Entertainment today is not restricted to television; at least this is what the young generation thinks. MTV Insight Studio (the research arm of MTV India) conducted a study named ‘Recreation Redefined’, where it surveyed 3000 youngsters (15-24 yr olds, SEC A & B) in 16 Indian cities. The study revealed facts regarding the redefined entertainment by the youth.

Aditya Swamy, senior vice president, sales and marketing, MTV India says, “The speed and comfort with which young people are adopting and adapting, makes this a very exciting time for youth marketers. We at MTV enjoy the sheer challenge of trying to stay ahead of this formula 1 generation. Our approach with this study has been to understand what entertainment means to young people by immersing ourselves in their world, talking their language and understanding their symbols and I hope this serves a useful tool to all of us who are looking to get a greater return on our marketing investments.”

He further added, “One is that recreation has transformed from being a single activity, to that involving many activities. People want to play and play equally, whether it comes to experimentation, enjoyment, work, relationships,” he says. “Secondly, the adoption is trends is much faster in small towns. Youngsters in such towns are more experimentative with the choices for recreation as well. Thirdly, categories such as telecom are seen as more fun because there is so much you can do with the cell phone – chat, download, call, play games and more.”

The study also revealed that youngsters prefer role models like Dhoni over Rahul Dravid. The reason being the attitudes they exhibit under pressure. For Instance, Dravid looks soaked up but Dhoni appears to be having fun and under control.

Facts revealed from the study:

25,800 minutes are spent by young India on entertainment every month, that’s 60% of their time.

Chatting, and not social networking is the most popular entertainment activity on the internet with 82% people on chat versus 40% who are into social networking.

Youth in small and emerging towns are more avid gamers as compared to those in bigger cities.

The seventh season of Roadies has kick started, but one thing that’s on everyone’s mind is, will it sustain, will it be a hit without the soul of Roadies. No points for guessing, we’re talking about Raghu Ram, the mind behind the successful Roadies series. What is he doing now? Is he still with MTV? Has he joined Channel V? …Phew…we’ll take that one by one

For starters, Channel V is going to air this new reality show The Player, the promos of which have Raghu in the spotlight. But guess what, the man behind the show is Rajeev (his twin brother, who also featured with him on MTV Roadies and MTV Connect) and not Raghu. Rajeev will host as well as produce the new show for Channel V under his production house Colosseum Media (which also has Splitsvilla to its credit).

So how does it feel to venture out of the MTV camp? Rajeev tells us, “I had quit MTV some three years ago. My production house Colosseum Media was associated with the channel in the business aspects and we will continue that. My relationship with MTV is emotional than just business. MTV also provides shows outside the channel, so can we.”

Meanwhile Raghu has confirmed his split with MTV. He further added that he left MTV in May, 2009 and has been travelling since. Speaking about Roadies, he said that MTV Roadies is about a journey and not about an individual crew member.

With Raghu exploring the Roadies spirit on his break…guess it’s time to move on…

Monjit Sharma, Director of Sales at MTV has quit and moved on to NewsX as Head of Sales. Sharma would be heading regional sales teams of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore from the company’s Delhi office.

In his career, Sharma has worked with Asian Age, ESPN-Star Sports and also looked after the revenue duties for CNBC-TV 18 and CNBC Awaaz.

Sharma said, “It’s a privilege to take on this role and work with NewsX. The team here has turned the channel into a home for refreshingly different content in a cluttered news space. The channel is undergoing very positive changes and it will be exciting to be part of this process.”

NewsX’s officials confirmed the news and also added, “Monjit comes with a wide experience of handling sales functions at some of the biggest media brands in the country. He brings with him a rich mix of working on both established brands and start-up environments. We are pleased to have him on board.”