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Leo Burnett network is showering a lot of attention on India these days. Burnett India has achieved quite a few distinctions, creativity-wise, within the network over the past year or so. The Indian agency's sixteen 7+ scores (based on Leo Burnett Worldwide's highly regarded internal creative rating process) in the first three quarters of 2003 alone serve as a pointer. Add to this the fact that Burnett India is among the finalists for Leo Burnett Worldwide's Global Agency of the Year award. Clubbing India with China and Korea as three of the most promising countries in the region for doing business, Linda Locke, chairman/executive creative director & regional creative director, Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific, however said that "India has always been strong in print, but television is something you have to work on a lot more," To Locke's mind, the problem with Indian commercials extends to almost all departments of filmmaking - scripting, casting, production… According to her "In India, Burnett India should be the clear No. 2 if not the No. 1 in the next 12 months. Source: Agencyfaqs.com, Dec.12, 2003

Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has launched a new rural initiative called Param which will take connectivity and thereby e-governance to interior India where a large portion of the population lives. According to Mr Pankaj Baveja, who is heading this initiative, "We are calling our project connecting the last mile first." It is focused on communications and providing connections among people by using multiple technologies, some developed in-house and others off the shelf, to reach remote rural areas, where no landline phones or media-based communication is available. A pilot project called Beta-I has been undertaken in two remote villages of Basti district in east Uttar Pradesh. The project could prove critical for e-governance related communications including education, healthcare and business. Source: The Hindu Business Line, Dec.25, 2003

T.V. Media

Broadcasters are now alleging that cable operators are transmitting channels under CAS despite the lack of any agreement between them on channel pricing. Cable operators, on their part, have asked broadcasters to lower channel rates to ensure a faster migration to CAS by consumers. According to sources, a fresh agreement specifying new commercial terms and distribution arrangement will have to be worked out as operations under CAS will involve the encryption and decryption of channels. Cable network companies have seen a rush for set-top-boxes, with the first five days itself seeing a demand for about 15,000 boxes. They anticipate the demand to increase with the 3rd cricket test match between India and Australia. The cable TV industry expects to complete the rollout of CAS in the first notified zone in Delhi by March 2004, with about 60% of consumers opting for CAS. Source: Business Standard, Dec.22, 2003

The I&B Ministry has told major players in the cable TV business that the future of the CAS is contingent upon its success in south Delhi and that consumer resistance may even force the government to review the scheme. Meanwhile, the BJP has asked consumers not to get set-top boxes (STBs) installed at their homes as a pressure tactic to safeguard their interests. Chennai, where CAS had been introduced earlier on, has settled down-without the STBs. The main reason is that most watched Tamil channels are free to air. Even the odd pay channels-KTV, SCV and Star Vijay-promptly turned free. The multi-system operators also had to come up with more consumer friendly ways to sell their STBs. Though there are 12 lakh cable-connected homes in Chennai, only 15,000 STBs have been installed so far. Source: Hindustan Times, Dec.20, 2003

The proposal of Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS) to uplink Star News channel from India is still being examined by the information and broadcasting ministry after Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared it. FIPB has approved MCCS proposal for foreign investment but this is subject to the ministry's permission for uplinking a news & current affairs television channel from India, I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Source: The Financial Express, Dec.16, 2003

Action in the television industry is heating up with several satellite channels being planned for the Indian market. CNBC-TV18 is contemplating a separate business news channel in Hindi. Company's chief executive officer, Haresh Chawla says that the channel has already increased its Hindi programming on its existing channel during the day. "We feel that with the rise in education, aspiration and income levels of people, a Hindi business news channel could be the window to understanding the commercial world," he said. Media industry sources say that encouraged by CNBC's improved advertising during stock markets coverage, NDTV 24x7 is also planning to focus on stock market trading and business news during the trading hours But L S Nayak, CEO of NDTV Media, said there was "no plan to tinker with the English channel's programming immediately since we are already India's number one English channel." Meanwhile, back in south SunNetwork is ready to convert its Telugu offering Teja into a full-fledged news channel. Source: Economic Times, Dec.11, 2003

Print Media

The National Readership Survey'03 , buried for over two months in legal legerdemain , shows clearly that the English daily league tables have turned. The Times of India is the most read newspaper in New Delhi, and the only English daily to make the national Top Ten with 74.19 lakh readers nationally. In New Delhi metro area, TOI, with 14.32 lakh readers, is followed by Navbharat Times with a readership of 14.31 lakh, while Hindustan Times is 13.27 lakh. More than 67% of TOI readers belong to the highest SEC A category; HT's got 63%. Almost 40% of TOI readers are below 24 years, while 35% are students. The TOI is the No. 2 publication by readership in the Delhi state area, or the NCR (14.41 lakh), following the leader Navbharat Times (14.85 lakh). HT, at 13.35 lakh comes in at third place. Using Cencus'01 demographic data for the first time, NRS'03 pegs the city's overall adult population at 103.24 lakh, which includes the 12-15 year age group for the first time as well. Source: Economic Times, Dec.22, 2003

According to the revised National Readership Survey'02 data, TOI's readership has grown by 33% over last year; HT's declined by 1%. Among young readers, there's a 42% rise in the 20-24 age group, and 55% in the 25-34 age group. NRS'03 throws up some more interesting trends. Among dailies, more readers are reading both a language paper and an English paper; this segment has grown to 11%. However, readers of Hindi dailies have fallen off by 4%, while readers of English dailies stayed more or less the same. The penetration of print has dropped by a significant 6%, from 58% to 52%, of the total adult population. However, it's primarily the language segment and magazines that contribute to the fall-Hindi press has dropped by6%; magazines by 9%; English press by a mere 1%. Nationally, the most widely read newspaper is Dainik Bhaskar (1.57 crore) followed by Dainik Jagran (1.49 crore), while Tamil Nadu's Daily Thanthi is third with a readership of one crore. Source: Economic Times, Dec.22, 2003
Radio Media

