two books a month and learn Mandarin before that.
#MediaMoves
Entertainment and Lifestyle journalist Debasmita Ghosh makes a move to t2, the entertainment tabloid of The Telegraph as Assistant Editor. She has previously worked with Hindustan Times, Thomson Reuters, and The Times of India. Connect with the Kolkata based Debasmita @debasmitashankr. » Abraham Thomas, the former CEO of Hit FM will be the new CEO of Radio City. This came after the recent elevation of Apurva Purohit, former CEO as the President of the Jagran Group. » Raghavendra Hunsur will be the new Business Head of Zee Kannada. He is moving up the ranks from the post of Deputy Business Head after the former Business Head, Siju Prabhakaran recently moved to Zee Tamil. Congratulations!
#MediaMoves
Richa Rawat has joined DD News as Deputy Editor (assignment). She was previously associated with TV Today Network Ltd. Reach Delhi based Richa @richarawat. » Apurva Purohit the CEO of Radio City has been promoted as the President of its parent company, Jagran Prakashan Ltd. Author of the national best seller “Lady You’re Not A Man” blogs at “Women at work” and can be reached @apurva_purohit.
Digital Does the Trick
The addition of video bulletins gives Trinity Mirror a clear ratings advantage as it records a 59% increase in annual traffic in June, overtaking The Telegraph to become the third largest national newspaper website. Click here for the full report. » Its monsoon season and the lawyers will be having a field day as media houses sweat it out in courtrooms. The News Minute cites five battles including: TV Today Network vs. Radio City; Dushyant Singh vs. Times Now; and now The Caravan Magazine vs. Essar. » BBC Worldwide has announced the launch of a new Premium Factual channel BBC Earth in Asia. The channel will boast content ranging from natural history and the human world to outer space and science. » After a long drawn battle, the Madras HC has allowed Sun Television Network’s radio channels to participate in the FM Radio Phase-III channel auction on Monday. “The court has come to a prime facie view that mere pendency of a criminal case might not operate as a disqualification case unless they are convicted,” said PS Raman, Senior Counsel, Sun Group.
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