Ten Sports entertains its cricket-crazy viewers with a four-month long Cricket Festival

Ropes in top brands from across the country as sponsors for the Festival

Mumbai, June 21, 2016: This summer, Ten Sports Network, South Asia’s leading sports broadcaster brings a four-month long uninterrupted Cricket Festival to the cricket-crazy Indian sub-continent. While fans are treated to spectacular cricketing shots from top international players, Ten Sports Network has roped in major sponsorship deals with Micromax as the presenting sponsor for the Festival, Gillette and FOGG as the co-presenters and Kent RO as the studio sponsor for ‘Straight Drive’ – Ten Sports Network’s popular cricket analysis show presented pre-match, during the innings break and post-match.

Speaking on the Cricket Festival, Mr. Rajesh Sethi, Global CEO of Ten Sports Network said, “The Cricket Festival is an excellent proposition as we celebrate the best of cricket this summer from across the world. Most of the matches have resulted in close encounters which have been an absolute delight to our fans. We are also happy to partner with top brands from the country who have shown keen interest in the property. We have Micromax on board as the presenting sponsor, Gillette and FOGG as the co-presenters and KENT RO as the sponsor of ‘Straight Drive’, cricket’s most popular analysis show.”

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Shubhajit Sen, Chief Marketing Office, Micromax Informatics said, “Being a youth centric brand, Micromax has always been focused on Movies, Sports and Music. In line with this, we are happy to partner with Ten Sports Network for Micromax Cricket Festival to bring an exhilarating cricket season to the millions of passionate cricketing fans in the country. This sponsorship once again reiterates our commitment towards engaging with the youth and building a brand that echoes their interest and pulse.”

The Cricket Festival started with a tri-nation series in the Caribbean between reigning World T20 champs West Indies, reigning World champs Australia and the ever-green Proteas. This was followed by India’s tour to Zimbabwe, with India winning the 3 ODIS emphatically and Zimbabwe taking the lead in the ongoing three-match T20 series. After the Zimbabwean safari, Team India will travel to the Caribbean for a four-match Test series. Simultaneously, the Aussies will be travelling to Sri Lanka for 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and 2 T20s while the New Zealand Cricket team will be in Zimbabwe to play a two-match Test series.

Don’t forget to tune into the Ten Sports Network for the best of cricketing action!

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Notes to Editors

About Ten Sports:

Ten Sports is South Asia’s leading sports channel with a reach of over 140 million households. Ten Sports holds long term broadcast rights to 5 Cricket Boards, the WWE and the Moto GP, and exclusive broadcast rights to US Open, prestigious ATP events, WTA, Ryder Cup, US PGA Championship, the European PGA Tour the Asian Tour and the Tour De France. Ten Sports Network is also a leader in football content with rights to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, I League, Ligue 1, German Cup, Capital One Cup, Sky Bet Football League, A-League and Club Channels.

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Media Contact:

Jayshree Kumar / Arantxa Gonsalves

Corporate Brand – Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL)

Mobile: +91 9769286661 / +91 9820336890

Landline: +91-22-7106 1367 / 7108 5464

Email: jayshree.kumar@zee.esselgroup.com / arantxa.gonsalves@zee.esselgroup.com

InfraMed invests in Eutelsat’s ‘Broadband for Africa’ satellite venture

‘Broadband for Africa’ High Throughput Satellite to be launched in 2019 – Photo credit: Thales Alenia Space

London, Paris, 21 June 2016 – Eutelsat Communications (NYSE Euronext Paris: ETL) and InfraMed have entered into an agreement whereby InfraMed becomes a c.21% shareholder in ‘Broadband for Africa’, the venture set up by Eutelsat to provide satellite broadband services on the African continent. By investing in ‘Broadband for Africa’, InfraMed is pursuing its strategy to focus on opportunities in regions characterised by dynamic demographics and infrastructure insufficiency.

Laurent Grimaldi, CEO of ‘Broadband for Africa’ commented: “In leveraging state-of-the-art satellite technologies, ‘Broadband for Africa’ will offer telcos, Internet Service Providers and government agencies a quality solution that enables more Africans to get online. We welcome InfraMed as a shareholder and look forward to benefiting from its track record of successful infrastructure investments.”

