Post NTO, Zee English cluster’s HD subscription has gone up: Kartik Mahadev

Racing ahead of the world and even the US, viewers in India can now watch Hollywood blockbusters sooner than ever before. &flix, in association with Sony Pictures Television, brings viewers a step closer to the latest Hollywood blockbusters. Come October 20, 2019, the channel is set to redefine television viewing by bringing World Television Premieres of the biggest movies before the world and within a few months of their theatrical releases. Being the only channel to reduce the window for premieres on television by half, &flix seeks to revolutionise movie viewing experience with back-to-back World Television Premieres every month.

With the window for television premiere for other (non-US) markets being close to a year, &flix has shortened the window significantly by just five months. Kickstarting with ‘MIB: International’ on October 20, 2019, the series of premieres reaching India before the world also include some of the biggest titles such as ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, ‘Brightburn’, ‘Angry Birds 2’, ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (2019) and ‘Zombieland 2’.

Adgully spoke to Amit Shah, Cluster Head, West, North & Premium Channels, ZEEL, and Kartik Mahadev, Business Head, English Cluster, ZEEL, to know more about World Television Premiere as a strategy for the channel, First-output deal with Sony Pictures Television, The thought behind the launch campaign #FlixFirstBeforeAmerica and more.

What is the strategy behind introducing an initiative like World Television Premiere?
Kartik Mahadev: &flix has just completed one year and has grown very well in a relatively short period of time. In fact, &flixHD is now amongst the top 3 channels in the English movie category. It’s growth has come on the back of a very strong proposition which is built on movie premieres. Over the last year we have delivered the most number of premieres by any channel in the English movie category. What we are looking to do now is address a very clear consumer challenge, which is the time that consumers need to wait for a movie to come on television after the theatrical release. Typically, that time is around 9-12 months. We have addressed this by bringing down that wait period by half. It’s a long term proposition that we want to build. There’s a very exciting calendar of new movies that we are looking at in this year.

What is your promotion strategy for this new offering?
Amit Shah: &flixHD will premiere movies as part of their World Television Premiere library on Sundays at dual primetime slots – in the afternoon and evening. Along with Sony, &flix has existing content deals with other studios, which include Disney, PVR and Lionsgate, among others. The launch of ‘Flix First World Television Premiere’ will see a robust 360-degree campaign approach across platforms like DTH, Digital, TV and Trade. The new campaign, #FlixFirstBeforeAmerica, has been launched to announce the disruptive content offering, and to celebrate the world television premieres available on Indian television, before the world. There’s a lot of engagement plan around this campaign on all our social handles. We are also putting out some native content around this campaign.

What was the thought behind the campaign - #FlixFirstBeforeAmerica?
Kartik Mahadev: There were several ways in which we could have spoken about World Television Premiere. It is a concept that the audience understands well. Hence, we wanted to break this campaign in the most exciting manner possible as we looked to build awareness for this. Our creative agency Publicis came up with the idea to tell the story from America’s perspective. Historically, Hollywood blockbuster films have always aired on American television first. But now, India has pulled off this coup of sorts, much to the astonishment of America – that is really where the creative thought comes from. Therefore, the campaign thought of #FlixFirstBeforeAmerica. The campaign also highlights how the wait period has come down, which is exciting news for movie lovers.

Who are the sponsors onboard for this initiative?
Kartik Mahadev: This is a long-term consumer proposition and not really a property as such. Having said that, there will of course be sponsors on individual movie premieres and on the channels and the properties that we curate. We have seen over 40 per cent growth in our ad insertions on &flix HD over the last year. World Television Premiere is essentially focused on solving that one consumer challenge – which is improving their movie watching experience. Besides, it will also help us drive subscription of our English genre.

How will you curate the films for World Television Premiere?
Kartik Mahadev: 'Sony Pictures Television' is our first output partner, which means that all the Sony movies will come to &flix first. The line-up includes the latest and widely appreciated Hollywood movies such as ‘MIB: International’ (which premiered on Sunday, October 20, 2019), ‘Brightburn’, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, ‘Angry Birds 2’, ‘Zombieland 2’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (2019) and ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, among others, which viewers will be able to witness before the world with its dual premieres. We are confident that World Television Premiere will expand our consumption, and that is something that we are working alongside with Sony to deliver a better experience.

What kind of an impact has TRAI’s NTO had on niche channels, especially those in the English genre?
Kartik Mahadev: There has of course been a big change in the industry post-NTO. From a consumer perspective, now our audience needs to purchase the channels based on how they consume the channels. Thus, there’s a behaviour change that is required. It is going to take a bit of time for the audience to embrace this change, but we are seeing some movement forward. What’s heartening to see is that our HD subscription has gone up, and given that we are among the top 3 viewership brand within HD, that’s even more great news for us because then it is also meaningful for advertisers, premium brands to associate with the channel focused at a HD household.

To cite some important data points from the KPMG Report 2019, subscription revenue is likely to see an accelerated growth in FY20 to Rs 547 billion, growing by 18 per cent from Rs 463 billion in FY19 after recovering from the after-effects of the new regulations.

The share of broadcasters in the end consumer subscription revenues increased from approximately 33 per cent to approximately 40-45 per cent for DTH operators, while for cable operators, the same increased from approximately 20-25 per cent to approximately 30-35 per cent. This sharing of revenues across the TV value chain augurs well for broadcasters in the long run.

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