A GEC may be the largest consumer of ad revenues, but it also is the most expensive genre for investment. Needless to say, this genre has been the worst hit by the economic slowdown. Broadcast chiefs are calling SOS meetings to identify all areas where the industry can cut costs. In this first part of the report, exchange4media looks closely at some of the problems that the genre is facing, and the steps that the top execs of three media companies are taking to address the situation at hand.  more...

The Gunn Report for 2008 has been released and the news is not a very happy one for India, which has slipped in its performance as compared to last year. While India was the 15th most awarded country in 2007, this year, it was down two places at the 17th position. O&M Delhi and JWT Mumbai are the two agencies that have scored better in this year’s results.  more...

BSA Motors, a business unit of Tube Investments of India (TII), has launched five models of BSA eScooters. The company has assigned its creative duties to JWT. The size of the business is estimated to be over Rs 10 crore. Mindshare continues to handle the media duties for the entire TII Group.  more...

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will hold the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry during the indisposition of Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, who had been admitted to the hospital following a heart attack last month Dasmunsi shall continue to hold the rank of a Minister in the Cabinet, but without portfolio.  more...

It is that time of the year again, and the process to determine who would be the ‘impact Person of the Year 2008’ is on in full swing. ‘impact’, India’s leading media, advertising and marketing weekly from the exchange4media Group, has engaged AC Nielsen as research partner for the Award.  more...

Banquo’s ghost came back to haunt the readers of Delhi's English dailies last week and how. The day Obama won, both The Times of India and Hindustan Times in Delhi also ran stories proclaiming that they were the numero uno in the Capital. Veteran journalist Sandeep Bamzai brings out the traditional fight for the No. 1 spot between the two leading dailies.  more...

The dispute between the broadcasters and the producers shows no signs of a resolution. The members of the AMPTPP, IMPPA and the Producers Guild that together constitute almost all TV producers and motion picture makers, addressed the press on November 11. Mukesh Bhatt, Chairperson of the Producers’ Committee, at present, is the ‘official spokesperson’ of the producers, who have said that a solution could be arrived at if the broadcasters, FWICE and the producers got together on the matter.  more...

Delhi-based Sadhna News, which runs a Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh centric 24-hour Hindi news channel, is set to launch another regional news channel in Hindi centered on Bihar-Jharkhand on December 20. This will be the third Bihar-centric channel after Sahara Samay Bihar and ETV Bihar.  more...

The Second Digital Entertainment Conference of IAMAI, which was held in Mumbai on November 11, put the focus on the platform or access points – movie halls, television, PCs/laptops and mobile devices – while adoption, innovation and convergence was the defining theme of the conference.  more...

The International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) will hold its 2nd Annual South Asia Conference on November 13-14 in Mumbai. The theme this year is ‘Building Value in the Newspaper Enterprise’. impact, the weekly magazine on advertising, and marketing magazine Pitch, both from the exchange4media Group, are media partners for this event.  more...

CNN International, in conjunction with MyClick has announced the launch of CNN MyClick, an application that allows users to directly connect to CNN’s free mobile news site at cnnmobile.com utilising camera mobile devices. Users can now take a picture of a CNN logo and within seconds connect to CNN’s mobile news site.  more...