About Broadband for Africa
Set up by Eutelsat in 2015, ‘Broadband for Africa’ will deploy affordable, high-quality broadband connectivity in Africa using, in the first phase, leased Ka-band capacity on Spacecom’s AMOS-6 satellite, and in the second phase, resources on its own dedicated High Throughput Satellite that will be launched in 2019. ‘Broadband for Africa’ will develop direct-to-user consumer and enterprise broadband services and address the market for community networks connected to Wi-Fi hotspots, mobile phone backhauling and rural connectivity.

About InfraMed
InfraMed is a €385 million long-term investment vehicle dedicated to infrastructure in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. InfraMed was jointly created in 2010 by five major investors: Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Caisse des Dépôts et de Consignations, the European Investment Bank, Caisse de Dépôts et de Gestion, EFG Hermes.

For more about InfraMed visit www.inframed.com
Contact: yousra.khayati@inframed.com

About Eutelsat Communications

Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world’s leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 39 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies.

Eutelsat’s satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user’s location.

Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 37 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service.

For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com

Press
Vanessa O’Connor Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 voconnor@eutelsat.com
Marie-Sophie Ecuer Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 mecuer@eutelsat.com
Violaine du Boucher Tel: + 33 1 53 98 37 91 vduboucher@eutelsat.com

Investors and analysts
Joanna Darlington Tel. : +33 1 53 98 35 30 jdarlington@eutelsat.com
Cédric Pugni Tel. : +33 1 53 98 35 30 cpugni@eutelsat.com

ZEE expands its presence in the US market!

Announces a landmark agreement with the United States’ DISH and Sling TV
DISH and Sling TV to carry 27 new channels in USA
Taking the total count of ZEE channels in the US to 37, with a combined reach of 52 million homes

Mumbai, India; 20 June 2016: India’s leading media conglomerate, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) announced a landmark agreement with DISH and Sling TV to further strengthen its presence in the US Territory. As a part of the agreement, DISH and Sling TV will carry 27 new channels in addition to the existing 10 ZEE channels, which will be available in varied languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Rajasthani and Urdu. Post this alliance, the total number of ZEE channels available in the US market will be 37 with a combined reach of 52 million homes (that includes English and Spanish HHs).

Further, Sling TV and DISH will be the exclusive provider in the US of ZEE’s premium on-demand library, which includes movies and over 400 additional popular video titles. Over time, Sling TV will become the exclusive over-the-top (OTT) provider in the US for all but one of ZEE’s South Asian channels. In the coming months, ZEE will transition viewers from its direct-to-consumer services to Sling TV or to authenticated access only.

Speaking on the partnership, Amit Goenka, CEO-International Broadcast Business, ZEEL said, “America is one of the most important markets for our International business. The deal with DISH further consolidates our leadership position and is in line with our ambitious 2020 goals. We are very delighted to announce that with this deal not only has our reach in the Mainstream American market for our Z Living network quadrupled, but we will also now be serving the high potential Spanish language subscribers with two 24×7 networks. With this deal we will cater to 16 different language groups in America across 5 genres. ZEE and DISH have been natural partners for the last 18 years and we both share our vision on future growth of pay TV in USA.”

“Our agreement with ZEE enables us to provide a vast amount of entertainment to fans of South Asian content, while also giving customers a more streamlined way to access and enjoy both linear and on-demand content,” said Chris Kuelling, Senior Vice President of Programming for Sling TV and DISH. “ZEE shares our goal of growing the South Asian market, and together we are able to better serve this community, as well as the other language groups served by ZEE.”

To broaden the options available to fans of South Asian content, Sling TV and DISH are launching a new ‘Hindi Gold Pack,’ which will contain all of the ZEE Hindi channels, plus other leading Hindi channels. In addition, &TV, one of the most requested Hindi channels by current Sling TV and DISH customers, will be added to the existing lineup. ZEE’s on-demand content will be available at no additional charge to DISH and Sling TV subscribers with the Hindi Gold Pack.

DISH and Sling TV will also add two Spanish-language channels, Z Living Español and Zee TV Español, and two Brazilian channels, Zee TV Portuguese and Z Living Portuguese, to their respective line-ups. The new Spanish channels can be found on DISH in the DishLATINO Clasico, DishLATINO Dos, DishLATINO Plus and DishLATINO Max packages, and the Best of Spanish TV package on Sling Latino.

Zee Alwan and Zee Aflam, two popular Arabic channels will launch in the DISH Arabic Super Elite and the Arabic Mosaic Pack on Sling TV as well.

