Advertising & Marketing 

 

Advertising needs to get more honest and plug into popular culture more, said Mr David Droga, Worldwide Creative Director, Publicis Worldwide. "I don't think we are honest enough, so we need to 'fess up and be honest about what we do," he said. "The way we portray families and other things is not real. But there's really nothing more potent, more funny, dramatic or emotional than reality. And ads that have an emotional relevance will be key." A lot of advertising also tends to `just dance around' popular culture, and only a few brands, such as Nike, Levi's and Budweiser really tap into it, he added. Clients must trust their agencies and their judgment more - and with that trust comes a greater pressure to deliver brilliant work, as well, he said on the last day of AdAsia 2003.  Source: The Hindu Business Line, Nov.15

Reliance Infocomm will be rolling out a mass media campaign. This is to promote the voice-cum-data-technology that the company has introduced for its mobile services. Along with the mass media campaign, the company will also be launching several below-the-line activities so as to trigger the usage for a new range of mobile services. "At present, the customer is not accustomed to this service initiative. And the mass media campaign will help us to create awareness amongst the target audience. It is also meant to enhance the customer base." The company is also looking at leveraging a long-term advantage through these marketing activities. Source: Financial Express. Nov.19

 

T.V. Media 

 

The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has made pre-certification mandatory for music videos. Music videos telecast on channels uplinked from India will henceforth have to be cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Only videos with a U (universal) certificate can be shown on TV. For channels uplinked from outside India, the Ministry plans to regulate content through the Cable TV Regulation Act. Under the Act, Ministry can direct cable operators to block a particular channel or programme. I&B Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said certification of content had become necessary following increasing number of complaints by TV viewers about vulgarity in music videos.  Source: Hindustan Times, Nov.20  

 

In September this year, Haryana cadre IAS officer Shahbuddin Yakub Quraishi vacated the post of Director General of Doordarshan, though he had been selected by the Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation's board for a three-year term. The incident is symptomatic of the malaise at Prasar Bharati, the corporation that is supposed to run Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) with complete autonomy. The malaise warrants public attention, especially the fact that some Rs 2,000 crore of the taxpayer's money a year goes into Prasar Bharati. According to sources, the DG was ousted because he refused to launch the news channel demanded by the govt. by the august 15, 2003 deadline. He apparently did not wish to launch a shoddy product and also said " No" to commissioned programmes on the channel. Quite clearly the initiative for a 24-hour news channel eventually launched earlier this month, came from the government-and the government is supposed to steer clear of all programming matters in Doordarshan. DD News was launched after scraping DD Metro, which earned close to Rs 25 crore last year.  Source: Business Standard, Nov.19

 

Software producers are becoming broadcasters. First, TV Today converted its current affairs bulletin on Doordarshan into a full-fledged news channel. Prannoy Roy's NDTV followed suit. And Rajat Sharma has declared his intentions of launching a news channel (India TV) in January 2004. However, the I&B Ministry has got yet another application, one from Moving Picture owner Ramesh Sharma, to launch a channel-a news & entertainment channel for the National Capital Region. The documentary filmmaker and producer of shows for Doordarshan, has applied for a licence to uplink out of India. Ministry sources say that this is the first application for permission to launch a local channel.  Source: Business Standard, Nov.19

 

The world 

SMG, owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV licences, has taken Granada and Carlton to court over their plans to call their merged business ITV plc. At a High Court, the Scottish media group argued that the pair had no right to adopt the ITV brand. SMG's calls for an injunction to prevent the move were turned down. However, Granada and Carlton did agree to an undertaking to pay SMG compensation if they failed to prove they had the right to the name. Source: BBC News, Nov.19

 

Print Media

 

Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Dilip Singh Judeo, considered a strong BJP chief ministerial candidate for Chhattisgarh till recently, has been caught on camera accepting cash in a hotel room-if a video CD tape made available to The Sunday Express is to be believed. Next to him, sits his assistant personal secretary Natwar Rateria. The CD, running for a little over 35 minutes, received at this newspaper's office, shows from the 23rd minute to the end, Judeo accepting money from a man called Rahul. This man is heard claiming to be working for an Australian mining company seeking leases in Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Source: The Sunday Express, Nov.15

 

The Hindu, on Wednesday indicated that it was ready for peace with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalitha as it decided not to press for Central protection. It also accepted the CM's assurance that the Supreme Court's order was being fully implemented by the state police and there was no threat to the daily. On a request by the daily's Editor-in-Chief N. Ram, Deputy PM, L.K. Advani had on Tuesday ordered CISF protection to the newspaper's office and the five journalists sentenced to jail by the state assembly. On Wednesday, Ram welcomed Jayalalitha's assurance as a positive development that emboldened him to present before the media, chief of bureau V. Jayanath. Jayanath was one of the journalists sentenced to jail.  Source: Hindustan Times, Nov.13

 

 

The world

Conrad M. Black, the Canadian press baron who sought to build a global collection of newspapers with a conservative bent, is quitting as chief executive and putting the company, Hollinger International, up for sale after an internal investigation disclosed yesterday that he and his partners had received $15.6 million in unauthorized payments.  Lord Black, a Canadian-born British lord, started his empire with a pair of weekly newspapers in Quebec and expanded it to span half the globe. It now includes The Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph in London, The Jerusalem Post and a stake in The New York Sun. Source: New York Times, Nov.18

