The young gambit of channels makes it mark on the industry panel, wins 27 awards in all.

ZEE Hindustan, the comparatively young national channel in the ZEE Media network, has struck gold at the ENBA 2020. In their ethos, ZEE Hindustan believes that news from every corner of the country is as important as the bigger national news. This approach of theirs was acknowledged when ZEE Hindustan won gold for their coverage of Bihar Floods, a very important piece of news which largely went unnoticed by the media fraternity. Their early primetime show won Gold while their primetime show won Bronze in those respective 2 categories.

ZEE Media has a very strong lineage of regional presence apart from their national channels. They have remained at the top of viewership data for a considerable period to amplify the space they hold in the minds of the viewers. The regional channels won gold and silver which celebrates their hard work and passion they put in every day. ZEE Bihar Jharkhand won 2 gold awards for their primetime news bulletins Baat Bebaak & Khabar Bihar and a silver for the best anchor. ZEE Odisha won 2 awards including a Gold for their morning bulletin. ZEE 24 Ghanta, the Bengali news channel is known for its brilliant on-ground coverage. This credibility was further solidified on Saturday evening when the channel won Silver for their coverage of the deadly Amphan Cyclone.

Congratulating the team, Editor in Chief and CEO, Mr. Purushottam Vaishnava said “Winning awards at an industry acknowledged platform is a gratifying feeling. It is encouraging especially for a young channel like ZEE Hindustan and our regional channels. Most of our channels have a young workforce driving them. It shows we are on the right path. We work hard every day to ensure we get factually correct news to the viewers. Most of our regional channels are No. 1 in their respective states which reflects the faith of the viewers in them. Zee Hindustan has especially been fighting hard to make its mark among the seasoned channels of the industry. Clearly, they are making their mark, rather boldly. I am sure all the channels will continue to grow from strength to strength and be a force to reckon with”.

Other regional channels like ZEE 24 Kalak (Gujarati) won 3 awards including best anchor and best current affairs program; ZEE Punjab Haryana Himachal won 3 including a Gold in the Best Anchor Category, ZEE UPUK won 6 awards, and ZEE Rajasthan wins Best Prime Time Show. The Urdu channel ZEE Salaam won Jury’s Choice Award for the Best Urdu channel of the year. Mr. Dileep Tiwari won the Jury’s Choice Award for the Editor in Chief – Regional Channel”.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Manoj Jagyasi, Chief Revenue Officer, ZEE Media had this to say “ZEE Hindustan and our regional network comprising of 11 channels have put in consistent effort to build the trust among our viewers. Majority of these channels are first choice in those regions and now to be awarded with 27 metals speaks volumes of their content quality. ZEE Hindustan winning for their prime-time shows reflects the viewers faith in them. For our advertisers this combination of 11 regional channels is a super platform to engage with their consumer through their own language”

IshqPod is a one-stop podcast destination for love, romance & everything in between.

104.8 ISHQ FM, India’s only romantic radio station, launches its podcast initiative ISHQPOD – a one-stop podcast destination for love, romance, and everything in between. IshqPod has initially launched 10 podcasts to start with, each containing 12 episodes. A new episode will be released every week.

From romantic shaayaris to the pain of singlehood, from planning a mega wedding to meeting the in-laws for the first time, Ishqpod has it all. ‘IshqPod’ has launched the following podcasts:

All About Weddings with Gunjan

Why Am I Still Single? With Hansa,

Shayar Badnam with Hitesh Bharadwaj

Love & Lol with Shashank

Bachelor Baazi with Shourya

Strings of Love with Shreya

Ishq Jam with Meha

How I Met Your Parents with Sharique

Pyaar Poetry, etc. with Shradha

Ishq Shots with Sumit Vyas.

