MUMBAI: Indian Merchants? Chamber (IMC) is organising a day-long conference, ?Fusion 2012?, on 1 February in Mumbai.

Fusion brings sports, media and entertainment industry on a single dais to enable the participants to interact with industry biggies and celebrities sharing ideas the theme ?C3i: Content ? Creation to Consumption & Audience Involvement?.

IMC president Bhavna Doshi said, ?The content industry is growing exponentially, reaching out to a multitude of consumers - across multiple platforms - in new and scalable formats with new and innovative monetisation strategies and programmes. With new generation of eReaders, tablets and smart phones enabling the consumers to be free and paid, relationships are making for an expanded universe of content creation and consumption.?

The conference will look at new trends and technologies that are transforming and redefining relationships that combine these three sectors and the consumer. Apart from many contemporary trends which will be explored during the conference, it will also deliberate on ethics in journalism and advertising.

The Conference, hosted and moderated by Kabir Bedi, will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken and will have the industry leaders from the fields of media, entertainment, advertisement, film and TV, animation and content production, telecom and sports marketing as speakers and participants.

The speakers at the conference include Sunil Lulla (MD & CEO, Times TV Network); Bhaskar Das (ED, BCCL-TOI); Subhash Ghai (film director); Santosh Desai (CEO, Future Brands), Srikant Sastri (Country Chair, Vivaki & Publicis Groupe), Geet Sethi (Billiards champion), Alok Malik (MD, ESPN), Shobhaa De (Author, Columnist, Novelist) and Arnab Goswami (ED, Times Television).

MUMBAI: Times Television Network has announced elevation in responsibilities of two of its senior personnel: Avinash Kaul and Ajay Trigunayat.

While Kaul, who was CEO of Zoom, has been given additional responsibility of ET Now as well, Trigunayat has been named CEO Hollywood Channels.

Both Kaul and Trigunayat will continue to report to Times Television network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla.

Lulla said, "2011 has been a significant year of growth for Times Television Network. As the channels consolidate positions, it offers opportunities for talent to develop. Avinash Kaul and Ajay Trigunayat will both bring new ideas, energy and passion for TTN?s ambitious growth agenda. We wish them great success."

The company said that during 2011, its revenue has grown by over 50 per cent, while reach has spread to 26 countries besides India.

Kaul said, "Bollywood and Stocks are deep passions of India. I am delighted to have a blend of entertainment and information as part of my mandate. I look forward to ensuring that ET Now continues to consolidate its leadership as India?s premier stock market channel."

Trigunayat added, "Movies Now has just about completed one year of stellar performance and I am looking forward to consolidating and growing the franchise of Hollywood entertainment for Times Television Network."

Kaul has worked with Fulcrum (Group M), Discovery Communications, Star, NDTV Media and Sahara One in strategic and management roles prior to joining Zoom last year.

Trigunayat was earlier Channel Head of Movies Now. Prior to joining Times Television Network, he has been in the Middle East in an entrepreneurial capacity; the Business Head of the Zee English Channels bouquet; has built brands and strategies for Lintas, Contract and Rediffusion and was in Sales with Pepsi.

NEW DELHI: The broadcasting industry today made a strong plea to the government to notify the self-regulatory mechanisms of the news broadcasters as well as the general entertainment TV channels - the News Broadcasters Standards Authority and the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council.

This was reiterated by various broadcasters including Indian Broadcasting Foundation president and Star India CEO Uday Shankar and News Broadcasters Association president and NDTV vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao.

Addressing a session on Content in the one-day ‘CEOs in Broadcasting‘ meet organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and later addressing a press meet, Shankar said that notification will enable the two bodies to also exercise self-regulation with regard to channels which were not members of these two bodies. He pointed out that the Advertising Code drawn up by the Advertising Standards Council of India had been notified under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act and therefore it had official sanction.
 
He said the TV industry had never opposed regulation, but had always held the view that the regulator should be an independent body and not the government. "We wanted neutral qualified people and not controlled people from the government". He and Rao were satisfied that the government had supported self-regulation and given it a chance to work.

