Asia Bizz » Entertainment

Turner Broadcasting to shut down operations of Imagine TV

Agatha Vyland — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:38:24 +0000

Asia Bizz: The popular Indian Hindi entertainment channel Imagine TV will soon be shutting down its operations. The channel is a part of the Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, which is a division of Time Warner’s Tuner International.

The channel is expected to shut down as it failed to attract its advertisers which has hit its cash flow. The channel was acquired from NDTV by turner in the year 2009.

Before the channel was sold to Turner, it was known as NDTV Imagine. The channel was consistently ranked low in the market which was a highly competitive General Entertainment Channels segment dominated by channels like Star, Sony Colors and Zee.

Unfortunately, Imagine TV channel was even behind channels like SAB of Sony and Star’s Star One and Life OK – which was recently launched. Siddharth Jain the Managing director of South Asia Turner International India said, “Imagine TV has not performed and grown as per expectations. While some programmes delivered satisfactory ratings, overall the channel was unable to achieve the ratings consistency needed to sustain the business and support continued investment,”.

The channel was launched by NBC Universal, which is a part of NDTV’s diversification in to non news broadcasting.

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Amul to sue Cadbury over misleading ad

Freddie — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:23:12 +0000

Asia Bizz: Indian dairy giant Amul has raised questions over one of the promotional ads of health drink Bournvita by confectionery giant Cadbury owned by Kraft Foods. Amul will reportedly be taking a legal action against the chocolate manufacturer, as it claims that the health drink in promoted in a misguided way.

Amul says that Cadbury’s claim that ‘milk alone is not nutritious’, shows the dairy industry in a poor light and misguides consumers. RS Sodhi, the managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation LTD (GCMMF) said in a statement, “Milk is the best source of vitamins and has enough nutrition. Cadbury has tried to degrade milk’s virtues and is misguiding consumers to promote its own supplement.”

Some time ago, Cadbury started a campaign that milk alone is not nutritious and that it is essential to use supplements such as Bournvita to derive calcium from milk. The campaign has suggested that the quality of milk in recent times has gone down and advises consumers to mix supplements to raise the levels of vitamin D, which helps the body in the absorption of calcium from milk.

A Cadbury spokesperson says that they have not received any legal notice due to which they cannot respond to an y specific claims.

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YouTube to increase ad revenue in Indian market

Samron Jude — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:12:31 +0000

Asia Bizz: Video streaming website YouTube reportedly aims to increase the popularity of its social networking skills with the help of better integration across the platforms. YouTube also hopes to double the ad revenue in emerging markets like India.

Tom Pickett, the global content head of the website said in a statement on April 12, 2012 during a visit to India, “YouTube has been lacking great social features. Commenting and sharing have been part of YouTube, but the experiences could be much better than they are.” According to the website stats, it gets about 800 million unique users every month.

After the United States, India is the second biggest source of content for YouTube. Pickett spoke about the planned improvements and said that they were working on areas such as the comments section of the site- which at present does not allow the other users to sign in from the other sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Pickett added, “As we think of incorporating Google Plus type functionality we think we can get a better dialogue going and a social platform that’s not just YouTube but it’s actually a common piece that cuts across all Google products.”

The Google Plus social networking site was launched last year by the search engine giant to compete against the popular players like Facebook and Twitter.

India is a massive market for YouTube as everything from Bollywood movie trailer videos, film songs, TV serials and even full-length movies. The recent live streaming of IPL cricket matches has taken the online video viewing experience to the next level.

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Agent Vinod Box Office Collections Lower Than Expected

Anita — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:53:42 +0000

Asia Bizz: The much awaited Bollywood movie ‘Agent Vinod’ was finally released on March 23, 2012, but despite all the advertisements and controversy surrounding the movie produced by Saif Ali Khan’s production house, Illuminati Films, it seems to have received moderate business on the first day.

The trend at the Bollywood box office collections of the movie starring Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan continued over the weekend. The collections in most of the parts of the country were below the expected figures on the first day.

The dip in the box office earnings was more noticeable at single screens and despite the Sunday holiday, there was no dramatic change noticed. The total business of the three day accounted to approximately Rs 275 million net.

Moreover, the weekend trend did not bring hope for any positive change from Monday onwards either. To add to the woes of the film makers, the movie received mixed responses from the audience as well as critics.

In the movie, lead actor Saif Ali Khan’s role seems to be interesting enough only in the first part of the movie, but unfortunately in the second part, the protagonist itself does not seem interesting enough to hold the attention of the audience.

Critics say that the negative controversy surrounding the movie – which includes Saif punching 2 men at a Mumbai restaurant and an Iranian band suing the film makers for plagiarism – is possibly the cause of the box office collections turning up much lower than expected.

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Paan Singh Tomar Crosses 12 Crore Mark at the Bollywood Box-Office

sharjil s — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:09:13 +0000

Asia Bizz: The Irrfan Khan starrer Bollywood movie ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ has recently made more than Rs 12 crores at the box-office. These figures were not expected from a movie as it was made with a budget of Rs 4.5 crores.

The CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, said that the movie has defied all market expectations and has emerged as a huge box-office success. The CEO added that it had great content, superb reviews, perfectly targeted distribution strategy and incredible word of mouth which helped the movie move to success.

Director Tigmanshu Dulia spoke about the success of the movie and said that the story was with him for more than ten years and now when he sees the movie unwinding in the theatres, it fills him with immense pride.

In Paan Singh Tomar, Irrfan Khan plays the main role of Paan Singh Tomar, who is an athlete turned dacoit.

