Billionaire Ross invests in Satyam after losing bid
W. L. Ross & Co has acquired 1.8 million American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Satyam (Mahindra Satyam) from NYSE Euronext for $4.6 million (over Rs 20 crore) at an average price of $2.5 per share, the parent firm of W L Ross, Invesco, said in a Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) filing.
This has made it the second largest stakeholder in Satyam Computer Services’ (now Mahindra Satyam) US securities, representing 1.4 per cent of the total ADRs. Citibank NY ADR Department has 6.68 per cent of ADRs.
Of the overall percentage of Mahindra Satyam’s 97.67 crore shares, Ross’ stake would be a mere 0.33 per cent.
Ross was one of the contenders for acquiring a controlling stake in Satyam. But the company put a bid of Rs 20 per share for Satyam, which was pipped by Tech Mahindra’s bid of Rs 58 per share.
Source: Business Standard
BCCL: From zero to Rs 1,000-cr debt
It closed the 2008 financial year (FY08) with sales of over Rs 4,000 crore, a net profit of close to Rs 900 crore and an earnings per share of Rs 271 — a healthy jump over FY07 figures.
But there was one big change on the liability side. From almost a zero-debt company in FY07, BCCL had over Rs 1,000 crore of loans on its books a year later. It has not specified the purpose of this borrowing.
Advertising sales made up over 80 per cent of the company’s revenue. The directors’ report gave more insights into its FY08 operating performance. The Times of India, the flagship brand, grew 11 per cent, with average daily net sales up 500,000 from FY07 to almost 3,700,000. Most of this growth came from the east and the south.
The Economic Times, its business news daily, grew by a modest 6.7 per cent, with average daily net sales up by 100,000 to 775,000 copies. Mumbai Mirror’s circulation grew by 16 per cent, to almost 700,000 copies.
The directors’ report acknowledged it was not an entirely rosy picture. The report said: “There is sustained competitive pressure in the general interest English dailies and also the business dailies’ segments in several markets. However, the inherent strengths of the company’s publications, and the marketing, display and brand strategies, should enable registering of decent growth in the coming year.”
The salary bill for FY08 increased marginally to over Rs 400 crore. The top three salaried employees, not surprisingly the promoters of the company — the Jain brothers and their mother, Indu Jain — each drew a whopping Rs 16 crore per annum in remuneration.
Source: Business Standard
Reality shows suffer mid-life crisis
Sample this: ratings of Sach Ka Saamna, the controversial reality show on STAR Plus, fell more than 50 per cent since the show was launched in mid-July. The show started with a rating of 4.6 despite its late night slot of 10.30 p m. The show’s rating has now fallen to 2.2 after the time was shifted to 11 p m — despite all the controversy over its ethics, an issue that spilled over into Parliament.
Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao, another celebrity-driven reality show launched last month on Sony TV, suffered a similar fate. The programme started with a rating of 3.4. Despite being shot in exotic locations like the Malaysian jungles, ratings have fallen to 0.9.
Aap Ki Kachahari, a reality show starring former cop Kiran Bedi who solves social and marital disputes, saw ratings drop 15 per cent to 2 after the initial episodes. India’s Got Talent, which was broadcast on Colors, had an initial high rating of 4. This dropped to 2 in the middle and the show closed at 3.2.
“Despite the hoopla about reality shows, the consistent ratings still come from the traditional soaps,” said a senior marketing executive of Zee Telefilms.
That is why the top five shows on Hindi general entertainment channels continue to be soaps such as Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai (STAR Plus), Balika Badhu (Colors) and Pavitra Rishta (Zee TV), according to the latest TAM data.
Also, aMap data shows that the average time spent by viewers on soaps and drama is five times more than the reality shows.
According to the aMap data, the average net reach of soap like Yeh Rishta… on STAR Plus is around 12 million viewers, while its reality show Aap Ki Kachahari reaches only 4.6 million viewers, even though the ratings for the latter are higher than some of the other reality shows on rival channels.
“The net reach of a show has become crucial for us, rather than the show ratings,” said a media planner.
Commenting on viewership trends, Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India, recently said: “Fiction shows are the staple diet for the Hindi general entertainment channels because they are habit-forming and bring in a high level of viewership loyalty. They will continue to dominate the programming even in the future.”
Source: Business Standard
TV entertainment channels double online promo spending
“There has been more than a 100 per cent jump in the spends. All GECs are spending on the digital medium, as it is the only one from where you can get responses well and fast. It is a crucial strategy for creating brand awareness and reaching out to the young. It also has the advantage of becoming interactive. For channels like Colors and MTV, the online medium is playing a bigger role than it used to do earlier,” said Maneesh Mathur, Chief Operating Officer of P9 Integrated, a film entertainment marketing company.
“Although there are other established media like print and TV, there is a problem in terms of buying spots to promote a channel. For instance, Colors cannot buy a spot on STAR Plus to promote itself because they are competitors. So, they buy spots on AajTak and other news channels, where the basic reach is small. But to overcome this problem, the effectiveness of social networking sites have been realised, adds Mathur.
