MAM
Zee Café ropes in Yatra.com as presenting sponsor for Billboard Music Awards
MUMBAI: Yatra.com has become the presenting sponsor for Billboard Music Awards 2011 that will be aired on English GEC Zee Café on 29 October at 9 pm.
With presenters including Selena Gomez, Joe Jonas and Matthew Morrison, the Billboard Music Awards also featured a special tribute to Beyonce Knowles — as she was presented with the Billboard Millenium Award for her successful career achievements.
Yatra.com head marketing Pratik Mazumder said, “Billboard Music Awards has returned after a hiatus of four years. Yatra.com shares Zee Café’s enthusiasm in bringing the world to India, whether it is through television content or through international travel.”
Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber and veteran rap star Eminem dominated the Billboard Music Awards 2011, each taking home a total of six awards. For second place there was a six-way tie between Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Usher, Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons and Taio Cruz who each won three trophies.
Zee Café business head Anurag Bedi said, “International music is hugely appreciated by Indian viewers. With a population of over a billion and a connection to the world like never before, India is becoming a preferred destination for international stars. As a matter of fact, India‘s evolving popular music landscape demands such initiatives. So, we cannot discount the fact that Indian viewers crave for International music content and even the international artist considers India one of the markets to tap into.”
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.
