Sony re-aligns key management portfolios.

Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) has announced a re-alignment of key management portfolios. In the re-aligned organisational structure, SPN’s International business gets consolidated within the networks’ sales and syndication business. SPN’s Sports business gets more closely aligned to the distribution business. Consequently, Rohit Gupta’s role gets expanded to President, Network Sales & International Business, Sony Pictures Networks. Neeraj Arora, Business Head for SPN’s International business will now report to Rohit Gupta.

Rajesh Kaul’s role gets expanded to President, Distribution and Sports, Sony Pictures Networks. – Prasana Krishnan, Business Head for SPN Sports business will now report into Rajesh Kaul. Rohit Gupta and Rajesh Kaul have been with SPN for 14 years and 8 years respectively.

Commenting on the re-alignment, NP Singh, CEO, Sony Pictures Networks, said, “This realignment is configured to further our global business ambitions. It allows us to maximize complimentary synergies existing within the network and augment SPN’s consideration as a partner-of-choice by brands and businesses, alike.” 
 

Sab TV opens its mini-series 'Khidki' from 28 June

MUMBAI: Tell your funny story and relive it along with the world all over again on television! Sony SAB will now give a sneak peek into the funny incidences of the lives of their viewers with its new show, Khidki. The show’s concept revolves around stories that have been sent in by viewers all over India. Some of these select stories are being adapted into mini-series of episodes for the small screen. Khidki is slated to go on air onTuesday, 28th of June 2016, every Monday to Friday, 21:30 hours only on Sony SAB.

The channel in partnership with well-known television producer JD Majethia and Bollywood director Umesh Shukla of Oh My God fame had called in for entries for the show in the month of March 2016. Over 8000 entries have been received by the channel, of which, some of the shortlisted stories are now ready to be presented to the world.

The show will have a set of recurring actors like veteran Sarita Joshi, Rajeev Mehta, Lubna Salim, Aishwarya Sakhuja to name a few who will portray different characters in different stories, along with narration by JD Majethia, who is also the host of the show. Each story will be weaved into episodes designed to last for minimum of three to eight episodes, depending on the length of each story.

SAB TV senior EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor said, “We at SAB have always brought unique and different concepts for our viewers. With this project we are opening the doors to those Indian families who want to share their funny stories with the world. SAB TV will provide a platform on which these stories which will be showcased, a new story every week.”

Sony Max to air 'Saala Khadoos' on 26 June.

MUMBAI: Sony Max brings alive the dream of Adi Tomar (Character name -Prabhu) to win the boxing gold for India and his scuffle with political powerhouse through the World Television premier of Saala Khadoos on 26 June at 8 pm.

Directed by Sudha Kongara Prasad and produced by Raj Kumar Hirani, Saala Khadoos is an underdog to champion story of foul-tempered headstrong boxer turned coach (R.Madhavan) and his hunt for India’s women boxing champion. Prabhu chances upon the raw fighting talent – Madhie (Ritika Singh) post his transfer from Hissar to Chennai and decides to put all his efforts to tame her and get her to shine as a true wrestler. On the other hand, Madhie is an aggressive fisherwoman who loves her freedom and is too frivolous to be a sportsperson, yet she falls in love with this ‘Khadoos’ but caring coach and delivers a knock-out performance at the World Boxing Championship.

R. Madhavan actor said, “I have given 3years of my life to this movie, preparing myself and working on my look. I had become too complacent, bored with my work and needed a change and thismovie turned out to be exactly what I wanted. But I also went through one of the most difficult times of my life during this film as we struggled to find a producer who would not want to modify the script until Raj Kumar Hirani found it astounding and did much more than required to promote the movie.”

Sony Pix spends between Rs 7 to 9 crore for Fast & Furious franchise.

MUMBAI: Gear up and get ready for a thrilling ride this month. Standing true to its ‘Stay Amazed’ tagline, Sony Pix will quench the viewers thirst for some high speed action on 19 June with the premiere of action film Furious 7 (FF7) at 1 pm with a repeat at 9 pm. 

Starring Vin Diesel, the late Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Kurt Russell, and Jason Statham, the movie collected approximately Rs 141 crore in India and has grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing film of 2015.

Directed by James Wan and written by Chris Morgan, the movie is a touching tribute to the Paul Walker. Amidst all the noise and the action lies the ferocity of friendship as the entire family re-unites. FF7 features gravity-defying stunts giving rise to a number of exciting and well-choreographed fight sequences with some stunning car chases. It's a bittersweet feeling for the fans on seeing Paul Walker on screen again.

The channel has movie deals in place with NBCUniversal International Distribution under which it will now have access to movie titles from Universal Pictures. With this new deal in place, the three mega box office blockbusters of 2015 namely Jurassic World, Furious 7 and Minions will have television premieres on Sony Pix.

