Network18 Group has renamed its news channel IBN7 to News18 India. Avinash Kaul, President, Strategy, Product & Alliances – Network18 talks about the rebranding. As Sunburn moves to a new venue, Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn talks about what more is new at the festival
THE TASK FOR US IS TO MONETIZE NEWS18 INDIA BETTER: AVINASH KAUL
Network18 Group has renamed its Hindi general news channel IBN7 as News18 India. The channel unveiled a new brand identity, logo and tagline ‘Danke ki chot par’, along with a refreshed on-air look on November 9. Avinash Kaul, President - Strategy, Product & Alliances - Network18, tells us more.
ON REBRANDING IBN7 TO NEWS18 INDIA: Post the successful re-branding of our English general news channel CNNIBN as CNN-News18, we are now re-launching IBN7 as News18 India. We have strengthened our editorial talent across functions and launched new verticals - entertainment, crime, astrology. Our mega prime-time starts at 7 pm with ‘Aar Paar with Amish Devgan’, and on an average, the channel share for this show is 9-10%. This is followed by ‘Hum Toh Poochenge with Sumit Awasthi’ at 8pm. ‘Sau Baat Ki Ek Baat with Kishore Ajwani’ is next at 9pm and the channel share of the show is around 11-12%. In fact, our channel was the Number 2 channel in the 7-10 pm time period, ahead of India TV, Aaj Tak and ABPNews (Source: BARC India TG: All 15+ Market: HSM 1 Mn+ Time Period: Wk 43 Mon – Fri 19:00 to 22:00). We have just launched Kachha Chittha with Preeti Raghunandan on November 9.
ON CURRENT MARKET-SHARE: Currently, we hover around 7% and 10% at prime-time (1800 – 2400). We still have some work to do in the morning band and are developing other shows.
ON EXPECTATIONS FROM THE CHANNEL: We will be very happy if we are in the top three or four position in the next six months.
ON THE MARKETING CAMPAIGN: The campaign broke on November 10 and it is a 360-degree campaign. It’s a focused effort on getting the shows and anchors recognized and convey the proposition of News18 India. The marketing spends will be similar to what we spent during the re-launch of CNN News18, which gave us adequate returns for our marketing investments.
ON THE DIGITAL PLATFORM: IBN Khabar has been morphed into News18India.com, and this will be the new digital destination. Also, the News18 app will now have a toggle button between Hindi and English to switch between News18India and CNN News18.
ON ADVERTISERS: Our periodical launches have helped gain traction among advertisers, and even our competition has taken note. Now, the task for us is to monetize better. We will shortly increase our rates which will make good our investments in the platform.
SUNBURN WILL BE BIGGER AND BETTER IN MAHARASHTRA THIS YEAR: KARAN SINGH
Sunburn, a prominent electronic dance music (EDM) festival, is moving to a new venue in its 10th edition this year. Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn, says that with the new venue, people can expect the festival to get bigger and better.
ON THE NEED TO MOVE FROM GOA: After being organized in Goa for nine successive years, Sunburn will now be held at Sunburn Hills, a privately-owned 90 acre land at Kesnand on the Pune- Ahmedabad Highway. We had been facing a lot of issues in Goa. So, we started hunting for alternative locations and came across the current location near Pune. We really felt that it matched the character of Sunburn and what we had always envisaged for our main festival. It’s about 60-70 acres away from the city, a beautiful table top land, with amazing weather and greenery. Apart from the new venue and an impressive line-up of internationally acclaimed artists, the festival will also see another first - it will happen on December 31. Not surprising then that Gionee and Renault are co-presenting sponsors, Kingfisher, Smirnoff, Ola and FBB are partnership sponsors and Ray Ban, VIP Skybags, Redbull are on board as well. In the last three years, revenue from sponsorship has more than doubled.
ON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT: We are getting a lot of support from the Maharashtra Government now. In the past, we also had a lot of support from Telangana because Hyderabad is another market that we have developed over the last couple of years. It’s very encouraging to see some of the States in India supporting this industry and recognizing the fact that we are bringing in tourism and travellers not just from across India but also from other countries. Last year, we had people from more than 52 countries coming to Sunburn. It’s great when the State government begins to recognize that and support us. The best way that they can support us is by easing out the whole complicated permission process.
