ITV

Tag: English entertainment channels

  • Chrome data: Hindi news channels gain maximum

    Chrome data: Hindi news channels gain maximum

    MUMBAI: The week 14 brought good news for the Hindi news channels as per the opportunity to see (OTS) data collated by Chrome Data Analytics and Media.

     

    In the Hindi speaking market (HSM), the genre saw a jump of 3 per cent. ABP News was on top with 93.8 per cent OTS. The genre was followed by Hindi movies in the HSM which saw a 1.5 per cent increase and Star Gold gaining 94.9 per cent OTS.

     

    Hindi GECs in the HSM and Kids genre across India both gained 1.1 per cent. DD National with 97.1 per cent OTS ruled the charts in the Hindi GEC genre whereas Cartoon Network continued its run on the top with 81.9 per cent OTS.

     

    In the bottom four, the maximum fall was witnessed by English entertainment channels in the eight metros. The genre fell 7.4 per cent; however, AXN ranked number one with 70.9 per cent OTS.

     

    There was a minor difference between Business news and English movies genre. In the eight metros, Business channels dropped 5.9 per cent while English movies saw a drop of 5.8 per cent. Zee Business with 79.9 per cent OTS and Pix with 77 per cent OTS topped their respective genres.

     

    Sports channels across India too fell 3.7 per cent with Ten Sports continuing its run on the top with 75.4 per cent OTS.

  • “Romedy Now is content agnostic!”

    “Romedy Now is content agnostic!”

    MUMBAI: With niche, infotainment channels getting more adventurous in terms of content, it may no longer surprise viewers to catch ‘The Walking Dead’ on Fox Traveller or ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ on National Geographic Channel. Joining this group is Romedy Now, which at the time of its launch aired romantic comedies but will now be getting into all sorts of content; series, fiction or reality.

     

    “Romedy Now is content agnostic and not necessarily film-centric,” Times Television Network CEO English Entertainment Channels, Ajay Trigunayat, told indiantelevision.com during a recent interview. “Romedy Now can play series, movies; fiction, non-fiction and short-formats. We are open to anything, and we have a programming slate that will unveil itself in the next few months. It is very radical from the way TV approaches business. We aim to make the consumer a part of our scheme. If something falls under one’s wants, needs and desires, one will consume it. In our consumer segmentation, we found that the consumer is still the same consumer.”

     

    But weren’t ‘love and laughter’ the original peg of the channel? Trigunayat explained that since Romedy Now was the first of its kind, they decided to latch on to the two most basic human values to make the channel a unique destination. “The two basic values like love and laughter have become latent. They have become ignored aspects of life. When everyone is chasing a professional life, it is affecting their relationships with their friends and family and their own health. Love and laughter has a unique connection. If a girl was given a choice between a rich man and a witty man, she would probably choose the one with a great sense of humour but she will be tempted to choose wealth. It becomes endearing for a viewer to follow such chronicles and love the characters and laugh at them, and indirectly live their lives. ‘Love, Laugh, Live’ is not just the tagline of our channel, it is the basic mantra we abide by,” he said.

     

    Trigunayat went on to clarify that even when they first decided to launch Romedy Now, the plan was to start airing series followed by films. “Airing of series and many other content formats was always the blueprint of the channel. Just that series including Witches of East End slated to premiere in the fall, got delayed to January and Friends with Better Lives (FWBL) scheduled to premiere in January got pushed to late March. That’s why the channel had to start with movies and later telecast the proposed series alongside the existing programmes as they went along,” informed Trigunayat.

     

    Romedy Now plans to soon launch two new comedies – 1600 Penn, and Back in the Game – in addition to Kitchen Confidential, Ally McBeal, Witches of East End and FWBL and is in negotiations to acquire new content plus library content.

     

    On the subject of marketing and distribution, Trigunayat said, “Right now, we have two major marketing properties that we are focusing on viz., ‘Sunny Sundays’ and ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ (TGIF). We plan to launch five more similar properties in the next quarter. We are in negotiations with some major television networks, and expect to close the deal by the end of next month.”

