OMD, the media brand from the Omnicom Group, has completed a year in India, and its Managing Director, Jasmin Sohrabji, states that while the first year has been a good year, the birthday wish is to be present “across many more cities” by next year.  more...

Sunder Raman, former Managing Director at Mindshare, has been appointed as CEO of BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket initiative. He will be taking charge from next week.  more...

Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) is planning to launch a Hindi edition of its financial newspaper The Economic Times. The news was confirmed by Ravi Dhariwal, CEO (Publishing), BCCL. This would be the second vernacular edition of ET after the launch of the Gujarati edition in Ahmedabad and Mumbai in 2007.  more...

Global financier and philanthropist George Soros has picked up 3 per cent stake in Reliance Entertainment for $100 million (about Rs 400 crore). With this stake sale, the value of Reliance Entertainment has now gone up to around $3 billion (approximately Rs 12,000 crore).  more...

In a bid to increase its share of eyeballs, IBN7 is all set to unfurl its new looks from February 11. The channel plans to have more virtual sets, new programmes and a techno savvy look that is expected to attract especially the youth who do not show much interest in news programmes.  more...

Red FM has announced the third edition of its Bajaate Raho Awards. This year, the Awards would be given in categories such as Bollywood, Music, Cricket, Television, City Special Awards for Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. The FM station has also planned a 360-degree media campaign spanning over three weeks to promote these Awards.  more...

Tennis season is on full swing on Neo Sports Plus, the all sports channel from Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd. The channel has bagged the broadcast rights for three major tennis tournaments – Davis Cup, Federation Cup and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.  more...

The MCorp Global Group has chalked out ambitious expansion plans for its multi-brand technology retail chain, Hot Spot Retail. Under the one-store-a-day expansion plan, the Group aims to increase the number of its Hot Spot stores from the current 245 to around 6,000 stores by the end of 2009.  more...

Nick is launching an innovative contest, ‘Nick Bhoot Bhagao’, from February 11 to March 7, 2008. The channel’s latest initiative is supported by a five-city school contact programme and a mass media campaign. ‘Nick Bhoot Bhagao’ contest will see Nick-toon heroes flexing their comic muscle as they battle ghostly intruders.  more...

Web18 has launched TV-style programming on the Internet through Biztech2TV. The portal will allow people to buy, select, implement and leverage business technology that will power their business to greater profits and growth.  more...

AOL has acquired personalised portal company and widget maker Goowy Media with plans to deploy widgets that feature programming, content, applications, and ads. Special widget-based ads will permeate AOL’s ad network and allow users to take the message to other sites.  more...

OOH Media has tied up with The Times of India and Aditya Vikram Birla Group as the out-of-home TV partner for Corporate Olympics, an initiative of Fountainhead Events and Promotions. Corporate Olympics, an inter-corporate sporting challenge, will be held between February 13 and February 23.  more...

Tanla Mobile, a player in wireless application development, mobile billing and messaging solutions, has been selected by Outcast TV to build ‘Buzz’, their unique media personalisation platform. The first application of the technology is BuzzMyGoat.com, a service allowing people and brands to communicate with personalised video.  more...

NDTV Lumière, an initiative to bring contemporary world cinema to India, presents Retour de Flamme for Indian viewers. A cine-concert, Retour de Flamme has been conceived and initiated by Anna Doshi and Serge Bromberg, and would be held in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi on February 9, 12 and 14, respectively.  more...

Vineet Singh Hukmani, CEO, Radio One, argues that consumer ‘interface’ choices seem to get demarcated between media like print and TV which are largely one-way communication media; and interactive ‘alternate avenues’ that are closer to community. The problem that arises is that often the sheer number of people you can influence seems to drop drastically. But it is possible to have your cake it and eat it too when one uses radio at the core of a brand community building programme.  more...

Buoyed by the 40 per cent growth in its India operations, L’Oréal has identified the country as one of its top-five growing businesses globally. The French cosmetics major’s sales in India grew 40.3 per cent last year.  more...