MAM
Jet Airways partners with Cineplay for on board entertainment
MUMBAI: When it comes to inflight entertainment, passengers are bound to find more choices than ever before. Jet Airways, in a bid to constantly provide greater value to its guests, has partnered with CinePlay founded by Subodh Maskara and creatively mentored by Nandita Das.
CinePlay is a new genre of cinema, a cinematic experience of the vast and content-rich stories from theatre and was recently named one of the coolest ideas of 2014 by a leading global publication.
This exclusive affiliation will see the presentation of CinePlays, a new genre of Cinema on board the airline starting December 2014.
Beginning the partnership, the CinePlays of Mohan Rakesh’s Adhe Adhure and Nandita Das & Divya Jagdale’s Between the Lines, amongst others, will be made available to Jet Airways passengers exclusively on board.
Speaking about the association, CinePlay CEO and founder, Subodh Maskara says, “This is a one of a kind partnership and we see tremendous value in it. CinePlay presents stories from theatre in a cinematic form and we are positive that passengers on board Jet Airways will truly relish this exclusive experience. We look forward to an ongoing and successful collaboration with Jet Airways as we forge ahead”
Jet Airways CEO Cramer Ball states, “It is our constant endeavour to provide content that is enriching and entertaining to our guests. Further with this novel idea we will be able to bring the joy of theatre to a larger audience who may not be able to find time during on-ground. This partnership comes at an opportune time, allowing holiday travellers to access this one of a kind content. This further bolsters CinePlay’s commitment to ensuring that stories from theatre find greater accessibility and reach.”
AD Agencies
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.