Rajat Uppal- National Marketing Head, 104.8 ISHQ FM said, “Radio being an audio medium, podcast is a natural progression for a radio brand. The pandemic and the lockdowns have given podcast industry exponential growth in India. According to the Media and Entertainment Outlook 2020 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, India has emerged as the third-largest podcast listening market in the world after China and the US, with 57.6 million monthly listeners. We are excited to launch Ishq FM’s Podcast initiative- ISHQPOD. With an interesting line-up of podcasts hosted by our extremely talented RJs, we are optimistic that our listeners will be able to explore the quintessential aspects involved in modern-day relationships. We are looking forward to an exciting and promising response from our listeners for our initial offering and plan to add more content to our bouquet of offering in the months ahead.”

Shradha Singh, National Programming Head, 104.8 ISHQ FM said “Podcasting is an Intimate , Authentic and Community driven medium. It is a seamless and organic growth for Ishq Fm to foray into the landscape of podcasts. IshqPod will offer a buffet of spreads on Love and Relationships. We have designed our Podcast Menu keeping different choices of our listeners. Weddings to Break ups , Shaayris to Jokes, Stories to Jamming – We have it all !

The best thing about podcasts is that it doesn’t demand time from you. It can be listened to while working out, driving, cooking or showering. It leaves you with philosophy, afterthoughts or maybe with a smile. IshqPod raises a toast to the growing podcast canvas of our country and we promise to make it brighter with content on Love , relationship and everything in between.”

The podcasts are available across major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Jio Saavn, Apple Music, Gaana, Amazon Music to name a few. Tune in & Do the Ishq Baby!

1.How have things changed with the lockdown and pandemic for the fintech sector?

As digital currency becomes increasingly common across India, and work from home leading to less commute and higher savings, the fintech sector has seen quite a healthy surge in 2020. Also, there have been other tailwinds like increased financial awareness that have all led to an increase in the adoption of financial products and services amongst Indians.

2.Women in general have a different outlook and behavior towards savings. What are your thoughts on this?
Women focus on savings first, which means they tend to first maximize their tax-saving investments. On ETMONEY, women’s share of tax-saving ELSS funds in their portfolios is over 20% more compared to that of men. They also allocate more to safer assets like Debt Mutual Funds, and have also been successful in maintaining a near optimal Equity-Debt split for their age. This shows their deep understanding of each asset class and the importance of asset allocation. That’s where we see increasing women investing in ETMONEY’s SmartDeposit that invests in Liquid Mutual Funds and also offers instant withdrawal facility 24*7, 365 days a year.

3.At ETMONEY what are the relevant products you have for the aspirational women of today?
Financial services are mostly gender agnostic. It's the lifestage, personal preferences, financial goals, time period of investment or usage of product, risk taking ability and one’s tolerance to ups/downs in finances/investments that determine suitability of product to a customer. What is needed is awareness via education, bringing user context to that education and customizing/ personalizing the financial products mix to users, be it males or females. Due to greater penetration of smartphones & 4G, the accessibility of products has increased. And with higher accessibility, the competition and hence innovation/ simplification is on the rise.

It is this change that is getting accelerated in the market that Women are able to take advantage of rather than just products playing a big role.

4.Throw some light on the user base and the demographic of ETMONEY?
ETMONEY being a mobile-first way of investing, we primarily have a younger audience. The 25-40 age-group forms a larger section of our customers and more or less, the age-split is similar to males for women too. However, we see non-metros bringing a healthy influx of women investors. Women from cities such as Surat, Dehradun, Jabalpur, Bhubaneshwar, Mysore have joined the investment bandwagon in significant numbers.
The growth of women entering the financial services industry, while small, has seen a healthy uptake in the recent past. Currently, 1 in 5 users of ETMONEY is a woman, which is 20%. The potential is at least 40% if not 50%.

