And despite a slowdown, media planners say advertisers are pouring in over Rs 600 crore (nearly half the ad budget for cricket in 2009). This represents a more than 10 per cent increase over last year's spends on television, co-branding of teams and marketing, among others.
A month after they cut fares 25-30 per cent, the country's leading airlines have realised that the surge in passenger traffic they had expected has not happened.
Raghu Menon, CMD of National Aviation Company of India (Nacil), had said last year that more than 70 per cent of the merger process would be completed by the end of FY09.
The principal promoters of Balaji Telefilms, actor Jeetendra, his wife Shobha, daughter Ekta and son Tushar, have decided not to buy Star India's 26 per cent stake in the television software company because of the sharp erosion in its share price.
As a result of the TDSAT order, over 65 pay channels like Star One, Colors and Star Cricket would be able to raise prices, which were capped by Trai. The TDSAT rejected Trai's tariff order of October 2007 that had capped prices in different categories of cities based on population.
The move will help mop up not more than Rs 10 billion, which is only a fifth of the capital requirement of the industry, led by Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, say experts. The expected investment has been calculated on the basis of a 100 per cent premium on the current valuations of Jet Airways and Kingfisher -- two of the country's largest carriers by market share -- which require over Rs 50 billion.
Despite having other mandatory clearances, applications of many international magazines have been returned by the I&B ministry, say senior officials. Magazines in genres like medicine, science and technology, and legal publications are the worst affected as their titles are more often found to be already registered with the government. Since 2006, at least 25 applications from international publishers have been turned down on the ground 'title not available.'
The civil aviation ministry and the directorate general of civil aviation plan to award the low-cost carriers some key morning and evening peak-time slots (a fixed time for departure or arrival of a particular flight) lying unused with the full-service carriers at metro airports like Delhi and Mumbai. DGCA officials and airline officials confirm that airlines like Jet and Kingfisher are not using around 10 per cent of their slots during the peak periods.
While portals such as makemytrip, cleartrip and ezeego have seen a rise of 30 per cent in advance booking in the first week of January, others such as yatra and travelocity, with a 10-15 per cent surge, are also expecting more bookings in the coming weeks. The cleverly-introduced advanced booking fares have induced passengers to book tickets until as late as November.
After Shah Rukh Khan's successful run with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, it is Aamir Khan who is bringing in all the earnings for Bollywood this year with Ghajini raking in Rs 40 crore in the first four days of release.
Chief executive of TAM Media LV Krishnan and and CEO, aMap, Amit Varma, share their concerns on the business of TV ratings in an interview with Ashish Sinha.
A curb on advertising budgets for television by the large companies and economic slowdown have managed to bring down the prime-time (8 pm-11 pm) ad-spot rates of general entertainment channels (GECs) like Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony TV to the levels of 2005-06.
The lukewarm response to the proposed real estate development around the Delhi airport has put its Rs 8,940-crore modernisation in a financial bind.
Despite sharp erosion in the net worth of airline companies due to losses in the recent past, banks and financial institutions have decided to sanction loans to some of them including Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, while some of the companies in this sector are still waiting.
In what is being termed as the biggest hit of 2008, based on its first 10-days box office collection, Shah Rukh Khan starrer Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has managed to collect about Rs 60 crore so far, of which nearly half has come from the overseas markets.
Travel agents in the country have had their way with airlines, at least in the domestic sector. National carrier Air India today agreed to pay a 3 per cent commission to travel agents, nearly two weeks after Jet Airways and Kingfisher agreed to do the same.
Several Indian and international aviation and logistics companies such as Air India, Singapore Airport Terminal Services, Menzies, Bobba, Swissport, Bird Group and Worldwide Flight Services have responded, individually or through tie-ups with each other, to two requests for proposals to set up a new cargo facility at Delhi airport and upgrade the existing one. The RFPs were sent by Delhi International Airport Limited, the GMR-led consortium that is modernising the airport.
Matter to come before copyright board on January 28.
The cable industry, which reaches over 80 million out of India's 130 million TV-owning homes, is getting ready to strongly oppose the government's move to raise the foreign direct investment limit for direct-to-home service providers from 49 to 74 per cent without doing the same for cable companies.
Nowhere in the world have television viewers been spoilt with so much choice as in India -- there are over 360 television channels on air in the country and applications for another 160 await the government's nod.
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