English Entertainment
COLORS INFINITY serves an intoxicating concoction of bollywood Besties, Gossip, Games
MUMBAI: Make Saturday nights your date night with some of your favorite Bollywood best-friends, as COLORS INFINITY brings to you the latest season of the popular homegrown chat show Jeep presents BFFs with Vogue powered by Motorola and beauty partner Nykaa.com, starting Saturday January 20, 2018 at 8pm on COLORS INFINITY.
They’re seen in parties and coffee clutches together! Working out, clicking gym selfies! Sharing gossip and laughs on social media sites! But it’s only on COLORS INFINITY that you get to see true camaraderie in all its silver screen glory. Guaranteeing 10 spirited Saturday evenings with sassy host Neha Dhupia, the latest season gives viewers an exclusive dekko in the lives of their favorite Bollywood stars, as they indulge in candid conversations and engage in friendly duels. Introducing an assortment of exciting new segments like ‘Platter of Punishment’ and ‘Say It or Strip It’, that will leave guests with an inescapable choice to either answer a scandalous question or suffer the spicy consequences, or strip an item of their clothing to avoid making a scalding confession.
Commenting at the launch of the latest season, Viacom18, Head – English, Youth and Music Entertainment, Ferzad Palia said, “COLORS INFINITY has been on a path to bring groundbreaking and entertaining programming to its viewers, across age groups and we continually aim to contribute to the evolution of English content consumption on Indian television. Our homegrown shows have garnered a marvelous response and the backing of our sponsors for this season are a testament to their confidence in our proposition. Following a successful first season, we’re totally geared up to launch yet another fantastic season of Jeep presents BFFs with Vogue powered by Motorola and beauty partner Nykaa.com, with a celebrated list of Bollywood A-listers and a lot more captivating conversations.”
Condé Nast India, Managing Director, Alex Kuruvilla says “Two years back, Condé Nast India forayed into the world of television with our first ever TV show Vogue BFFs, created and produced exclusively for COLORS INFINITY. BFFs with Vogue is the second instalment of the show and we have turned things up a notch this year by upping the celebrity quotient, making the content sassier, and by getting anchor du jour Neha Dhupia on-board. As expected, round 2 will bring back celebrity camaraderie, fashion, and high voltage glamour, all wrapped up in an upscale, international production.”
Since its inception, the homegrown properties of COLORS INFINITY have seen a steady rise in viewership and interest from many reputed brands. Following three spectacular seasons of The Stage, and a dazzling premiere edition of BFFs with Vogue last year, the upcoming season of BFFs with Vogue piqued the interest of Jeep, Motorola and Nykaa.com that have now associated with the show.
Elated on the association FCA India, Head – Marketing, Rahul Pansare said, “We are delighted to partner with BFFs with Vogue. The Jeep brand has been celebrating the spirit of friendship in different parts of the world with authenticity, freedom, adventure and passion for more than 75 years. This property is an opportunity to engage and celebrate with many Indian personas which reflect the Jeep brand values. This season of BFFs with Vogue promises to be one filled with interesting exchanges between India’s most sought-after celebrities and their BFFs.”
“At Motorola, we have always tapped into the passion points of our consumers, ensuring we are a part of their experiences, Movies and Fashion are two such passion points that we have been associated with. We are excited to partner BFF with Vogue on Colors Infinity in its latest season and give our consumers a peek into the lives of their favorite style icons, enjoying the new Moto X4, with a stunning glass & metal design that epitomizes style.” said Rachna Lather, Marketing Head, Motorola Mobility.
Nykaa.com, Founder & CEO, Falguni Nayar added “Colors Infinity BFFs with Vogue is a great synergy with Nykaa with its unique candid appeal, that offers an insight into the people behind the stars. For Nykaa, it’s the perfect celebration of real conversation and real beauty.”
Scaling up the promotional efforts on the show, COLORS INFINITY has devised a 360-degree marketing campaign across various platforms including print, radio, digital, on-air and on-ground. The channel is going beyond traditional promotional mediums and further reaching out to every corner of the country through innovative partnerships with brands like J.W. Marriott Hotels, Tommy Hilfiger, Playboy Club, Sabyasachi Jewelry, Jean-Claude Biguine, Mad Over Donuts and Gold’s Gym.
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.