Pushing it further, the channel is extensively marketing the premiere of the movie. Marketing professionals are of the opinion that the channel has already spent between Rs 14 to 15 lakhs promoting FF7. 

Industry experts have estimated that the deal between the channel and NBCU is between Rs. 7 to 9 crore for the entire Fast & Furious franchise. An industry expert opines, “The deal between Sony Pix and Universal for the entire Fast and Furious franchise cannot be for more than Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore).” The channel has exclusive one year TV rights for FF7.

With a pervasive marketing strategy across print, TV and digital, the movie will also be promoted outside the network. It has routed a 360 degree approach which includes a strong outdoor campaign. Apart from this, social media is also buzzing with fans reminiscing about Paul Walker and gearing up for the premier of Furious 7.

Speaking about this, Sony Pictures Networks India EVP and business head - English cluster Saurabh Yagnik says, “For a blockbuster of this magnitude, we’ve adopted a 360 degree marketing approach which includes a television and print plan, innovative outdoor and an engaging social media campaign. Apart from Furious 7, we have movies like Jurassic World and Minions up next, both having crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide. This is truly a very amazing year for Sony PIX.”

Targeted at the young affluent mass comprising predominantly of males residing in towns, FF7 is presented by Motorola G4 Plus and is driven by Ford. Sony Pix managed to lasso99acres.com, Idea 4G, Myntra and Gillette as the associate sponsors. The channel has also partnered with Bollywood actor Ali Faizal who played an integral part in the Hollywood blockbuster and had quite a lot of memorable stories to share.

The movie is the highest grossing film in the Fast and Furious franchise and is Universal Pictures’ highest grossing film of all time in India. It is the second highest grossing Hollywood movie in India after The Jungle Book’s 2016 edition.

On the content front, the channel has also acquired exclusive rights to the biggest franchises like Hunger Games, Star Wars, Rocky, James Bond, Spider-man, Twilight and Ironman to name a few.

On 19 June Furious 7 will compete with other movies like the Robert Downey Jr and Chris Hemsworth starrer Avengers: Age of Ultron at 1:30 pm and Baby’s Day Out at 9 pm on Star Movies while on the other hand, Movies Now will broadcast another hit from the same franchise, Fast and Furious 6 at 1 pm and 9 pm. HBO will broadcast Final Destination 3 at12:52 pm and Jupiter Ascending at 9 pm. Hotel Transylvania will air at 1 pm while Samuel L. Jackson and Onni Tommila starrer Big Game will be broadcasted at 9 pm on Zee Studio.

India has 890 TV channels against 12th Plan target of 1500

NEW DELHI: With the government having cleared a total of 890 television channels including 401 news channels, it appears highly unlikely that the country will achieve the target of 1500 channels by March next year.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology which goes into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting noted that the State Finance Commission, while drafting its proposals for the 12th Plan (2012-17), had assumed that the number of permitted TV channels would rise to 1500.

However, a recent I and B ministry report said that a total of 890 TV channels had got permission to start their operation as on 31 May. Out of these, twenty channels including seven news channels have been permitted to uplink from India but not downlink within the country, and 96 including 81 general entertainment channels are uplinked from overseas but allowed to downlink into TV homes in the country.

Meanwhile, the committee was told that the present set up of Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) has developed logging and recording facility for 900 TV channels and is thus fully equipped to start monitoring of all permitted channels available on public domain.

The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) is configuring all available free to air channels in the content monitoring system of the EMMC.

However, configuration of pay channels will require broadcasters to provide necessary equipment for downloading and decryption of the content/signal and this is expected to be completed within 4 months’ time.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology which goes into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting observed that the monitoring capacity of EMMC is being augmented in a phased manner to achieve the objective of developing content acquisition facility for 1500 channels by the end of the 12th Plan.

By the end of Fiscal Year 2014-15, EMMC successfully achieved the Plan target of content acquisition facility of 600 TV channels. Under the 12th Plan, Rs.56.37 crore had been utilized as of 31 March 2016 out of the total outlay of Rs.90 crore.

The committee was told that the budget estimate for 2016-17 had been reduced to Rs 12 crore as compared to Rs 21 crore in 2015-16, out of which Rs 19.76 had been spent by 3 March 2016.

During the year 2015-16, EMMC has procured content acquisition hardware for setting up monitoring facility for 300 additional TV channels and installed at the new set up on the eleventh floor of Soochna Bhawan in New Delhi. The channels are being configured.

The ministry also informed the committee that issues pertaining to monitoring of 600 channels, hardware for which was acquired in FY 2014-15 had been resolved. Hence, EMMC was able to stabilize and regularly monitor 600 TV channels.