     

    When asked about advertisers, Trigunayat said the channel had about 50 clients on board including telecom services like Airtel. “We are a highly premium channel and expect a good return. Across all five channels of the Times Group, we rely heavily on print advertising. When we first started our digital distribution, there were still a few analogues to be dealt with, but they are rapidly declining and digital is growing now. If there is no analogue, there shouldn’t be any carriage fees, ergo we are not paying a carriage fee,” he said.

     

    The total advertising revenue across English movies and English GEC’s is Rs 500 crore with an additional Rs 400 crore coming in as subscription revenue. Going by GroupM and Madison forecasts, the category is expected to garner more than Rs 1,000 crore in FY 15 in advertising, subscription and miscellaneous revenues.

     

    Romedy Now is available with multi system operators (MSOs) like Hathway, DEN, Incable, Manthan in the east and ICC in Pune. It is also available across major DTH operators except Tata Sky. Currently, Romedy Now is concentrating on eight metros and intends to expand in the next 12 to 14 months.

  • I also planned on being a rockstar but destiny had other plans: Ajay Trigunayat

    I also planned on being a rockstar but destiny had other plans: Ajay Trigunayat

    It isn’t often that you get to see a channel head donning a journalist’s hat and interviewing his competitor but we at indiantelevision.com, were treated to this one-of-a-kind interaction between Sony Pix EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik and Times Television Network CEO English entertainment channels Ajay Trigunayat. Excerpts…

    Yagnik: If not the CEO of one of India’s leading television networks, what would you have been doing?

    Trigunayat: As a kid, I was fascinated with sports and always dreamt of being a footballer or a basketball player. But my genes got the better of me as most basketball stars are well over six-and-a-half feet and I am just about five feet seven inches tall. Like most Indians, I too had the option of pursuing either engineering or medicine but started off as a copywriter with a take home of just Rs 500 before landing an opportunity to work for Pepsi in sales for a handsome Rs 5,500. So that’s when I slowly moved into marketing. After college, I was also keen on studying at the Oceanography Institute in Goa.

    Yagnik: But you preferred to make bigger waves in the television broadcast space.

    Trigunayat: (Chuckles) Yes, I also planned on becoming a rockstar but destiny had other plans.

    Yagnik: We all would have preferred if you had become a rockstar (Both laugh)… I have been told that you are a complete workaholic and apart from work, spend your remaining hours at home with family. But, if and when you do get some free time, where would we find you engaging in some R&R?

    Trigunayat: Yes, I certainly like to be very well organised and plan my weeks well in advance. But, I also do like to relax and take some time off with a couple of my close friends. I have two very close friends in Bandra; thus, out of the roughly four weekends in a month, I end up spending two with them. While I used to hang out at the bar in Marriot, it shut shop a few months ago. Still, I do like to try out new places and prefer scenic landscapes than being in a concrete jungle.

    Yagnik: So, I guess the river is your water hole (laughs). We all know that you have single-handedly developed Movies Now into one of the leading English movie channels, but tell us something about your early days.

    Trigunayat: I literally grew up on the Delhi University campus, as my father was a Professor of Physics at the institute. I did my schooling at St Xavier’s and since it was about 4.5 km from the university campus, I made it a point to cycle down, thus saving on transportation and getting that much extra money to splurge. The high point during school was when the seniors would ask us to rag the incoming senior batch, so it was fun to actually rag boys who were a few years older than us.

    I got an Economics Honours from Kirori Mal College and was really active in sports like football and basketball. I was also very active in one-act theatre and really thought would get into the performing arts but destiny had other plans.

    Yagnik: Where did you go to watch movies while growing up? Name a few of your yesteryear as well as current favourites.

    Trigunayat: In the early days, we didn’t have much of Hollywood films coming to India, but I still managed to catch one or two movies every month at the Chanakya Theatre in Delhi. I grew up on Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor movies that were regularly telecast on Doordarshan over weekends.

    In recent times, I have enjoyed feel good flicks like 3 Idiots along with alternative cinema like Gangs of Wasseypur and Gulaal which really speak volumes about the kind of movies our filmmakers are capable of nowadays. I also enjoy old flicks like Deewar, Hum and Rang Birangi and some of Govinda’s masala movies like Deewana Mastana and Coolie No.1.

