‘Epic Specials’, infotainment channel Epic Channel’s property that showcases extraordinary stories from India, has been renewed for another run and will air every alternate Saturday, at 12 noon, 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm and 10 pm.

The line-up includes The Pad Piper that brings to light the story of the man synonymous with changing the face of menstrual hygiene for women across the country, Arunachalam Muruganantham; and A tent, a truck & talkies, which tells the tale of showman, exhibitor, and genius projector mechanic Anup Jagdale.

The origins of yoga and the Kumbh Mela will be explored in Naga, The Eternal Yogi, while Malegaon Ka Superman explores the no-budget film-making industry in Malegaon. Epic Specials will also feature The Elephant Whisperer and Maya Memsaab that provide a peek into the elephant society in Kaziranga, Assam; and brings to light the unique relationship between man and animal. Also part of this line-up is Rupa’s Boutique, which profiles the bravery and persistence of acid attack victims, and their never dying spirit.

Some of the popular Epic Specials, Jungle Ke Bahubali, Air Battle of Srinagar, Rampath, Nandadevi, Brands of India – Royal Enfield, Ekaant Sarhad Par, and Janani, will also continue to be part of the line-up.

By replacing static thumbnails with automated dynamic video preview thumbnails (APVs) using one of Minute.ly’s AI tools, Zee5 has increased its overall CTR by 37%

 

Minute.ly, a leading AI-driven video enhancement company, has partnered with OTT platform Zee5 to personalize their front-end user experience. The video giant has integrated Minute.ly’s AI tool to enrich its platforms’ video content – maximizing user engagement, improving overall video views and site traffic, and expanding Zee5’s reach.

With Minute.ly’s AI tool, Zee5 can predict user engagement using artificial intelligence which will ultimately affect their video revenue. The company’s patented video optimization algorithm automatically identifies peak moments from any video on site by analyzing the visual content and its performance. It also provides invaluable insights regarding user interests – empowering publishers to know exactly what viewers want to see and what content they connect with most. By replacing static thumbnails with automated dynamic video preview thumbnails (APVs) using one of Minute.ly’s AI tools, Zee5 has increased its overall click-through-rate (CTR) by 37% and extended its reach as users browse for more content on the publisher's site.

MUMBAI: Indians are obsessed with their stars and connect on an emotional level to the stories playing out on screens. Catering to this population of cine-lovers is Sony MAX that has been feeding this madness for the last 20 years through its vast content library, offering the best Hindi movies. And now to mark the successful completion of these two decades, it has kick-started months of interesting campaigns with its ‘Yeh Hai Desh Ki Deewangi’ TVC.

The campaign is an extension of its ‘Deewana Bana De’ positioning and features ‘Gullu Gulati’ as a mirror image of every movie lover in the country. Speaking about the celebratory campaign with Indiantelevision.com, Sony SAB, PAL and Sony MAX movie cluster head, marketing, and communications Vaishali Sharma shared that it is a celebration of the channel’s relation with its viewers.

BENGALURU: Is viewership of the English news genre dipping? Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India recommenced publishing limited viewership data in the public domain on TRAI’s coercion in week 13 of 2019 after it had ostentatiously stopped doing so to allow ratings to stabilise after implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order from week 6 of 2019. Then in week 23 of 2019, BARC announced that it was reverting to an older method of treatment of the landing pages and outliers. The weeks following week 13 of 2019 have seen two major cricket tourneys being played – the twelfth season of the Indian Premier League in India and the ICC World Cup in England and Wales. Both the tourneys involved matches that overlapped primetime in India. Many parts of the country have been hit by bad weather over the past few weeks. Or is it just that there were a number of weeks that were just too hot before the torrential rains that inundated many parts of India? A BARC paper in the past suggested that weather affects television viewership. The implementation of the new regulatory framework and BARC’s treatment of outlier data are two other factors that also need to be kept in mind when analysing the scenario. One can also make a case for greater viewership interest in the run up to the elections, which now seems to be on the decline. It would be interesting to study if other genres have also been adversely affected.

MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV’s average revenue per user (ARPU) fell to Rs 157 per month in the first quarter (Q1) of FY 20 from Rs 233 in the last quarter of FY 19. The ARPU for DTH services of Bharti Airtel also saw a 31.6 per cent decline on a year-on-year basis.

Revenue from Digital TV services stood at Rs 7,389 million while it was Rs 9,924 million in Q1 FY 19. EBITDA for this segment continued to improve and was Rs 5,263 million as compared to Rs 4,010 million in Q1 of FY 19.

