English Entertainment
Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan launches on a high octane note
MUMBAI: Have you spotted your favourite Bollywood icons in a candid conversation with their friend – let their guards down on national TV? Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan does exactly that. Come August, the much-awaited television launch of noted lyricist Niranjan Iyengar raises curtains on Zee Café.
With the creation of their maiden talk-show, Zee Café gears up to reiterate its 3i’s – innovation, amplified interactivity and a renewed identity to their existing bouquet. ZEEL’s vision to offer best quality entertainment and fresh concepts takes the lead with Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan. Constant interactivity and consumer association being the center-point, ZEEL’s prime focus of interacting with the discerning viewer fetches Zee Café an all-round engagement opportunity through this brand new chat show through communications.
Gearing up ancillary closer to launch, Zee Café one of the strongest players in the English GEC category rolls out an extensive communications strategy to speak to young urban India. With Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan, the effort is to reach out to the affluent young urban viewer who seeks innovation in content. Touted to be one of the high decibel properties from their stables, Zee Café has launched on air-Teasers, Promos, an exclusive Music Video, Outdoor, Radio campaigns in addition to an extensive digital plan. Connecting with their young audience whose den is the digital world, Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan will interact extensively with its viewers on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Popular Websites and a LWT Microsite. While they strike a chord online, Zee Café will interact with the discerning TV viewer directly through DTH promotions alongside promotions in theatres.
With this brand new property, Zee Café pioneers a unique sales initiative to engage with fans pan India. Celebrities will part with one item each post show, proceeds of which will go towards charity after it’s sold online on OLX, India’s largest online market place. Furthermore, getting on the Look Who’s Talking brandwagon circuit, Medimix Ayurvedic Facewash signs up as Presenting Sponsor along with CERA on board as the Powered By sponsor. Micromax and Omega form an integral part of the sponsorship as well with the former as the ‘Mobile Partner’ and the latter as the ‘Lifestyle Partner.’ The bouquet of associate sponsor include Hersheys, Axis Bank and OLX.
Commenting on the launch Anurag Bedi, EVP & Business Head, Zee Cafe said, “Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan is indeed another ace delivered by Zee Cafe. I’m very proud of its outcome. At ZEEL, our effort has always been to strengthen connectivity with our loyalist. This fresh concept will indeed race towards offering the best content mix to viewers pan India. Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan adds to our current programming bouquet, that much-needed edge which takes Zee Cafe not just into viewers homes but helps create a personal connect through people who they admire the most. Wishing my crew and team all the very best as we gear up for launch!”
Reliving madness from the show onsets, some of the off-the-cuff one-liners heard were remarks like Karan Johar stating, “I’ve tried everything to find my special someone but I cannot put myself out there like a prostitute!” to Alia Bhatt’s phobia for plants, Sonam Kapoor’s personality hide-out being acting as it allows her to be a completely different person and other such interesting stories!
Want to know more? Make sure to catch the all new series, Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan starting Sunday, August 3, 2014 at 9pm only on Zee Café.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
