Vodafone Idea to offer latest Hollywood movies on rent

Vodafone Idea launched one of India’s first per-per-view service on its Vi Movies & TV platform. The service, which will enable users to rent premium video content such as new movies, will be clubbed with what the company called ‘deals from Hungama Digital’ — an independent provider digital video and audio content. Initially, the service […]

After poor take-up, govt rethinks radio digitization strategy

Government of India seems to have had a change of heart as far as its digitization strategy for radio is concerned, particularly on the choice of technology for the future. The first phase of India’s radio digitization — which has the potential to deliver CD-quality sound on radio receivers — was started around 11 years […]

Zee Entertainment returns to growth for the first time after COVID-19

Zee Entertainment Enterprises reported its first sales growth figure in the post-pandemic period after advertising revenue grew by 7.5% and domestic subscription revenue rose 9.3% on a like-to-like basis. It also generated another Rs 551 cr during the quarter by licensing its content to third parties, taking its revenue growth to 33%. However, excluding this […]

TV18 Broadcast profit up 84% on lower costs, recovery

TV18 Broadcast, one of India’s top TV broadcasting companies, reported a whopping 84% jump in its net profit for the December quarter. The numbers were boosted by a sharp fall in operating and tax expenses, as well as by a steady recovery in revenue aided by festival spending. The company’s consolidated net profit for the […]

PVR Q3: Revenue starts inching up, rental waiver sought

PVR, the country’s biggest chain of multiplex cinemas by far, indicated that the worst was behind for the company, as customers started trickling back into theaters in November and December. Nevertheless, the pace of recovery continues to be very gradual. For the three months ended December, PVR’s operations generated revenue of Rs 45.40 cr. This […]

ICRA says TV broadcasters improving faster than expected

Credit rating agency ICRA has revised its revenue target for the TV broadcasting sector in India due to a faster than expected bounce-back in advertisement revenue and strong growth in subscription incomes. The ratings company, however, kept its forecast for the print industry unchanged, predicting a decline of 30% for the ongoing financial year. BROADCAST […]

Jio Fiber beats ACT; becomes India’s No.1 fiber broadband provider

Reliance Jio, whose entry into wireless telecom decimated the competition, seems to be all set to repeat its performance in the wired broadband space. The company added a whopping 3.03 lakh wired connections and 2.7 lakh fiber broadband connections in the month of September. Before this, the record for the highest number of wired broadband […]

Sun NXT to abandon ad-based strategy?

The management of Chennai-based Sun TV Network seems to have abandoned the earlier ‘hybrid strategy’ for its digital platform and come to the conclusion that an advertising-led model will likely not work in the video-on-demand universe in the longer term. The company’s Sun NXT app has been by far the most aggressive player as far […]

Radhika, Prannoy Roy to appeal SEBI order

Radhika and Prannoy Roy, the couple who started and continue to head India’s oldest dedicated news channel NDTV, have disputed findings by the stock market regulator that they engaged in insider trading and said they will appeal the regulator’s order. On Friday, Securities and Exchange Board of India had issued an order directing them to […]

Airtel’s cable operator tie-up expands to 48 cities

Bharti Airtel said it has expanded its broadband offering under tie-ups with local cable operators to 48 cities as of the end of September, up from 18 cities three months earlier, and will scale it up even faster in coming days. It said it took seven eight months to get the model right, but the […]

GTPL not overly worried about Airtel’s LCO broadband scheme

GTPL Hathway, one of India’s top cable TV and cable internet providers, indicated it was not overly worried about telecom players like Bharti Airtel luring away its local cable operator partners under their new LCO partnership strategy. Bharti Airtel had announced some weeks ago that it plans to authorize local cable operators (LCOs) to resell […]

Jio Fiber monthly additions cross the 1 lakh mark

The number of new broadband subscribers added per month on Jio Fiber — the wired connectivity service from Reliance Jio — has crossed the 1 lakh mark for the first time — a year after the company started giving connections commercially. According to India’s monthly broadband addition numbers, the total number of high-speed internet users […]

Carvaan gets a kids edition with stories & rhymes

Record label Saregama India has launched Carvaan Mini Kids, the kids edition of its extremely successful Saregama Mini ‘radio’ product with built in digital audio content. Unlike Carvaan and Carvaan mini, which come with popular songs and similar content for adults, the Carvaan Mini Kids — priced at Rs 2,990 — comes with rhymes, stories […]

Rs 100/month: Jio Hathway has India’s cheapest cable TV plan

Hathway Cable and Datacom, part of the Reliance Jio network, has started offering India’s cheapest cable TV tariff plans for customers in some parts of Mumbai. At a price of Rs 100, Jio Hathway is giving practically all the popular channels in India in standard definition, and at 200 rupees per month, in HD. Jio […]

Work from home boosts TV viewership in India

Even as evening TV viewership has fallen back to its pre-COVID levels after the COVID-19 lockdown, overall TV viewership continues to remain elevated due to higher levels of daytime consumption in the era of work-from-home. According to numbers disclosed by Sunil Lulla, CEO of TV viewership measurement agency BARC, TV viewership in India has gone […]

Does VODAFONE IDEA have a FUTURE?

As Vodafone Idea unveils a new brand identity, the financial troubles facing the company has as thrown into question the very future of the Indian telecom operator. There has been speculation that American telco Verizon or online retail giant Amazon may infuse money into the operator, but such rumors have been quashed by the Indian […]

COVID-19 lockdown proves a blessing for DTH providers

The Direct to Home (DTH) satellite broadcasting service has emerged as perhaps the only segment that has seen a clear benefit from the COVID-19 lock-down, with all three listed players seeing an increase in their customer revenue during the lock-down. The biggest jump in revenue was reported by Airtel Digital, which saw its revenue jump […]

Jio Fiber finally unveils its ‘real tariff’, starts at 399 pm

When Mukesh Ambani announced the tariff plans of Reliance Jio Fiber a year ago, most of the people who were eagerly waiting for the commercial services to launch were disappointed as there was nothing special about the company’s tariff card. However, its rivals were relieved, because their fears about a mega disruption in the market […]