• Nokia and Euro RSCG Worldwide win Gold Lion Direct in Cannes

    Jun 29, 2002

    Nokia and Euro RSCG Worldwide have won a Gold Lion Direct for their Nokia Game campaign, developed by Euro RSCG Nethe

  • ESPN Classic Sport debuts in Italy next month

    Jun 28, 2002

    ESPN Classic Sport will make its debut in Italy on DTH digital satellite TELE + DIGITALE on 1 July.

  • ESPN Classic Sport debuts in Italy next month

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 28, 2002
    News Headline

    ESPN Classic Sport will make its debut in Italy on DTH digital satellite TELE + DIGITALE on 1 July. The new channel marks ESPN‘s first branded network initiative in Italy.
    Content will be tailored to the tastes of Italian sports fans and presented in Italian. The channel will concentrate on sports fare where the country had a major role to play, like Italy‘s victory in the 1982 World Cup over West Germany. Other highlights include the 1960 Rome Olympics, and boxing matches featuring Italians like Rocky Marciano, ‘Raging Bull‘ Jake La Motta, and Nino Benvenuti, says an official release.
    To complement its local programming, ESPN Classic Sport will also feature international sports including the FIFA World Cup Official Film collection, Tennis Grand Slam events and boxing matches featuring greats such as Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

    ESPN Classic Sport made its European debut in France in March this year. ESPN Classic Sport is 70 per cent owned by ESPN Inc. and 30 per cent owned by Sports Capital Partners. TWI, the largest independent producer, packager, and distributor of sports programming in the world, plays a principal role in ESPN Classic Sport by providing a variety of support services to the venture, including production and facilities.

  • AXN claims crossing 30 million subscription mark for Asia

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 27, 2002
    News Headline

    With just under three months to go before it officially turns 5, action-adventure channel AXN states it now has over 30 million subscriber households in Asia.
    Recent launches on Malaysia‘s ASTRO and Pakistan‘s Leo Communications platforms, and significant subscription increases in key Asian markets, have contributed to the network‘s robust growth in Asia. Include China, where it is seen in 40 million households on day-part basis, and AXN Asia‘s regional distribution is over 70 million, a company release says.

    "Cable television viewers and cable operators across Asia know that for the best in action-adventure programming, there is only one choice - AXN," said Todd Miller, AXN‘s managing director. "The buzz, which first came to Asia in the thick of the economic crisis in 1997, is now a resounding beat that‘s sounded across the region."

    Launched on 21 September 1997, AXN - a Columbia Tristar International Television / Sony Pictures Entertainment channel - has experienced a steady upward momentum in regional distribution, making it one of the widest distributed and fastest growing regional cable and satellite channels in Asia, the release says.

    "AXN‘s brand awareness has grown from strength to strength, with an undeniable shift in the perception of AXN amongst viewers, key decision makers and media planners" said Miller. "Recent events like the Hong Kong AXN Challenge, the Nokia Urban Challenge, the Action Movie Festivals, and the annual Anime Festivals have attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers from across the region, giving them the opportunity to live the attitudinally 20-something AXN lifestyle, while our programs are now subjects of regular water cooler conversations."

    Miller also explained that the channel‘s growth was boosted by its burgeoning on-air and production capabilities, which now give viewers and advertisers more localised content, promos and vignettes. Last year‘s original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon promos took home the Promax and BDA Asia 2001‘s Silver award for Funniest Spot, while locally-produced channel promos - depicting people who ‘get the buzz‘ - will be launched next week Asia-wide on AXN‘s three feeds.

    "For AXN, the arrow points only one way - upwards," concluded Miller.

  • ESS gets the biggest cricket name of them all in Sachin as brand ambassador

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 27, 2002
    News Headline

    It‘s hotting up out there in the sports broadcasting arena. The latest card has been thrown by ESPN Star Sports (ESS) which today announced the signing of Indian cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar onto his first ever exclusive TV channel contract.
    ESPN Software India managing director Manu Sawhney with Sachin Tendulkar at the signing ceremony in London announcing the batting maestro‘s exclusive TV channel contract with ESPN Star Sports.

    Under the three-year contract signed between WorldTel and ESPN Star Sports, Sachin will actively promote ESPN and Star Sports and join the channels on air in exclusive programming that will treat Indian cricket fans to Sachin in a new role on TV.

    Manu Sawhney, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. said: "It is our constant endeavor to innovate, create and bring compelling sports content from around the world for the millions of our loyal viewers. I?m sure our long-term association with Sachin will immensely enhance the value we bring to our viewers and business partners."

