Food is the flavour of the last quarter of 2010. As the race to launch food channels heats up, ZEEL is all set to launch its food channel, Zee Khana Khazana, on December 8, 2010. Meanwhile, in the pipeline are two more channels dedicated to food – Food First by Alva Brothers’ Real Lifestyle Network and FoodFood by Astro and chef Sanjeev Kapoor.
Vizeum continues to be on a roll. The eighteen-month old agency has added d.light to its kitty. d.light, a social enterprise and a Silicon Valley venture, funded by M&M, Acumen Fund, DFJ, Nexus India and others, is engaged in the design, manufacturing and distribution of solar appliances to people who have either no or little access to grid electricity.
Google has announced the acquisition of Widevine, a company specialising in DRM and copy protection of streaming video, which could help Google in a number of ways. This deal could provide the motive force for Google TV and optimise video on Android devices like mobile phones and the newly emergent tablet sector.
Oriya dailies have slightly improved their performance in IRS Q3 2010, as against the Q2 results. Two of the top five dailies have seen growth in readership in this quarter, as against four of the top five dailies registering a negative growth in Q2.
The IRS Q3 2010 results bring good news for Kannada dailies and magazines, with both showing growth in Average Issue Readership (AIR). Among the top five dailies, all have shown positive growth, while among the top five magazines all except one have shown growth.
Dailies in the Andhra Pradesh market have not put up a good show as per the IRS Q3 results, with six of the top 10 dailies seeing a drop in AIR. While Telugu daily Eenadu leads the field, Deccan Chronicle is the most read English daily. The paper is placed fourth in the overall list.
Even as Assamese dailies have managed to put up a decent show with an AIR growth of 0.14 per cent in the IRS Q3 2010 results, the magazines have faltered to an overall drop in AIR of 2.04 per cent (monthly) and 0.74 per cent (weekly). Asomiya Pratidin is the top Assamese daily. Bismoi and Sadin are the top monthly and weekly, respectively.
Jharkhand, the most lucrative market for Hindi newspapers in recent times, has seen a robust readership growth as per the IRS Q3 2010 results, released on December 2, 2010. Nearly all top Hindi dailies have witnessed strong double digit growth in readership as compared to the Q2 results.
Like the trend in this quarter goes, most newspapers in Bihar have seen growth, with just five seeing a decline in their average issue readership (AIR). Being a largely Hindi speaking state, not surprisingly the top four publications are Hindi dailies, with Hindustan leading the list.
In a case of reversal, magazines have pulled off a better show among Bengali publications as compared to dailies as per the IRS Q3 2010 results. Six of the top 10 dailies have seen decline in readership, whereas only two out of the top 10 magazines have registered decline in AIR figures in the third quarter.
The newspaper market in Kolkata held little surprise in the third quarter results of the Indian Readership Survey. Ananda Bazar Patrika leads the list, followed by Bartaman, The Telegraph and The Times of India. Meanwhile, five out of the top 13 dailies have seen negative growth in this quarter.
Research data shows that Farmville maker Zynga is experiencing a huge decline in its userbase on Facebook, with a loss of almost one million users this month. On the other hand, newcomer Digital Chocolate has grown by 800,000 users in the same period.
NDTV is expanding its reach from television sets and aiming for our computers and our cell phones. In a freewheeling conversation with exchange4media, Vikram Chandra, CEO, NDTV Convergence, reveals the plans that the news organisation has chalked out to take it ahead as we watch the advent of high speed, low cost, personal Internet on mobile phones and affordable computers.
Wynn Telecom, which had announced its foray into the mobile handset business in India under the brand name Wynncom in the beginning of 2010, has chosen Shop as its creative agency. The mobile brand decided on the agency in the month of November and handed over the business, pegged at Rs 30 crore, to Shop, according to senior sources in the industry.