 

The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in London, believed to be the most valued assets of Hollinger International, which appeal to wealthier, more conservative readers, together could fetch as much as $1.1 billion, according to official estimates. The papers have been caught in a price war that was started several years ago by another media baron, Rupert Murdoch. They have been cutting prices, but their circulation is falling. When Conrad Black took control of the Telegraph Group in 1985, the papers' daily circulation was estimated at 1.2 million copies; it has since fallen to less than 920,000. Source: New York Times, Nov.18

 

Radio Media 

 

Making a case for private players, the expert committee on FM radio has made recommendations in line with industry demands. Besides suggesting a 4 per cent revenue-sharing model, 26 per cent FDI, and inclusion of news for private FM ventures, the panel has taken a lenient view of the defaulters. As per the panel report, no penalty should be imposed on the defaulters, who want to rejoin the FM party in its new avatar. The panel has asked for a shift from licence fee to revenue-sharing; from 20 per cent FII to 26 per cent FDI; from only-entertainment stations to news and current affairs; from co-location of transmitters to go-it-alone set-up; from no-networking to chain broadcast within a group; and from one licence per company in a city to multiple entries. Source: Financial Express, Nov.18

 

Web Media

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is gearing up in the Internet and broadband arena. The authority has worked out a high-impact agenda to be pursued in order to trigger off Internet growth and broadband rollout in the country. The blueprint includes steps like infrastructure cost reduction, aggressive rollout via competition, promotion of alternate access devices, and making relevant and secure content available. The other steps identified by TRAI to beef up the number of Internet connections from the existing 0.4 per 100 persons in India include unbundling of the telephone local loops for data and allowing Internet via direct-to-home satellite.  Source: Hindustan Times, Nov.18

 

Events & Public Relations

 

Mumbai saw two back-to-back cricket awards events last week - the Electrolux Wisden International Awards and the Ceat Cricket Rating Awards - and the Garden City will be the venue for the Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence next week. Invitations to the events are much sought after and media coverage of the invitees sometimes exceeds coverage of the winners. Still, the sponsors have enormous gains. Ceat, a flagship company of RPG Enterprises, earmarks about 20 per cent of its ad budget towards the annual event, which has a fair share of Bollywood, and the company took the ceremony to Nairobi in 1999. The company also has on-ground activities at its Ceat Shoppes and will extend the awards to domestic cricket.   Source: The Hindu Business Line, Nov.6

 

 

Films & Cinema
 
A host of film distributors, exhibitors, music companies and an advertising agency have come together to float a joint venture company for digital distribution of movies. Tips, Venus, Bharat Shah's Mega Bollywood, Time, Baba, Tilak and Prachar will all have equal stake in Time Cinemas - a company set up to take on the Mukta Arts-Adlabs joint venture. The digital format of delivery to cinema theatres will help control piracy, save distribution costs and provide better picture quality to movie halls in smaller towns. Adtech Digital, USA, is manufacturing the servers for Time Cinemas. The projectors are made by Proxima, which is owned by Infocus Corporation, Norway.  Source: Financial Express, Nov.14

 

The world   Mickey Mouse arrived on the world's cultural stage 75 years ago Tuesday as a scrawny but buoyant black-and-white product of the Jazz Age. The years have dulled Mickey's personality, a result of him becoming the corporate face of a multibillion-dollar entertainment empire. For Penn State professor Henry Giroux, however, Mickey Mouse represents the vast reach of American cultural power, symbolizing a company that has turned childhood into a function of consumerism, as children feel obligated to purchase the latest ``Finding Nemo'' DVD or Mickey Mouse watch. Giroux is the author of "The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence", a cultural critique of the company. Source: New York Times, Nov.18

 

Miscellaneous

 

The 18-billion German media major Bertelsmann is likely to zero in on India as its next investment destination, with Information & Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad making a strong case for the country during his meeting with the group's brass in Berlin last week. Prasad said, "We have suggested that Bertelsmann should look at the possibility of a niche channel in India. It can also look at investing in television, films and animation businesses in the country". The minister met Bertelsmann Chief Executive Officer, Gunter Thielen, besides the heads of the group companies Random House, RTL Group and BMG Music on November 7. Source: Business Standard, Nov.11

 

The world Sony and Bertelsmann, two of the world's biggest media and entertainment groups, kicked of the consolidation of the global music business by announcing plans to merge their recorded music subsidiaries. The proposed deal which will create a company with combined sales of more than $6bn a year, is the first transaction to emerge from a six-month mating dance involving four of the world's five largest music companies. The announcement increases the pressure on Time Warner as the US media giant considers its options for disposing off its Warner Music Subsidiary, which is the target of separate offers from EMI of Britain and a US private equity consortium. Three years ago, European regulators blocked attempts by EMI to merge with Warner Music and BMG. The decline in the sales since then means one merger is more likely to be approved, competition experts said. However, it is highly unlikely both mergers would receive a green light.  Source: Financial Times, Nov.7

 

 

 

Compiled by:   Saurabh Marya (B.A. Mass Comm', Level I, Semester I)
Assisted by:  Kumar Gandharva Mishra (B.A. Mass Comm', Level I, Semester I)

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