Saturday, December 12, 2009

Margazhi Specials

Various Margazhi programmes will regale Vijay TV viewers from December 15.

Andal Thiruppavai: Vijay TV pays tribute to the saint poetess with the Paasurams recited throughout the month of Margazhi. Children from Padma Seshadri Schools will sing the 1,300 Paasurams while Dr. Damal Ramakrishnan will offer explanation. ‘Andal Thiruppavai' will be telecast Monday-Sunday at 6 a.m.

Sangeetha Sangamam 2009: This programme will introduce budding singers from the Carnatic music field such as Smitha Madhav, Abhishek Raghuram, Mandolin Balaji, Mansi Prasad, Sikkil Gurucharan, Gayathri. K, Prasannna Venkatraman, Sruthi Sagar and Sisters Karthika-Keerthana.

Besides tributes will be paid to legends including M.S. Subbulakshmi, M.L.Vasanthakumari, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G.N.Balasubramaniam and Maharajapuram Santhanam. This will begin from December 16 and will be shown Monday-Friday, 7a.m.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Dish TV launches special packs for South Indian consumers

Dish TV has launched two special packages for South Indian consumers, hoping to mop up 70,000 subscribers through these offers. Available till 15 January, the 'Happy Home Silver Plus' pack is for Rs 1690. Under this scheme, subscribers need to pay a monthly subscription charge of Rs 125 (plus taxes) after five months. Dish said Wednesday the 'Happy Home Silver Plus' pack is cutomised to offer best in all genres of entertainment such as general entertainment in south regional languages, sports, business, news, movies and break free cinema.

The 'Set Top Box Free' pack, on the other hand, is available on an annual subscription of Rs 1990. The offer, valid till 15 January, is targeted towards high-end platinum plus viewers and includes the Platinum Pack + Colors + UTV pack worth Rs 1189 and latest movies on demand worth Rs 801. “We found these offers quite successful in Andhra Pradesh. The current offer is quite similar, except that we have done some tweaking to suit the different viewership tastes in each of the four southern states,” said Dish TV deputy VP Ravi Chandra Macheria. In the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Sun Direct is the leading DTH service provider with the maximum number of subscribers. Recently, Dish TV changed its brand positioning and launched a new TVC with brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. The company said it has earmarked Rs 300 million towards media spends for the new campaign, which started on 6 December.

-Indiantelevision

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Govt needs to do more to regulate content on TV

The Government today admitted that more needs to be done to regulate the content on television channels particularly in the light of obscenity and objectionable matter, but said it was working to rectify the situation.
Answering questions in Parliament, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said: “We are working with all stakeholders to monitor content in a more effective way”, adding that she was “personally monitoring this.”She also said: “Some channels have shown the aptitude for self-regulation.”

Soni said that notices and advisories were sent to the concerned channels under the Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act 1995 and even stricter action was being taken wherever necessary. She also said she had drawn the attention of Home Minister P Chidambaram to the telecast by cable networks or multi-system operators of some channels that did not have permission to downlink in India. She had written a letter to the Home Minister and also state Chief Ministers about two months earlier drawing attention to some of these channels. These channels include Peace TV, ARY Q TV, TV Maldives and Saudi TV, which are exclusively focused on Islamic teachings. The Centre has also asked the states to set up district level committees to monitor telecast of such channels, she said. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mohan Jatua said the government had issued an advisory on 7 October to all authorized multi-system operators and cable operator associations to discontinue with immediate effect transmission/re-transmission of illegal channels. Penal action will be taken against illegal operators.

-Indiantelevision

Monday, December 7, 2009

Trai probe into number of TV channels not to curb growth

The Government has directed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to examine the maximum number of channels that can be permitted in the country in the wake of spectrum constraints but has no plans to curb the growth of the broadcasting sector. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni clarified in Rajya Sabha today that the study by the sector regulator must be seen within this context and there was no government motive to curb the growth of TV channels in the country. "Trai has been requested to examine the number of channels which can be permitted in the country keeping available spectrum and transponder capacities as well as technological developments and general practice internationally," Soni said.

Soni noted as many as 512 private satellite TV channels had been permitted under uplinking and downlinking guidelines. Another 152 applications are awaiting permission to uplink from India and 14 applications are pending for permission to downlink from India, Soni added.

-Indiantelevision

Vijaykanth channel to join TN's satellite war

With one more political' channel all set to grab a slice of the bandwidth, Tamil Nadu viewers are in for a cacophony of political propaganda. Captain TV, backed by actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth, got the I&B ministry nod recently and is slated for an April launch. But significant is the fact that Tamil Nadu could well be among a few states, if not the only one, to have such an array of powerful politicians flexing their propaganda' muscles in the runup to a crucial 2011 assembly election, which is expected to get meaner and tougher.

Sample this: The state has 28 regional television channels. And a good quarter of it are owned by politicians from the influential Sun Network group owned by the Maran brothers to Kalaignar TV which has the backing of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and Jaya TV launched several years ago with the blessing of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss floated the Makkal (People's) TV' and PCC president KV Thangkabalu has his own channel the Mega TV'(which has the Congress symbol, the hand, as its logo). Thangkabalu's party colleague, H Vasanth Kumar, launched his Vasanth TV in May 2008. And now the Captain, as his DMDK partymen call Vijayakanth, will have his own channel too.