The director said Paan Singh Tomar was a quest and dream to redefine heroism so as to define the heroism in Hindi cinema. Dulia added that it was deeply gratifying that they could complete ‘Paan Singh Tomar’s race.

The Bollywood film was released on March 2, 2012 in India.

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Kahaani movie recovers money with Rs 7.45 crores collection over weekend

Anita — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:21:52 +0000

Asia Bizz: Indian film critics had least expected Vidya Balan’s ‘Kahaani’ would receive such a major response from the audience. But now the Bollywood film – which was made with quite a low budget of Rs 8 crores - has already recovered its money and will soon be declared as a hit.

After delivering a hit with ‘The Dirty Picture’, the actress has once again showed the audience what she is worth. On the opening day, the film collected Rs 2.95 crore and is already receiving a huge response from the audience.

On Sunday, the collections of the movie reportedly touched Rs 7 crores, while Saturday saw a collection of Rs 4.5 crores. Joginder Mahajan, a Delhi-based film distributor said that the movie is made for serious and sensible racegoers and Balan’s performance has been appreciated by the audience.

Mahajan added that the film is not entertaining as ‘The Dirty Picture’, but is still being appreciated for the effort put in by the actress. The story of the movie is about Vidya, who plays the role of a six month old pregnant woman and comes down to Kolkata all the way from London in search of her husband.

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India Celebrates The Colorful Festival of Holi

Anita — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:08:28 +0000

Asia Bizz: The festival of Holi is celebrated by the Hindus in India on March 8, 2012 and is also known as the ‘Dol Jatra’ or ‘Rangpanchami’. Holi is celebrated towards the end of the festival, on the last full moon day of the lunar month also known as the ‘Phalguna’ and it is a holiday in many states of the Asian nation.

Indian model Poonam Pandey gets into the mood this Holi 2012

Everywhere on the streets of India, you can see people from all walks of life – celebrities, businessmen, vegetable vendors – throwing color and water balloons on each other and dancing to the beats of Bollywood songs.

The eve of the festival is celebrated with bonfires and sweets and the day is celebrated by throwing colors and sharing sweets. The day is also celebrated with people consuming ‘bhaang’ which is an intoxicating drink made from the cannabis plant. Some well know Holi wishes try to incorporate the element of color and fun as much as possible to give the correct meaning of ‘Holi’ much like these words below:

Bright colors,
water balloons,
lavish gujiyas and melodious songs
are the ingredients of perfect Holi.
Wish you a very happy and wonderful Holi.

This year, Holi also coincides with International Women’s Day.

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Sony Sells 1.2 million PlayStation Vitas Worldwide

Nicholas — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:22:35 +0000

Asia Bizz: Japanese electronics manufacturer Sony recently revealed that it has sold 1.2 million PlayStation Vitas worldwide. The company added that the figure has exceeded its expectations despite stiff competition from mobile devices and Nintendo.

The hand held game system was launched in the month of December in Japan, as well as other parts of Asia. But it was launched only in February 2012 in North America, Europe and Latin America.

The company did not revealed the figures per region, so there is still no information about the sales post the launch last week. In the US, the Vita costs $250 or $300 depending on the type of wireless connection. The Vita also has touch controllers on the front as well as the back with two traditional analogue controllers to use for shooters and a number of other games.

The launch of the Vita has come at a difficult time for the dedicated hand held video game machines. In the age of smartphones and computers, people now play ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘Words With Friends’ on their tablets and smartphones. Not many people opt to spend more time on a system meant for just games which makes it a challenge for hand held gaming systems.

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Sony Announces Pick Pic Camera App

Agatha Vyland — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:15:08 +0000

Asia Bizz: On March 1, 2012, Sony Digital Network Applications announced the release of pick pic camera. The pick pic camera is a smartphone application which allows users to record the photos just before as well as right after the shutter button is clicked along with the very moment.

This allows the users to select the best picture that is taken so as to save it as a still picture. Pictures can be taken before and after the shutter clicks. The shutter has to be tapped to take a picture and if you do not like the picture then tap the thumbnail to move through images taken before as well as after the shutter is clicked so that you can find the best shot.

The new application automatically records pictures taken before and after the photo is clicked which allows the users to select the best picture out of the lot. This application saves time when clicking several pictures.

The application also has recording modes for children, pets and other so that the interval between the pictures is optimized so as to ensure the best picture is captured. On the camera screen, one has to tap the call out icon and the pick pic camera calls out ‘Say Cheese’. Isn’t that a great deal?

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Flipkart launches digital music store Flyte in India

Anita — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:23:44 +0000

Asia Bizz: Popular Indian online shopping website Flipkart.com has now entered the digital music download segment with its new MP3 download service called Flyte. The online music download store was launched on February 27, 2012.

Flyte might have its own colour in the world of web, but it has to face tough competition with music piracy websites as well as illegal BitTorrent downloads. The competition also includes free Indian online music streaming services.

Flipkart had earlier announced that it had plans to launch a digital media store that would be similar to that of iTunes for India, but was inadvertently on the website’s navigation a few days back and was taken off.

In the year 2011, the website acquired Mime 360.co, which is a media distribution platform and now it seems like Flyte is the next logical step. The digital store provides free MP3 files at prices starting from Rs 6 per song and Rs 25 for an album. Before making a purchase, users can listen to a 30 second clip.

The website is at present restricted to the users in India only. The collection of Flyte includes music from 40 Indian and foreign languages and dialects across 28 genres.

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