'Love & Laughter' in Trigunayat's mind; Launches ROMEDY NOW
The broadcasting space is witnessing a new trend wherein most of the large networks are increasing their bouquet. It could be attributed to digitization as well as the 10+2 adcap threat that looms large. Recently Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) launched a new brand ‘& pictures’, adding to their existing bouquet of channels. Now Times Television Network from the Times Group, is all set to broaden it’s horizons with its latest venture in the English entertainment space. Aptly named ‘Romedy Now’, the channel will showcase romantic and comedy movies from Hollywood and is set for launch within the next 15 days.
Romedy Now catering to all urban, up-scale audiences, both men and women, in the age group of 15-45 years will be available in dual feeds in State-Of-The-Art High Definition (HD) and 5.1 Digital Surround Sound as Romedy Now+ and in Standard Definition as Romedy Now, across all platforms – Cable (both analogue and digital), Satellite, DTH, IPTV and emerging technologies, as Pay services.
Romedy Now, with the brand identity of ‘Love, Laugh, Live’, has been pegged as a ‘one of a kind English entertainment channel with a unique blend of love and laughter’. To blend the concepts of love and laughter, the channel will not only showcase movies, but also series in the romance and comedy genres sourced from across the world. These will also include premium new content, yet to be launched abroad.
Ajay Trigunayat, CEO, English Entertainment Channels, Times Television Network in conversation with Adgully shared about their new initiative Romedy Now, the research conducted prior to the launch, about the brand, pricing and marketing strategies of the channel and more.
Romedy Now is the only channel in the world to bring about a marriage of ’Love & Laughter’ in a seamless manner. It will make women and men laugh and hold-hands, with content that is fresh, original and exciting.
Speaking about the rationale behind choosing the name Romedy Now for the channel, Trigunayat said, “The channel is a confluence of love and laughter so as far as the name is concerned it is used keeping in mind the fact that we are going to play a lot of love and romance hence it is a confluence of two words: romance and comedy combined together.”
He adds, “But the brand identity and brand promise is much larger. The key insight is that in our day to day lives we are neglecting these little moments. We wake up early and go to work hence making a lot of personal sacrifices which play a vital role at times and at the end of the day life is all about love and laughter. So this is a real channel for real people and urban upward masses. People are clearly expressing the fact, according to the research that we did, that there is a latent expression that while they are watching action/adventure movies/shows, horror movies/shows they also want something on romance and comedy hence keeping in mind that need and demand we thought of coming up with Romedy Now.”
Post it’s launch of Movies Now in 2010 the network has launched the new channel based on research conducted by them in the past one year. The English entertainment category in Indian television has grown by an astounding 98 per cent TVT. This includes both the reach of the category and the viewing time spent. With a reach of over 150 million television viewers on a monthly basis which is why it is referred to as ‘Urban Mass’, TTN saw a lot of scope for new players in the English entertainment category and hence the launch of Romedy Now.
In this regard he says, “We changed the game in the English movie category by challenging the status quo with the launch of Movies Now in 2010. Extensive research has revealed that the audience is seeking highly differentiated and personalised content and the identification of this ground-breaking shift in genres and the significant gap between behaviour and need led to the conception of Romedy Now. The qualitative research which was done a year back was conducted by Quantum.”
In terms of look and feel of the channel, Trigunayat avers, “The channel is about joy and happiness and I guess the packaging and the colors go well with that thought.”
On promoting the channel, Trigunayat said, “We are the largest media group in the country. We will utilise the might of the Times Television Network and also the Times Group publications. We will also use radio (Mirchi) and the internet and mobile platforms of Times Internet.” He further added that Times Television Network being one of the largest network they aim to basically reach out to audiences and are doing so with help from within their own network and also sourcing movies on their own and do not see the need for patronization.
Times Television presently reaches about 100 million viewers across the country every month. “I think that is enough to give us a reach of about 20 million viewers for Romedy Now, which is what we are looking for,” says Trigunayat.
“The channel will go live sometime in September. We have more than sufficient content for the first eight months. We will be looking at doing business with everyone. We have the exclusive library of a studio called Regency which is distributed by Monarchy wherein we have 110 titles like Night and Day etc. which will an exclusive content,” he added.
Romedy Now, will not be a female-skewed channel since research reveals that the male audience too evince keen interest in and consume romantic content. Sheth adds that the result of the study indicates that more males watch romantic shows rather than females and the ratio is skewed by 65 : 35!
Trigunayat sharing his views on the pricing said that they are not expecting any revenue initially as they end up paying carriage fees so these prices are still to be filed with TRAI which will take a few years in terms of realizing the potential.
Elaborating further in detail he says, “In terms of both subscription revenues and advertising revenues the English entertainment channels are highly undervalued. We have seen this with Movies Now and when that came in existence the revenue went to 40 percent plus and actually Movies Now was giving double the profits that any other channel was giving before we launched. I want to stress that we never increased the pricing of our channels; so the pricing should be stagnant but inventory is a stocker block. So if we increase the inventory it would be at the expense of viewership now. So I believe the pricing strategy needs to be right.”
He further added, “We are pitching for advertisers and moreover will not be working with only select advertisers. Our philosophies are quite different. We want to provide and offer quality content and channel to our audiences which will lead to the channel’s wealth in the long run. We are the only channel that provides homogenous distribution to 8 metros and we would stay committed to it. We will get the matrix and audience right first and then move on, thus leading to advertisers who will see potential in us.”
Where promoting the brand is concerned the emphasis will be primarily on television and a lot of online. Hence the language they are using becomes a chatter, a talking point, which can go from sms to sms and whatsapp to whatsapp. “So you will see a lot of ‘awesome-joysome’, ‘freehugs’ and ‘happy like pappy’ doing the rounds,” concludes Trigunayat on a cheerful note.
Times Television Network already has a reach in 45 countries. It plans to touch 75 countries by the end of this quarter and add to the 100 million viewers every month within India. The plan for Romedy Now fits in with the broader plan. They hope to launch it in the eight metros initially and then expand to the one million plus towns.
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