MUMBAI: For kids’ channels, Children’s Day is the most important day of the year. Despite not raking in any special reach or viewership, channels yet air special episodes for their young audiences. Discovery Kids and Sony YAY will be airing special episodes throughout the day. Sony YAY will run a Movies Marathon with back to back Honey Bunny movies right from 9 am throughout the day. Similarly, Discovery Kids will have new episodes on two IPs- Fukrey Boyzzz and Little Singham. The channels are promoting their fresh line-up across their networks.

MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come out with its recommendations on platform services (PS) offered by DTH operators. It suggests capping the total number of permitted PS for a DTH operator to 3 per cent of the total channel carrying capacity of the DTH operator platform and subject to a maximum of 15 platform services channels.

MUMBAI: For the first time, Zee Digital breached the 100-million unique monthly users mark in comScore India ranking in the month of September 2019. The latest comScore report placed Zee Digital ahead of many leading networks on the basis of unique users under the news and information category in India.

BENGALURU: The Kalanithi Maran-headed Sun TV Network Ltd (Sun TV) reported 5.9 percent y-o-y increase in consolidated operating revenue for the quarter ended 30 September 2019 (Q2 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter Q2 2019. Sun TV reported consolidated operating revenue of Rs 852.52 crore for Q2 2019 as compared to Rs 779.65 crore for Q2 2019. Total Income (revenue) for Q2 2020 increased 6.8 percent y-o-y to Rs 900.74 crore as compared to Rs 843.44 crore in Q2 2019.

BENGALURU: The Prannoy and Radhika Roy-led New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) reported consolidated loss of Rs 10.50 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2019 (Q2 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to a profit of Rs 0.58 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter Q2 2019 (y-o-y). Consolidated operating revenue for the period under review declined 17.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 77.22 crore from Rs 102.24 crore in Q2 2019.

For the first time, Zee Digital crossed the 100-million unique monthly users mark in Comscore India ranking in the month of September 2019. The latest Comscore report placed Zee Digital ahead of many leading networks on the basis of unique users under the news and information category in India.

Over the past five months, Zee Digital has witnessed a marked growth of 55% in its total unique monthly users which is the second-highest in terms of performance among the top media groups in the country. The largest contributors to this growth have been India.com, Zee News Sites and Zee Business each of which has grown by 147%, 87% and 83% respectively during the same period.

MUMBAI: Digital cable and direct to home (DTH) platforms are against the capping of amount of carriage fee that a broadcaster is required to pay to a distribution platform operator (DPO).

In their submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the digital cable and DTH operators have asserted that the DPOs have not misused the flexibility of defining the target market for determining carriage fee.

The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has submitted that its members have aligned coverage area with the head-end and have declared such area (State) as target market.

“The declaration of target market comprising potential subscribers who would be enjoying the services rendered by the distributors, forms an important aspect of their marketing plans and any restriction on the same would stand in the way of effective retransmission of channels to subscribers and would also curb the fundamental right of the DPOs to carry business freely,” AIDCF submitted.

MUMBAI: Disney+, the streaming service from US and global media conglomerate Disney is now live in the US, Canada, and the Netherlands, bringing together content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more. At launch, the service features nearly 500 films and 7,500 episodes of television from across the worlds of Disney, including a collection of library titles, as well as Disney+ originals.

This marks the beginning of the global rollout of Disney+, with expectations to launch in most major global markets within its first two years. Disney+ launches in a few day’s time in Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico on 19th November 2019. Disney+ will launch in markets across Western Europe—including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and a number of other countries in the region—on 31st March 2020.

MUMBAI: ZEE5 India CEO Tarun Katial will become the first Indian CEO from the OTT industry to speak at the 24th Paley International Council Summit. The Paley Center for Media’s 24th Paley International Council Summit: Agility in Media: Navigating the Global Market will be held in New York City on 14th and 15th November.

The Paley International Council Summit, an exclusive, invitation-only membership community often referred to as the “Davos of Media”, brings together global leaders and CEOs of the world’s most important media companies, to advance the exchange of ideas and to foster a sense of community. The Summit was first held in 1995 in Italy, and over the years, has been held in China, South Africa, Germany, Austria, India, Monaco, Spain, France, Turkey, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Tarun will be a part of the panel, ‘Vertical Integration’ on 15th November along with other eminent industry leaders such as Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei and Comcast Cable President, Consumer Services Dana Strong.

The rise of digital consumption has led to fierce competition in the media industry in the bid to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. Apart from broadcasters getting into content generation, TV distribution companies have taken the plunge into acquisition of new content, launching of new digital platforms along with distribution of TV and OTT content.

For instance, Tata Sky's DTH (Direct-To-Home) service provider partnered with OTT platforms like Hotstar, Sun NXT and Eros Now to launch its digital content service - Tata Binge - and the service was priced at Rs 249 per month. The viewers can watch thousands of movies, TV shows, curated short videos and missed episodes of TV shows aired in the last seven days. In 2018, Tata Sky signed a deal with London-based TV channel Shorts TV and made its content available on the Tata Sky app. Dish TV, too, has forged partnerships with OTT platforms and launched its own OTT app Watcho this April. The platform offers 1,000 hours of library content, including movies and short films.

Cable operators too have joined the space of providing OTT content to consumers. For instance, Hathway has partnered with Netflix and offers free subscription to Play Box (OTT set top box) users. Users can avail 12 months’ subscription of Sun NXT.

 

According to Sukhpreet Singh, Corporate Head-Marketing, Dish TV, “The consumption behaviour of consumers is changing. Distributors believe their main job is to provide the best of content and entertainment to subscribers. We all want to consume online entertainment, whether it is from free or paid sources or from various apps.”

In partnership with Amazon Fire TV, Tata Sky aims to redefine the future of entertainment for millions of Indians by extending the ‘Tata Sky experience’ to the world of apps with Tata Sky Binge.

Pallavi Puri, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Sky, says: “Through this partnership we are giving customers the Amazon Fire TV - Tata Sky edition without any additional cost to enjoy Tata Sky Binge.”