MAM
Max expecting to rake in ad revenues of Rs 2.6 billion from World Cup
MUMBAI: With the cricket World Cup scheduled to kick off next week, Sony Entertainment’s Max has got a raft of sponsors on board.
Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that Max is expecting to make around Rs 2.6 billion from cricket’s headline event, market sources point out.
As presenting sponsors Max has roped in Pepsi and Nokia. The associate sponsors include Maruti Udyog, ITC Foods, Videocon, Hero Honda, LG and Aditya Birla Group. Set India executive VP Rohit Gupta says that ITC Foods is a new entrant.
There are also a raft of sponsors for Max’s wrap around programming Extraaa Innings. They are Hyundai, Mayur Suitings, Luminous, Bidlite, Visa, Indiagames, Maxwell and Kentaro.
The feeling in some quarters is that the timings will to some extent be more beneficial to male oriented brands. Men are more likely than women to burn the midnight oil to watch the outcome. Media experts point out that for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, when matches started in the afternoon there was decent sampling even at the start of the matches. Now what kind of viewing there will be post midnight is of course not known, apart from the India matches where it will be strong.
Max has also done special packages. For instance, Fall of Wickets has Hyundai as sponsor, for Super Fours it is Monster.com, Super Sixes by Madhura Garments. For scrollers Max has tied up with LIC, Western Union, Jaguar, Kotak, Naukri.com and Bharatmatrimony. Gupta adds that there will not be more than 60-70 scrollers in a match.
The aim is to ensure brand integration without impacting viewer experience. In a match, Max will have 4800-5200 seconds of advertising, Gupta says. Anymore than that and one runs the danger of ball cutting.
Max was also to have done an initiative Host Ka Dost Hunt where the winner would have been a part of Max’s Extraaa Innings team. That however has not happened. Max business head Sneha Rajani points out that nobody suitable was found.
Brands
Hemlata Sharma joins ONEOTT Broadband as chief business officer
Former Zee Media distribution head to steer growth, partnerships and strategy
MUMBAI:Â Hemlata Sharma has joined ONEOTT Broadband as chief business officer, bringing with her more than three decades of experience across television, telecom and media distribution.
Sharma most recently served as head distribution, research & CRM at Zee Media Corporation Limited, where she worked closely with editorial and senior management while overseeing distribution, consumer research and customer relationships for 14 news channels including Zee News, WION, Zee Hindustan and Zee Business, along with ten regional state channels.
In that role, she led nationwide distribution across platforms such as DTH, Hits, IPTV, cable networks and DD Free Dish. She also drove consumer research and strategic insights on a pan India scale, analysing content performance, anchor impact, programme slots and audience behaviour to guide editorial decisions and programming strategy.
Her portfolio also included managing one of the largest alliances with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and overseeing the global distribution monitoring of Wion across North America, Mena, Europe, Africa, APAC and Australia.
Earlier, Sharma briefly served as head sales and distribution at Triplecom Media Pvt Ltd, an engagement driven OTT platform bringing together content, gaming, music and advertising for the entertainment distribution ecosystem.
Her earlier career includes a senior vice president stint at Ten Sports Network, where she played a key role in relaunching the sports broadcaster as an independent bouquet comprising Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action and Ten Golf following the Zee takeover. During this period, she moved from vp west to head strategy for cable and dth and later national head retail distribution, helping build the network’s retail distribution vertical across India and launching dedicated golf and football channels.
Before that, Sharma spent over six years at Bharti Airtel as general manager operations for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. She initially led marketing and corporate communications before moving into sales leadership, where voice sales grew by 86 per cent and revenues by 96 per cent. She later headed business operations, expanding annual business volumes to Rs 100 crore while significantly reducing operational costs.
Sharma began her long association with the media distribution ecosystem at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited as regional head sales and distribution for central India. During that period, she played a role in the early rollout of pay television channels including Zee Cinema, HBO, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, while also contributing to the launch of Siti Cable in key central Indian cities.
With her new role at ONEOTT Broadband, Sharma is expected to focus on strengthening business strategy, expanding partnerships and driving growth across the company’s broadband and digital distribution ecosystem.
