Week at a glance: A time to look back in advertising, digital, mega deals...

In the final week of 2017, it was a busy time as India’s leading authorities across diverse fields – advertising, digital, OTT, radio, etc. – did a recap of the major developments of the year for us. Also, during the week, Reliance Jio announced that it would acquire assets of Reliance Communications. Read on... 

It’s a busy time ahead in 2018 for Nakul Chopra, Senior Advisor, Publicis Communications. Earlier this month, Chopra was elected Chairman of BARC India, succeeding Sudhanshu Vats, CEO, Viacom18 Group, who successfully completed his one-year tenure as Chairman. In an e-mail interaction with Adgully, Nakul Chopra reveals his top three priorities as the BARC India Chairman, the key focus areas, challenges ahead, trends in 2018 and more. 

Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of specified assets of Reliance Communications (RCOM) and its affiliates. Consequent to the agreement, Reliance Jio Infocomm or its nominees will acquire assets under four categories – Towers, Optic Fiber Cable Network, Spectrum and Media Convergence Nodes from RCOM and its affiliates. 

In the biggest media deal this year, The Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox, Inc announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Disney to acquire 21st Century Fox, including the Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television studios, along with cable and international TV businesses, for approximately $52.4 billion in stock. The implications of such a major deal for the media industry across the world as well as in India are many. In a bid to understand the implications, especially with reference to India, Adgully spoke to a cross section of leading media and advertising experts. 

Publicis India’s Sudeep Gohil, Tonic Worldwide’s Chetan Asher, Rajiv Dingra of WATConsult, and Ramesh Narayan, do a recap of the year 2017 and the major developments and shifts that took place in Indian advertising, as well as their long-term implications for the industry. 

According to Manish Maheshwari, CEO, ‎Network18 Digital, two major evolutions are particularly profound – growth of the regional pie and increased consumption of video content. Both Uday Sodhi of Sony Pictures Networks India and Indigo Consulting’s Rajesh Ghatge consider 2017 to be an Annus mirabillis year for digital and OTT. The Indian digital eco-system witnessed a growth in the number of B2C platforms. Along with entertainment, OTT platforms became a home for engaging content as well and there was an increase in consumption. 

Gurmit Singh, VP and MD – India Business, Oath Inc., lists the major developments in digital which defined the year 2017. This has been a year when advertisers saw Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality among the top revenue drivers of all new video formats. 

For Vikas Mehta, CEO, PointNine Lintas, the trio of demonetisation, GST implementation and RERA impacted the advertising industry in a major way during the year. He also adds that 2017 has been a challenging year for most in the industry. 

Abraham Thomas, CEO, Radio City, remains bullish on the radio industry. Not only did the year saw the launch of 91 new FM radio stations, digital also kept the sector buoyant. This apart, the challenges during the year also taught the radio industry to become smarter and run tighter operations. 

If one were to look back at the Bollywood fare dished out in 2017, then probably the Virushka (Virat Kohli-Anushka Sharma, for the uninitiated) wedding had more drama, romance and suspense in it than the films that hit the silver screen. 

Well, to be fair to moviedom, 2017 did see more than its fair share of experimental cinema – be it ‘A Death in the Gunj’, ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, ‘Mukti Bhawan’, ‘Jagga Jasoos’. It was also a year when Bollywood brought to the screen large slices of the Indian hinterland – ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’, ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’, ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’, ‘Haraamkhor’, ‘G Kutta Se’, ‘Kadvi Hawa’ and more. 

As in the earlier years, 2017, too, saw a mix of good, bad and indifferent shows on Hindi GECs. ‘Bigg Boss 11’ with the usual controversies and the theme of ‘padosis’ this year has been garnering its own band of followers. ‘Kumkum Bhagya’ on Zee TV is continuing strong and has been among the top 5 shows on Hindi GECs in Rural+Urban for several weeks now. Its spin-off show, ‘Kundali Bhagya’, has also been wooing the audiences. 

Gautam Thakar, former CEO of LivingSocial, will be soon stepping into the shoes of Nitin Kukreja, who quit Star India as CEO of Star Sports in March 2017. Thakar is expected to take charge from January 15, 2018. 

Dentsu Webchutney, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has announced the appointment of Avinash Joshi as VP and Head of Social Advocacy. Avinash joins the agency to set up and lead Dentsu Webchutney’s Social Advocacy vertical. He will report to Anil Kumar, EVP and Head- Delhi NCR, Dentsu Webchutney. 

Apalya Technologies is one of the pioneers in providing TV and video-on-demand services to cellular users in India and over the last decade it has grown to serve 30+ customers across telecom and media in 13 countries. Vamshi Reddy, CEO & Co-Founder of Apalya Technologies, has been leading the company’s efforts in corporate strategy and business development. In a brief interaction with Adgully, Vamshi Reddy does a quick recap of 2017, especially for the OTT streaming landscape in India as well as the trends that will pave the way for more content consumption on OTT in 2018. He also speaks about Apalya’s growth journey, its platform – myplex, the road ahead, and more. 

As the year reaches its end, BARC ratings for Week 51 (December 16-22) [HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals] saw FTA channels continuing strong. This week, it was Zee Anmol that climbed up to the top spot, while Star Bharat slipped to the second spot. ‘Kya Haal Mr Panchaal’ was the most watched show on Hindi GECs in Rural+Urban.