TelecomLive April-2020

[ News Bytes ] www.telecomlive.com 61 Telecom LIVE April 2020 the unique movie titles. Meanwhile, Hindi lan- guage channels contin- ued to contribute the lion's share to the total TV viewership. “Viewership for Hindi language chan- nels has grown 31 pc in the last four years and contributed to 44 pc of the total TV viewership in 2019,” the report said. English language chan- nels, meanwhile, wit- nessed a 41 pc decline in viewership in the four- year period, and their contribution to total TV viewership stood at 1 pc last year. One of the key reasons for the decline has been sports broad- casters increasingly tele- casting content in Hindi and other regional lan- guages, the report added. Need easier US resi- dency rules for stu- dents: Lobby group backed by Bill Gates, Zuckerberg A bipartisan lobby g r o u p b a c k e d b y Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has sought easier residency norms for foreign stu- dents by permitting them to begin their green card application process soon after getting a job. The report, by the US-based FWD.us , suggests that this would reduce pres- sure on the H-1B visa programme and help bridge a talent shortage in the country. At present, interna- tional students can switch to a one year period of Optional Practical Train- ing (OPT) after they grad- uate, but they eventually have to apply for an H-1B visa to continue working in the country. The US 115.3 mn against 37.4 mn in the corresponding period of 2018. In India, Likee has collaborations with 10 film and music production houses, such as Salman Khan Films, T-Series, Fox Star Studios, Red Chillies Entertain- ment, Just Music and Ashutosh Gowariker Produc- tions Pvt Ltd. Regional language content driving growth of TV viewership: BARC India Regional language content has emerged as a key growth driver for TV viewership over the past four years, according to a report released by BARC India. The BARC India report, titled 'What India Watched - 2019', observed that the viewership of most regional language programmes in terms of viewingminutes has doubled between 2016 and 2019. Some of the regional languages whose channels have witnessed a massive surge in viewership in the past four years are: Gujarati (157 pc), Assamese (125 pc), Bhojpuri (200 pc), Marathi (128 pc), Urdu (179 pc), Odia (111 pc) andBengali (83 pc). “The share of viewership of regional language chan- nels, other than Hindi and the four southern lan- guages, has risen steadily, from15 pc in 2016 to 23 pc in 2019,” the report said. However, their contribution to the total TV viewership pie still remains low. The contribution of Marathi, Odia and Bhojpuri channels to the total TV viewership in 2019 stood at 4 pc, 2 pc and 2 pc, respec- tively. Accounting for less than 1 pcwereGujarati chan- nels (0.3 pc), Assamese channels (0.5 pc) and Urdu channels (0.1 pc). Meanwhile, the viewership of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada channels saw double-digit growth, at 31 pc, 28 pc and 61 pc, respectively. Malyalam channels' viewership grew 9 pc in this period. While Tamil chan- nels' contribution to total TV viewership stood at 12 pc in 2019, those of Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam channels stood at 7 pc, 12 pc and 3 pc, respectively. While 26,080 movies were aired on TV in 2019, the four South Indian languages contributed to 48 pc of from Star Plus like Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain, Nazar, Kasauti Zindagi Kay and Star Bharat like Savdhaan India along withNews. The free content is available in full-length, but will stream only in SD format. To stream in HD, user need to register and purchase Hotstar sub- scription. Asianet News Net- work FY19 net drops to Rs 6.35 cr due to decline in ad rev Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd (ANNPL) has posted a lower net profit in FY19 due to a decline in ad revenue. The net profit fell to Rs 6.35 cr for the fiscal ended March 2019 as against Rs 8.35 cr in the previous fiscal. In FY19, total operat- ing income stood at Rs 115 cr and PAT of Rs 6.35 cr as against total operating income of Rs 113 cr and PAT of Rs 8.35 cr in FY18. During H1-FY20, ANNPL has achieved revenue of Rs 60.76 cr. Operating profitability of ANNPL was affected in FY19 on account of lower advertisement revenue from Asianet News dur- ing the Onam season due to floods inKerala. Short video platform Likee's active user engagement triples in Oct-Dec quarter Short video platform Likee, owned by Singa- pore-based BIGO Tech- nology Pte Ltd has tripled its Monthly Active User (MAU) engagement in the October-December 2019 period. F o r O c t o b e r - December 2019 period, theMAU of Likee reached B P O & B R O A D C A S T I N G - B Y T E S