Rediff.com (NSDQ: REDF), arguably India’s first and largest horizontal portal,recently annouced its results and reported a net loss of $8.86 million in Q4 FY08-09. The company attributes the losses to the slowdown in the online advertising sector. Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff.com’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, expects the situation in the onlineadvertising…

News Corp.-owned Star Plus, which reigned on top of the GEC ratings chart undisputed for nearly a decade, has now slipped to the third position, not only beaten by new entrant Colors, but also by decade-old rival Zee TV, which has been playing catch up with Star Plus for several…

Almost the entire advertising inventory for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 has been sold out, official broadcaster ESPN (NYSE: DIS) Star Sports said today. The company was getting an average ad rate of Rs4 lakh per 10-sec spot during the tournament, ESPN Software India managing director R.C. Venkateish said. ESPN…

NASDAQ-listed Rediff.com India Ltd. (NSDQ: REDF) publisher of Rediff.com and US-based India Abroad newspaper, today posted a net loss of $8.86 million (Rs41.89 crore @ Rs47.29/dollar), compared with a profit of $0.90 million during the year ago period on decline in online advertising and depreciation of the Indian rupee vis-a-vis…

News channels take elections very seriously. Election coverage is to general news channels what budget coverage is to business channels—the definitive event that establishes the street-cred of a channel. The ratings on that day also determines the bragging rights to being the channel that is ‘most trusted’ when it matters…

Publisher HT Media today said net profit for the quarter ended 31 March dropped 44% from the year-ago period to Rs23.43 crore on account of higher newsprint prices, adverse currency movement and slowing ad revenue growth. Net sales grew 7% y-o-y to Rs333.82 crore, and total income grew 6% y-o-y…

In a country where it’s not routine for media to report on other media houses (with rare and honourable exceptions), the Private Treaties programme of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, publisher of The Times of India, was the subject of two stories in leading national dailies this morning. While Business…

Update: An FT spokesperson has confirmed the development. “The Financial Times has submitted an application to the relevant Indian regulatory authorities for permission to publish a facsimile edition of the Financial Times in India and is also seeking associated FDI approvals. We have no further comments at this time,” an…

Hyderabad based digital marketing solutions provider, Ybrant Digital which reported a $55 million topline for FY07-08, is putting its money to better use. It has acquired Argentina based ad network, Dream Ad for an undisclosed amount. Dream Ad has been operating since six years and has over 300 clients. Besides…

Broadcaster NDTV Ltd posted a net loss of Rs44.74 crore for the quarter ended 31 March, swinging from a profit of Rs3.31 crore during the year ago period, on significant non-recurring costs and falling ad revenues. For the fiscal ended 31 March, the company posted losses of Rs73.18 crore, compared…

NDTV has taken a significant step towards monetizing its videos online. The broadcaster has partnered with video ad service Vdopia to serve ads on its newly launched video site Tubaah.com as well as on the live online feed of the group’s business news channel on ndtvprofit.com. From the release: “According…

With its back against the wall financially, auto maker Ford is taking a radical and risky approach to the marketing of its new Fiesta: Later this month, it will hand over the branding and promotion duties for the car to 100 twenty-somethings who have no advertising experience. Ford is giving…

If you are looking for signs of an economic slowdown, India’s magazine publishing industry is probably not a good place to start. Two new magazines are hitting newsstands this week. RPG Group’s general interest magazine, Open, will hit newsstands tomorrow and Careers 360, the first magazine from a new venture…

After weeks of see-sawing and conflicting reports, there is finally clarity on the future of the Indian Premier League, the popular 20-20 cricket tournament. It will be held in South Africa between April 18 and May 24. In all, 59 matches will be played. The games will be telecast at…

AOL-owned social network Bebo will launch in India in March, Francisco Cordero, general manager for Australia and New Zealand for the popular network announced earlier today. Cordero made a pitch about how sites such as Orkut and Facebook were social networks while Bebo was a social media network. We spoke…

Looks like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is winding up OurCity. The homepage now carries the following message, which also appears on top of every search page. Yahoo! India Our City will be going off the air on 18th Feb 2009. We have incorporated successes within Our City, into our new offering…

In a late evening announcement yesterday, the finance ministry has exempted newsprint, glazed newsprint and light weight newsprint used for printing magazines from customs duty. Business Standard reports that the government has also decided to increase the ad rates paid by various government agencies, through the department of advertising and…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has taken an undisclosed 20 percent minority stake in Singapore-based mobile marketing company Affle in its second round of funding, reports the Economic Times. Affle said that the partnership would help it quickly scale up its business globally and help it expand into the US, Europe and…

Some of India’s largest advertisers are miffed that news channels run a scrolling ticker while their ads are running, eating into screen space, distorting the images and more importantly, distracting viewers. To make matters worse, news channels are sometimes running other ads on these tickers. The issue is now headed…