Date-wise News

HDFC Standard Life is sponsoring ‘Arcus’, stated to be the largest Hindi musical extravaganza. Produced by Balancing Act Productions, the theme of ‘Arcus’ relates to HDFC Standard Life’s brand value – ‘Sar Utha Ke Jiyo’ (Respect yourself). The musical is expected to be converted into film by the end of 2009.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:16 AM

Diageo India Pvt Ltd has consolidated its media duties with Starcom Worldwide. The account was earlier divided between Lodestar Universal and Mediaedge:cia, who had been handling the business since November 2006. The account size is pegged in the region of Rs 18-20 crore.

Tasneem Limbdiwala Oct 23, 2008 8:15 AM

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is all set to implement the long awaited passenger information system (PIS). Keltron India Ltd has bagged the rights to set up the PIS, planned as a pilot project, in approximately 80 bus shelters en route the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) by the end of December 2008.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:14 AM

Akamai Technologies and acerno have signed a definitive agreement for Akamai to acquire the New York-based ad network in a merger transaction. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of acerno’s stockholders, is anticipated to close later this quarter.

exchange4media Mumbai Bureau Oct 23, 2008 8:13 AM

The 16th edition of the Dataquest Awards 2008, held in the Capital on October 22, saw the crème de la crème of Indian entrepreneurs in attendance. Cognizant Technology’s Lakshmi Narayanan was adjudged the Dataquest IT Person of the Year 2008, while Naukri.com’s Sanjeev Bikhchandani was adjudged Pathbreaker of the Year 2008.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:12 AM

DTH service provider Sun Direct TV, a joint venture between the Maran family and Malaysia’s Astro Group, has expanded its services to North India with the launch of its DTH service in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on October 22 as part of its pan-India service launch.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:10 AM

TDSAT has passed an interim order directing the distributors Star Den to provide their television channel feed to the Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) service platform of DishTV. In a separate order, the Tribunal has also directed Tata Sky to pay Neo Sports on reference interconnect offer (RIO) rates for each month starting September.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:09 AM

TRAI has announced extension of the last date for receipt of comments on its consultation paper on media ownership to November 10. The deadline, originally set for October 24, has been extended following requests from some stakeholders and keeping in view the importance of the issue and the need for wider participation of stakeholders in the consultation process.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:08 AM

Move over the Cokes and Pepsis of the brands world. Enter new-age brands like Airtel, Big Bazaar, Vodafone, ICICI, and McDonald’s. The orbit of Indian marketing and consumer world has moved from ‘product brands’ to ‘services brands’ of late. To recognise this shift, ‘Pitch’, the leading marketing magazine from the exchange4media Group, has dedicated its fifth anniversary issue to the theme of services branding and marketing.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:07 AM

Popularly called ‘The TV Day’, Diwali down South is proving big not only for Tamil GEC players, but FM players, too, are cashing in on this upbeat evolved market. This festival season, both TV channels and FM radio players have come up with a slew of initiatives to keep their audiences glued to the medium.

exchange4media Staff Oct 23, 2008 8:06 AM

The one thing that Hindi general entertainment channels cannot become is a weekly battle. Competition and the high activity in the genre, however, have ensured that players pull out all stops to boost their numbers every week. The changes in the Star Plus scheduling has paid off for the channel and in week 42, it has widened the gap from Colors by 99 GRPs. In the last few weeks, this number had been fluctuating between 20 points and 40 points.

Noor Fathima Warsia Oct 23, 2008 8:05 AM