The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to establish a procedure to review the security clearance of all distribution platform operators (DPOs) who are offering platform services (PS) including those cases where there is a change in ownership/control.

Further, the MIB may obtain a requisite undertaking from the DPOs at the time of granting permission for offering PS for duly notifying MIB in case of change of ownership/control, the authority suggested while responding to the MIB's back reference on its earlier recommendations.

The highly anticipated Union Budget announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman comes as a boost for the healthcare, infrastructure and start-up sectors but there is no direct relief for the media and entertainment industry that has been hit hard with theatres shut, shootings being stalled and advertising revenues falling down. Experts, however, hope the budget will boost the overall economy, which, in turn, would help to revive the struggling industry.

National Geographic India will now be available in yet another language, Kannada, and narrate its specialised stories for the Kannada-speaking viewers in Karnataka and across India.

With this launch, National Geographic will now be available in six languages — Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bangla and English. From popular series such as Primal Survivor, Vegas Rat Rods, Great Human Race, Dirty Rotten Survival, Bear Grylls Mission Survive, Airport Security Brazil and Peru to the newly launched Spotlight, which showcases specially curated best-in-class films and a range of fresh and new events such as the Mars Rover Landing; the audience will now get to experience the entire gamut of ground-breaking stories in Kannada accompanied by stunning visuals and path-breaking technology, that will continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and our understanding of the world.

TN Ninan has retired as Chairman and Director of Business Standard Private Limited. He has been associated with the company for close to three decades, first as Editor, then as Editor and Publisher and for the last 12 years as Chairman and Director of the company.

Ninan played a crucial role in building the Business Standard brand over the years. His contribution in creating a quality platform that upholds independent journalism and runs on ethical business practices remains unparalleled. His popular weekly column “Weekend Ruminations” will continue to appear every Saturday. He will also be available for editorial guidance and advice.

Ad billings in the news genre are dropping again with the festive season demand disappearing. While April-July was a slow period for the news genre, as it was for most other sectors, the August-December phase saw remarkable recovery even in the wake of controversies around TRP manipulations and BARC announcing a 12-week data blackout period. The hubbub around toxic content and rating scam didn’t impact ad revenues as marketers generously spent on the genre after a long slow period. But with the wearing off of the festive demand, the genre is again looking at falling numbers.

As per TAM AdEx, compared to Week 43 (the first week of BARC data blackout), Week 1 of 2021 saw a 4% drop in ad volumes. In the 12-week BARC blackout period, between October 16, 2020 and January 16, 2021, two weeks saw a significant drop which included Week 52 (December 2020 last week) and Week 1 of 2021.

 

The genre picked up immensely leading to almost 90%-95% recovery when compared to pre-Covid times in the festive before showing a dip in number.

New Delhi: Republic Media Network has announced two mega editorial partnerships with two homegrown brands – Koo and Mitron under its Republic-Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

The initiative that was announced earlier this month is a response to prime minister’s call of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Republic Media Network will work with, support and ensure that Indian, homegrown, ‘glocal’ brands shine and beam, especially the ones from the tech media space. Following this mega announcement, the network has been flooded with promising endeavours from innovators across the country. 

The announcement for collaboration comes as a first of many endeavours that will be undertaken as a part of Republic-AatmaNirbhar Bharat Initiative. Republic Bharat will collaborate with these two brands editorially and seamlessly integrate their content.

MUMBAI: The fabulous performance by the Indians in the away cricket test series against Australia which was telecast on the Sony Entertainment sports channels is likely to benefit Star Sports during the domestic tour of India by the English cricket team. The two-month long visit by Joe Root and his men is scheduled to commence with a test at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on 5 February.

Media reports have emerged that Disney Star India – which has the telecast rights to Indian domestic cricket —  is going to pocket between Rs 450-500 crore in ad revenues over the four tests, five T-20s and three one days that the teams will play. The broadcast network will be airing the matches across its sports channels and its streaming service Disney + Hotstar with commentary being available in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati is pleased as punch. The reason: Doordarshan’s coverage of India’s Republic Day parade celebration in New Delhi has been praised by all and sundry. A massive production by any yardstick, it saw the best of online editors, camera crew ensure that the telecast was like one never seen before.

48 cameras - including mobile buggy and robotic units - were deployed with hundreds of engineers and technicians ensuring there were no glitches in the multilingual telecast, which was produced in HD. The telecast was also done keeping the differently abled in mind: closed captioning in English and Hindi, as well as sign language interpretation of the proceedings, even as the commentary was made available in several languages.

NEW DELHI: Embattled news channel Republic TV is on the warpath. After going toe-to-toe with the Times Network over the alleged TRP manipulation case, the channel has now served a legal notice to Indian Express for its recent story titled 'Arnab Goswami paid me $12,000 and Rs 40 lakh to fix ratings: Partho Dasgupta'.

In its notice, Republic TV has claimed that the story is a part of a “mala fide, vicious and vexatious campaign” to tarnish the reputation of its editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami.

The ongoing TRP controversy has not affected the credibility of news channels and they have witnessed tremendous viewership after the festive season, said Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP Network.

“Advertisers have continued to repose their faith in us. Investment on news channels goes beyond ratings – many more parameters impact the selection process, such as reputation, strength and credibility of content, affinity among relevant audiences and the proposition of the platform," said Pandey.  

He said the industry must come together to make the viewership measurement system better so that the true value of ad rates can be realised by channels.