MAM
Globecast brings the total Africa Cup of Nations to the world in 4K alongside VOD content creation
MUMBAI: Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, is extending its relationship with the organisers and rights holders of the Total Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, bringing the 2019 event to the world. The tournament began on June 21st with the final taking place on July 19th.
Globecast is working in partnership with the Egyptian Local Organising Committee (LOC), Lagardère Sports, managers and marketers of sports rights across Europe and Africa, and the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF). For additional on-the-ground logistics support, Globecast has partnered with local specialists KAR Technology, who have provided logistical expertise and liaison with the LOC. Globecast has also collaborated closely with Iris Media, who have provided SNGs as well as additional technical support.
Globecast has a longstanding relationship with CAF and is providing a range of services in 2019, including contribution, distribution and VOD content preparation and storage. For the first time, the opening match and the final are being broadcast in 4K, using HEVC encoding. In total there are 52 matches being held in four cities across Egypt.
At each stadium, Globecast is supplying two flyaway SNGs. The first is uplinking the main feed, plus a second feed with additional pre-match footage to build more involvement in the event. Full redundancy is provided by the second SNG. The primary feeds are received at Globecast’s Paris teleport and are then turned around for onward distribution. The backup feed is received in London.
To increase ROI and viewer engagement, VOD content is being prepared by Globecast using its Content Marketplace service, a module of its Digital Media Hub content processing suite. Signals are transcoded into multiple formats and resolutions, including full broadcast quality, clipped and metadata added. Each broadcast affiliate using the system then receives new content notifications to promote download.
Philippe Bernard, Chairman and CEO, Globecast, said, “We are really pleased to have been selected by the Egyptian LOC, extending our relationship with CAF and Lagadère Sports. This year sees particular innovation with the use of both 4K and VOD content supply, with our innovative Content Marketplace providing broadcast affiliates with new ways to extend viewer engagement. We have worked very closely with both KAR and Iris Media and their help has been invaluable. This is a major tournament that needs very high level technical and logistical expertise and between them they have provided exactly what’s required. The LOC has done a fantastic job to organise this event, with Egypt being asked to step in late in the process. What a fantastic sporting spectacle the 2019 event is.”
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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.