Airtel Digital TV saw net addition of 634K customers in the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel had 16 million customers with a year-on-year 9.4 per cent growth.

“Subsequent to the new tariff order (NTO), the service providers are responsible only for re-transmission and are not in a position to control content and pricing. Accordingly, the gross revenue is only to the extent of net value retained i.e. customer payments received net of broadcaster’s fee (erstwhile content charges) w.e.f quarter ended 30 June 2019,” the company noted.

MUMBAI: Kashish Developers, the owner of Hindi news channel Kashish News, has made a representation to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the issue of calculation of carriage fee for a regional channel.

The broadcaster had moved TDSAT against direct to home (DTH) operator Tata Sky due to disconnection of its channel from the latter’s platform.

Kashish News, which mainly operates in Bihar and Jharkhand, has contended that the target area for any regional channel should be a particular region only for the purpose of charging carriage fees as a policy.

Since Tata Sky as a DTH platform has declared its target area to be Pan India, the news channel is facing difficulties on account of financial implications involved in agreeing to the DTH operator’s RIO agreement.

The channel’s main challenge before the TDSAT was the wisdom of the regulator in giving liberty to DTH operators to declare their target areas. In the facts of the case, the TDSAT noted that the issues relating to wisdom of the policy can be considered effectively only by the regulator.

Kashish Developers counsel submitted that the broadcaster has already approached TRAI with a representation filed on 29th June. The TDSAT disposed of the petition by stating that the TRAI is expected to dispose of the representation expeditiously in accordance with the law.

“In the aforesaid facts, the petition along with pending MAs is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to pursue its representation. It will also be at liberty to file further representation, if required, with a copy of this order,” TDSAT said in its order.

 

MUMBAI: Following the Disney - 21st Century Fox merger, Walt Disney Television is taking charge of the streaming service Hulu’s scripted originals team. Hulu scripted originals senior vice president Craig Erwich will now report to Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment head Dana Walden.

Erwich and his team will not relocate to Disney’s headquarters in Burbank but will remain based out of Hulu's Santa Monica headquarters. But the streamer's unscripted original programming, original film and licensed content teams will continue to report to Hulu CEO Randy Freer.

"As Hulu drives toward its ambitious subscriber and engagement goals, it is important that we take full advantage of the creative resources and production capabilities of Disney Television Studios, which are among the best in the world," Freer said.

"Hulu Originals have been widely recognised for their originality, boldness and high level of quality," Walden said. "They are a meaningful part of what has driven the platform’s impressive growth over the past few years. Craig and his team have done excellent work. I am excited to work with Randy in this next phase of Hulu. This new structure will enable Hulu to have access to many of the best creators in the world and programming from all of the content engines inside of Walt Disney Television," the executive added.

BENGALURU: Enterr 10 Television’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC headed Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 30 of 2019 (Saturday, 20 July 2019 to Friday, 26 July 2019, week under review).  As a matter of fact, Dangal was the only FTA channel in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels on all platforms across genres, a list which quite obviously was a skewed image starting rank 2 onward of BARC’s weekly list of top 11 pay channels across genres for the first nine ranks. BARC also lists out the top 11 free channels across genres every week. This report covers the former two lists.

Top 10 channels on all platforms and Top 11 pay channels across genres

Six Hindi GECs, two Tamil GECs and one channel each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres comprise BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres on all platforms. There were three channels each from the Star India Network and Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network, Network18-Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) in BARC’s across genres on all platforms for week 30 of 2019.

MUMBAI: Tamil Nadu’s state-run cable operator Arasu Cable has revised down its subscription rates, with effect from 10 August. Under the new subscription rate, package of 190 channels will be available for Rs 154.

“Based on requests from the people, the cable television tariff for Tamil Nadu [except Vellore] under Arasu Cable has been fixed at Rs 130, plus GST,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said.

After the new price regime kicked in at the beginning of this year, Arasu Cable had to revise its packages. It had three packages — a basic package at Rs 120 plus GST with all free-to-air (FTA) channels, a package at Rs 200 plus GST and another that offered 191 channels at Rs 220 plus GST.

The state-run operator has distributed 35.12 lakh set-top boxes free of cost to its subscribers till date. But recently, it found that out of the 35 lakh STBs that were distributed, only 24 lakh were active. The sudden increase in pricing caused the churn in customers. To prevent the churn, the new move has been taken.