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Skyline Business School |
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Skyline Business School |
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Issue:14
Advertising & Marketing
By the end of this month the health ministry will take its first step to implement the tobacco-control legislation.
"The gazette notification for a complete ban on advertisements and all direct and indirect promotional activities for tobacco products will be done in a week or two," said Health secretary J.V.R. Prasada Rao. The ban will cover brand extension, sponsorships and surrogate advertising, including the use of tobacco logos. The tobacco industry has been accused of bypassing ad bans by using cigarette and gutka names on unrelated products and events. Now events bearing the name of tobacco products will also not be allowed to advertise. According to TAM Media Research, cigarettes, paan masala, zarda and gutka account for about Rs 170 crore of ad spend on the TV and print media, while another Rs 70 crore is spent on outdoor cigarette advertising. Source: Hindustan Times, Jan.21, 2004The world
Michael Maedel, who's just taken over as president, JWT Worldwide this January, says J Walter Thompson is better than the average agency at giving people a chance to pursue their own goals.
"If money is all you offer people, you create a band of mercenaries," he says. "We need a certain continuity in hiring," says Maedel, "rather than taking action when there's upswings and downswings." The end result, he says is that the agency business has become less attractive to talented people-and only part of the reason is the growing allure of sectors like media, entertainment and television. He also said that it was critical for the future of the business that agencies moved up the value chain in the eyes of clients. The danger to watch out for, he warns, is that agencies think they're bigger than the clients they work for. According to him the answer to the complex marketplace of today is a combination of media channels-and messages tailored to each channel, taking into account how the target consumes communication on each of them. He also says that agencies need to look at bringing some skills, especially those related to planning channels of communication, back in-house. Source: The Economic Times, Jan.21, 2004T.V. Media
STAR together with Tata Sons has finally decided to launch its Direct to Home (DTH) operations. It will be taking the backseat, with Tata Sons announcing the formation of a joint venture where it will have an 80% stake. The rest will be held by Star. The new company will be approaching the government for a licence to operate soon. The new JV may or may not bear the name Space TV, sources said. While Star may have lost the first mover's advantage to Suhash Chandra promoted ASC Enterprise which launched its DTH operations three months ago, a note from the Tata Group said the group was looking forward to building India's largest digital television platform and offer a range of channels including exclusive channels with interactive features and services. The Tata statement said the JV is subject to requisite government approvals. It would take a few months for operations to begin as DTH guidelines are yet to be put in place. Source: The Indian Express, Jan.21, 2004
HBO, the English movie channel, has ended 2003 on a good note.
It has ended with 11 out of the top 15 English movies and carved a share of 42% in its genre, says Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager, HBO South Asia. According to her, that is a result of a three-pronged strategy-the latest Hollywood film, innovative theme and original programming. Bajpai has been elevated to the position of Country Manager, HBO South Asia, from the level of Director-marketing from January 1. "The fact that we have tie-ups with four major studios-Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal and Paramount-is a major advantage," she says. The channel is on course to break-even and should be able to achive this in over a year's time. "Therefore, the content will play a major role," she says. 2004 will have several big movies under the slot 'Big One' and is starting the year with Spiderman. Source: The Hindu Business Line, Jan.21, 2004TV Today, the company that owns and operates the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, today made its debut on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at Rs 220, a premium of 132% over its offer price of Rs 95.
The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 225 before closing at Rs 181.35. At the opening price of Rs 220, the company is valued at Rs 1,280 crore. TV Today CEO G Krishnan said: "Obviously, people give credit to a clean and transparent balance sheet." Aaj Tak is expected to get more viewers during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. "Despite the fact that the market sentiment was down, investor's reaction to the stock shows the confidence," Anil Mehra, director, TV Today, said. Source: Business Standard, Jan.18, 2004Bennett Coleman & Co (BCCL), publishers of The Times of India and The Economic Times newspapers, is finally entering the television broadcasting business with a music channel.
Zee TV president Apurva Purohit, who is said to be serving her notice period in the company, is slated to join the television venture as chief operating officer, Entertainment Channels. Times Group president Arun Arora confirmed the Times venture into television media business. "There is no decision on whether it will be a mass entertainment channel, a news channel or a niche channel," said Arora. According to sources, BCCL is entering the broadcasting arena with its music division Times Music. The investment cost for the channel will be low as it already has the software in place. It is estimated that the total project cost will be in the range of Rs 10-15 crore. Source: Business Standard, Jan.16, 2004Raghav Bahl, the managing director of TV18, has drawn up ambitious expansion plans.
First off the block, most likely this year itself, is a business news channel in Hindi, though the brand is yet to be finalised. This will be followed by more such channels in other vernacular languages; Gujarati being a definite possibility at the moment. Meanwhile he is also toying with the idea of launching a business magazine. CNBC TV18 has reached a viewership of 15.5 million cable & satellite homes and hopes to touch 20 million by the end of the year-in four years flat. TV18 chief executive, Haresh Chawla expects the Hindi channel to clock higher viewership than CNBC TV18. After making huge investments in the first two years, TV 18 broke even last year and is expected to report profits the current financial year. Source: Business Standard, Jan.14, 2004The world
Conrad Black yesterday signalled his withdrawal from the Hollinger publishing group he founded by agreeing a $466.5m cash sale of the holding company behind the Telegraph titles in the UK and the Chicago Sun-Times.
