MAM
NDTV raises Rs 48.6 mn from Save Our Tigers Telethon
MUMBAI: 35 Rapid Rescue Teams (RRTs) to be deployed across Tiger Reserves of the country in partnership with Wildlife Conservation Trust with the funds raised.
MUMBAI: NDTV has managed to raise Rs 48.6 million for its “Save Our Tiger” campaign by telecasting a 12-hour nonstop program -The Telethon on its network channels.
The Telethon, in association with Aircel, saw wildlife champions from across the country coming forward to extend a hand in saving the national animal the Indian Tiger.
Campaign ambassador Amitabh Bachchan along with NDTV chairman Dr Prannoy Roy and Vikram Chandra highlighted the key issues of tiger conservation and keenly monitored events across the country from the central hub at Pench, Tiger Reserve from 11 am to 11 pm on 12 December.
NDTV said that people and organisation from across the nation come forward to contribute Rs 24.3 million for the cause, while investment banker, Hemendre Kothari matches the contribution with a donation of Rs 24.3 million.
Apart from Kothari, some of the donors are Bhaichung Bhutia, Abhishek Bachchan, Nitin Gadkari, Diya Mirza, Manish Malhotra, Soli Sorabjee, Priya Dutt, industry body CII, and coporates such as Westside.
Campaign ambassador Bachchan donated Rs 2.8 million and also auctioned his Cartier watch and two pairs of designer glasses which raised another Rs 845,000 million.
According to Wildlife Conservation Trust director Dr Anish Andheria, the funds raised in this telethon are sufficient to create and deploy 35 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and cover all the Tiger Reserves across the country.
Roy said, “NDTV is overwhelmed by the nationwide response. We are most pleased that the Tigerthon achieved three aims: to raise awareness and initiate action on the ground, to get Chief Ministers to pledge support to save the tiger and, most exciting, the full-day Tiger Conclave by CII, all political parties and tiger experts which hopefully will lead to Project Tiger 2.”
Aircel COO Gurdeep Singh added, “We would like to thank each and everyone who came forward and supported the cause. The level of participation and support for our national animal, the Tiger is over whelming. Aircel‘s support to the cause is long term and we will continue to build on our efforts to save our tigers.”
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.
