Romedy Now attempts to re-visit F.R.I.E.N.D.S?

If you were a 90’s child, you ought to remember the Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Joey and Chandler and their life stories in the cult favorite sitcom series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The US series has managed to stay in the hearts and minds of people across the world for years together posing it as a show that cannot be replaced in any which way! But Romedy Now is gearing up to crack in that psyche. Coming from the Times Television Network the six-month old channel English general entertainment channel is set to bring to India one of the most anticipated shows of the US, 'Friends with Better Lives' (FWBL).

Adgully caught up with Ajay Trigunayat, CEO, English Entertainment Channels, TNN, to know more about the show and the plans at the channel at large.

Friends with Better Lives has been written by F.R.I.E.N.D.S' writer and producer Dana Klein, Speaking about the new show he said, “In last two decades if we see the English GEC space, the biggest show would be FRIENDS and today FWBL is the most highly anticipated show in the US. It will be premiered on CBS channel on March 31 2014 in US at their peak time i.e. 8:30 pm and will replace the show How I Met Your Mother which will have their finale and will be followed by FWBL. In India it will be aired on 1st April 2014 at peak time i.e. 9 p.m. on Romedy Now and the repeat of the show will also be aired through the week at convenient time slots”. The show stars James Van Der Beek, Brooklyn Decker, Zoe Lister-Jones, Rick Donald, Majandra Delfino and Kevin Connolly. The plot of the show essays lives of six friends, all of whom are at different stages of their lives and always think that their friends have a better life than theirs.

Speaking about the marketing and promotion activities that the channel has incorporated for the channel at large, Trigunayat said, “We are starting out on digital and have a separate page dedicated to love and laughter. But mostly our engagement has been on-air through our channels on TNN. We shall ride on our parent company Times of India Publications when it comes to print and supplement it with external media like outdoor. Specifically for FWBL we will also be doing engagement through cinema activities and on digital. On-air and off-air creatives will be done in-house and will be ready by the end of next week.

Elaborating about the on-air packaging he said, “We are very simple when it comes to on air packaging; we do both competitive benchmarking and more than that we do international benchmarking. Our on air packaging and promotion is distinctly better in terms of creative content, finance and marketing directions”.

The channel has also done scheduling trick too. “We have been building FPC in a way so that we can cater to audiences who have different schedules. So, a person who can’t watch it on Monday can watch it on weekend”, he said. Romedy Now has around 50 advertisers on board till date. It is still negotiating with a few for the sponsorship deal for FWBL; however, things are yet to reach its final stage yet. Trigunayat mentioned that the channel is looking at a higher premium for the show and asking for Rs 12000 per 10-seconds.

The channel boasts of holding a significant share of 22% in the English entertainment space. Speaking about the channels distribution plans, he said, “Today we are available across 8 metros and by May- June 2015 we plan to explore ourselves and our footprints would be pan India”.

Unlike other broadcasters who would want to categorize their channel, Trigunayat does not like the channel Romedy Now to be categorised as a movie channel or a GEC channel. He said, “We are content agnostic, where we can air movies or series. If today its fiction, tomorrow may be non-fiction! We are trying to create a destination where consumers can have everything. The myth that ‘content is the king’, is not really true as a consumer is watching everything which is been showed to him/her in a right way, and seeking very fundamental things. Today there are approximately 700 channels, on an average no one can possibly watch more than 70 channels and can actually consume only 5-10 channels in a week’s time. Hence to carve out a space for oneself is very essential and in my opinion, it is the brand identity which matters more than anything else as a consumer will switch to other channel if they do not like what you have to offer!”

Half a year in the business, Romedy Now journey began on September 22nd, 2013. Speaking about the channel’s journey and growing share in the pie, Trigunayat said, “We faced problems of availability and reach in the initial phase. When we started off, our availability was less than 50% and our reach in 1st week was only 0.25%. But today we have a reach of 4.5% and while time spend in English GEC’s is normally 16-17 minutes, we are at 42 minutes! Our reach target is about 7.5 percent so we are getting there gradually. But the key thing is that today we are 966 gross TVT’s and no English GEC’s have ever done that as approximately numbers state that Star World is at 515 TVT’s, AXN at 433, FOX at 400 odd, Zee Café at 320, both Comedy Central and Fox Crime are about 150 odd. We are clearly ahead of the pack and we have 1/3rd of the viewership of the English GEC space, which is almost 30%.

Concluding the conversation Trigunayat mentioned about the new show line-up and special shows for summer season. “We’ve planned a line-up which will be in force between mid May to mid July. Mid April we’ll be finalizing packages and more properties will be developed. FWBL is a strong property for us and so is Ally McBeal, which was launched in January 2014 with Kitchen Confidential. Soon we’ll be launching light hearted sitcoms like 1600 Penn and Back in the game”, he said.

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