Diversity is at the core of AXN’s channel proposition: Saurabh Yagnik

AXN India recently refreshed its weekend line-up with four new shows as part of its ‘Fresh From the Weekend’ slot. While two are brand new shows – ‘Bull’ and ‘MacGyver’, the other two are new seasons of cult shows – ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Elementary’.

Speaking on the refreshed line-up, Saurabh Yagnik, Executive Vice-President and Business Head, English Entertainment Cluster, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), said, “At AXN, our aim is to offer a wide range of shows across genres that provide mind rush, edge-of-the-seat entertainment and desirable characters. ‘Fresh From The US’ is one such property that gives all three. It also helps in building the English GEC category – Getting to watch new shows in good quality on their TV sets certainly discourages viewers from downloading content. It’s a win-win situation.” 

Adgully spoke to Saurabh Yagnik to know more about the content plans of AXN.

Please tell us about the diversity of shows under AXN’s ‘Fresh From The US’ preposition.

Diversity is across the channel and not just in the ‘Fresh From The US’ proposition. So, in terms of genre, what we stand for is articulated in our tagline: ‘Live R.E.D’, which stands for Reality, Entertainment and Drama. Fresh From The US is typically operating in the drama space. So, we have four slots on Saturdays and Sundays, which means four slots in total between 10 pm and 12 pm and new shows from at point of time, you will always see newer shows from the US playing in that slot. In addition to the weekend, we also air the latest season of ‘The Voice’, thus we also have some reality show in our line-up. That’s how we have planned the weekend. Diversity is at the core of our channel and on weekends, we now have new shows playing. 

How has AXN’s growth been in the last 6-12 months?

If you look at what we have done in the last one year is that we have relaunched the channel and you can say that a consolidation takes over the period of time, it doesn’t happen overnight. Therefore, we have done a lot of consumer studies and questionnaires to find out how the people have responded to the repositioning, and based on that we are revising the positioning which encapsulates the new look of channel, a new positioning, a new identification of the gratification that people get from the channel, the characters and show association with the channel. And I am happy to tell you that on all these parameters there have been distinct and very clear understanding on what we are seeking to communicate – both with the viewers and clients. So they have taken our re-branding in a much more positive way. Whenever we have spoken to viewers and clients, they understand what we are seeking to communicate.

During the launch of Sony Le Plex you had said that English content is mainly for the Urban and Elite people. But what about the huge audience base in the Tier 2 and 3 cities, who want to watch fresh and original English language content?

The content that we are putting up on our channel is not meant just for the metro cities, it is aimed at the Tier 2 and 3 cities as well. Thus, we go to these cities as per our distribution strategies, where we make ourselves available for people to consume in small towns. The second thing is that we leverage cross-promotions on our channel as well as sports and other channels, because then there is a big geography that you are catering to. For example, there are consumers who like sports, so we promote our shows on sports channels. Besides, we also do a lot of targeted social media activity, which includes these cities as key markets. However, when it comes to local activation or using the off air medium, then it becomes economically unviable to go to so many towns. Therefore, we have a mix of strategy for on-air and off-air promotions, and in the case of reaching out to the smaller towns, it is most done on-air.

 

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