Leading sports broadcaster Star India has won the VIVO Indian Premier League's (IPL's) Global Media and Digital broadcast rights for the five year period from 2018 to 2022.

The Media Broadcast & Digital Rights were won by Star India through an Invitation to Tender (ITT) bidding process with the broadcasters winning global consolidated bid of INR 16,347.50 Crore. Incidentally, 14 bids were received, earlier in the morning from beIN IP Ltd., Star India Pvt. Ltd., Followon Interactive Media Pvt. Ltd, Sony Pictures Networks Pvt. Ltd., Times Internet Ltd, Supersport International (Pty) Ltd., Reliance Jio Digital Services Pvt. Ltd., Gulf DTH FZ LLC, Econet Media Ltd., Facebook Inc., DAZN / Perform Group, Yupp TV, Airtel and BAM Tech.

C K Khanna, Acting President, BCCI said, “We are happy to announce Star India as our new Global Media and Digital partner. We thank all the bidders that participated in the process. We have ensured that transparency of the highest form was maintained throughout the process. I would like to thank cricketers and franchises for making the league one of the eminent sporting leagues in the world. I would also like to thank all the fans for showing their continuous support for the VIVO IPL for the last 10 years.”

Amitabh Choudhary, Acting Secretary, BCCI said, “We welcome Star India on board as our broadcast and digital partner. Cricket as a sport has evolved over the years, and today’s bids were a reiteration of VIVO IPL’s growing global popularity.”

Uday Shankar, Chairman & CEO, Star India, said, "We are honoured to be selected as IPL's Global Media Rights Partner and we thank BCCI for conducting such a transparent process. The VIVO Indian Premier League is undoubtedly one of the most exciting sporting leagues in the world and this acquisition of media rights reaffirms our commitment to serve cricket fans and make cricket even bigger than it is. We are delighted that in Star, IPL has found its natural home. We look forward to bringing this exciting format to our audiences across the world in a quality that all our viewers are accustomed to both on television as well as on digital on Hotstar.

Mr. Uday Shankar further added, “At Star India, we believe that Indian sports have barely scratched the surface of its potential. Both the viewership of sports and more importantly participation in sports is something that we would like to grow substantially over the next few years. The acquisition of these rights is symbolic of our commitment to not just cricket but to the growth of a wider sports culture in the country.”

Rahul Johri, CEO, BCCI said, "We are grateful to the Supreme Court, the Committee of Administrators and the office bearers of BCCI. We are also thankful to Deloitte and our Legal partners Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas for their support in carrying out a fair and transparent bidding process efficiently. We would like to welcome Star India on board as our IPL Global Media and Digital partner, we believe this is a global benchmark and all the stakeholders of IPL will significantly benefit from this association with Star India."

The BBC has launched its 100 Women season for 2017, with a unique celebration of female talent. Now in its fifth year, the season is again leading the charge by challenging women across the world to solve four global problems.

Starting in October, ‘100 Women Challenge: Change is coming’ will be drawing on the world’s wealth of female talent across all spheres of modern life – from engineering to the creative industries, from sport to business – as four teams tackle everyday problems currently blighting women’s lives across the globe. With help and inspiration from women who face these challenges daily, as well as star ambassadors and the BBC’s global audience, they will have a week to invent, develop and deliver a prototype. This could be a tech solution, product or campaignthat tackles the issue.

The teams’ progress will be followed throughout each week on the BBC’s digital platforms. There will also be live shows marking the beginning and end of each project and content across all the BBC’s language services and its international TV news channel BBC World News.

Audience participation will be a cornerstone of the challenge. The teams will want to hear directly from women affected by the issues they are tackling and find out what solutions may have already been tried. Viewers and listeners will be able to get involved in the challenge via social media with @BBC100Women and #100Women, online at www.bbc.com/100women and through the live shows.

The 100 Women Challenge will begin in San Francisco on Monday October 2nd with the first team looking at breaking through the glass ceiling. The next team will be based in Delhi, tackling female illiteracy (October 9th - 13th), before the focus moves to Kenya, where a team in Nairobi will try to improve safety for women on public transport (October 16th-21st). And finally for the fourth week a team in Rio de Janeiro will take on sexism in sport (October 23rd – 28th).

But the 100 Women season would not be complete without the now famous 100 Women List. In 2016 it included singer-songwriter Alicia Keys; US gold medal winning gymnast, Simone Biles; French politician RachidaDati and Chairman of Santander UK Baroness ShritiVadera among others. This year the list will celebrate the women around the world trying to tackle the problems highlighted in the season. And in a new twist, while 60 women have already have been identified, the remaining 40 places will be filled by those who have supported, inspired and helped the teams on the ground over the course of the weeks. They might be someone working on a solution on the other side of the world; the woman who suggested the piece of code; the woman who named the campaign; or the woman who, by courageously sharing her story, inspired the solution.

