Sound business proposition behind Chandra's gamble on cricket

"This is Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Five years ago you gave me a chance to serve you. In these years, our country has come a long way... But there are still a lot of things to do. A new age has to be found in India - an age where there is no poverty, no unemployment... Let's get together and realise our dreams."

That was the prime minister's speech, not spoken on a podium in front of a crowd... but into the ears of many a mobile phone subscriber.

NDTV Media, a subsidiary of NDTV, is inviting advertising agencies to participate in the NDTV India Cast Your Vote film contest, wherein agencies have to create a 30-second public service commercial that ‘will convince people to get out of the comfort of their easy chairs and perform their civic duty of voting'. The commercial, which has to be on a Beta format, could be in either Hindi or English. Although the last date for submission of entries was March 10, NDTV Media, at the behest of creative and agency heads, has decided to extend the deadline to March 18.

NDTV Media looks to expand operations

Close to a year after formation, NDTV Media - the subsidiary of NDTV, which has been focusing its attention on building the two brands of NDTV India and NDTV 24X7 - plans to expand its range of operations to include broadcasters/players outside the umbrella of the parent.

The vision, as Raj Nayak, CEO, NDTV Media, highlights, is to emerge as the largest media marketing company. “The organisation will function as an outsourced sales and marketing arm,” he says, “aimed at those broadcasters who are keen on easing the burden of a heavy in-house sales machinery.”

Maximum media action in 2004 will be around polls, Indo-Pak cricket

A go-getter he may be, with successful stints in both the print and television media. But your regular corporate honcho Raj Nayak is not. A people's person who sets great store by personal connect is what marks him out as different. In his latest avatar as chief executive of NDTV Media, the advertising and marketing arm of Dr Prannoy Roy's company, it has certainly been a huge adjustment for him from the heady days at Star when he was heading ad sales at the country's most happening television network. Lean and mean about describes the set-up he works out of in Mumbai's Worli suburb.