Viacom 18, for instance — which is promoting its channels MTV, Colors, Nick and Vh1 on the web — is spending almost 10 per cent of its marketing budget on online promotion. “Along with this, we have tied up with Orkut and Facebook in a non-commercial agreement, wherein both sides see a certain mutual benefit and value in the association. There have been certain other tie-ups (with the likes of MSN, Ibibo) wherein we have parted with our content and/or offered them tremendous branding and visibility and hence earned revenues for that,” said Anuj Poddar, Senior Vice President.
“GECs seldom use online platforms for marketing fiction shows, but for non-fiction shows, 10 per cent of the spends could be towards online promotions. I believe there’s scope for more,” adds Poddar.
When asked if there has been an increase in the investments by GECs, Poddar says: “Traditionally, GECs did not use the digital platforms much for their marketing activities, but we are starting to see this evolve. As shows themselves get hippier and the target group younger, marketing spends, too, will follow towards younger media. We have gone from zero to spending about 10-20 per cent for non-fiction shows.”
Channels like MTV, NDTV Imagine, Sony and Colors have also come with interesting content on the web like MTV’s Facebook Connect — Facebook users can post who they think their Celebrity Look-Alike is. If the judges on MTV Connected feel so, you get a chance to be featured on the show. On Roadies Battleground 2, watch MTV, note down the tasks, go to the website MTVindia.in and upload the video of yourself performing the task. If you impress the judges, they’ll let you participate!
Also, recently for the show Rakhi Ka Swayamvar they came out with a game where you can kiss Rakhi online. Around 81 per cent of the online Indian population, according to a report by Hungama Digital Media, engages in some kind of social interactivity on the web, making it an ideal place for the GECs to draw young crowds.
“For us, we see the net as a core platform to engage and entertain our audiences. The only difference is that in India, entertainment through the internet has yet some distance to go before catching up with TV. However, this catch-up is happening much more rapidly amongst the youth. Hence, out of our four brands, MTV right now is the most evolved online and by default, we now have a multi-platform approach to most MTV shows. Similarly for Colors, we do things online more with the non-fiction shows than the fiction shows, due to the differing TG. Interestingly, kids’ online presence is growing exponentially and hence we have created a very vibrant site for them at nickindia.com. Just like its TV avatar, nickindia.com now enjoys the highest time-spent per kid amongst all the kids’ channel sites,” says Poddar.
The online promotion for Sony’s Bhaskar Bharti and Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao is carried out by Ignitee Digital Solutions, a digital marketing company. Danish Khan, marketing head of Sony Entertainment, says: “We are spending 8 per cent from our total marketing budget on online promotions.”
Atul Hegde, Chief Executive Officer of Ignitee Digital Solutions, is also not surprised by the increase in spending. “I see a lot of viability for this trend to grow, as the target audience the GECs are targeting through social media are mostly in the age groups of 15-25 years and online is the best way to attract that target group.”
Source: BS
Passengers to pay airport development fee, rules high court
‘We find no irregularities attached to the imposition of ADF, therefore the petition is dismissed,’ the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan said.
The court said if the AAI had to carry out the functioning of the airport for the welfare of passengers, it is right to charge ADF from them.
‘It is more akin to the fact that the charge is for providing the facilities to the passengers and therefore within the ambit of law,’ the bench ruled.
The court, while referring to the section of the Airport Authority Act, said: ‘Section 12 (4) of the act if construed as without the power of imposing the levy of development charges, then the lessee would not be entitled to recover any fees from the passengers for the other facilities.’
‘If the lessee is not entitled to obtain the ADF, then it is an additional burden on the lessee itself which is not fair enough, so charging fee from passengers is on the right side. Stopping them from collecting the fee would frustrate the whole government policy of involving private participation in the sector,’ the bench said.
The bench had reserved the order last week after the hearing arguments of the AAI, Delhi International Authority Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL).
The public interest petition had challenged the ADF of Rs.200 on all outgoing domestic passengers and Rs.1,300 on international ones since March 1, 2009.
Besides alleging that the money being charged for airport development work was ‘placing undue burden on the travelling public’, the petition argued that in return for the payment, the passenger is not being offered any extra facility or value by DIAL.
DIAL, a consortium led by the Bangalore-based GMR, said the court verdict gives them the much-required financial cushion to ensure world class aviation infrastructure for the capital.
‘The ADF is levied for a limited period to modernise and develop an airport and provide modern passenger-friendly facilities,’ a DIAL spokesperson said, referring to the nod for the levy for 36 months till February 2012.
Currently, ADF is charged only at the Delhi and Mumbai airports. In the greenfield projects of Bangalore and Hyderabad, a passenger is levied what is called a user development fee (UDF).
While the ADF is charged from passengers even as the airport is being upgraded, the UDF is levied only when the project is becomes fully operational with all the required infrastructure.
An industry expert said the issue of adjudicating on financial matters concerning the aviation sector was technically a mandate given to the newly-constituted regulator, Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).
‘The issue can still be taken up before the AERA,’ Kapil Kaul, chief executive of the industry think tank, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), told IANS.
In March, the government asked all airlines flying out of Delhi to collect a development fee from passengers while issuing tickets.
©Indo-Asian News Service