    Queried as to the terms of the deal, Sawhney, speaking to indiantelevision.com over the phone from London, said it was a three-year contract that had a renewable clause built in and ESS expected that this was just the beginning of a long association.

    Sawhney would not comment on the payout to Sachin which industry sources have put at Rs 50 million a year, but stressed the deal was not just about endorsements. According to Sawhney, "Sachin will be partnering us in excellence as far as cricketing programming is concerned."

    Programming would be created with Sachin and around him, Sawhney said, adding it was an integrated and interactive approach that would include on-air, online, on ground and in print activity.

    Asked how long the programme rollout would take, Sawhney said the shows were still under conceptualisation but would be on air before the end of the year.

    The timing though, is what has has led to questions being asked as to whether the sports channel‘s choice of India‘s greatest cricketer ever as brand ambassador is a panic reaction to competition in the form of Ten Sports and SET Max which have got sports properties such as the World Cup Football, cricket tournaments in Morocco and ICC World Cup. Sawhney clarified that talks had been on with Sachin for the last six months and stressed it was not a knee jerk reaction to Sony‘s recent signing of Kapil Dev as its brand ambassador.

    When asked wasn‘t there a BCCI stipulation that disallows contracted players from participating in any sort of promotional activities while matches are on, Sawhney said: "We will make sure that we do not break any rules and will abide by all ICC guidelines."

    There‘s no denying that ESPN-Star Sports‘ has been losing its edge in programming with little high-profile sports properties to talk about. And it could possibly try to fill in the gaps by creative innovative funky programming featuring Sachin. A coaching show, exclusive down memory lane series on the genius who has been compared to Bradman, talk shows, ground events, and what have you are just some of the possibilities that arise.

    For programming to succeed with Sachin as the host however, ESPN Star Sports will have to groom him no end, especially in voice modulation, something which he is sorely lacking. There‘s no doubt that Tendulkar is one of the better dressers and lookers in India, but some of the sheen is lost when he speaks.

    There is some irony in that Tendulkar as ESS brand ambassador will be battling himself on the field as far as viewership is concerned when he is playing World Cup matches which will be viewed on SET MAX.

    So there it is. Sony Entertainment has Kapil Dev, the man who brought home the World Cup way back in 1983 squaring up against today‘s hero. Two greats, but who will prove the greater in the viewership stakes? No contest? The audience will have to decide.

  • Speculation rife that Mahajan to replace Swaraj as I&B minister

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 27, 2002
    News Headline

    Speculation is rife in the Capital that in the impending reshuffle of the Union Cabinet which Prime Minister AB Vajpayee is slated to undertake over the weekend to be announced around 1 July, information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj may be relieved of her present responsibilities and entrusted with new work.

    I&B minister Sushma Swaraj. Is she in or out?

    Political sources told indiantelevision.com that the front-runner for the I&B minister‘s post is information technology, telecommunications and parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan.

    "But if Mahajan is given the additional responsibility of I&B ministry also, which will translate into a true "convergence ministry" of sorts, then he is likely to shed the parliamentary affairs portfolio," a political source close to the Prime Minister said.Though Mahajan has held the I&B portfolio earlier too, but if Swaraj exits from the present ministry to take up party work or other responsibilities, then the fate of several issues relating to media will become unknown.

    In the forefront is the issue of conditional access system (CAS) that Swaraj had been pushing through opposing legislators and political rivals passionately.

    The Bill relating to the amendments to the Cable TV (Networks) Regulation Act 1995, which will pave the way for final implementation of CAS in phases in the country, has been passed by Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Indian Parliament). But awaits the Rajya Sabha‘s (Upper House) okay that was earlier expected during the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning 15 July.
    IT, telecommunications and parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan. Eyeing the I&B portfolio as well?


    "If in the reshuffle Mrs Swaraj is shunted out of the I&B ministry (which as a stand alone ministry has been steadily losing its relevance in the era of convergence being piloted by the telecom sector), then the CAS issue may be buried and forgotten," said an independent cable operator in New Delhi.

    It is well known that amongst those few who had raised their voices against CAS is Mahajan.

    Political sources also say that in private, of late, Swaraj has been "thinking aloud that the human resources development ministry" would not be a bad place for her to go after the I&B ministry.

    " But if wishes were horses then the politicians would be on them instead of zipping around in their air-conditioned cars on the busy roads of the capital.

    Points out a political editor of a Calcutta-based newspaper: "Swaraj may want something, but whether that fits in with the gameplan of the Prime Minister is the big question."

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