News Broadcasting
Mipcom keynotes celebrate power of the great story
CANNES: Taking the cue delivered by CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves at yesterday’s opening day main keynote, today’s keynotes harked on quality content as becoming ever more critical in a digitally enabled world.
United Artists CEO Paula Wagner and NBC Entertainment NBC Entertainment & NBC Universal Television Studio co-chairman Ben Silverman both stressed on how important quality content would be in a world of infinite choice.
Wagner pointed out how global box office receipts of American movies were worth $ 26 million last year, a growth of 11 per cent CAGR. Not surprisingly, more than two thirds of revenues from the movie business came from international markets.
Wagner pointed to the days of the captive consumer being over and which in turn necessitated ever higher spends on marketing and distribution.
Wagner, who with business partner Tom Cruise reached a deal last November with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to take over United Artists, said her studio was committed to promoting original and daring commercial projects that would have one key underpinning – great storytelling.
Wagner made it clear though that these were business propositions so there had to be clarity on the finacial aspects of any project that UA would undertake.
Creativity with financial discipline would determine their business model, Wagner stated.
Following on her talk on the movie business was Silverman who declared that his network was committed to and believed strongly that what would work was content built for the global market.
Silverman cited the Bourne movies as an example of cinema that has an international outlook in terms of cast and shooting locations. He pointed to how that kind of international outlook was also coming into his network’s shows with more characters from the UK, India, Japan, China, etc having important roles in the shows that were being green lighted as well as those already on air.
As did Wagner, Silverman also noted how important it was to help foster creative vision and ensure the servicing of creative voices.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