Politicians are fighting hard for a chunk of the urban viewership in a state considered the most urbanized. The TAM (People Meter System) pegs the urban vierwership at 1.5 crore, a sixth of Tamil Nadu's population. With a potential for more growth in viewership and a state freebie which ensures that every poor living room is adorned with a free colour television and a cable connection, it's a virtual scramble for space in the sky. Especially since all the competing channels are free-to-air.

According to TAM, Vijay TV, the regional channel of the cash-rich Star Group owned by Rupert Murdoch, enjoys a viewership rating of 3.7% in the state. But it took the channel more than a decade to get into the top-ten chart. Thangkabalu admits that most channels need many years to break even. But he is optimistic. "I know it is a long haul, but we are confident that people will tune in, especially ahead of elections. They like to get a balanced picture." Despite the competition being tough and crores of rupees needed to be pumped in to keep a channel going, more politicians are joining in. The Captain TV is an example. "It is a convenient tool for politicians to address their constituency," says Media Development Foundation president, S Sasikumar. "Vijayakanth benefited from decent coverage on Sun Network when the Sun TV and the DMK were not seeing eye-to-eye. But after they patched up, the Captain' is finding less space and so a need for his own platform to showcase his ideology and tell his constituency about his party and what it hopes to achieve," he adds.

Says Thangkabalu, whose Mega TV has in the last two years, showcased achievements of the Congress in the states it is in power, besides covering the local party activities: "Every television viewer has a political affinity and he or she will tune into a political channel, especially in the runup to elections," he says with confidence. "This is the biggest advantage. News channels can push political agenda," says KP Sunil, head of Jaya TV News. However, snatching a piece of the pie in the sky is not as easy as a hero bashing up villains on screen, say channel heads. But Captain TV managers are unfazed. "We will be a popular entertainment channel, and will position ourselves in a way which will attract the youth," said a source close to the Captain. As veteran politician and presidium chairman of DMDK Panruti K Ramachandran points out: "With the three major political parties dominating the satellite channels, fledgling parties like the DMDK need a media organ to reach the masses, and make it a level playing field."

- Times of India

19 in, 0 out..

It was no elimination in all Vijay TV shows last week ;) no elimination in Super Singer Junior, no elimination in Anu alavum bayamillai.. okay... coming to the super singer show, the show had 19 contestants fighting for next round spot and it was classical songs round..its a tribute to all the music teachers and specifically for the contestants, a tribute to their teachers. some of the contestants came with their music teachers and both the contestant, teacher spoke about each other.. Unnikrishnan and Nithyashree came in as special judge for this round and they were giving too good comments on the performances..they even gave standing ovation to some of the performances. Divya hosted the show okay but she should definitely consider her dressing in the show.. it was not at all good.. after the performances when it came to elimination, the special judges said that they cannot judge the performances with just this round so its upto Mano, Chitra and Shuba to take the decision. There were 5 contestants with low scores and one amongst them will be eliminated in the next round of the competition..

No more special 5..

In this season of the competition there is a special 5 zone where top five contestants will be selected based on the performances and they will not eliminated for that round.. this week the top 5 was broken by the contestants.. it went on to special 6 zone..Prasanna Sundar bagged the super kid award for the week for his excellent performance..

None Eliminated..

Yet again none is eliminated from the 4 contestants in Anu alavum bayam illai season 2... Already this season is not so interesting and still if they dont have eliminations for alternative weeks then its getting boring.. what say??? This week in the show, there were 2 tasks given to the contestants.. why is this season having most of the tasks at high altitude ??. First day everyone completed their task and on second day it was little risky task where car was hung at 60 feet height.. and water being poured on the car where contestant will be there.. Flags needs to be plucked from one end and placed on the other side.. It was only Mahalakshmi to complete the task and all others had dropped atleast one flag. It means that only Mahalakshmi completed this week;s task and there was no elimination.. reason being almost everyone had completed the tasks in very close timings and none will be eliminated. I think the contest will be good only when there is competition and the show should not have most of the contestants without completing the task. Lets see what happens next week.. this week it was Mahalakshmi bagging the best performance award for the week with all others being not eligible..

Entertainment, Media to touch Rs93k cr by 2013

The Indian entertainment and media industry is likely to grow at a rate of over 11 per cent and reach Rs 93,200 crore by 2013, a joint study by Assocham and PwC said in New Delhi. The current size of the domestic entertainment and media industry is estimated at Rs 60,000 crore. According to the study, the television industry is projected to be the major contributor to overall industry revenue pie.

"Indian entertainment and media industry is estimated to grow at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 11 per cent and reach Rs 932 billion (Rs 93,200 crore) by 2013 because of its prospects arising out of growing demand factor for entertainment from large section of people," it said. On the growth of film industry, it said the segment may grow at about 12 per cent over the next four years and would touch Rs 18,500 crore from the present Rs 11,500 crore. The study also said print media industry is projected to grow by 5.6 per cent by 2013 and touch Rs 21,300 crore from the current level of Rs 16,500 crore. "The relative shares of newspaper publishing and magazine publishing are not expected to change significantly and are expected to remain the same at around 87 per cent in favour of newspaper publishing," it added.

- Economic times
 
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