The world

Service providers are making an all out effort to offer satellite radio as an alternative. The two players in the satellite radio business in the US, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, know that they still have to cover a lot of ground before traditional radio listeners can be converted. However, XM of Washington has one million subscribers, and New York-based Sirius had around 150,000 on last count. According to analysts, these numbers will only grow. Although subscriber numbers are on the rise, neither Sirius nor XM is profitable. "Sirius reported a pre-tax loss of $79.8 million for the third quarter of 2003 and XM posted a $64.4 million loss. Their strategy to attract viewers mainly focuses on unusual programmes and content, and fewer commercials. Interestingly, if a consumer wants completely ad-free programmes, which are available on Sirius, he pays more than he would to XM. WorldSpace has just started experimenting with subscription-based radio, particularly in the India market. Source: The Financial Express, Dec.1, 2003

Web Media

The world

Software publisher Adobe Systems has made a surprise move to revive the faltering e-book market, opening its own online store. The Adobe Digital Media Store offers books from major publishers such as HarperCollins Publishers, Simon and Schuster and Random House, plus links to electronic versions of publications such as Popular Science and The New York Times. Adobe senior vice-president James Heeger said in a statement that since PDF is the dominant format for e-books, it makes sense for Adobe to consolidate available content. "The Adobe Digital Media Store provides publishers and producers of digital content with a vital, innovative new distribution channel, through Adobe Reader," he said. Source: The Financial Express, Dec.22, 2003

Google Interactive quietly has begun testing a service that let's users search excerpts of books, a sign of its broader ambitions in the search market. Google is steering users who read the book excerpts to Amazon.com Inc and other online stores. Users can search for Microsoft related books, for example, on the service, called Google Print, by typing "Microsoft site:print.google.com" into the search-query box. It will pull up excerpts for Microsoft related books, just like other web pages that Google's software turns up when it "crawls" the web. Those book excerpts will be interspersed with other search results in the future, said Susan Wojcicki, Google's director, product management. Source: The Financial Express, Dec.22, 2003

RealNetworks Inc. has sued Microsoft Corp, accusing it of illegally monopolising the field of digital media by requiring Windows operating system users to accept the company's media player. The incident has renewed a long debate over the software behemoth's behaviour. Source: Hindustan Times, Dec.20, 2003

Events & Public Relations

Devraj Sanyal, operating chief of 360 Degrees, the event management division of Times Infotainment Media, has put in his papers at the company. He is scheduled to join Percept D'Mark (the JV between Percept IMC and the $10.6-billion Aegis Group) as COO, and will be reporting directly to Percept's head, Shailendra Singh. Over two years ago, the Times Group had mandated Sanyal to put its event management division into orbit. "In just two-and-a-half years, this has grown into an 80-strong organisation, with five profitable regional offices. We have organised some 1,200 reasonably-large-to-large events, and our regular clients include multinationals like Castrol and MasterCard. The company will end this year with a turnover of Rs 35 crore, almost all of it from outside (non-Times Group) business, and we are today among the top five event management companies in India, both in market share and mind share terms, said Sanyal. Unlike 360 Degrees when it started, Percept D'Mark is an established name and has already evolved as a strong organisation with a significant turnover. "Now My job is to propel the next phase of D'Mark's growth and make it a Rs 500-crore company", he said. Source: Agencyfaqs.com, Dec.16, 2003

Films & Cinema

Applause Entertainment, promoted by the Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and film maker Ram Gopal Varma's production company, Varma Corporation, are understood to be teaming up for a joint venture to produce movies in south Indian languages. The JV will initially produce Telugu movies. Details are being finalised but both parties are believed to have reached a broader understanding whereby Birlas will invest for film production, leaving the creative functions to Varma Corporation. Sources said that both the companies would hold equal stakes in the new venture, which is expected to make at least 8 films in Telugu language alone in the next 16 months. Source: Economic Times, Dec.22, 2003

The world

The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King, a peter Jackson film, shows every sign of being the blockbuster of the season-and the favourite to win the best picture Oscar. "The want-to-see and awareness is off the charts," says prognosticator John Shaw of Movieline International. Shaw and others say forecasting a $300 million take In North America alone would be conservative. To put that in perspective, a movie is considered a block buster if it makes $100 million. "The film is a phenomenon and ends the trilogy with a tremendously satisfying way that will please audiences of all ages," says Shaw. Source: USA Today, Dec.12, 2003

Miscellaneous

Dick Parsons, chairman and chief executive Time Warner wants to mark 2004 by salvaging one of the worst deals (AOL-Time Warner merger) in US corporate history. While turning round AOL, Mr Parsons says Time Warner's interests lie elsewhere. He identifies three main areas: enlarging Time Warner's cable footprint; adding more TV channels; and expanding Warner Brothers' huge film library. The Turner networks division, which includes the CNN news channel and the leading cable TV channels TNN and TNT, is also the largest of its kind. These characteristics make potential bolt-on acquisitions less risky: "These businesses benefit from scale. So adding on to that is a more comfortably predictable route to adding value rather than a transforming deal," according to Parsons. Source: New York Times, Dec.10, 2003

Compiled by

Saurabh Marya, BA Mass Comm (1st year)

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