MAM
Kids to model Disney’s summer 2003 apparel range
MUMBAI: Disney Hour, the children’s block on Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is gearing up to build the Disney brand further with the younger generation in the country. The new range of Disney’s Summer Apparel will be launched by the “Disney Hour Cool Kids,” (DHCK) this weekend.
The new range will be unveiled on 27 April in Mumbai with 40 kids chosen from around the country walking down the ramp. Another first of its kind event with its pulse on kids, DHCK follows close on the heels of the Disney Hour Kids Awards 2003.
The DHCK contest commenced on 8 March, 2003 across the country, with children sending in their entries to the DHCK postbag till 8 April. Disney, along with SET auditioned shortlisted children and selected 40 ‘cool kids’ to walk down the ramp to showcase the Disney summer 2003 apparel range.
The children along with their parents will be flown in from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Goa and Chennai to Mumbai for dress rehearsals, followed by the final event taking place on 27 April at Landmarc Citi, Mumbai, according to an official release. Disney has chosen budding models in the age group of two-five years (kids with parents), six-10 years and 11-15 years.
The DHCK entry forms were available at 34 Pantaloons and Weekenders outlets across India and also with every March issue of Diamond Comics. Entry requisitions were also available online at criclive.com/disneyontv.
For those who miss the DHCK in action, SET will air the show on 18 May on Disney Hour at 6 pm.
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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.
