English Entertainment
F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on Romedy NOW starting June 9th 2014 at 8pm
MUMBAI: Roll the drums, grab a bag of popcorn, and get ready because you can never get enough of it, the perfect example of love and laughter, the most popular series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is here to wow you. The iconic show that tickled your funny bone and made the world so happy for a decade will now be aired exclusively only on Romedy NOW starting June 9th, Monday to Thursday at 8pm. Enjoy an hourly dose of the much loved characters on Romedy NOW, the exclusive destination for English Entertainment in India.
Speaking on the exclusive launch of the show, Shantanu Gangane, Marketing Head, English Entertainment Channels, said “F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is an iconic series which has a huge fan following even today. The synergy of the show matches perfectly well with our core channel proposition of Love and Laughter and we are certain that the viewers will enjoy the 10 back to back seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on the channel like never before. With the soaring popularity of the channel and with a unique line up of movies and series, this series couldn’t have found a better destination to enthrall its fans.”
Mansi Shrivastav, Content Head, English Entertainment Channels comments “Romedy NOW is delighted to exclusively bring to its viewers the most loved series of all time. Through our programming, we aim to enthrall the audiences with our entertaining and engaging content. Since its launch, the channel has showcased exclusive line-ups and is building up a robust library encompassing exclusive series as a part of its entertainment bank.”
Enjoy the escapades of the six young friends living in Manhattan as they go through their own lives in the comfort of each other’s companionship! Join the fashionista, Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), the perfectionist and overbearing chef Monica Gellar (Courtney Cox) and the ditsy, street smart and funny self-taught musician Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow). The eternal favourite childlike flirt and struggling actor Joey Tribbiani (Matt Le Blanc) who gave the simple catchphrase, ‘How you doin’?’ a whole new saucy feel! Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) who has a deliciously sarcastic sense of humour and a curious history with a cross-dresser father and erotic novelist for a mother! The sweet and good humoured Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer), Monica’s elder brother and paleontologist who is a clutz and socially awkward!
Every episode is a fun ride following the friends’ escapades in this entertaining show that promises every moment to be exciting. It is no surprise that the show is a hot favourite of one and all and has garnered critical as well as commercial success sweeping away hordes of awards and a whopping 63 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations! Always in the top 10 in primetime ratings, F.R.I.E.N.D.S. will give you tons of love and laughter that you can enjoy only on Romedy NOW, nowhere else!
Romedy NOW is leaving no stone unturned for the promotion of this iconic series. The channel has a lot more excitement in store for its viewers with an exciting contest that will give a chance to of the biggest fans of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. to go to LA and have coffee at the real ‘Central Perk’. The fans have to vote for their favourite F.R.I.E.N.D.S. character to win this once in a lifetime opportunity. More the votes more the chances of winning!
To have coffee at Central Perk in USA, fans can give a missed call on 08067006611 and vote for your favourite FRIEND #ThankGodItsFriends. Terms and conditions apply.
The campaign will be heavily promotedon the Times Television Network with promos running extensively across the network channels and extensive presence across the Times of India publication, nationally.
The most loved show can have unending conversations going for you whether you are a group of college friends chilling in the canteen or young professionals taking a coffee break or just friends catching up. And now you have a lot more to talk about!
F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is powered by Gionee.
Join the frenzy of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and be on a rollercoaster ride every single time only on Romedy NOW!
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.
