Exclusive | Experience 'Not So Ordinary Weekend' on AXN: MSM's Yagnik!

Looking at the growing demand of new and fresh content in the English Movie and GEC space, AXN from Multi Screen Media’s bouquet has recently signed a multi-year content deal with CBS Studios International. The new deal gives AXN access to all content distributed by CBS, including the exclusive rights to air some of CBS’s biggest existing television series, like Hawaii Five-0 and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as the rights to all new shows produced by CBS Television Studios.

Adgully caught up with Saurabh Yagnik, English Cluster Head Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd to know more on the deal, programming and content plans and more.

Speaking about the partnership, he said, “Well, there was no second thought to ‘why CBS’ as they have one of the deepest and richest libraries of 17000 hours of content and some of the most watched shows which we too shall have in our kitty. With access to their shows we will also have an access to their deep libraries on the whole.”

If one may notice, during the last couple of years brand AXN was playing low in a lot of ways, however, things changed in the last one year with renewed approach to content, marketing and positioning. Sharing his thoughts, Yagnik said, “There was a transition period of bringing the business in to India and getting it managed locally. We believe local management of the business is always better as you would connect better with the audiences and it makes decision making more agile in terms of how one reacts to the market as well”.

New Shows and programming strategies:
There will be new shows launched like Extant starring Halle Berry and from Amblin Television - a mystery thriller; Penny Dreadful starring Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green with some of literature’s most famous characters – including Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray and iconic figures from the novel Dracula. Apart from that there will be latest seasons of Team Wolf and Falling Skies. Interestingly all the above mentioned properties are weekend properties, Extant and Penny Dreadful will be aired on Friday and Saturday (respectively) at 10.00 pm and Team Wolf and Falling Skies on Friday and Saturday (respectively) 11.00 pm.

Explaining further he said, “If you look at our category, the barriers to consumption are familiarity. People are not familiar with shows. Also there lies a big difference in the way the shows are created and produced in India viz-a-viz US. So, while in India you have one show airing everyday or every week on the same time-slot, in US it is very different as one show comes on a time-slot once in a week. So we have to keep up that way hence it is important to make the viewers familiar about the shows and their pattern.”

AXN currently also has an ‘Advertiser Funded Program’ in association with Hafele called the ‘Homemade’, where, Yagnik said, the channel has tried to, in the form of contest etc, integrated the brand and leveraged engagement opportunities though social media etc (‘Kitchen Selfies’). “We keep talking to advertisers for AFP’s and we shall be scaling that vertical as well; since I believe it is good as people are looking for propositions which are strong enough in terms of the fitment of their brand value with ours”, he added.

Yagnik also mentions that with the deal with CBS, the channel is also looking a mini-series format, along with seasoned shows from AXN’s menu like The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance etc. As informed by him, AXN would put about 15-20 hours of content each week, leading up to a humongous total of about 1000 hours of content through the year. “In terms of a content mix between – reality, snacky, movies, old shows, latest shows – I think we have the widest offering to our audiences. So diversity and brand recall are, in my opinion, the biggest strengths of the channel and we shall continue to leverage these two strengths in the following months”, he stated.

Strengthening the Weekend-Programming slot with ‘Not-So-Ordinary-Weekends’:
Yagnik states that the reason behind strengthening the weekend slot is simple – AXN wants to offer something different every weekend keeping in mind the changing moods of youngsters. “Today young people want to do something different every weekend and hence we thought of catering to their demands the way they need. The proposition that we have brought in here is come and face the ‘Not So Ordinary Weekend’ on the channel”, he added.

Marketing Push:
With the philosophy of experiencing and airing ‘Not So Ordinary Weekends’ the channel has devised a huge marketing push which will be seen on all MSM channels. Explaining further he said, “There will be a 16 day campaign which will be establishing our philosophy and understanding behind ‘Not So Ordinary Weekend’. There will be a huge push on social media, static media and high-duty campaign on MSM channels.” 

Ad-rate and advertiser response:
Joining hands with CBS and investing in other content acquisitions, the channel is surely in for expensive deals. So will this influence the AXN’s ad-rates in the months that follow? “AXN has an inventory cap that we comply with and we sell our inventory. While increasing ad-rates is always an intention, it is an on-going endeavour. Having said that, this may not happen on the back of only this, properties of such scale are understandably premium properties sold at premium rates”, responded Yagnik.

He went on to state that E-commerce as a category is coming across in a very big way, along with instant messenger services, male grooming categories - like Philips Pro-Skin Advance Trimmer etc. “These are some of the sponsors that are increasingly coming onto the channel; other than the main-stay category like FMCG etc. I believe for such advertisers it makes a lot of sense to come aboard AXN as it is the TG they too would want to talk to”, he added.

2014 Line-up:
This year’s line-up has shows including CSI: Cyber, a spin-off of the hit CSI franchise focused on the Cyber Crime Division of the FBI, and NCIS: New Orleans, a spin-off of the popular NCIS procedural set in the Big Easy. Other new CBS dramas include Madam Secretary, which stars Téa Leoni as the newly appointed Secretary of State, and Scorpion, about an eccentric genius and his team of brilliant misfits who help protect against high-tech threats of the modern age.“Along with these new dishes, AXN’s menu will also offer old favourites like new seasons of The Voice and So You Think You Can Dance. Also our viewers will get a cross connection of sorts, within the MSM English network with the simulcast of the film Hobbit on AXN and Sony Pix and we look at more such opportunities in the near future. All in all, the keys points for AXN is building familiarity with our shows and keeping our viewers engaged all the by leveraging a very strong content library that we posses”, he concluded. [By Aanchal kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli]