Pradeep Guha has put in his papers today. He confirmed the same to exchange4media exclusively. Guha is leaving Bennett, Coleman & Co. after a highly productive stint of almost three decades to join Zee Telefilms Ltd as CEO.
Driven mainly by mobile phone technology, India will remain the highest growth market for telecommunication in Asia pacific region with around 35 million new subscribers in 2005 marking an 18 per cent increase from 2004.
BSNL has moved the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) against an advertisement published by Airtel in which the company claimed that it is the only mobile service provider in J&K. It has urged ASCI to restrain Airtel from publishing such misleading advertisements.
ICICI Bank and CNBC TV 18 share a common goal – to get positioned as a medium that caters to the masses than just the classes. The closeness in thoughts has brought the two corporate to join hands to institute the ‘Emerging India Awards’. The initiative is the first of its kind, which aims at recognising the achievement of the small and medium enterprises (SME) in the country
Hanmer & Partners Communications – one of the leading public relations firms, has bagged the PR duties of BharatMatrimony.com. BharatMatrimony.com had called for a PR pitch nearly a month ago featuring all the top end PR agencies. Hanmer & Partners was among the national public relations firms that pitched for the account.
Reality TV has launched its first ever ad campaign in India, a 60-second commercial reflecting the core values of the channel which is capturing a “slice of life”. The campaign hopes to increase the existing viewer base of the channel.
WorldSpace is going to increase its sales, marketing and distribution activities to penetrate Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad by end-2005. As part of this strategy, the satellite radio plans to initiate experiential marketing in all these three cities.
To mark its Golden Jubilee in India, the Reader’s Digest has come out with a commemorative ‘Collector’s Edition’ this month. Today, the paid circulation is around 600,000 copies, making it perhaps the largest circulated magazine in the Indian market. Editor Ashok Mahadevan talks about the reasons that have made the Digest such a huge success story.
A Synovate research study on spending and consumption patterns in Delhi and Mumbai finds that Mumbaikars are frugal spenders; they spend more on TVs and business travel. In contrast, Delhi spends more on personal grooming, high-end cars, personal travel; Delhiites love to splurge.
Abhishek Bhatia, who is currently head of marketing at ICICI Prudential, is moving to Prudential Malaysia as director, marketing. He has put in his papers and will move to Malaysia in January, 2005.
The free-to-air DTH service of Doordarshan, DD Direct Plus, will be formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 16. The service will initially air 30 TV channels and 12 Radio channels. The TV channels will comprise 17 DD channels and 13 private channels, namely, Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, Zee Music, MH1, BBC, CNN, Star Utsav, Kairali, Sun TV, etc Punjabi, Aakash Bangla, Jain TV and Smile TV.
The change in Yogesh Radhakrishnan’s duties has led to a series of other changes. While Bharat Ranga has taken control of Zee Cinema, Zee Music and the PAC channels, ETC Music has now gone to Ashutosh. In addition to his present responsibilities as VP, Operations of the channel, Ashutosh now takes charge as the Business Head for ETC Music.
Broadcasters and cable operators are prepared for an increase in cable rates next month. However, the opinions on the move so far are unified on one front, even as the rate increase does imply positive action on part of the government, in isolation, this increase will restrict the growth of the industry.
Fountainhead Bangalore has bagged the KempFort account. A popular landmark in Bangalore, KempFort is a destination for tourists and locals alike. A gamut of activities has been planned for the coming months, from mass media to localised activities. Budgets for the various promotions are expected to be need-based.
Sanjoy Chakrabarty, who ran the Central Trading Group till mid-this year, has been transferred to China, with immediate effect. Being based in Shanghai, he will be reporting to Simon Woodward, Managing Partner, Group M trading in China, and head of MindShare's regional trading task force for Asia Pacific.
<p align=justify>“Unfortunately, programming is something that you can’t quantify. We undoubtedly have the best minds of the country working for us and we have put in a huge amount of time and resources in training them. Training them involves getting some of the best people across the world and sending them abroad so that they can spend large amount of time with other large networks and benchmark themselves against the best.”