MAM
Amagi deploys Cloudport playout for Magic of Cinema
MUMBAI: Amagi, the cloud-based broadcast infrastructure, has announced a full-fledged deployment of its Cloudport Edge Playout servers for Magic of Cinema (MOC), a 24×7 free-to-air movie channel across 17 digital cable platforms.
Using cloud technologies, Amagi has enabled MOC to launch its channel at a fraction of traditional satellite/fiber infrastructure costs. The entire playout is managed at Amagi’s Data Operations Center in Bengaluru. Amagi’s Cloudport edge servers and its cloud-based unified management user interface has dramatically simplified channel playout across multiple cable platforms for MOC.
“We evaluated several platforms and finally chose Amagi for its technology superiority and an attractive PaaS business model. It allowed us to avoid high capital expenditure and upfront investment without compromising on the broadcast quality. As our viewership expanded over time, Amagi helped us scale our business giving us the required flexibility and reliability. Amagi has been a true partner in our growth” said MOC CEO Sricharan Iyengar.
Amagi’s Cloudport platform runs on the cloud, with benefits of unlimited storage and accessibility. Amagi has already implemented its cloud technologies in more than 10 countries covering multi-country feeds. The platform has advanced features such as dynamic graphic overlays and sub-parting that met MOC’s exacting quality and feature requirements.
“MOC is a fast growing movie channel with a line-up of rich and contemporary content. Amagi’s advanced technology platforms coupled with uninterrupted 24×7 playout and monitoring service has successfully and consistently met MOC’s evolving needs. We are very positive about MOC’s potential and Amagi is fully equipped to support the channel’s growth aspirations” said Amagi cofounder Srividhya Srinivasan.
MOC has a wide array of over 1,500 Hindi cinemas, and is available on leading digital cable platforms including Hathaway, DEN, Siticable, UCN and Incable.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
