MAM
BKN New Media unveils two animated properties at Mipcom 2006
MUMBAI: BKN New Media Ltd, a animation company engaged in the production and distribution of animated children’s television programmes and related consumer products, unveiled two of it’s new animated TV series, Zorro – Generation Z and Dork Hunters from Outer Space at Mipcom 2006.
As announced by BKN Group CEO Allen Bohbot, Zorro – Generation Z is an animated action adventure series, while Dork Hunters from Outer Space is an animated action comedy series.
BKN will be handling all TV and DVD distribution as well as merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. BKN is planning a strong marketing and advertising campaign for the brand targeting the trade and consumers for this major launch supported in part by toys, videogames and on-line activities, informs an official release.
Zorro – Generation Z, is co-produced by BKN New Media Ltd (UK) and BKN New Media (Spain), sets Zorro in the present with modern-day themed adventures in a fast-paced format. Diego de la Vega is a descendant of Zorro’s past who has a reason once again to pick up the mantle when the city of his birth grows increasingly corrupt. Zorro fights crime on a cool black motorcycle called the Tornado-Z. His crime fighting tools include a Z-Pod, Z-Phone and other surprises befitting of a modern day hero. Expect new renditions of established Zorro characters along with some new additions, including a fellow female freshman, The Scarlet Whip, who also rides the night in a scarlet cape. The melding of an historic legend with powers, high tech gadgetry and vehicles of the modern-day super-hero as the all new El Zorro rides again, adds the release.
The Dork Hunters from Outer Space has been produced by BKN International AG, follows the adventures of Mac, Nikki , Romeo, and their earthbound friends Eddie and Angie, as they take on the nastiest, interplanetary villains ever to hide out on Planet Earth – The Dorks.
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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.
