Says Bates India CEO Subhash Kamat, "The ABP Group has been a long standing client of ours. This just reinforces our old relationship with them." He, however, did not disclose the size of the account.

Bates is in the process of finalising the launch campaign of Star Ananda. Sources say the campaign will hit the market in about 20 days. Star Ananda officials, however, declined to comment on this.

Early this year, Bates' marketing services '141 Worldwide' partnered with Star News to formulate a new approach of delivering news and information.

The media duties, on the other hand, are with Mindshare, which handles the overall Star India corporate account.