Alongside the 100 Women Challenge, additional content will bebroadcast throughout October and into the autumn across all the BBC’s language services and BBC World News, ranging from short form news reports to documentaries. There will also be a wealth of digital content on www.bbc.com/100women such as opinion pieces by leading experts, personal stories, infographics and films.

Launching the fifth season of 100 Women, Director of World Service Group Francesca Unsworth said:

“Since its launch in 2013 it’s been fantastic to see 100 Women go from strength to strength. It has developed a life of its own, giving women a voice and ensuring the issues they face are kept front of mind. It has been such a privilege for us to be able to tell the stories of so many inspirational individuals giving them the global recognition they deserve. This year we are taking the project a step further, challenging some of the world’s top female experts to help find solutions to problems holding back the women of today. It’s an exciting and unique way to celebrate the talents of women and develop the 100 Women legacy with the help of the BBC’s global audience of nearly 350 million people.”

Fiona Crack, Editor of 100 Women added:

“The message we’ve heard loud and clear from women across our audiences is that they want action, that it’s not just talking about issues anymore, it's doing something about them. In 2015 women hosted 150 debates in 10 languages and 30 countries, in 2016 people added 450 deserving but over-looked women to Wikipedia, and now in 2017 we're taking it to a whole new level of participation. It's going to be exciting but nerve-racking to see what these talented 100 will come up with and if they can pull it off in a month.

The undisputed leader in the lifestyle and travel segment, FOX Life is ready to take on the home décor and interiors’ space with its brand-new show ‘Design HQ’, with the award-winning architect, interior designer Ashiesh Shah.

The show will give its viewers a never-seen-before inside access Design HQ premieres 7th September 2017 every Thursday at 10pm only on Fox Lifeinto the homes of Bollywood A-listers such as Hrithik Roshan, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandes, Sussane Khan, Masaba Gupta and others.

Design HQ will reveal personalized design inspiration behind celebrity home interiors along with some candid, fun conversations with Ashiesh on all-things-design and more. The show also features a fun DIY segment with Ashiesh, wherein he shares simple hacks on how to “design your own space” and live the celeb life!

Talking about the concept of Design HQ, Shruti Takulia, Creative Director, India Productions, Fox Networks Group, said, “With Design HQ, we bring forth a new facet of lifestyle – design and home décor, for our aesthetically inclined viewers; a natural extension of the channel’s already broad lifestyle bouquet spanning food, travel and fashion.

“From Hrithik Roshan talking about his vending machine to Aditya Roy Kapoor’s confession about his ambient bachelor pad, or Pernia’s penchant of having various shades of white and mirrors in her house to a quirky rickshaw installation at AD & Sabina Singh’s abode – Design HQ is all about revealing design stories coming straight from celebrity homes.” Shruti added

Talking about the experience of Design HQ, Ashiesh Shah says, “I am delighted to collaborate with Fox Life and Conde Nast Video to create India's first-of-its kind design centric TV show. Through the episodes, I take you to some very fascinating yet private homes of my celebrated friends. Everyone likes to see and have beautiful space and this show will definitely help the viewers take back some interesting DIY hacks and tricks to re-create a home the celebrity style!

"The field for business print in India is quite small, and I respect (most of ) the players in it. They are trying out new things, in terms of content, packaging, communication, digital avenues, 360 degree activation, etc.; which is good for the industry. However, in the larger context of the competition I’d referred to, it’s a continuous learning curve for me." Said Moneesh Chakravarty, Marketing Head Business Standard.

In an interview with MediAvataar India, Moneesh shred his idea of a perfect conversation between a brand and the consumer and how the changing media landscape has made him push the envelope of marketing even further.

Here is the complete Q&A....

MediAvataar: Some of the biggest changes that have taken place in the print business over the last few years.

Moneesh: The biggest change, which I feel has led to most of the rest, is there has been an increasing information overload in the last few years and an excess of media platforms to consume it. People take in what matters to them on the fly, on any medium convenient at the time of consumption. The news ‘paper’ is just one of them.
This basically means that print occupies the same space as other traditional and new age media, and vice versa, in terms of both consumers and advertisers. The lines within and across media formats are blurred.

MediAvataar: With the changes in readership pattern over a period of time how has the marketing strategy changed?

Moneesh: The media agnostic, on-demand, consumption scenario puts a huge premium on creating a strong brand. One the readers can relate to (which ‘speaks’ their language in both content and communication) and generates enough conversation to stay around the top of mind, will most probably be the brand of choice.

To give an example, we did a repositioning earlier this year. With a new baseline ‘Insight Out’, the communication route features a character - Jay, who gives his take on various issues related to the business-scape and other current happenings, in the form of topical sketches. The issues and tonality are relevant to our readers, and evoke conversation. The overall premise makes us a bit lighter and more contemporary.

