
Network 18 spreads its wings far and wide
One of the names that created ripples in the media industry last year was the Network18 group. The group has found itself in the headlines for reasons as varied as rebranding, acquisition, launches etc. The year was truly eventful for the network which made no bones about the fact that they want to emerge as full player in the times to come. In a recent conversation with our sister publication Impact, the Network Group managing director and promoter Raghav Bahl made the group’s ambitions very clear.
The diversified media company has taken a non-organic growth path by acquiring stakes in various companies including Infomedia, BigTree Entertainment. The group has been able to evolve at a very fast pace, but what attracted more attention was its spreading of wings across almost all media platforms, a step towards emerging as a complete media company in the near future.
Last year saw the group getting a foothold in the print media through a controlling stake in Infomedia. On the other hand, it also announced the arrival of Studio18 in the movies space with movies like Jab We Met and Welcome.
Making its intention clear on entering the fast growing print media, the group also inked a deal with the Forbes magazine to launch the Indian edition of the internationally reputed Forbes magazine.
Adding to the platforms in the television domain, the network entered into a joint venture with the global media company Viacom recently. The deal would give the control of the popular channels such as MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon to the Network18 group.
The group also entered into an agreement with the Jagran Prakashan group to come up with a Hindi    language daily.
That apart, giving a fillip to home shopping, the network entered the space with Homeshop18 in the second half of the year.
The massive rebranding exercise of the group undertaken in September was also an assertion of the synergies that the group has. The new entity was named Network18 replacing the earlier TV18 brand name.
Web18, the division that looks after the online business of the network, has already added some more entities to the staple. As Bahl says, the network is upbeat about the new media coming into its own.
Looking ahead, an English business paper is in the heart of schemes that the network has on its list. And the confidence comes form the expertise and respect that the group commands in the electronic space. The network also plans to venture into two more areas which are currently viewed as exciting spaces to be in. They are radio and animation and gaming, which saw a lot of movement in the year gone by. Bahl is also clear that in all probability it would take the acquisition route to enter these arenas.
Also on the cards is the launch of a general entertainment space which got more crowded by the entry of some other players in the past year. On the online front, Web 18 looks promising in the new year, with some more launches scheduled. The company expects a good year leveraging on the synergies from its varied arms and believes that the diversified portfolio is definitely a strength.
NDTV goes global
The Prannoy Roy-led New Delhi Television network expanded its footprints by entering into new territories and stepping into different media platforms during the year. With this, the network is eyeing to play a triple role in television, the Internet and mobile now.
The NDTV network broke the tradition by going beyond the frames of a news channel to make a foray into the lifestyle category in September with NDTV Good Times in association with the Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher. In the logo of the channel, the Kingfisher branding got a space. The channel is targeting a largely cosmopolitan, socially upbeat audience that lives in style and enjoys every moment of life.
Following the mantra of going local, the network also launched a city-centric channel for the Delhi christened as NDTV MetroNation, thereby making it the first such English channel in the country. In the initial phase, the channel is just for Delhi, but gradually there would be channels for Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as well. These channels are city-centric in their coverage and they would cover all the aspects ranging from lifestyle to sports, from entertainment to local events. Moreover, if Roy is to be believed, it would be fighting for the city and its people on larger public interest issues.
Taking on the war in the general entertainment segment, NDTV is all set to come out with its first premium general entertainment channel by the name of NDTV Imagine. The line up for the channel has already been made public. Karan Johar has joined the board of NDTV Imagine and his company, Dharma Productions also holds some equity in the channel.
Johar is slated to work on the conceptual side of the business for the upcoming channel which will formally go on air from January 21, 2008. Johar would also be a brand ambassador for the channel. Johar’s production house would also exclusively produce shows for the new channel. The channel from the house of NDTV falls under the NDTV ventures, a 100 percent subsidiary.
As the fourth largest Indian portal on the Internet, NDTV boosted with its convergence plans for mobiles and news on radio (once regulations allow that) expects its technology division to take off under NDTV New Media. The company is already in a joint venture with Genpact to provide media outsourcing solutions. It has also started selling its software and technological innovations, developed in-house under NDTV Lab. The company looks to clock $500 million revenues in five years, and has thus embarked on what the company calls its ‘big bang’ approach.
On the mobile front, NDTV is expected to come out with a personalized channel for mobile named NDTV Active, in collaboration with July Systems, a provider of mobile solutions for media, entertainment, and sports brands. NDTV Active will offer users a personalised, interactive, and completely customisable multimedia mobile experience. Active platform would form a part of NDTV’s new media initiative NDTV Convergence.
Past year also saw a lot of activities for NDTV’s new media venture, as the website went away from the subscription based viewing to open for all set up. Some new specialised sites catering to separate niches of audience also came up in the year.
Meanwhile, moving beyond the domestic shores, NDTV went global with Astro Vani, and Astro Bhasha, for the markets of Indonesia and Malaysia. In December, NDTV Arabia was launched to cater to the audience in the Middle East market. The channel network also has plans to take its business channel NDTV Profit both oversees and regional.
INX Media: One more into the clutter
Even as the television scene got more crowded, INX Media was the latest to vie for some air space and place in the drawing rooms. The channel headed by Indrani Mukerjea, wife of former Star India chief executive officer Peter Mukerjea, and credited to be the first one with a woman at the top, came into being in mid-November.
To produce content for the general entertainment channel, INX joined hands with 11 production houses which include names like Balaji Telefilms, Hats Off, and Endemol.
In the first phase of its launch, the group launched a music channel apart form the general entertainment channel. Launch of an English news channels is also on the card. For the English news channel, INX has already taken on board Vir Sanghvi, former editorial director of the Hindustan Times, in the capacity of the editorial director. Though Sanghvi continues to have association with the English daily and would regularly contribute to the paper through his columns, his association with INX Media meant that all his television appearances elsewhere would cease. There were strong speculations on whether Mukesh Ambani or Lalchan Murdoch, the son of media baron Rupert Murdoch, held some share in the channel. However, Indrani Mukherjea cleared the air, saying that the funds for the channels came through venture funds and IM Media held 26 percent stake in the company. The group also has plans to outsource its programming. In the second round of expansion, the network has plans to launch a whole bunch of channels carrying a local flavor. These would broadly be three regional channels, three regional music channels and three city specific news channels.
-
-
Pay DTH active subscriber base has 70.70 million in Jul-Sep quarter: TRAI
January 22, 2021 By Team PITCH -
-
Reliance Industries tops Fortune India 500 list for second year in a row
December 10, 2020 By Team PITCH -
-
AdLift Wins Creative Mandate for PayU India
June 10, 2020 By pitchteam
-
THE ROAD AHEAD TRADITIONAL MARKETING- “DIGITAL MARKETING”
July 25, 2019 By Anam Khan -
Marketing Herbal, the Lotus Way
July 25, 2019 By Sanstuti Nath -
Archives
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- November 2011
- February 2011
- December 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- July 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- February 2008
- January 2008
- September 2007
- January 2007
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.