News Broadcasting
FBC India targets $4.5 million booty riding reality TV wave
NEW DELHI: Banking heavily on reality shows, Fact Based Communications (FBC) Media India, a joint venture between the Europe based FBC and four Indians, has lined up six shows over a period of 18 months.
Whats more, though the parent company doesnt dabble much in fictional works,FBC India has decided that fiction is a good route to success and would be setting up a division that would explore development of such properties for various TV channels.
Incidentally, Star Ones reality show involving budding fashion designers — Fashion House — is an Indian version of FBCs show of the similar name that has been a great hit in various parts of Europe.
We do feel that development of branded properties like reality shows on the line of Lakme Fashion House offers great opportunities here in India as demand for TV software increases with proliferation of channels. Its this opportunity that we want to exploit,FBC India director Samir Gupta said.
As proof of the demand, Gupta offers the example of MTV and Sony. Both are slated to start airing reality shows some time in the next two quarters.We are also producing a show for Zee TV,the US-trained Gupta adds.
Guptas parents have been in the media business for long. Mother Urmilla, for example, has been a deputy director-general with Doordarshan during the pubcasters hey days and had also served a stint at Star India in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the head of its then aborted DTH division.
Concurring on the potential of the Indian market is Alan Friedman, FBC Media chairman and CEO, who believes that India is an emerging market for it has a vast pool of talented and hard working professionals. He plans to target the
rapidly expanding (upwardly mobile) middle class segment, which accounts for more than 250 million of the total population.
Dwelling on branded products that can be sold to TV channels, Gupta said that the world over some companies develop formats or localize it for particular markets, which in India is being done by FBC India as it liaises with advertisers, programmers and broadcasters for possible endorsement and airing of such shows. The type of work that we are doing would come to the fore from April onwards as some programmes go on air then (including possibly Fashion House on Star One),Gupta said, adding that over the next four years or so reality shows would be much in demand.
However, in the same vein, he added that after four years or so, the demand for reality shows is likely to plateau off as such shows cannot replace soaps and serials.Globally, reality shows work on cyclical basis and we dont think India would be an exception, Gupta explained. That there is money to be made in reality shows can be gauged from the fact that a typical reality show can cost anywhere between $ 700,000 to $ 1.5 million.
Take, for example, Fashion House, which is being shot through 25 remote cameras and other gizmos. Its as close to being ‘live as you can get like the Big Brother show in the US,Gupta said.
News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
