MAM
2010 to witness slow advertising rebound: Study
MUMBAI: Year 2010 shall witness a slow advertising rebound, predicts Credit agency Standard & Poor‘s.
Entitled “Economic Factors Point to a Long Trudge Out of the Recession for US Media and Entertainment”, S&P states that there was a high number of credit downgrades last year and also suggests further that there are no assurances of a near-term resumption of industry growth.
The study hints to the fact that in 2010 more downgrades are likely, especially for companies with already-strained liquidity.
As far as advertising is concerned, S&P notes that there has been a “downside overreaction” during the global slowdown as the ad-spending contraction has exceeded the GDP contraction.
This is expected to turn around in the rebound as S&P predicts a 2.35 per cent of real GDP growth in 2010, and estimates that this would decipher into a growth of 4.2 per cent growth in ad spending. The growth, S&P notes, will be primarily pushed by the midterm elections and the Winter Olympics.
S&P anticipates many media subsectors to show growth in the second half of the year.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
