Eleven winners of vacant unreserved MPEG-4 slots have been announced and ten out of the lot turns out to be news channels. The said 53rd e-auction of MPEG-4 slots of DD Free Dish that was concluded on March 16, earned Prasar Bharati close to Rs 10 crore.  

News channels to come on board included News 24 that couldn't get a slot at the recently concluded 52nd e-auction of MPEG-2 slots followed by others like Sudarshan TV, Sahara Samay, India News, News State UP/UK, News India 24X7, News 18 UP/UK, India News UP/UK, Chardikla Time TV, and Jantantra News. The bid values of these channels ranged between Rs 76 lakhs and Rs 1.12 crore.

Over the years, the impact of Indian Premier League (IPL), one of the biggest cricket tournaments of the country, on the viewership of general entertainment channels (GECs) has been consistent. Except the last season. 

As per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India yearbook, sports surpassed all genres during IPL 13, but Hindi GEC prime-time. IPL was aired from Week 38 to Week 45 2020. While sports genre witnessed 6-times increase in viewership in Week 45 and registered 23 billion viewing minutes as compared to Week 34-37, Hindi GEC saw 3% growth and registered 121 billion viewing minutes in Week 45 as compared to Week 34-37. Hindi movies and Hindi news dropped by 4% and 20% respectively in Week 45.  

New Delhi: Children are the backbone of the nation who have the power and the passion to drive a positive change in society. To inspire kids to be catalysts for conservation and do their bit towards a sustainable society, Sony BBC Earth launched the ‘Young Earth Champions’ contest at the start of the year, in partnership with Climate Warrior, Bhumi Pednekar. The month-long contest which concluded recently, saw thousands of young eco-conscious minds lead by example to prove that every step counts when it comes to sustainability.

This nation-wide contest, open for 5th to 9th standard kids, invited the most innovative ideas for building sustainable cities and communities. From the hundreds of entries received, the experts from IIT-Bombay helped shortlist 10 winners who then got a chance to interact with Bollywood actor Bhumi and with Prof Vamsi Botlaguduru from IIT-Bombay about their ideas and the future of sustainable living. Additionally, the top 50 participants received a certificate of excellence from Sony BBC Earth

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Sony Pictures Networks India has signed an exclusive multi-year TV and digital broadcast deal with India’s first professional Kho Kho league -Ultimate Kho Kho.

Scheduled to kick-start in 2021, Sony Pictures Networks India and Ultimate Kho Kho will bring forth this home-grown sport in its new avatar under the lenses of sports technology and innovations, that will guarantee high-octane games exclusively across SPNI’s network sports channels and their dedicated OTT platform SonyLiv which will allow viewers to watch the Ultimate Kho Kho ‘on the go’.

Ultimate Kho Kho will be telecast in English as well as Hindi with regional language commentary on the cards. With four dedicated sports channels, SPNI has been catering to varied sports as they hold the broadcast rights for premium sports properties like Australia, England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Ireland cricket boards, WWE, UFC, Impact Wrestling, the Australian Open, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Nations League and Euro 2020, Serie A, FA Cup, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 among others.

The year 2020 threw unprecedented challenges but the nation endured the impact and found innovative ways to overcome them. The year saw India dig deep into its reserves of enterprise and ‘can do’ spirit to bounce back. IPL stands as a reflection of India's ‘can do’ spirit, of resilience, enterprise and innovation, as a brand itself and in the stories, it has thrown up over the years. Inspired by this thought, Star Sports is kick-starting the IPL 2021 with their new campaign – ‘India Ka Apna Mantra’. Through the aperture of IPL, the campaign is seen saluting the attitude of a generation that is redefining conventional rules of the game to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Mumbai: Dangal TV, in its original new avatar of Dangal Original is all set to re-launch its crime show ‘Crime Alert’. Crime Alert aims at creating awareness amongst viewers, from means of protecting themselves to recognizing crime and criminal activities.  Having received immense appreciation for showcasing true events in a dramatic and exceptional manner, the show successfully achieved its purpose of alerting citizens against criminal activities. “Crime Alert” a Dangal original will premiere on March 15th at 12.30 pm Monday to Saturday exclusively on Dangal TV.

Hosted by Sudha Chandran, each episode will showcase a story based on a real incident or crime from across the various parts of India, through different human perspectives. In addition to simply playing the host, Sudha Chandran will take the viewers through various instances and guide viewers to speak up, report and fight against crime and violence

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In week 9 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India ratings, Star Utsav bagged first spot with 3023 AMA across all platforms. Star Plus claimed the second spot with 2659 AMA followed by SUN TV with 2511 AMA. Star Maa with 2201 AMA stood at fourth followed by Zee Anmol with 2094 AMA. Sony Pal claimed the sixth spot with 1887 AMA followed by Star Vijay with 1831 AMA. Sony SAB stood at eighth with 1698 AMA followed by Zee TV with 1564 AMA. Zee Telugu claimed the tenth spot with 1528 AMA.

In the Free platform category, Star Utsav bagged the first spot with 2098 AMA. Zee Anmol secured the second spot with 1753 AMA, and Sony Pal stood at third with 1160 AMA. Dangal with 915 AMA stood at fourth, followed by Colors Rishtey with  893 AMA and Dhinchaak with 800 AMA.  Star Utsav Movies came seventh with 529 AMA, followed by Zee Anmol Cinema with 496 AMA and Rishtey Cinema with  446 AMA and  Big Magic with 412 AMA

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The absence of ratings has impacted the news broadcasting fraternity deeply. While a school of broadcasters feel the rating measurement body should get a considerable time off to come back not just clean but more efficient, another is doing everything in their capacity to reverse the situation. In a bid to ensure ratings returns at the earliest, News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) has written to the chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) Ashok Kumar Gupta requesting them to investigate “monopoly” practice of BARC India and its impact on FTA news channels in the county.

The Competition Commission of India is a statutory government body responsible for enforcing The Competition Act and preventing activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition.

What happened during the recently concluded e-auction of DD Free Dish for the news genre, where channels shelled out exorbitant prices to grab a year-long slot on the free-to-air distribution platform, is no less than “shooting themselves in the foot”.

While the average bidding price for the news genre was Rs 17.3 crore, three channels paid three times of the reserved price — News18 India (Rs 22.05 crore), Republic Bharat (Rs 21.15 crore) and Zee Hindustan (Rs 20 crore). Eight others paid between Rs 12 crore and Rs 20 crore.

Of course, it is their own money and they can spend it the way they want, but it has to be talked about if this is going to harm the industry as a whole.

As part of its on-going #AajTakSabseTez campaign, the news channel has launched the second film of the series. The film titled ‘Achaar Gully’ highlights how Aaj Tak does not conform to the growing trend of spicing up news. The metaphorical marketplace shown in the film is a grim reminder of the state of the news industry in general.  

Conceptualised and directed by writer-director Pradeep Sarkar, #AajTakSabseTez campaign is a satirical take on the current news environment in the country and entertainingly highlights the relaxed standards of reporting by some players in the age of fake news. The first film ‘Sach Ka Band’ brought to light the exaggeration of events while presenting them to the audience.