History appoints MPG India as its media agency

The infotainment channel, which has Bollywood actor Salman Khan as its brand ambassador, is expected to be launched by mid-October.

MPG India has won the media duties of AETN-18's soon-to-be-launched channel, History, in India. AETN-18 is a joint venture between A&E Networks and TV18. The infotainment channel, which has Bollywood actor Salman Khan as its brand ambassador, is expected to be launched by mid-October.

The agency bagged the media duties through a multi-agency pitch after contesting with four other participants. While no official confirmation could be obtained at the time of filing this report, the size of the account is estimated to be in the range of Rs 25-30 crore.

Talking about the development, Sangeetha Aiyer, general manager, marketing, AETN-18, says, "We have extensive and ambitious plans for the launch of History in India. Being familiar with the agency's work, we completely trust MPG to deliver as per our expectations."

Kunal Jamuar, executive director, West India, MPG, tells afaqs!, "History channel has a loyal following in most countries it is present in and we feel fortunate to have been tasked to build a buzz around a channel of such distinction. We have put together some interesting plans, which will be rolled out in the next few months. Our aim is to skyrocket the channel into the minds of Indian audiences."

For the record, McCann Erickson won the creative duties for the channel in August this year. In August 2010, A&E Television Networks, LLC (AETN) and the Network18 Group formed a joint venture (JV), called AETN-18 India. The JV will see the roll-out of several channels, including History, Bio and other popular AETN channels, in India.

AETN-18 is one of the fastest-growing pay television companies in the US. It operates two of the top five pay-TV networks, History and A&E, and a women's network called Lifetime.