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“Jain TV will be unaffected by my political woes” : Dr J.K. Jain – Jain TV promoter

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To the television industry, Dr JK Jain comes across as a pretty oddball character. The trained medico and blatant RSS and BJP supporter (he was once nominated a member of parliament), started an innovative advertising vehicle, Video on Wheels, followed it up with a television channel Jain TV which ran for two-three years and then folded up. It was revived a couple of years ago and campaigned for the BJP and RSS strongly through shows on its channels. Mention Jain and the BJP party immediately cropped up as a connection.

Today, the two have become estranged. Jain TV has been labelled a Pakistani TV channel. He has been ousted from the party and has started a campaign against the “coterie” – supposedly led by Prime Minister AB Vajpayee‘s principal secretary and national security adviser Brajesh Mishra – in the BJP which is allegedly gunning for him. A bitter Jain has been having conferences nationwide speaking on his cause and trying to get a hearing from the powers-that-be. Politically, DR Jain is up against the government of the day but he remains optimistic as far as the future of his media expansion plans go.

The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter‘s managing editor Thomas Abraham spoke with DR Jain on 10 January about his political problems and the goings-on at the channel. Excerpts:

Have you apprised the prime minister of your problems with Brajesh Mishra and what has been his response?

I asked the Prime Minister when he said he was not aware of my letters to him written over two months about the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) allegation that I am an ISI agent and Jain TV is a Pakistani organisation, as to who is running this Government.

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So what do you plan to do now? With the PM refusing to act on your demands that effectively seals it as far as your case against Mishra goes.

I am waiting for his return from his Southeast Asia trip. Then I will provide documentary proof to the Prime Minister to show that “when he denied my allegations, he lied.‘‘

Are you saying the Prime Minister intentionally lied to you?

Excuse me, there must be some “communication gap”. I actually accused Brajesh Mishra, not Vajpayee, of lying.

It is there on the videorecorders sir. You can review the tapes if you want.

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If I said that, then I herewith retract my statement. For the record I would like to state that I meant Brajesh Mishra and not the Prime Minister? It was a slip of the tongue on my part.

Doesn‘t your crusade against Brajesh Mishra indirectly affect the very man you claim to respect so much, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee?

My fight is not with the Prime Minister. However since the man who has access to him holds so much influence in shaping what policies the government frames it is my duty as a responsible citizen to raise my voice.

How come you realised the shortcomings of Mr Mishra only after the RAW report was made public?

You all are journalists and you know better how the profession works. You only file a story after you have gathered all the facts relating to your report.

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There is talk that there is a wider agenda involved here. That the hardline section in the party which (home minister) LK Advani represents is using your crusade to get at Vajpayee.

Whatever have been my interactions with the Prime Minister have been based on my personal convictions. Not because I am being prodded by some third quarter. It is true that in one of my meetings with Vajpayeeji, Mr Advani was also present but that was a coincidence.

“JAIN TV’s FINANCIAL SITUATION WILL BE UNAFFECTED BY MY GOVERNMENT-RELATED PROBLEMS”

So have you had any indications from the PM as to what his stand is on the whole situation which is after all an embarrassment for everyone concerned.

Vajpayeeji had more or less made it clear in our last meeting I would be absolved of the charges if I withdraw my Jagte Raho (awakening) programme – a series that takes a hardline stance against the government‘s measures on striking what he feels is a flawed at the outset peace pact with Pakistan on Kashmir – on my channel. It is a question of my fundamental rights to expose.

Talking of exposes, how can a (former) functionary of a political party objectively raise media issues?

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Don’t you see a natural conflict of interest here?

I may be a politician, but Jain TV is a media organisation with all its duties and responsibilities. I do not want a certificate of patriotism from the Government but the blemish on me has to be erased. What about Mahatma Gandhi? The Mahatma was politically committed but also had his own newspaper. Mine is a similar mission in nation building.

If you‘re so convinced that the government is taking the country on the road to disaster shouldn‘t you be asking Vajpayee and his government to step down? You demanded the same of the previous government if I recall correctly.

See, I do still believe that Vajpayeeji is still the best man for the job. He is being misguided and it is my duty to draw attention to it. My differences with the government is on the matter of policies, not personalities. The issues at stake here are of national security and an Indian‘s right to live with dignity and freedom of the media.

Moving aside from your political problems, how is Jain Television faring? Now that the government will not be advertising on the channel, won‘t revenues be affected?

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See the fundamentals of my business are sound and we are making profits as any perusal of the financial statements which the company releases will show. Our third quarter results have been good but I can‘t give you figures offhand. As for the ad revenue part of it, I was not getting government advertising to begin with so where is the question of my financial situation after ads were withdrawn.

So what are your immediate plans for Jain Television? Any projects in the pipeline?

Jain TV is just one of my interests. We‘re getting into the Internet business in a big way and are very keen to develop e-commerce activities. We‘re also going ahead with our broadband plans and we‘re already providing feeds to a number of clients.

What about DTH (Direct-to-Home transmission)? You‘d earlier been one of the players who‘d shown interest in starting your own service. Star Television has just announced it is going ahead although they‘re unhappy with the government‘s insistence on a 20 per cent cap on foreign equity participation.

The government has failed to clearly set forth guidelines on DTH and till that is in place we will not be committing ourselves. Even the application forms are yet to be issued so how are we to go ahead. As far as I am aware it has not accepted any applications as of now. We are certainly interested but it‘s early days yet. Regarding Star‘s plans, they had made big announcements three years ago and we‘re still waiting.

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You wanted to set up an earth station. Have you got permission yet?

We‘ve taken up 12 acres of land in Noida (outskirts of New Delhi) and a teleport is already functioning there. We‘re definitely on track on that front.

Executive Dossier

Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star

New reality show puts Rs 1 crore prize and global spotlight on India’s gaming talent.

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MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.

Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.

Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.

Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.

Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.

With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.

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Digital

SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform

Alon Waks and Amit Sharma join as SpotDraft accelerates growth across key markets

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INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.

The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.

Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.

Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.

Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.

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Executive Dossier

Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention

AI, dwell time and real-world vision are rewriting the rules of what outdoor ads can do.

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MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.

In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.

On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8. 

Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability. 

On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns. 

LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives. 

About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes. 

Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement. 

• Automotive | Renault Triber

For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.  

• FMCG | Namaste India

In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift. 

• Real Estate

For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.

On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.  

 As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.

On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium. 

LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception. 

On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.

OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence. 

About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors. 

LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:

• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.

• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.

• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.

• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.

These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable. 

On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact. 

Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.
 

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