English Entertainment
Broadcasters celebrate Women’s Day in a special way
MUMBAI: On International Women’s Day, all the broadcasters have decided to bring something exciting for the women in the world. The channels have planned special programming for the entire day. On one hand, some have lined up some exciting shows for women, on the other some, broadcasters have come up with a new anthem or a campaign.
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is all sleeves up to celebrate the “X” chromosome with our Women’s Day Stunt. This Woman’s Day, Comedy Central wants to show ‘Who Run The World’ with our fierce line-up of badass women with shows like Angie Tribeca, FRIENDS, and Playing House. The show will be aired on 8 March.
AXN
To celebrate this success and empowerment of women in every walk of life, AXN presents the story of a powerful woman, Elizabeth McCord, who is trying to balance her demanding career of a U.S. Secretary of State and her family. The season will be aired on 11 and 12 March from 12 – 5 pm.
Produced by legendary actor Morgan Freeman, the iconic show stars Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, a shrewd and determined secretary of state who battles issues with effortless ease, both at the White house and at home. This Women’s day watch one of the most powerful women of the United States lead you to the way to Live Responsible, Live Empowered and Live Diplomatic with your favourite channel AXN.
Sony Pix
Sony PIX – one of the destination for biggest premieres and blockbusters – gives you a chance to spend your day with the lovely ladies of Hollywood that are raising the bar with some amazing movies. From Tangled, The Next Karate Kid, Frozen, Snow White & The Huntsman, The 5th Wave, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2, Ghostbusters, DOA: Dead Or Alive, Wanted, Barb Wire and The Woman in Black, watch it all.The line-up is sure to give you an adrenaline rush and show women in their best characters.
Star World Premiere HD
In a bid to celebrate women, out in the real world, Star World Premiere HD channel, on the occasion of International Women’s Day is all set to run a marathon of one of the most critically acclaimed new age television sitcoms of 2016 – Better Things all day on Wedneday.
Helmed by the renowned comedian Louie C.K., the series stars Pamela Adlon in the role of a single mother who tries to balance her family life, her work and in all this tries to find some time for her own personal life. Her journey embodies the lives of women around the world who take up various responsibilities and juggle with the chaos that comes with it on a daily basis.
NDTV Good Times
NDTV Good Times has joined hands with Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha to release a special Women’s Day anthem to re-enforce the sentiment that women have been an equal and integral part in changing the world, and how they are a constant part of this evolution.
“Sonakshi is an ideal person for this initiative as she connects with youth in India and her journey inspires many young girls to believe in themselves, speak their mind and achieve their dreams. NDTV Good Times has always respected the contribution of the fairer gender and through this anthem, we acknowledge the same”, said NDTV Good Times channel head Arati Singh.
The special anthem video will be released on 7 March 2017 on NDTV Good Times channel and social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channel.
Romedy Now
The channel has planned to celebrate International Women’s Day in a rather unique manner this year. Supporting the channel’s belief of spreading love throughout the year, it plans to launch a campaign #ThanksButNoThanks! which is an idea to celebrate the spirit of womanhood and one’s own existence everyday instead of waiting for someone else or a special day to get appreciated.
The channel has shot a video for the campaign that will be a montage of different women from different walks of lives coming together and expressing themselves. These women include some of the most commendable names like reality show contestant Priya Malik, melodious singer Jonita Gandhi, notable women from the field of journalism, advertising and fashion designing, including Cuckoo – Club co-founder Sharin Bhatti, & Books on Toast Entrepreneur. The channel will launch this video on its social media platform on 7 March, a day prior to International Women’s Day.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