    Yagnik: Speaking of movies, how can we miss out on the women from Bollywood? So, who among the current lot do you find attractive?

    Trigunayat: (Chuckles) There was a joke going around in college when Qurbani released that in the song Kya Dekhte Ho… Surat Tumhari Feroz Khan lies to Zeenat Aman as she is attired in a swim-suit.

    But from the current crop of actresses, I believe Katrina Kaif is the most gorgeous and she looked stunning in the song sequence Kamli from Dhoom 3. I would like to mention here that a couple of younger actresses like Parineeti Chopra and Alia Bhatt have been doing some brilliant work on the silver screen and I am just looking forward to seeing Highway.

    Yagnik: What about Hollywood… Your favourite movies, directors, actors…

    Trigunayat: I simply love the work of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron; they are magicians on celluloid and can capture the essence of their scripts very well on the big screen. I also love some of the work done by Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Bay and Christopher Nolan. I like action movies and thrillers and movies with drama and this is reflected in my choice of favourite directors.

    Among the actors, though Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are considered all-time greats, I strongly believe Christian Bale has raised the bar a few notches with the kind of roles he has done in the recent past. I mean his transformation from a person suffering from insomnia in The Machinist (2004) to the larger-than-life character of Batman to a retired boxer training his brother to become a professional in The Fighter (2010) to putting on weight for his Oscar-nominated role in American Hustle (2013). I also like Matthew McConaughey and he’s really improved a lot with movies like The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club.

    Yagnik: Let’s talk a little shop now; please share your thoughts on the breakaway success of Movies Now, which has become a case study of sorts for the industry.

    Trigunayat: I will be honest; though we never imagined the channel to be so successful, we did a lot of planning to be accepted. We launched in 2010 and were confident that we would be the only channel in the space to leverage the high definition content that we had in our library. We couldn’t manage to raise funds when we were planning to launch the channel around 2008 because of the market crash in September and October and then again, due to the escalating oil prices in the Middle East.

    We were looking for a Joint Venture and had the option of either doing it with the Times Group or 9X Media. We went ahead with the Times Group, taking into consideration its rock-solid reputation and large network. I had personal money going into the venture as well. On the content side, we struck deals with NBCUniversal, 20th Century Fox Film Corp, DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures. The deal signed with NBC Universal allowed us to have the rights for all Spielberg movies post 1997 and then with the deal with DreamWorks, we got Spielberg movies prior to 1997 as well. We further consolidated our library by inking deals with MGM and signing content from foreign studios to get martial arts movies on Movies Now.

    Yagnik: You’ve now become quite the lady’s man with the launch of Romedy Now. How’s the channel coming along?

    Trigunayat: Well, brevity is the soul of wit, and with Romedy Now, we wanted to say that a woman likes two things in her partner – he should be humorous and romantic. The response to the channel has really been phenomenal, but the matrix could have changed had we also got better placement and push in distribution as currently, we are available in only 65 per cent of the market and are yet to bring on board some of our best content.

    We have grown in our reach as well; from a 0.25 per cent reach in week 1, we have moved up to 3.6 per cent in the market, beating competition like Star World, AXN, Zee Café and Comedy Central.    

    Yagnik: Finally, which is your favourite holiday destination?

    Trigunayat: There is no favourite destination as such, but I love to travel to new places and recently, I’ve been thinking of offbeat destinations like Iceland. More than anything else, let me tell you that I will be heading to Brazil in July as I have managed to get tickets for one quarter-final, one semi-final and the final of the FIFA World Cup 2014.

    Yagnik: And before we end this conversation, please could you tell the readers what you told me in private that Sony Pix is your favourite English movie channel destination (both laugh)…

  • Chrome Data: No toppers in week six

    Chrome Data: No toppers in week six

    MUMBAI: The opportunity to see (OTS) collated by Chrome Data Analytics & Media is out for week six, but doesn’t look too good.

     

    The past week didn’t see any genre in the top category which could mean that the reach of the genre hasn’t really increased.

