Ananda Vikatan will host its 2024 Cinema Awards on June 13 in Chennai, continuing its longstanding tradition of recognising artistic merit in Kollywood. The ceremony stands apart for honouring the full spectrum of Tamil cinema—from debut directors to technical crews—alongside established stars. “This is not just an event, it’s an emotion,” said organisers, reaffirming Vikatan’s longstanding relationship with the industry. Among the key awardees this year are S.S. Vasan Award recipient S.P. Muthuraman, Mari Selvaraj for Best Director (Vaazhai), Vijay Sethupathi for Best Actor (Viduthalai Part 2 and Maharaja), and Sai Pallavi for Best Actress (Amaran). Kottukkaali was named Best Film, while Thalaimai Seyalagam was awarded Best Web Series, director Sundar C's Aranmanai was picked as the Best Entertainer in film category and Karthi was chosen as the Best Entertainer (Performer).

The Indian Express has launched its 11th edition from Patna, marking its official entry into Bihar’s print media landscape. The Patna edition went live on Monday, 9 June 2025, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hosting the formal launch at his residence. “For us, this is also a homecoming,” said Viveck Goenka, chairman and managing director of The Indian Express Group. “Our founder, Ramnath Goenka Ji, was born in Darbhanga and had close ties with Jayaprakash Narayan. Bihar has always been crucial in the national discourse. Launching our Patna edition is a milestone for The Indian Express because the people in Bihar, known for their acute political sense and social conscience, deserve the best of journalism that does justice to their needs and aspirations.” Chief Minister Nitish Kumar welcomed the launch and described the Express as a long-trusted publication. “I am delighted at the launch of the Patna edition of The Indian Express. It is good that the newspaper has

Chrome DM’s latest OTS report for Week 22 of 2025 and the BARC’s latest ratings for HSM showcase intriguing transitions.   Chrome DM’s recent opportunity to see (OTS) report for Week 22 of 2025 (May 31-June 06) offers detailed insights into channel availability across Hindi and English news networks.    According to Adgully, Times Now Navbharat leads with an impressive 98.07% OTS, followed closely by ABP News at 97.35%, India TV at 92.98%, Aaj Tak at 89.64%, and Republic Bharat at 88.89%.   Similarly, in the English news segment, Republic TV leads with 89.20%, followed by CNN News 18 with 73.16%, India Today with 70.39%, Mirror Now with 66.87% and Times Now with 61.36% OTS.   According to e4m, the Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) landscape in Week 20 saw some interesting shifts, as per the latest BARC ratings for the HSM (Urban+Rural) NCCS 2+ audience.   STAR Utsav surged to the No.1 position with a jump from 114.96 impressions in Week 19 to 128.26 in

Image source: NDTV, HT, Reuters; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   Just days after a high-powered Indian delegation led by Shashi Tharoor concluded counterterrorism briefings in Washington, a series of diplomatic signals from the US has left New Delhi fuming. As several media reports confirmed, the United States Central Command referred to Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner in the counter-terrorism campaign,” a phrase that cut sharply across India’s efforts to paint Islamabad as a terror sponsor on global platforms. Hot off the Press Adding to the diplomatic discomfort, Pakistan’s Army Chief General and recently self-annointed Field Marshall Asim Munir has been invited to the US Army’s 250th anniversary celebrations in Washington, D.C., scheduled for June 14--a day that also happens to be Donald Trump's birthday. The Economic Times highlighted this move as a deliberate engagement with Pakistan’s military elite, despite ongoing concerns about the country’s double game in t

Qualbert.com founder and editor-in-chief, Dr Ben Schuster, says the publication’s new podcast, The Qualcast is an opportunity for the team to discuss its publications’ operations and the games featured on the site.  Schuster told Influencing, “It’s another platform where we can discuss the games we feature on Qualbert.com. “Not everyone wants to read a lengthy, detailed article. Some people like to have a podcast on in the background. We think it's a great way to provide another outlet for games, particularly indie games.” Schuster said the podcast will aim for a weekly episode and then they will also go live, most likely later in the week.  “You'll hear from around four to five members of the Qualbert team each week, and because we have enough members, the next week you'll listen to completely different team members, and I think that adds a nice dynamic as well.  “I hope to keep up that schedule for consistency, but it does have to work with our availabilit

Network Ten's decision to abandon the project that was The Project, can probably be seen as the last hurrah in free-to-air media believing it can be relevant to a youth audience. Ten will replace The Project with, what appears at this stage to be a traditional, serious news program, titled 10 NEWS+. It's an interesting decision from a branding perspective for Ten. In the Financial Review this morning, Sam Buckingham-Jones quoted an unnamed rival TV executive as saying: “Ten’s always been youthful, with more entertainment, more comedy. They don’t have sport. This could easily do worse than The Project.” The problem is, of course, if you're a free-to-air network being youthful is not the place to be. 'The youth' barely know what free-to-air television is. Buckingham-Jones notes (not for the first time) that Ten seems to be retreating from its youth positioning. The challenge with targeting youth audiences is you need to be multi-channel. This audience doesn’t come to

New BN journalist Ella Loneragan. There's a lot going on at Perth-based Business News right now, as managing editor Sean Cowan reveals. “First, we have taken the big step of sponsoring a category at the The Walkley Foundation for Journalism’s prestigious Mid-Year Media Prizes,” said Cowan who also recently featured in an Influencing interview. In that piece, Cowan talked about how the business was growing and building its editorial coverage with a growing number of full time journalists.  This week, Cowan said: “We pride ourselves on producing quality, unbiased journalism at BN and our decision to sponsor the Innovative Storytelling category for young journalists [at the Mid-Year Media Prizes] is reflective of our future focus. The award will be presented by senior journalist Claire Tyrrell, who will be in Sydney for the event.” “The second piece of news is that Claire will be joined at the ceremony by Ella Loneragan, who is nominated in the Student Journalist of t