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Notes to Editor:

About Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL):

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is one of India’s leading television media and entertainment companies. It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with an extensive library housing over 222,000 hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,818 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, ZEE houses the world’s largest Hindi film library. Through its strong presence worldwide, ZEE entertains over 1 billion viewers across 171 countries.

Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, ZEE’s well-known brands include Zee TV, &tv, Zee Cinema, Zee Action, Zee Classic, &pictures, Zee Anmol, Ten 1, Ten 2, Ten 3, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Salaam, Zing, ETC Bollywood, Zee Q and Zindagi. The company also has a strong offering in the regional language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Tamil and Sarthak TV. The company’s HD offerings include Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, &tv HD, Zee Studio HD, Zee Café HD, &pictures HD, Ten 1 HD and Ten Golf HD.

ZEE and its affiliate companies have leading presence across the media value chain including television broadcasting, cable distribution, direct-to-home satellite services, digital media and print media amongst others. ZEEL also operates its own digital platforms with OTT offerings on OZEE, DittoTV and india.com. More information about ZEE and its businesses is available on www.zeetelevision.com

About Sling TV:

Sling TV L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), provides over-the-top television services including domestic and international live and on-demand programming. It is available on televisions, tablets, computers, smartphones and other streaming devices. Sling TV offers two streaming services, which collectively include programming content from Disney/ESPN (single-stream service only), Fox (multi-stream service only), HBO, AMC, A&E, Turner, Scripps, EPIX and Univision. Sling Latino offers a suite of standalone and add-on Spanish-language programming packages tailored to English-dominant, bilingual and Spanish-dominant U.S. households. Sling International currently provides more than 250 channels in 20 languages across multiple devices to U.S. households. Sling TV is a next-generation service that meets the entertainment needs of today’s contemporary viewers. Visit www.Sling.com.

Follow @Sling on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Sling #TakeBackTV

About DISH:

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), through its subsidiaries, provides approximately 13.874 million pay-TV subscribers, as of March 31, 2016, with the highest-quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value. DISH offers a high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 250 company. Visit www.dish.com.

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Media Contact:

Jayshree Kumar / Arantxa Gonsalves

Corporate Brand – Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL)

Mobile: +91 9769286661 / +91 9820336890

Landline: +91-22-7106 1367 / 7108 5464

Email: jayshree.kumar@zee.esselgroup.com / arantxa.gonsalves@zee.esselgroup.com

HBO Releases WESTWORLD Trailer Worldwide

The new series premieres in Asia this October same time as the US exclusively on HBO

SINGAPORE, JUNE 20, 2016 – HBO today released a trailer for WESTWORLD (#Westworld), in global anticipation for the premiere of the network’s new drama series, slated to debut this October in Asia the same time as the US, exclusively on HBO late this year (fall of 2016). The series will also be available on HBO GO / HBO On Demand (in territories where applicable).

This ten-episode hour-long HBO Original drama series is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.

WESTWORLD’s all-star cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth and Clifton Collins, Jr.

Inspired by the motion picture “Westworld,” written and directed by Michael Crichton. Production companies, Bad Robot Productions, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Kilter Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producer/writer/director, Jonathan Nolan; executive producer/writer, Lisa Joy; executive producers, J.J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, Bryan Burk.

# # #

About HBO ASIA

Singapore-based HBO Asia brings the best of Hollywood to Asia first through its exclusive licensing deals with major Hollywood and independent studios, including Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate. HBO Asia has proprietary and award-winning HBO and HBO Asia Original programmes produced exclusively for HBO viewers. Wholly owned by HBO (a Time Warner company), HBO Asia reaches 23 territories across Asia with six 24-hour commercial-free subscription movie channels: HBO, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Hits, Cinemax and Red by HBO, internet streaming platform, HBO GO, subscription video on demand service, HBO On Demand, and in China, 鼎级剧场 (ding ji ju chang), destination for HBO’s hit series and Hollywood movies. HBO Asia is also the exclusive distributor of BabyFirst and the DreamWorks channel in the region. Log on to www.hboasia.com for more information.

