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  • G Krishnan

    Entire Middle East Aaj Tak's target for 2002

    Feb 04

    Aaj Tak, the Hindi news channel that has forayed into the UAE with a tie-up with a cable operator late last year, pla

  • MTV Asia Awards

    First ever MTV Asia Awards gives homegrown stars the spotlight experience

    Feb 04

    Pop singer Shaan and playback duo Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik

  • Alagiah

    New weekday programme at BBC World News

    Feb 04

    One of the Beeb's best known faces, George Alagiah has joined BBC World to present a new weekday news programme that

  • Kkusum

    Sony claims all-time high rating for 'Kkusum' as 'Dhadkan' opens

    Feb 04

    Sony Entertainment Television's top rated show, the daily drama Kkusum from the Balaji Telefilms stable, has notched

  • First ever MTV Asia Awards gives homegrown stars the spotlight experience

    Submitted by ITV Production on Feb 04
    News Headline

    Pop singer Shaan and playback duo Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik brought home a slice of the action from the first ever MTV Asia awards that took place in Singapore this weekend.

    Shaan walked away with the best pop artist award while Udit and Alka bagged the honours of being the favourite artistes in the film category. They won the award for the song Jaane Kyon from Dil Chahta Hai. Winners were chosen from a shortlist of five in each category by 13 million votes from across Asia cast by post and over the internet.

    Each Asian country had an award but some awards reflected general taste. Britney Spears who recently made her acting debut and Latin sensation Ricky Martin won the favorite female and male artist awards respectively. Westlife won favourite pop act, beating fellow boy groups N‘sync and Backstreet Boys. Headbangers voted Bon Jovi the favourite rock act, ahead of legendary Irish group U2 and alternative act Limp Bizkit. Ang Lee‘s martial arts stunner Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon was adjudged favourite film. The competition included the animated hit Shrek and chick flick Charlie‘s Angels.

    Award winning Thailand boy band Pru stressed the need for Asian artists not to copycat the west blindly. Singer Regine Velasquez was voted the Philippines‘ favourite music artist, while Indonesia picked five-man band PADI as their choice and Malaysia chose singer Siti Nurhaliza. Famous personalities in attendance included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Zhang Ziyi, fashion designer Donatella Versace who also won an award and Japanese pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) who won the inspiration award was conspicous by his absence.

    Malaysian rap group Too Phat kicked off the festivities with a pre-show performance to entertain the fans waiting for the stars to walk down the red carpet.

    Complete list of winners

    1.Female Artist: Britney Spears
    2. Male Artist: Ricky Martin
    3. Rock Act: Bon Jovi
    4. Pop Act: Westlife
    5. Video: The Call - The Backstreet Boys
    6. Breakthrough Artist: Linkin Park
    7. Film: Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon
    8. Fashion Designer: Donatella Versace

    Country wise breakup of awards

    1. Malaysia: Siti Nurhaliza
    2. Thailand: Pru
    3. Indonesia: PADI
    4. Singapore: Stefanie Sun
    5. Philippines: Regine Velasquez
    6. Korea: Kang Ta
    7. China: Na Ying
    8. Taiwan: Zhang Hui Mei
    9. Hong Kong: Sammi Cheng
    10. India: Favourite Artist Pop- Shaan
    11. India: Favourite Artist Film - Jaane Kyon from the movie Dil Chahta Hai

    Among the special honours conferred on the occasion were an Inspiration Award for Jackie Chan and the Most Influential Japanese Artist In Asia for Ayumi Hamasaki.

  • Entire Middle East Aaj Tak's target for 2002

    Submitted by ITV Production on Feb 04
    News Headline

    Aaj Tak, the Hindi news channel that has forayed into the UAE with a tie-up with a cable operator late last year, plans to cover the entire Middle East in the near future.
    Aaj Tak signed a deal with E Vision, a leading UAE cable company in November 2001 offering the channel on a free to air window to all subscribers of the cable op, spread in Dubai and parts of UAE. According to CEO G Krishnan, the channel will shift to ‘a la carte mode‘ from mid-February. In effect, the channel will be available to subscribers for a nominal payment after that. The deal, says Krishnan, was struck to explore the international market within the footprint area of its existing carrier satellite Insat 2 E. Aaj Tak is currently targeting Asian homes through E Vision, owned by ETISALAT.


    No English news channel this year - Aaj Tak CEO G Krishnan

    The channel is also rationalising its rate card from 1 April 2002 in order to make it more attractive to advertisers. "Our ad revenues have consistently grown from the time we launched", he says. The channel‘s only source of revenue is advertising and Krishnan hopes to exceed revenue targets of Rs 400 million for the current fiscal. One big success that Aaj Tak has chalked up is in managing to mop up a wide range of ads from players who were traditionally not known to set aside budgets for television.

    In India, Aaj Tak is currently available to 100 per cent of the cable homes while the current Cable & Satellite connectivity is over 85 per cent, claims Krishnan.

    Krishnan says the company is also in touch with existing DTH players in the UAE and will be signing a deal shortly to attract all DTH homes as well in UAE. He hopes to acquire an additional 60,000 to 70,000 homes by the end of 2002 if a deal with any of the three DTH players in the region works out. Only two of the three existing DTH players in the region, he says, are interested in Hindi content.

    Aaj Tak, which was rated as one of the most popular news channels by the time it completed a year of operation in December 2001, has however shelved its plans of launching an English news channel for the time being. Krishnan however is confident that the channel will have a better share of the international market by the end of next year.

    At the time of inception, the Living Media group, TV Today‘s parent had decided to offload up to 25 per cent in the new entity. While the Bharati group picked up a 10 per cent stake in the company recently, ICICI Venture Funds holds another 10 per cent. Krishnan says the company does not plan to offload any more equity in the near future.

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