5. The Instagram effect can also bring financial ruin and we are seeing a culture of aspirational spending. Your thoughts and how do you plan to address this?
We tried to address this once via entertainment on how people buy things but don't use them and hence end up in wasteful spending. But that just made for a good video, nothing else

It's tough to overcome the power that instant gratification that some categories have....isn't it? As human beings, we have always aspired for a better lifestyle, higher status and greater prosperity. While we may not achieve all, the Instagram effect makes you think that possessing or doing specific things is equivalent to believing that you have at least one or all of the 3 (i.e. feelings of a better lifestyle, higher status, greater prosperity). At ETMONEY, instead of making people change their shopping behaviors, we believe in educating people on the power of compounding. . As the tribe of such people grows, we are 100% sure that a nice balance between Instagram-aspiring lifestyle as well as still being rich enough for one's future can be achieved.

6.The Best Businesses Are Built Around Passion. What are your views on this?
Tenacity is a more key ingredient than passion. I mean passion helps, definitely. But success requires staying out & seeing things through. In times of distress and continuous challenges, being passionate without tenacity doesn't go a long way. More often, I believe, that one mistakes being better at something like passion. When someone is good at something, s/he believes one is passionate. I think it's the other way round, people see success in things they are good at, and hence they like doing it. The more you like doing it, the greater success you see. And it then feeds into people so much that one thinks that s/he is passionate. So, I would rather be tenacious and passionate than just passionate alone.

7.One thing that you do every day that recharges and motivates you?
I read voraciously on consumer businesses and personal finance. The first one enhances my understanding of consumers, digital media and innovative ways to design awesome experiences, build products that are easy to use, and reach consumers. While reading on personal finances gives you more perspectives to educate the audiences we are serving. While personal finance is very simple - save enough, patiently invest for the long term, protect yourself through adequate insurance and limit your financial liabilities....the fact is very few of us do that. And solving this problem is changing or influencing consumer behaviors. And change is hard. I have been at this problem for over a decade and guess it's just the difficulty of doing this that motivates me day in & day out.

RTL Group ends 2020 with strong rebound in TV advertising and high streaming growth

Full-year Group revenue: €6,017 million (2019: €6,651 million)

Full-year Adjusted EBITA: €853 million (2019: €1,156 million). Adjusted EBITA margin: 14.2 per cent (2019: 17.4 per cent); more than 70 per cent of revenue decrease offset by cost savings on a comparable basis1

Profit for the year: €625 million (2019: €864 million)

Operating free cash flow: €1,005 million (2019: €1,199 million). Operating cash conversion rate: 123 per cent (2019: 105 per cent)

Proposed dividend of €3.00 per share, in line with the Group’s dividend policy

RTL Group audience ratings outperform commercial competitors in the Group’s largest territories: Germany, France and the Netherlands

Paying subscribers for RTL Group’s streaming services in Germany (TV Now) and the Netherlands (Videoland) up 52 per cent to 2.19 million

Portfolio management: disposals of BroadbandTV and iGraal generate capital gains of €158 million; full acquisition of RTL Belgium; disposal of SpotX and full acquisition of Super RTL announced in Q1/2021

RTL Group announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Strong rebound of TV advertising in the second half of 2020

Group revenue decreased 9.5 per cent to €6,017 million (2019: €6,651 million), mainly due to declining TV advertising markets across Europe in Q2/2020 and lower content production revenue as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. Group revenue was down 6.8 per cent organically2.

TV advertising revenue across the Group was up 0.8 per cent year on year in the second half of 2020 and up 2.8 per cent year on year in Q4/2020.

Streaming revenue3 from TV Now and Videoland grew by 20.6 per cent to €170 million (2019: €141 million).

Adjusted EBITA4 was down to €853 million (2019: €1,156 million). The Adjusted EBITA margin was 14.2 per cent (2019: 17.4 per cent).

Profit for the year decreased by 27.7 per cent to €625 million (2019: €864 million), mainly due to the decrease in Adjusted EBITA. This was partly compensated by lower income tax expense and capital gains.

Net cash from operating activities was €933 million. The operating cash conversion rate5 was 123 per cent (2019: 105 per cent) due to working capital management. With no dividend payment for the financial year 2019 in 2020, RTL Group had net cash6 of €236 million at the end of 2020 (end of 2019: net debt of €(384) million).

