Indians might have emerged as the new hope for the world travel and tourism industry, but they seem to be giving a miss to the month-long Beijing Olympics slated to begin next month.
The proposals to get cable operators to offer digital signals aren't going to work unless the government mandates CAS-systems across the country.
The one with the curious name is the runaway leader, setting benchmarks in programming, standardisation and localisation. It doesn't hurt to be part of a formidable family.
Clearly, the mobile handset market is buzzing with new branded retail chains such as Reliance and Aditya Birla Group entering the fray and the existing chains expanding their foorprint. Take Pantaloon Retail's JV with Axiom of Dubai, for instance. The company is re-branding its standalone retail chain Mport to Axiom stores, which is among the largest telecom products chain in West Asia.
STAR India, a wholly owned subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong, is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media business in India. Last week, top STAR executives including STAR Hong Kong CEO Paul Aiello, STAR India CEO Uday Shankar and COO Jagdish Kumar were in Bangalore for meetings with possible joint venture partners for the print foray. The company is said to be in talks with Vijay Mallya's UB Group.
Vodafone brings back the 'ambassador pug' to advertise its customer care services. This is the third dog after Spikey and Chika being used for Vodafone and Hutch campaigns respectively. The pug brings a likeability factor to the brand irrespective of the fact whether you are a customer or not. Hutch had a positive brand image and to make sure that it continued the effective use of the dog was extremely pivotal for the transition. The pug is an integral part of communication.
No more countdowns, no more artistes - television's music channels have rescinded their niche for non-music reality shows.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India floated a consultation paper on playing an active role in monitoring the Indian television viewership. TAM Media Research is the sole player in the monitoring market for the last 10 years. TAM's CEO L V Krishnan says govt should start regulating all types of rating outputs like daily newspaper polls done via SMS or even TV polls during elections and not just TV TRPs. TAM is often criticised for its poor sample size, TRP system, etc.
The bad news for newspaper publishers -- and there are over 40,000 newspapers in India -- has just grown worse. The price of newsprint, imported or indigenous, is set to touch $1,000 per tonne, and this after a 23 per cent increase over the previous four months that took prices to $760 a tonne in March. Factor in the April jump and newsprint prices, which typically account for 50 to 60 per cent of production costs, have risen over 60 per cent over the last six months.
International digital marketing company Digitas has partnered with Solutions to enter the digital marketing sector in India. Digitas is owned by global advertising major Publicis Groupe. The new entity will be called Solutions Digitas. Digital marketing was not just online marketing and India is an upcoming market for digital marketing. Digitas will also introduce Prodigious digital production that manages the technology end of digital marketing for clients such as GM & P&G.
The fee that TV channels pay to independent cable operators and the multi-system operators is set to go up by 40-50 per cent. The market for carriage fee charged by cable operators to distribute satellite television channels is on fire.A plethora of new TV channels have been launched and are jostling for space on the already choked analogue cable pipe. Nearly 330 channels are chasing bandwidth that can accommodate barely 80 channels.
Beer market in India is expanding with new brands like Carlsberg or Budweiser making their way to retail counters across the country.
A country liquor manufacturer is set to launch the Radisson brand in Ranchi.
With 18 advertising deals in its kitty, NDTV Imagine determinedly chases the Rs 300 crore (Rs 3-billion) plus revenue target. In the latest TAM report (4 years plus viewers in cable and satellite homes in the Hindi-speaking markets) the channel shares the number three slot with Sony, ahead of Sahara, Star One, Sab and 9X.
Greycells 18 will launch an interactive channel called Topper to assist students in their class 10 and class 12 board exams.
IPL is all set to auction the players, following the bidding for teams by corporates. Apart from being a huge money churning excercise IPL promises on being entertaining too.
Alliance Lumiere, owned by NDTV Imagine, the entertainment company of NDTV, is all set to launch an international film channel. The films will be distributed in India and abroad. They will also be marketed through DVDs and VCDs for private viewing.
In spite of the criticism that Bennett, Coleman's Private Treaties division, which swaps advertising space in its newspapers for minor equity in small and medium enterprises, attracts, these print media companies are gearing up to launch their versions of the department.
Samsung, the consumer electronics giant, is adopting new product innovation and retail strategies to reach deeper and wider into the Indian market.
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