The ministry said its target under the Machinery and Equipment head was to develop content acquisition facility for additional 300 TV channels by the end of FY 2016-17.

The committee was informed that during the year 2015-16, 11 cases were found where TV channels were in violation of content guidelines (Programme Code and Advertisement Code).

While there is no provision of pre-censorship of the content telecast on private TV channels, all programmes/ advertisements telecast on such TV channels are required to adhere to the Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the rules framed thereunder. Action is taken whenever any violation of the Codes is noticed or brought to the notice of the ministry.

SPN acquires the exclusive TV & digital rights for the Indian open world ranking snooker tournament

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired the exclusive broadcast and digital rights to telecast the third edition of the Indian Open World Ranking Snooker Tournament, in India and the Indian Sub-Continent.

This year’s tournament being held in Hyderabad from 4 July to 9 July will be telecast live and exclusive on Sony SIX, daily from 1700 hrs to 2000 hrs. In addition to the live coverage, snooker enthusiasts will also be able to live-stream all the matches on Sony LIV.

The Indian Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament and has raised the profile of cue sports in India. India has produced several top ranking players in the past who have contributed to the rising popularity of the sport; namely, Geet Sethi, Pankaj Advani, Aditya Mehta etc. Since its inception in 2013, India Open has seen the participation of leading snooker players from around the world including World Champions Neil Robertson, John Higgins, and Mark Williams as well as current legends Ding Junhui,, Marco Fu, Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham to name a few.

India, as host country, gets a wildcard entry for six snooker players giving the upcoming talent a platform to showcase their skills and rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the sport. 128 of the world’s top cueists convened to England for the qualifiers on 28th May competing for the coveted prize purse of £ 3,00,000. 64 top international snooker players have qualified for the 3rd Indian Open from the preliminaries that was held in Preston, UK which includes Michael White, Shaun Murphy, Barrie Hawkins, Ricky Walden, Mark Davis etc.

Sony Pictures Networks Sports cluster executive vice president & business head Prasana Krishnan said,“As broadcasters, we showcase a diverse range of content that will appeal to our audiences and we believe that we can help create new fans for some of these sporting events. Driven by consistent performances of leading Indian players, the popularity of cue sports has grown over the years. As an international professional ranking snooker tournament, the Indian Open will feature the best of International and Indian cueists. With the inclusion of cue sports in SPN’s sports portfolio, we are continuing our endeavour to have something for every viewer.”

President of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India and the International Billiards and Snooker Federation Capt P.V.K. Mohan added, “I am very pleased that SONY SIX is partnering with BSFI to cover the event live on all the five days of the tournament during prime time slots. Snooker will be taken to a whole new level with Sony SIX coming on board for the first time since Indian Open started 3 years ago. BSFI in its new partnership with SPN is excited about the prospects that are likely to develop in Cue Sports. The Indian Open is a marquee event which has become very popular with both domestic and international players and is highly rated among the ranking events that take place around the globe. In addition to this, both the International and Indian players have expressed their delight about one of the biggest sports channels of the country telecasting and streaming the event. This will create tremendous awareness and visibility for the tournament as well as the sport.”

The Indian Open World Ranking Snooker Tournament will commence on July 4 and will be telecast live and exclusive on Sony SIX. Live coverage of the matches will also be available to live stream on Sony LIV.

SPN India launches FTA movie channel ‘Sony Wah’

MUMBAI: After Star India launching its free to air (FTA) movie channel Star Utsav Movie, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has expanded the scope of its Hindi movie channels from 3 to 4 with Sony Wah.

Based on a deep understanding of audiences across different strata in the Hindi-speaking markets (HSM) landscape, Sony WAH a premium FTA Hindi movie channel will cater to the unserved needs of rural and small town India.

Celebrating the best of Hindi Cinema, Sony WAH, with its positioning of ‘Filmon Ka Mela” will bring alive the content and experience that audiences of FTA channels have never seen before. The channel will showcase a mix of Hindi movies as well as films from the southern parts of India dubbed in Hindi. There will be a lot of marquee titles as well ranging across present-day blockbusters to movies from the last 3 decades.

With this launch, SPN’s Hindi movie channel cluster comprising of Sony MAX, Sony MAX2, Sony MAX HD and Sony WAH will cover the entire viewer spectrum of HSM at 94 percent unduplicated reach.

Sony Max & Sony Max 2 senior EVP Neeraj Vyas said, “With the launch of Sony WAH, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) becomes the only network to cover a range of audiences across multiple geographies with its unique offering of 4 distinct and differently positioned Hindi movie channels. Sony WAH completes the circle with its focus on rural and FTA audiences offering them a spectrum of movies they would want to see and when they want to see; enabling both choice and selection for the viewer”.