Star India is close to forming a joint venture with Kerala-based television broadcaster Asianet to launch a bouquet of regional channels. The deal comes after the failure of Star's joint venture with Ekta Kapur-controlled Balaji Telefilms to operate regional channels last April to get off the ground. Sources at Star said the broadcaster will hold a majority stake in the joint venture.
With hundreds of theatre screens coming up across India in 2009, Texas Instruments (TI) - a leading semiconductor technology company - is eyeing the Indian cinema market with its digital light processing (DLP) technology. TI has patented the DLP technology. In DLP projectors, the image is created by small mirrors laid out in a matrix on a semiconductor chip known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD).
With less than a month to go for the two mega television shows - Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai of Star Plus and the BCCI-promoted Indian Premier League on Sony - companies have lined up in right earnest for sponsorship deals with the broadcasters. Star Plus has signed on a string of advertisers for the Shah Rukh Khan-anchored show. These include confectionery brand Halls, Pidilite Industries, Havells India, L'Oreal India, Tata Sky, Parle Products etc
The OpenMalaysia blog -run by advocates and students who support 'open' standards -- indicates that some countries have changed their earlier 'No' votes to 'Yes' for OOXML, helping the software major to get the necessary combination of more than two-thirds 'approve' votes and less than a quarter for 'disapproval'. Lawyer and standards expert, Andrew Updegrove, an advocate of the rival standard Open Document Format, too corroborates this view.
Star Plus has signed up telecom major Airtel as the presenting sponsor for the Shah Rukh Khan-anchored Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai. According to sources, the deal has been struck at Rs 40 crore. The Airtel deal follows on the heels of its competitor Vodafone signing up as the presenting sponsor for the Indian Premier League on Sony TV.
Bollywood is yet to catch up with Hollywood when it comes to gaining profits from film websites.
If you watch television, you just cannot miss the colourful, new fund offering advertisements by mutual funds talking about India's growing economy and how investing in them is likely to fetch great returns
Unlike KBC-3, where Airtel, MTNL and BSNL were exclusive telecom partners, this time around, the channel is going non-exclusive. The channel is in the process of getting on board almost every telecom service provider, which means that participants need not just call from an Airtel or MTNL/BSNL number.
Before February 21, Sharma, who has been outstanding in the 13 matches he has played for India, charged Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) to Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) and had signed up with Pepsi and Reebok.
In the first year, each of the eight team owners will spend around Rs 25 crore on marketing and promotion, which include below-the-line activities, city-based club activations and so on, say sources.
Walt Disney is close to increasing its stake in Ronnie Screwvala-promoted media company UTV Software Communications to 32 per cent.
Sony Entertainment Television, which recently bagged the telecast rights of the Indian Premier League, hopes to earn over Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) as advertising revenue in the first season of the Board of Control for Cricket in India-promoted Twenty20 tournament.
RIL, owned by elder brother Mukesh Ambani, had acquired the Mumbai team last month for $111.9 million (about Rs 448 crore) for 10 years. Anil Ambani chose to stay away from the bids for the eight teams last month.
While the other owners of Indian Premier League teams are gearing up to pick up players in an auction some time this month, Emerging Media and Lachlan Murdoch, the combine which has bagged the Jaipur team, has firmed up its marketing and promotion plans.
The auctions are slated sometime in February, though the exact date is yet to be announced. Expectations are that stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh will rake in close to Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore in just one season of 59 match-days.
If it were a corporate entity, the Board of Control for Cricket in India would have been among the country's top 170 companies in terms of revenues (2007) -- much larger than Zee Entertainment (Rs 1,515.88 crore) for which promoter Subhash Chandra is waging a bitter battle against the official cricket board to develop 20-20 cricket in India.
Last week, Reliance Entertainment signed up with Manchester United for an exclusive, global three-year game development deal, which reports estimated at $100 million. Rajesh Sawhney, president, Reliance Entertainment, talked to Business Standard about the company's plans in the gaming, animation and home entertainment space.
It is learnt from sources that the two companies today paid Rs 20 crore as guarantee deposit to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The likes of SRK, Nirula and Mallya are in the race to own an IPL team for the upcoming Twenty20 series.
Sony TV has locked horns with production house Endemol over airing of Big Boss sequels. Sony maintains that it has the first refusal rights, as per the agreement between the two.