WESTWORLD, HBO and Home Box Office are trademarks of Home Box Office, Inc. Used with permission

For more information, please contact HBO Asia:

Karen Lai

Director, Communications

Tel: (65) 6381 1796

Email: karen.lai@hboasia.com

Angela Poh

Manager, Communications

Tel: (65) 6381 1838

Email: angela.poh@hboasia.com

Chan Zi Ning

Executive, Communications

Tel: (65) 6381 1746

Email: zining.chan@hboasia.com

17 June, 2016

Welcome to News Views, CASBAA’s news round-up culled from sources across the industry for the week ending June 17th. Curated by CASBAA, News Views keeps you in the loop. We always value your feedback, so tell us what you think!

Brought to you by:

Christopher Slaughter

CEO

Old hacks rule of thumb (now apparently codified into “law” ): If the headline ends in a question mark, the answer to the question it asks is “No.” With that in mind, the New York Times Magazine rehashes the six-month-old “Netflix goes global” story this week with “Can Netflix Survive in the New World It Created?” Unfortunately, to get to the meat of that premise, you have to wade through the first 4000 words of the article, by which time you’ve forgotten the question. Contrast that with last weekend, when The Guardian cut straight to the chase: “Will Netflix Really Steal Traditional TV’s Crown?” (And it’s a much shorter piece, too.)

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer

There’s a reason that POLIcy and POLItics start with the same syllables…….The Washington-based Court of Appeals has given a boost to the FCC’s Net Neutrality stance, ruling that the agency acted appropriately in deciding to regulate internet service providers as common utilities. The cable industry and the cellular industry had both sued to block the action. Reactions differed, of course. Silicon Valley companies loved the decision, but others complained the FCC and the court had both ignored good economics and made political decisions. Don’t you dare think this is even close to being resolved: AT&T said they’d take the case to the Supreme Court, and on the pure POLItics side, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives will try to legislate against the Democratic majority on the FCC.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

REDEF has another well thought out “Original” this week. Mathew Ball takes a look at The Impending Fall of TV Ad spend…Brightest Before the Dark. “No matter how you define consumption, the industry is experiencing a dramatic flight from ad-supported television (whether linear or over the top). And though counter-intuitive, the severity of this trend has actually benefited the major network groups. The loss of audiences (especially young audiences) has created ad impression scarcity that has driven up primetime CPMs significantly over the past 18 months, even though the core product (a TV ad) remains the same and its efficacy continues to erode.” Definitely worth the full read.

Anjan Mitra

Executive Director, India

The censors at the CBFC have been getting a roasting in the Indian press. “Is (CBFC chair) Pahlaj Nihalani out to bury the Indian film industry?” and “Film Industry vs Pahlaj Nihalani” were typical headlines. Commentators noted that if films are cut, audiences increasingly go online to find uncensored versions. And this is equally true for TV, said one writer. The proximate cause of all the criticism was a court case about the film “Udta Punjab“, and that was finally resolved with the CBFC being order to rescind most of its cuts. But the systemic problem seen by some writers endures.

Kevin Jennings

Vice President, Programme

It has been announced that Microsoft, Google and Facebook are to work with the Bangladesh government to remove ‘inappropriate content’ form the internet. The State Minister for Telecoms said that the companies had agreed that they will respond to requests within 48 hours. China’s Xinhua News said the three companies had agreed to share information related to any “unexpected incidents” with the Bangladeshi government. Whilst it’s not entirely clear what content would be targeted, Google has already cooperated with Bangladeshi authorities and agreed to remove certain videos from YouTube. Some critics are already crying foul, although Bangladesh has experienced a string of brutal attacks against bloggers and foreign nationals in the last 12 months.

Jane Buckthought

Advertising Consultant

Television will still be the dominant medium for the foreseeable future, data from media agency Zenith is predicting, however the sharp rise of mobile internet consumption is eating into how much all other media is consumed globally, particularly in Asia Pacific. In another study by EGTA, Television still dominates video viewing around the world. Figures from international television trade bodies put online viewing into perspective. Even among younger adults, television accounts for the majority of their viewing.

Mark Lay

Vice President, Singapore

If you are making decisions based on how video consumption will change, the first indicator you will want to look at is broadband roll-out. There may be no better source for this than the Cisco Visual Networking Index. A few key findings: a) Global IP traffic will nearly triple at a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent over the next five years, b) new Internet users will grow from 3.0 billion in 2015 to 4.1 billion by 2020 and c) Internet video will account for 79 percent of global Internet traffic by 2020—up from 63 percent in 2015. Cisco will have a live webcast specifically for Asian-based participants on June 22, 2016 from 10: 30AM – 11:30AM. Pre-registration is required through this link.