English Entertainment
Romedy NOW doubles the dose of Love and Laughter with the launch of premium TV series
MUMBAI: Romedy NOW, India’s exclusive English Entertainment Channel is now expanding its programming content with the best of English TV series to be aired in India starting 26th Jan. The channel will premiere ‘Witches of East End’, the current hottest TV show in the US for the first time in India. Adding to the excitement and most awaited entertainment, Romedy NOW also gives its viewers a visual treat with ‘Kitchen Confidential’ starring the ever enticing Bradley Cooper and themuch lovedCalistaFlockhart in ‘Ally McBeal’.
Commenting on the launch of the additional programming, Ajay Trigunayat – CEO English Entertainment Channels, Times Television Network said, “Romedy NOW is all set to take its programming to the next level with the launch of the much awaited TV series. These series will offer the viewers a bouquet of refreshing new content to catch up on their daily dose of Love and Laughter.”
Americas hottest supernatural love series – ‘Witches of East End’ will premiere on Sunday, 26th January 2014 at 8.00 PM on Romedy NOW. Starring Julia Ormond in the lead role, the show centres around the adventures of a family of witches. The two daughters Freya, a wild-child bartender played by Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Ingrid, a shy librarian played by Rachel Boston are both unaware of their magical birth right, but a series of events forces their mother to admit that they are, in fact, powerful and immortal witches.
From the makers of ‘Sex and the City’ comes another exciting comedy ‘Kitchen Confidential’ starring ‘Bradley Cooper’. This all new highlight is based on ‘Anthony Bourdain’s New York Times bestselling book, ‘Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.’ Those with an appetite for wit and humour are sure to have their fill with this lip smacking and delicious series. Get ready as Hollywood heartthrob Bradley Cooper takes you through the delectable story of a talented chef who’s determined to climb back to the top of the food game.
The zingy and evergreen American legal comedy-drama ‘AllyMcBeal’ follows trials and tribulations in the life of the main protagonist – Ally played by Calista Flockhart. Ally is a single young lawyer looking for love and fulfillment in life but while working for a Boston Law firm with her ex-lover, her overactive imagination overtakes her thoughts and fantasies as she works each case. The show is powered by Panasonic Smart Phones.
The series will be promoted by a high decibel marketing campaign led by extensive promotion across the Times Television Network and is supported by heavy engagement driving conversations on the digital space. Using the core element of each show, Romedy NOW will engage viewers in a series of innovative contests and quizzes on their twitter and facebook pages.
Additionally, an extensive print campaign is planned across select Times publications along with a massive Outdoor campaign across select cities.
Romedy NOW is available in dual feeds in State-Of-The-Art High Definition (HD) and 5.1 Digital Surround Sound as ROMEDY NOW+ and in Standard Definition as ROMEDY NOW, across all platforms – Cable, DTH, IPTV and emerging technologies.
To subscribe to ROMEDY NOW, just call 18001231101 (it’s toll-free) or SMS ROMEDY to 58888 or write to hello@Romedynow.com
Have a daily affair full of love & laughter with some much needed eye candy every night 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.
