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Skyline Business School |
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Skyline Business School |
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Issue:22
Advertising &
Marketing
Integrated
Marketing Action Group (IMAG, which constitutes Lintas India’s integrated
communications businesses) has announced the formation of a seven-member executive council to help it manage ‘the rapid growth
that it has been experiencing in the last few months’, says an official communiqué.
The executive council will comprise presidents of the different units under the IMAG fold,
and the council members ‘will be responsible for the overall IMAG product and
delivery, in addition to that of their own units’. Industry veteran and old Lintas
hand Usha Bhandarkar is joining the council as creative & strategic planning director.
Besides Bhandarkar and Ashish Bhasin (director IMAG, Lintas India), the executive council
will include Debashis Das (of Linterland), Chandradeep Mitra (of Lowe Personal and Lowe
Healthcare), Ameer Ismail (of LinOpinion and Advent), and Sabyasachi Mishra and Colette
Austin (of design unit, d-Cell). Source: Agencyfaqs.com,
Mar.18, 2004
Rediffusion DY&R is set to join Leo Burnett for a share of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s (IOCL) Rs 140-150-crore advertising duties. This, in effect, means that the creative business, which had been consolidated with Leo Burnett last year, has now been split into two. Last year the idea was to bring the whole business, which was then spilt among seven agencies – including Grey Worldwide, Euro RSCG, Ushak Kaal, Publicis, Enterprise Nexus, Crayon and Interact Vision – under one umbrella. However, in these last eight months, the thinking at the helm at IOCL seems to have moved in a new direction. Sources indicate that the volume of work and the sheer number of brands under IOCL needed the attention of one more agency. “When you put all your eggs in one basket, you reach a creative blind,” says an executive. To ensure competency, both the agencies would be asked to pitch for IOCL’s various brands from time to time. Source: Agencyfaqs.com, Mar.16, 2004
Television
The recent controversy
surrounding Ten Sports has led to the Government considering norms for channels beaming
into India. Currently several
channels are being uplinked from international hubs and are downlinked in India. But there
are no laws pertaining to downlinking of channels in India. The I&B Ministry has
started looking into the regulatory framework in different parts of the world before
finalising its strategy. "In India, most broadcasters are registered as marketing
agents or foreign telecasting companies, while the foreign parent has the rights to the
signals. Hence, there is no method to monitor the channels available here," said
Government sources. This came to light when Taj TV Pvt Ltd, India told the Supreme Court
that Ten Sports was owned by a company based in Dubai, Taj TV Pvt Ltd Dubai, which also
owned the rights to the ongoing Indo-Pak cricket matches. The Indian entity is just a
marketing agent, it added. Source: The Hindu Business Line,
Mar.18, 2004
Chris McDonald, CEO, Taj Television, Dubai said that the channel may consider re-negotiating rates after it has managed to sell off most of its inventory. "It's a challenge. We will see how to deal with it," he said. But media planners said that it is unlikely that they would pay a higher rate. "The channel could charge a higher rate for the last unsold inventory. But it is unlikely that advertisers who have already signed on will agree to pay more," said a Mumbai-based media planner. They also added that the advertising was bought on Ten Sports, which is a cable and satellite channel and not on DD. "We can ask Ten Sports not to air our ads on DD. Will that be possible? In fact, since the matches are being shown on DD in public interest, how can they make a commercial killing out of this," he added. Another media planner questioned the disparity in rates between DD and Ten Sports. DD with an 80-million-households reach had charged Rs 2 lakh for a 10-seconder for the first One Day International, but Ten Sports with lower connectivity charged higher rates. The industry has estimated the total mass media advertising during the series to be at Rs 200 crore, with television having the highest share with Rs 130 crore, on-ground placements accounted for Rs 40 crore while the rest is being spent on the print media. Source: The Hindu Business Line, Mar.17, 2004
United
Home Entertainment Ltd is planning to dilute 20 per cent through a private placement in
its new kids channel called Hungama, expected to launch in August this year.
