English Entertainment
Mariam Zamaray’s Insight into Ultra HD TV
Mumbai: At first glance, you would think she is a host of a television show or an on-screen talent. But don’t make that mistake when you meet up with the very attractive Television Entertainment Reality Network (TERN) CEO Mariam Zamaray who recently launched Insight at MipCom in Cannes. A factual entertainment, youth-targeted, cross media ultra high definition channel (UHD or 4K TV), it is currently beaming over Europe, Russia, Australia and India.
The lady knows her television for sure, having worked with Fox International Channels in Amsterdam for a couple of years as channel manager in the previous decade. She later founded Luxury Life a life style cross media format with which she was associated for eight years. And she also got into bed with WizCraft’s IIFA Awards which were held in Amsterdam in 2005 as its local partner.
Around a year or so ago, Mariam decided to launch Insight, a UHD or 4K channel, with the backing of General Satellite from Russia and other foreign investors. To start with she build up a strong management team: Qunita Baars (formely of Fox International Channels), Marjolein Duermeijer (previously head of international sales and development, Tuvalu Media) and Natalie Boot (2waytraffic and Sony Pictures Television interactive manager).
For production, she roped in leading studios and format owners such as Strix, Kiem, Zodiak Media, among others. For beaming the channel, she hired satellite operator SES Platform Services ( the bird it is beaming from is Astra at 19.2 degrees East), and for online and post-production she hired Dutch company, United4All.
“SES was challenged by our requirement of four feeds,” says Mariam.
More challenges awaited her. There wasn’t adequate 4K content being produced at a frame rate of 50p, most of the productions were at 25p. Additionally, technicians understanding cameras (one shot well underwater, but was not so well indoors) were few and far between. Online and post-production studios did not have the storage capacity or the processing and rendering power. All these meant costs, and costs.
But she did not let these hurdles deter her. Her enthusiasm got SES executives coming back to her with a solution within three months. And United4All decided to invest in post-production gear and storage in order to handle Insight’s high demands.
“The producers had no idea how to shoot in 50p 4K. Most of the UHD shoots were being done at 25 fps. We did 200 days of research and had workshops with them,” she says. “They went out and shots. And when they came back with the product, it looked good and my team gave it the go ahead. If we liked it, we were sure the audience would also like it.”
Programming includes original factual entertainment shows such as Spartan X (Strix), On The Run (Zodiak Media), Dracula (Strix), 7 Days (Kiem), and Power &… (Kiem). Shows already on air include Around the World in 80 Tricks, Diamond Geezers and Gold Dealers,
For Europe, InsIght is free to air and is available both as a linear live TV service and as an app for non-linear on-demand content and can be viewed on multiple devices. “Viewers can engage and shape the programmes they watch and they are very interactive,” says Mariam.
The company has partnered with joiz Global for this interactivity and big data and social management.
Insight’s grab and share interface which allows viewers to reduce the duration of the content they are currently tuned into as per the convenience is something Mariam is banking on. “Consumers can also button down their idea underneath the video and can also upload it on social media platforms. We want to showcase the current trends over technology and content and make it available for the young generation,” she says.
The channel went live in Europe on 5 October at MipCom in Cannes; and on 8 October in India. It has a 200 hours of 4K programming, most of it original and produced with only 41 hours being acquired. Mariam is looking to commission and have another 200 hours of 4K content ready by Q2 2016. Additionally, she has ambitiously expressed that she would like to produce a major sports event by October 2016.
The channel claims It is reaching out to 60 million homes courtesy its partnership with DTH service TriColor (which is linked to General Satellite) in Russia and Information TV Network in India and SES. In india she had a chat with iTV CEO Kartikeya Sharma, who was a college mate and a deal was struck.
While it is free to air and commercial free in Europe, it is being positioned as a pay TV service for India, Asia, Latin America.
“We are not looking for immediate revenues. I am against inserting advertising breaks for the first nine months in Europe. We will however offer drop down menus to advertisers. But India will have a different feed which will have ad breaks,” she says.
She is confident of revenues from India as it is a priority market for the business, along with Russia.
“The Indian DTH operators are enthusiastic and prices for 4K sets are also coming down. We will be pushing both the 4K and HD feeds. Advertising too will play a role,” she says.
Content syndication is one of the revenue streams which will keep providing cash flows to TERN. “We are looking for buyers from the US and Canada,” she expresses. “And we are licensing content to mobile operators too. We will be managing the talent which is on the channel as well as licensing the music and our original formats. That will keep our cash register ringing.”
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