Shankar said we cannot curb creativity, but have to prevent "dirt" from coming in. He said the BCCC had already proved to be very effective in this regard as channels had complied with the verdict of the Council headed by Justice AP Shah.

Referring to the quality of talent on the channels, Shankar said that with high carriage fee and other expenses, channels were left with little money to get high quality talent.

Rao said the NBSA had been in existence for over three years now and had worked very well, with channels generally complying with the directives of Justice JS Verma. He said the NBSA was not just a complaints body but unit for improving standards. Around 3000 complaints had been dealt with satisfactorily so far in an exemplary fashion, even with penalties being imposed.

Actor Shabana Azmi, who is a member of the BCCC, said that the Council had been working very satisfactorily so far and broadcasters also took it seriously. She said the members had also gained experience in understanding the responsibility of being part of a self-regulatory body.

She said it was interesting that the Government tended to forward to BCCC complaints relating to kissing scenes or scenes of that kind, while the complaints received from the public tended to relate to excessive violence.

Centre for Media Studies director PN Vasanti, who had been instrumental in drawing up the Content Code on behalf of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in 2007, said a monitoring body working with the CMS had come across over 3000 violations.

She wanted the two self-regulatory bodies to create greater public awareness by putting all their verdicts on the websites. She also felt that the two bodies had to work with the government - ‘there are no two ways about it‘.

NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph said that the Electronic Media Monitoring Cell of the Ministry had also begun forwarding complaints to the NBSA.

NewsX Editor-in-Chief Jehangir Pocha wanted clarification on what is news and what constitutes views and said standards should be drawn up for this.

Broadcast Editors Association and NDTV‘s Pankaj Pachauri said self-regulation should not ‘merely work, but should be seen to be working‘. He wanted the bodies to increase the reach to non-members.

Times TV Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla said there was need to be more public about the action taken by the bodies.

Speaking at the press meet, CII Media and Entertainment Committee chairman Amit Khanna described digitisation as a huge step forward and said the byword would now be pay TV and channels would not be driven merely by advertising and the race for TRPs.

He pointed out that the government also stood to earn Rs 60 billion additional revenue with the coming in of digitisation. Piracy would also become difficult, he added.

He supported the stand of the two regulatory bodies for a statutory status.

Answering a question, he said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would decide the basic tariffs after digitisation, but this would be done after issuing a consultation paper and eliciting the views of stakeholders.

Den MD Sameer Manchanda expressed satisfaction that I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma had committed that the sunset dates would be met.

NEW DELHI: Star India chief executive officer Uday Shankar has been re-elected president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for the second term.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd MD and CEO Punit Goenka was elected treasurer. Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla, who had been treasurer until now, was elected as the vice-president in the 12th Annual General Meeting.

The only change in the Board is that Madhavan of Asianet has been co-opted in place of G Krishnan, who had quit TV Today recently.

Earlier in the day, during the 12th Annual General Meeting, the following were elected as members of the Board of Directors for 2011-12:

1. Uday Shankar
2. Sunil Lulla

3. Punit Goenka
4. Network 18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla
5. Eenadu TV director I Venkat
6. Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel
7. MM TV director Jayant M. Mathew
8. NDTV executive vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao
9. Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh

10. Star CJ Network CEO Paritosh Joshi
11. India TV chairman Rajat Sharma
12. Siddharth Jain, Vice President & General Manager (Distribution & Business Operations), Turner International India & South Asia

In the subsequent Board meeting, the Board co-opted the following Directors to the IBF Board:

1. Asianet Communications MD K Madhavan
2. Sri Adhikari Bros. vice chairman & MD Markand Adhikari
3. Colors CEO Raj Nayak

It was decided that the following members would be special invitees in the IBF Board of Directors meetings:

1. Turner General Entertainment Network VP and GM Monica Tata

2. ESPN Star Sports MD Manu Sawhney