MUMBAI: Epic channel will soon be launching a show on wildlife after experimenting with genres like mythology, sports, food, history, travel, culture etc. Additionally, mid-September will also see the launch of a new quiz show Epic India Quiz Challenge. The new shows are an attempt to garner new and different viewers.

MUMBAI: While new tariff order (NTO) had brought down viewership of several pay channels initially across the country, Sun TV Network channels are bouncing back from the initial effect in key markets. As the channels are coming close to the pre-NTO regime viewership, the largest broadcaster is now focusing on every single market to get back to the reach percentage it was providing prior to the NTO implementation.

Mirror Now’s Faye D’Souza has resigned from her current position of Executive Editor. She confirmed the move to BestMediaInfo.com. When asked about her future plans, she said, “I am still working on it.”

D’Souza joined the Times Group in 2008 and before her current role, she was editor, personal finance at ET Now.

In 2017, the Times Group property news channel Magicbricks Now was rebranded as Mirror Now and the genre of news also changed to general news with a focus on civic news. D’Souza used to head the channel’s editorial responsibility.

Singapore: Sir Martin Sorell’s S4 Capital owned MediaMonks has been chosen as the lead agency for Fanta in the South East Asia region while the Singapore office of the agency will handle the account.

“The overall goal will be to further develop and amplify Fanta’s brand promise in South East Asia, with a core creative message that will tie in all produced content, and link the brand to even more consumers from 2020 onwards.” said a statement from MediaMonks.

The Coca-Cola Company’s head of integrated marketing communications for South East Asia, Pratik Thakar said,“We look forward to partnering with S4 Capital and MediaMonks. Leading the change in the industry, they bring a new-generation perspective on reaching consumers, merging data and technology with a unique approach to the development of content.”

MUMBAI: Brickwork Ratings has revised the ratings for the Bank Loan Facilities of Rs 59 crore of Wizcraft International Entertainment. The revision of rating has factored, inter alia, delay in debt repayments as informed by the company on 26th August.

Wizcraft International Entertainment is promoted by Andre Timmins, Sabbas Joseph and Viraf Sarkari, who have more than three decades of experience in the industry.

Its client base includes a mix of Government and Corporate houses. Over the years, the company has successfully conceptualised, organised and executed large scale events for Central & State Government departments.

Incorporated in 1997, Wizcraft provides turnkey solutions from brand strategy and content development to creative design, video production and program management.

Luxembourg: SES's latest solution, which will be showcased at IBC2019 in Amsterdam, synchronises over-the-top (OTT) and satellite broadcasts by delivering IP signals to OTT platforms as fast as satellite to create enhanced live viewing experiences, SES announced today. The new solution, named Satellite and OTT in Sync, gives broadcasters the power to deliver a more consistent experience to viewers watching any screen, or even multiple screens, by eliminating the delay between their TV broadcast and OTT services.

MUMBAI: Kids animation content should be more inclusive to make a bigger impact, insisted a panel, speaking on “Creating an Impact for Kids Audience”, at the recently concluded KAM Summit by AnimationXpress.com. The panellists noted that content created for kids should not be ‘so kiddy’ that it doesn’t appeal to the people they are watching it with.

The panel aimed to highlight ground rules for creating marketing content targeted and kids and included Wavemaker managing partner Monaz Todywalla, Omnicom Media Group AVP-PhD media Asmita Reelkar, and GREY Group India head of strategy and national planning director Arun Raman. The session was moderated by Sony YAY! VP - marketing and OAP Sujoy RoyBardhan.

Reelkar mentioned that parents play a key role in monitoring the content that kids are watching and are also making most of the purchasing choices for them, so it is pertinent that a brand can persuade the parents too.

Citing some interesting examples, Raman said, “There are no massive kids’ brands in India. I can think of Gini & Jony, which is one of the largest brands in the space, but no one is buying from them. People buy from brands like H&M Kids and Zara Kids.”

He pointed out that there has been a behavioural and cultural shift in the Indian audience. “There are many kid-centric brands like ‘Naughty Boy’ from Bata, which are not as popular now. They now have something called ‘Ambassador Collection’. I am hearing Britannia and Parle are putting ‘Chota Bheem’ on their packages but it doesn’t mean that they are creating separate kids brands. In fact, it is making a brand meant for adults relevant to kids.”

The panellists also pointed out that kids today are smarter and know facts. They can read through if a brand is trying to lie to them and that’s why it is important for brands to maintain highest standards of advocacy while creating communications for them.

Another important point shared was that the brands should now be focussing on multi-screen advertising as the kids of today are digital natives.

Todywalla said, “More and more creators, marketers, and brand custodians are realising that it has become a multi-touch world. But brands are still relying mostly on TV to interact with kids. Maybe they do some sprinkling of digital or a few events. But the landscape is changing dramatically. Kids are probably bypassing the whole TV phase and going directly to digital. Brands are agencies are still grappling with that area.”

They unanimously agreed on the point that content is going to play a key role in taking brands through this phase of change.

BENGALURU: There was no attrition in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 35 of 2019 as compared to the previous week. The ranking was also almost identical in week 35 of 2019 as compared to week 34, except that Sony Pictures Network India’s (SPN) flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) interchanged ranks with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (Zeel) flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. In BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms for week 35 of 2019 (Saturday, 24 August 2019 to Friday, 30 August 2019), there were six Hindi GECs, two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel each from Hindi movies and Telugu genres. From the network’s perspective there were three channels from Star India, two channels from SPN and one channel each from B4U, Enterr 10 Television, the Sun TV Network, Viacom18 and Zeel. Eight of the channels were from the pay platform and there were two channels from the free-to-air of FTA channels. Please refer to the list below.

MUMBAI: The current slowdown in the Indian economy has stunned the expected growth of major companies, and media conglomerates are not an exception. South India’s largest broadcaster Sun TV Network is being cautious about the growth expectation for the rest of the year especially due to a headwind in the advertising sector. Due to this, the Marathi channel launch has been put on hold.

International: ZEE5, the digital entertainment platform from ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.,today announced a new partnership with Lebara Australia to bring the largest library of entertainment content for South Asians to Lebara customers down under.

Available in 17 different languages, ZEE5 offers subscribers 100,000 hours of on demand movies, Originals, TV programs, videos and news content. From September, Lebara Australia customers will be able to get a six-month ZEE5 subscription bundled with select prepaid plans.

ZEE5’s entertainment content includes leading Hindi TV shows (e.g. Kum Kum Bhagya and Jodhaa Akbar); the latest ZEE5 Originals (e.g. The Final Call with Arjun Rampal, Kaafir with Dia Mirza) and 2000+ movies (e.g. Simba with Ranveer Singh, Kedarnath with Sara Ali Khan and Sushant Singh Rajput, and Veere Di Wedding with Kareena Kapoor Khan).