A greater focus and efficiency of marketing efforts is another evolving perspective. Ad-spends aren’t going to increase (anytime soon, at least). Whereas, better ERP/ CRM systems and digital analytics have enabled knowing both print and digital readers more than ever. This means we can write and do more of what really matters to our reader base.

MediAvataar: The current generation knows exactly what they want to consume, how do you shift gears for such strong headed TG?

Moneesh: What kind of content they want to consume, perhaps. From which media brand, maybe not. The millennials have some brand loyalty in that, but the extent of generic consumption is far bigger. Shift some of the latter to your brand and you’d have increased your base considerably.

Mapping the day in life of a consumer and being present at the touchpoints helps. Many of our relatively younger readers and potentials sample the newspaper, website and social media through the day. Some may not read us but follow on social media, and other permutations like that. Our topicals, featuring Jay, are published in the day’s paper, posted a few times on Twitter and Facebook, put as banners on the website, and embedded in relevant digital stories; in an attempt to cover multiple touchpoints.

For the newspaper, we try to ensure the product’s visibility at the places that matter. Our IndiGo edition is one such case.
On the content side, analysis and opinion pieces on trending issues are posted on the website real time, and often feature high on search results. When people search a topic, land on a story and see its worth, they come directly to the website the next time or subscribe to it.

MediAvataar: What according to you is a perfect conversation between a brand and the consumer?

Moneesh: The same as all good conversations – one in which both are communicating on the same plane! A brand needs to seem approachable and respond (in real time, nowadays) to consumers whenever they need to.

Take Business Standard, for example. We are specialists in economy and finance. Which means, the brand can be a conservative professor to the consumer.

However, being a ‘knowledgeable friend’, or a ‘mentor’ who is closer in age and empathy, would make it much more approachable. We have always tried to tilt towards the latter, and the repositioning makes it more so.

MediAvataar: Is print medium getting more difficult to market than ever before?

Moneesh: Yes, and no!

As I’d mentioned we face a larger competition, whereas we know our readers better. While consumers have a lot of choices, it is easier to customise content and marketing strategies for them.

MediAvataar: How do you look at the competition?

Moneesh: The field for business print in India is quite small, and I respect (most of ) the players in it. They are trying out new things, in terms of content, packaging, communication, digital avenues, 360 degree activation, etc.; which is good for the industry.

However, in the larger context of the competition I’d referred to, it’s a continuous learning curve for me.

MediAvataar: What has been the biggest challenge for the company so far?

Moneesh: Being a stand-alone media company is a challenge, with conglomerates occupying most of the field. However, it gives us the opportunity to be streamlined, and occupy our domain in the best possible manner. We faced this at Red FM (except the South) as well, with whom I had a long stint until last year. And it’s a great example of what well-planned content and marketing can do for such a brand.

MediAvataar: What is there in the pipeline to forward to?

Moneesh: Last year, we were the first among the larger media companies in India to initiate premium digital subscriptions. We look forward to creating more value for our premium subscribers.

Also, the new communication route lends itself to possibilities, especially in digital.

Grey Group Singapore are heating things up with an exciting new campaign for Weber-Stephen Products – the world’s premier manufacturer of charcoal, gas, electric grills, and grilling accessories.

Titled ‘SkyGrillers’, the first wave of the campaign debuts the all-new Weber Q Series of gas grills - focusing on balcony grilling in high-rise and land-scarce Singapore, with the objective of making barbecuing accessible for one and all. An ode to grill lovers who understand that grilling transcends the food, #SkyGrilling brings the backyard into the balcony, taking grill culture to brand new heights, and celebrating the bonds built with people coming together from all walks of life.

Commenting on the launch, David Owen, Director of Marketing, Weber-Stephen Products (North & Southeast Asia) said: “We are delighted to introduce the Weber Q series grills to Singapore’s urban landscape. We hope to bring the joys of backyard grilling to those living in high-rise residents in the city. Weber’s easy-to-operate and compact Q series gas grills are ideal for balconies, without the hassle of charcoals or the worry of wet weather conditions.”

Tim Cheng, Chief Creative Officer, Grey Group Singapore explained: “A memorable Weber experience is beyond just the barbecue. In our urbane garden of towering skyscrapers, a Grill with a View is the perfect campfire that brings friends and family together. By sharing some of our Sky Grillers’ experiences in this new content series, we hope each film will inspire more people to put on the aprons and take up the tongs.”

Weber-Stephen Products is a global account on the Grey Group portfolio, and handled across three offices (Denmark, New York, and Singapore), with Grey Group Singapore responsible for all marketing support, digital, and BTL activation initiatives locally in Singapore.