The balance 80 per cent will be shared between Ronnie Screwvala and UTV. “I will hold
51 per cent and UTV 49 per cent stake of the 80 per cent stake,” said UTV
founder-promoter Mr Screwvala. Lazard India has been appointed to raise Rs 50-75 crore for
the channel through private placement. Mr Screwvala and UTV will pump in Rs 12.5 crore
each for the project. “We appointed Lazard India last week to find an investor,”
said Mr Screwvala, adding, negotiations are on with satellite providers. “We want the
footprint to reach the Middle East region as well. We will finalise on which satellite the
channel will beam from,” he said. Elaborating on a unique innovation, Mr Screwvala
said that a 15-member kids governing board would be appointed through a ground event
carried across 15 cities in the country. The talent search will be for kids between 8-15
year-olds. “We are in talks with various distribution bouquets for distributing the
channel,” Mr Screwvala said. United Home Entertainment is in talks with STAR India
and Sony-Discovery to distribute the channel. Both the bouquets currently lack a kids
channel and are in talks to rope in Walt Disney Channel. Hungama will be a Hindi channel
with very little international content dubbed into the local language. Source: The Financial Express, Mar.16, 2004
Films & Cinema
Frames 2004, the annual
entertainment industry convention, is Bollywood's tryst with corporatisation. "Last year witnessed a significant
shift in the context of financing sources for Hindi films. The number of Hindi films
financed by (along with the quantum of finance) by organised sources (comprising IPO
funds, institutional and bank loans, private equity and venture capital from institutions
and private sources, directly or through investment vehicles and companies) in 2003,
increased by 200 per cent from corresponding numbers available for Hindi films released in
2002,'' Rabo India Finance notes in the introduction to a recent study. Of the 2003 total
for organised funding, 36 per cent is estimated to have been from IPO funds, 25 per cent
from institutional loans, 16 per cent from institutional venture capital and private
equity and 23 per cent from private venture capital and investors. Notwithstanding their
sharply risen share, these inflows still constitute less than 15 per cent of the total
funding requirement of the mainstream Hindi film industry, said Mr Sunil Kheterpal, Head
(Media & Entertainment), Rabo India Finance. According to him, the new inflows reflect
the industry's better organisation, including the advent of multiplex cinemas. The latter
opened up investment possibilities in niche films meant for specific audiences. One factor
likely to catalyse inflows from private investors would be the emerging taste for global
themes in Indian film content. Source: The Hindu Business
Line, Mar.18, 2004
Miscellaneous
The stocks of media companies
have been losing shine since March 1, 2004. Among the most actively traded media
stocks, Padmalaya Telefilms depreciated from Rs 62.65 on March 1 to Rs 48.60 on March 16,
a loss of Rs 14.05, on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE). Similarly, Balaji Telefilms has
been losing steadily in the stock market. Its price slipped from Rs 92.00 to Rs 79.25
during the same period. The fall in media stocks can be seen in a study of market
capitalisation (M-cap) of 30 media stocks during March 1 and March 16. The aggregate M-cap
of 30 media companies declined by 12.32 per cent (Rs 956 crore) to Rs 6,807.34 crore on
March 16 from Rs 7,763.54 crore on March 1. All the media companies, except three, were
responsible for this downturn. A significant decline was seen in the case of Padmalaya
Telefilms (-22.42 per cent), Saregama India (-16.83 per cent), Adlabs Films (-15.49 per
cent), Sri Adhikari Brothers (-19.51 per cent), Zee Telefilms (-13.03 per cent), Balaji
Telefilms (-13.86 per cent), Television Eighteen (-12.53 per cent) and Mukta Arts (-11.24
per cent). Only three, namely Galaxy Multimedia, Creative Eye and Pritish Nandy
Communications, showed an increase during the study period. The M-cap of Pritish Nandy
Communications rose by 3.61 per cent to Rs 43.65 crore on March 16 from Rs 42.13 crore on
March 1. This can be explained from the Q3 profit performance. Net profit of Pritish Nandy
Commu increased by 2.91 per cent to Rs 1.06 crore during October-December 2003. Source: The Financial Express, Mar.17, 2004
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