English Entertainment
AXN contest winners to host ‘Extreme Dhamaka’
MUMBAI: Seems like reality has finally come of age in India. While media might have pooh-poohed AXN’s Hot ‘n Wild contest as yet another beauty pageant, the action adventure channel may just be having the last laugh.
Embarking on their second biggest local production, a hybrid version of Who Dares Wins and Fear Factor, AXN is all set to begin shooting forExtreme Dhamaka from 21 September.
The channel has stated that the two lucky winners of Hot ‘n Wild contest will get a chance to host Extreme Dhamaka. The contest is scheduled to be held on 20 September in Mumbai.
The channel has roped in ex-Australian cricketer and screen icon Mike Whitney and the Aussie model-cum-actress Tania Zaetta for its Extreme Dhamaka venture too. The two contest winners will host alongside these celebrities. It will pave the way for the biggest on-ground action and adventure initiative that India has ever seen, says a company release.
Taking a cue from the success of last year’s AXN Who Dares Wins-India Special, which saw a large number of entries, the channel decided to launch the long awaited reality show, the release states.
Zaetta who was the host of Who Dares Wins for eight years, will be among the judges at the at the grand finals of Hot ‘n Wild contest.
Speaking about the venture, AXN’s assistant vice president (marketing and sales), India, Rohit Bhandari says, “We have been realizing the growing popularity of adventure shows in India, more so since the launch on Fear Factor here. With the response that we received for Who dares Wins last year, we realized that India is finally prepared for a dare show.”
Bhandari, elaborates, “The entire effort is going be colossal in terms of logistical implementation. Both international and local expertise will be used to ensure maximum security during shoots. We will also make sure that the quality of production is on par with international broadcast standards,”
When asked about the budget, Bhandari refused to reveal figures but says that they have upped last year’s special budget by almost 50 per cent. Scheduled to be shot from 21 September to 8 October, the special event for Extreme Dhamaka will take off on a six city tour in Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. The televised version will go on air six weeks after the event, probably in December, the release says.
Bhandari adds that although the effort will be a one-off event aired as a special season, next year around, the channel will be coming up with yet another format especially for the Indian masses.
While the channel is skeptical about the nomination format of the show oversees, the Indian version will have people dared on the street just like last years AXN Who Dares Wins-India Special.
But unlike the relatively softer version, where Whitney approached unsuspecting Indians on the streets or at shopping malls daring them to attempt certain stunts, Extreme Dhamaka will be shot in stadiums throughout the country, with dares designed to be more demanding, severe and rigorous. The show will be presented by Hero Honda in association with Center Shock, Airtel and Nokia.
The highlight of Extreme Dhamaka will be the Main Dares which will be shot in India this year. The press release says, Main Dares will create some heart-stopping moments.
Speaking about the format Bhandari says, “Last year when we shot The AXN Who Dares Wins-India Special, we were sure Indians would enjoy participating in the street dares which were fun to do and not that severe. But the format of Extreme Dhamaka is based on three levels: first is the “can-able mini dare”, which is a milder version and is not as challenging and gutsy as “mini-main dare”, the second step. But the toughest one the “main dare”. The dares are designed to put an individual’s physical and psychological limits to the test.”
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
