MUMBAI: The FICCI EY Report on the business of Indian media and entertainment (M&E) made some interesting observations on sports. Quoting BARC India data (TG: All India / 2+/ 2017 & 2018/Program Theme: Sports), the report noted that Wrestling overtook Cricket in 2018 in terms of total viewership, on the back of weekly content through the year.

MUMBAI: Sun TV Network has been witnessing a top-level rejig, according to reports. R Mahesh Kumar, who currently serves as president, has been elevated as MD of the company, following the resignation of the network’s MD and CEO K Vijaykumar which is effective 31 March 2019.

However, K Vijaykumar will continue as the executive director of the board with effect from 1 April 2019. Additionally, the network’s chairman Kalanithi Maran’s daughter, Kaviya Kalanithi Maran, will be joining the board as additional director and she will remain on the board for five years starting 1 April.  

MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has permitted a total of four channel applications to change their names. The new channels are Star Sports 1 Bangla, Star Sports 1 Marathi, Sun Marathi and Sun Bangla.

In a bid to showcase animated movies to the viewers, Star India had earlier planned to launch Star Movies Kids SD and HD, that will now be renamed to Star Sports 1 Marathi and Star Sports 1 Bangla channel respectively.

Star Sports, the official broadcaster for VIVO IPL 2019, today unveiled Star Sports Select Dugout 2.0 after last year’s massive success. The Select Dugout, will be aired on Star Sports Select 1 (SD and HD) providing fans with richer analytical experience coupled with a stimulating narrative during matches to stay ahead of the game.

The Select Dugout panel includes an exclusive and illustrious panel of experts including former captains’ coaches’ and mentors such as debutants Gautam Gambhir (also on Hindi commentary) Brendon McCullum (also on World Feed), Dale Steyn along with Dean Jones, Kumar Sangakkara, Scott Styris, Anil Kumble. Joining them will be Kevin Pietersen, Brett Lee and Graeme Smith who are also a part of the World Feed.

BENGALURU: The Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Airtel Ltd (Airtel) led broadband subscriber growth, both wired as well as wired internet, for the month ended 31 January 2019 (1 January 2019 to 31 January 2019, Jan-19) according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data for the period. In Jan-19, Airtel added 0.997 crore (9.97 million, 99.7 lakh) wireless subscribers, hence upstaging the Mukesh Ambani’s juggernaut Reliance JioInfocomm (Jio) which added 0.932 crore (9.32 crore, 93.2 lakh) subscribers in Jan-19. Airtel also added 30,000 or about 30 percent to the growth of 1,00,000 in wired broadband internet subscribers Jan-19.

MUMBAI: After a heavy battle of several months, music label and production house T-Series has finally overtaken PewDiePie to become the top YouTube channel. T-Series now has 90.52 million subscribers, a little above the Swedish YouTuber’s 90.49 million. For the last six years, PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg has been the most subscribed YouTube channel. It was around six months ago that the threat from T-Series started to become imminent, leading to a massive anti-T-Series campaign from his followers. A few days ago, T-Series chairman Bhushan Kumar had tweeted an appeal to Indian viewers to increase its subscriber count.

MUMBAI: Giant video-streaming service Netflix is believed to be experimenting with a mobile-only subscription for a select group of users in India. Rs 250 per month is what the streamer is hoping to charge for its mobile-only plan, half of its Rs 500 entry-level subscription price in the country.

The viewership and ad insertions for devotional channels have seen a considerable increase in the 2016-2018 period, shows data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC).

In 2016, the number of devotional channels watermarked were just 3 with average weekly impressions of 22.2 million, as per BARC data, but the number rose to 11 with an average weekly impression of 97 million in 2017, and in 2018 there were 11 watermarked channels with a weekly impression of 119.8 million.

MUMBAI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has approved Star India and Sun TV Network’s four name change applications.

Star India has got the MIB nod to rename its licences Star Movies Kids and Star Movies Kids HD to Star Sports 1 Bangla and Star Sports 1 Marathi. Star Sports 1 Bangla launched on 5th March with an MRP of Rs 19.

MUMBAI: DTH provider, Tata Sky, has now launched another set of regional channel packs - Tata Sky Smart Packs after unveiling a unique Flexi Annual Plan. The new list of smart plans includes 10 Indian languages that starts at Rs 206 per month.