RTL Group’s Board of Directors has proposed a dividend of €3.00 per share for 2020 of which €2.50 represents ordinary dividend while the remaining €0.50 relates to the distribution of cash capital gains.

Based on the average share price in 2020 (€33.857), the proposed dividend of €3.00 per share represents a dividend yield of 8.9 per cent.

“A year of unprecedented challenge and major achievements”

Thomas Rabe, Chief Executive Officer of RTL Group, says:

“2020 was a year of both unprecedented challenge and major achievements for RTL Group. We managed to strike the right balance between implementing cost and cash flow countermeasures, maintaining our market positions and investing in the future of our businesses, in particular in streaming and advertising technology. This is reflected in a net profit of €625 million, an operating cash conversion rate of more than 100 per cent, audience outperformance of our commercial competitors and rapid growth in numbers of paying subscribers for our streaming services.

Over the past six months, we sold non-core businesses, unlocking significant shareholder value. We continue to strengthen our portfolio with the full acquisitions of Super RTL in Germany and RTL Belgium. And we entered into new partnerships, for example with Deutsche Telekom to grow our streaming business in Germany and to cooperate in advertising technology, advertising sales and content. As stated on 29 January 2021, there is a strong case for consolidation in the European broadcasting industry. We are currently reviewing such options for our controlling stake in the French broadcaster Groupe M6, with a view to creating value for our shareholders. There can be no certainty that this may lead to any type of agreement or transaction.”

Giving its ardent and movie-crazy fans across the region not one but two reasons to celebrate, ZEE Biskope brings the feeling of joy and jubilation to every doorstep on the occasion of the birthday of one of the biggest superstars of the region, Khesari Lal Yadav.

An actor & singer at par, Khesari has bagged several accolades across film award platforms. He also made his appearance beyond Bhojiwood in popular reality shows at a national level. Khesari Lal Yadav – the heartthrob of Bhojiwood became the romantic icon of the industry.

The superstar initiated his journey with ZEE Biskope as one of the channel’s launch brand ambassadors post which the brand has celebrated Bhojiwood’s most romantic idol through various initiatives including showcasing some of his biggest blockbusters. Leaving no stones unturned towards providing non-stop entertainment ZEE Biskope brings the birthday celebration of Khesari Lal Yadav mesmerizing viewers with a special World Television Premiere of his blockbuster Khoon Bhari Humaar Maang on March 15 at 6:00 PM. With Khesari holding a special place in the heart of audiences, the movie treats his ardent fans to one of his career’s best performances on his big day.

The movie features Khesari Lal Yadav along with a power-packed women brigade that features leading actresses like Smriti Sinha, Pakkhi Hegde, Monalisa, Anjana Singh and Subhi Sharma in prominent roles. This beautiful story showcases how three friends find strength in each other and decide to take a stand for their rights. Khesari projects a prominent role who helps the women brigade in their fight against all the wrongdoings.

The day will also witness two other blockbusters of Khesari in the afternoon bands. Deewanapan featuring Khesari Lal Yadav & Kajal Raghwani will be telecasted at 12 noon followed by Sajan Chale Sasural 2 featuring Khesari, Akshara Singh & Smriti Sinha at 3 pm.

Sharing his thoughts on the occasion, Samrat Ghosh, Cluster Head East, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said, “Our viewers are our big extended family and we take immense pride in being a consumer centric brand that brings them hyperlocal entertainment that is close to their hearts. High viewership WTPs especially with a starcast like Khesari Lal Yadav, serve as a great opportunity for brands as well as our viewers.”

Amarpreet Singh Saini, Business Head, ZEE Biskope& BIG Ganga said, “Khesari Lal Yadav being a superstar in the region has been ruling audience’s hearts for years. Presenting one of his best performances, a cult film for cinephiles, on his birthday is the grandest way to celebrate his big day. It’s a film that will not just entertain the viewers but will also give them a sense of celebrating their superstar’s birthday.”