English Entertainment
France 24 readies itself for Indian audiences
MUMBAI: This week, France 24, the international English news channel has lined up a number of shows that are focused on India, as part of its campaign to boost viewership in the country.
The channel launched on two DTH platforms earlier this month – DD Direct+ and Dish TV making it available to an additional 31 million households in the country. Seven million homes already receive it through cable.
A cultural show depicting the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, 100 years of Indian cinema and Indian gastronomy along with three personalities speaking – fashion designer Ritu Beri, actress Nandita Das, Impresario restaurant CEO Gresham Fernandes – was telecasted yesterday with repeats throughout today.
A debate on ‘at the heart of the next world power’ will see the likes of HRD minister Shashi Tharoor, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman, founder of Kali Urvashi Butalia and Sunstone Business school co-founder Rajul Garg on the show tonight. Interviews with Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej, screenwriter Anand Gandhi, JSW Steel chairman Sajjan Jindal and Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani will be shown this week.
Reports on the rollout of the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) in the country and an online platform called Digital Green will also be a part of their upcoming FCP (Fixed Chart Point).
The channel wants to make a space for itself in the heart of Indian audiences. The channel was officially launched in Delhi yesterday.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