The surprise disposal of Hollinger Inc to the Barclay brothers, the UK property and publishing entrepreneurs, was finalised hours after Lord Black was ousted as chairman of Hollinger International at the weekend. The offer values Hollinger Inc, which owns 30.3% of Hollinger International's equity and 72.8% of the voting rights, at $326.54m. The Barclays will also assume $140m in debt. However, completion of the deal could be hampered by a string of lawsuits against Hollinger Inc. Source: Financial Times, Jan.19, 2004The New York Times Co. yesterday announced ambitious plans to expand the International Herald Tribune (IHT), its Paris-based subsidiary.
Executives said the IHT-formerly a 50-50 joint venture with The Washington Post-would benefit from increased business coverage, colour printing and a marketing campaign aimed at bolstering advertising. The move follows the group's $65m acquisition last year of The Washington Post's stake. Michael Golden, publisher of IHT said the revamped title would target international business readers. IHT has struggled, losing $5m on a budget of about $100m in 2002. In that year, losses contributed to a deficit of $31m from the NYT's joint ventures. Future profits and losses will be consolidated in the company's Newspaper Group division, which includes the flagship New York title as well as the Boston Globe and 24 regional publications. In Europe, the IHT pans to expand its link-ups with titles including El Pais of Spain and Germany's FAZ. Source: Financial Times, Jan.16, 2004Radio Media
The information & broadcasting ministry is now planning a 24-hour AIR news station before the Lok Sabha elections.
The proposed radio station is to be launched on April 2. Ministry officials said that the launch would not violate the model code of conduct. The ministry also plans to make all the necessary arrangement for the launch before the Election Commission announces the poll schedule. Prasar Bharati is expected to hold a meeting on Thursday to prepare the blueprint for the news station. "There are very few news radio stations in the world," an official pointed out. Prasar Bharati plans to go in for a massive recruitment drive for the news stations. About 250 correspondents and technical staff will be hired. Source: Hindustan Times, Jan.22, 2004Although there's a view within the government that 'news' should not be permitted in private FM radio, citing security concerns, the Cabinet decision may go against this thinking.
Even as the I&B ministry is finalising its recommendations for the second phase of FM radio privatisation, government sources said 'news' is likely to be allowed, despite objections. In private FM radio, there's apprehension that small players could "misuse" the freedom by broadcasting volatile information as 'news.' The expert committee was set to up look into the second phase of privatisation after the existing players in private FM, including Bennett Coleman and Living Media, protested against the steep licensing fee and foreign investment restriction in radio ventures. The committee is also of the view that the open auction bid process was not suitable for auctioning frequencies, and has recommended the process of tendering. Source: The Financial Express, Jan.21, 2004A recent study by IMRB International for Radio Mirchi has not only reported a sharp rise in radio audience in New Delhi
during the last six months, it has also said that radio listenership is fast catching up with television viewership in the capital. In terms of time spent listening (TSL), radio listeners spent on average 103 minutes daily listening to the medium, not far behind the 137 minutes of time spent viewing television, the study said. It also said that out of Delhi's 8.59 million people in the age group of 15 and above, 50% listen to radio everyday. Commenting on the findings, Prashant Panday, COO of Entertainment Network India Ltd, the company running Radio Mirchi FM station, said that though the increase in TSL was driven by the 15-24 age group audience initially, it is fast catching up with working men and housewives. So is the case amongst the affluent segments of the society in Delhi. While 37% of the 5.43 million people in the socio-economic classification sectors A, B and C listened to radio everyday in June 2003, the number had risen sharply to 53% in December 2003 as per the study. Source: Business Standard, Jan.19, 2004Sify Ltd., an Internet, network and e-commerce services company, has reported a cash profit
(in adjusted EBITDA-earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation-terms) of nearly a million dollar during the quarter ended December, 2003 as compared to $3.1 million cash loss for the same quarter in the previous year. The company reported a sales-revenue of $15.62 million during the quarter under review, up by 37%. Sales revenue is 7% higher than the immediately preceding quarter. The net loss during the quarter was $2.25 million, down by 68%. Corporate services contributed 49% of the revenues. Retail Internet access business accounted for 39% and the interactive services accounted for 2.4% of the Sify's revenues during the quarter under review. Source: The Hindu Business Line, Jan.21, 2004Google Inc, which dominates the market for Web search, is developing a service that could dramatically extend the reach of its lucrative keyword-based advertising by linking such ads to e-mail.
Adding an e-mail service would provide a potential boost to Google as its lead in the search market seems destined to narrow and it prepares to answer to growth-hungry shareholders, analysts said. The Mountain View, California, company, which has recently made several e-mail related acquisitions, is working on a way to serve advertising to an e-mail at the moment it is opened, sources said. Privately held Google is expected to go public later this year. Source: Business Standard, Jan.19, 2004Films & Cinema
The country's Rs 4,000 crore film industry, where Bollywood alone churns out 150 films a year, is using a different language. If all this while it sourced its key raw material-movies-it now believes that there is no better way than to make it in-house.
So after Star, Zee and Sahara, the Adhikari Brothers' promoted SAB Television Network is the latest broadcaster to hit the Rs 900 crore film production marquee. And while television software houses like Balaji, Cinevista, Optymystix and UTV are producing films, Creative Eye and Aditya Narayan Singh's Contiloe Films are currently scripting their strategy on film production. "The success of new generation small-and medium-budget films has prompted our production foray," says SAB's Vice-Chairman & Managing Director Markand Adhikari. SAB has an equal partnership venture with Anand Pandit's Lotus Films. It will initially invest around Rs 20 crore over a year, with four to five film projects in the pipeline. In Star's tie-up with UTV, while the partners will share the production costs, Star gets the cable & satellite telecast rights with UTV bagging the music and home video rights. However, Star hints at a solo appearance in future. Source: Business Standard, Jan.20, 2004Compiled by
Saurabh Marya, BA Mass Comm (1st year)
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