     

    Even the bottom four that had the English movie as well as English entertainment channels saw a drop of 4.9 per cent in the eight metros.

     

    Pix gained the highest OTS in the movie genre with 73.6 per cent, while AXN continued to rule the roost in the entertainment genre with 67.4 per cent OTS.

     

    The sports genre across India saw a dip of 3.5 per cent. Ten Sports gained the highest OTS with 73.6 per cent.

     

    Business news genre was at the bottom in the eight metros with 2.8 per cent fall. CNBC Awaaz scored the most OTS with 76.2 per cent.

  • All new shows on Star this year

    All new shows on Star this year

    MUMBAI: Star India is all set to flag off the new year with a host of new shows on its English entertainment channels, Star World and Star World Premiere.

     

    Starting this month, Star World Premiere, will air the all-new American cyber-themed action-adventure series, Intelligence, which stars Josh Holloway as Gabriel Vaughn, a hi-tech intelligence operative with a supercomputer microchip lodged in his brain.

     

    A new-age super soldier, Gabriel can hack into any data centre and access critical intelligence to protect the US from its enemies. Intelligence also stars Marg Helgenberger as head of the government cyber security agency supporting Gabriel and Meghan Ory as Secret Service Agent.

     

    Come February, the channel is expected to telecast a new comedy-drama titled Rake, which sees Greg Kinnear as criminal defence lawyer Keegan Deane whose personal problems threaten to turn his entire world upside down.

     

    Apart from the new shows, the latest season of American Horror Story: Coven will also air on Star World Premiere. Having debuted in October last year, the anthology series features different characters and locations, including a haunted house, a mental asylum and a witch coven. The upcoming season revolves round themes such as oppression, witchcraft and voodoo. With actors the likes of Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange, the series has won both critical and commercial acclaim.

     

    Not to be left behind, Star World will telecast a new comedy-drama Bunheads starring Sutton Foster as Michelle Simms, a Las Vegas showgirl who gets married on impulse, only to end up in small town California, where she teaches ballet alongside her mother-in-law, Fanny Flowers, reprised by Kelly Bishop.

     

    Also airing on the channel will be the first and second seasons of Suburgatory, a series that follows the life of George Altman (Jeremy Sisto), a single dad from New York who moves upstate to the suburbs in search of a better life for his daughter Tessa (Jane Levy). This apart, Star World will telecast new seasons of old favourites like Melissa & Joey starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence as the main protagonists.

     

    Exults Star India general manager English channels Kevin Vaz: “We’ve got some great shows scheduled to air in the New Year. We will be showing new seasons of a few old favorites as well as some brand new shows. 2014 is going to see some excellent television content from the Star Network.”

     

    While Star World has been around for long now, Star World Premiere, which was launched only in September last year, has already taken TV viewers by storm with its dynamic content.

     

    The channel is a pioneering initiative by the Star Network to present brand new content to Indian audiences with the latest episodes of their favorite shows broadcasting simultaneously in the US.  So, viewers can watch all the popular shows as they air in the west, without having to wait for the latest episodes.

  • News channels record increase in OTS in metros

    News channels record increase in OTS in metros

    MUMBAI: Connectivity of a television channel is something that every executive is concerned about in the industry – whether in the media or broadcast sector or cable TV. And pioneering this data and analytics information is Delhi-based Chrome Data & Analytics which keeps a tab on around 73 million TV homes nationally in analogue cable TV, digital cable TV and DTH.

     

    We take a look at what the opportunity to see (OTS) was for various television genres and channels in week 48 of the year. It appears it was a week of the news channels, both business and general English news, as far as the eight metros are concerned.

     

    The reach of English news channels grew by 1.5 per cent and business news channels witnessed a 1.1 per cent gain. However, the English entertainment channels in the eight metros witnessed a drop of 0.3 per cent while the English movie channels saw a 0.6 per cent rise.

     

    Tarun Tejpal’s alleged misconduct with a journalist colleague in an elevator in a five star hotel in Goa, raised not only eyebrows of most urban Indians but also their interest as they tuned into news channels to catch up on the latest with the iconoclastic senior scribe.

     

    Hindi GECs in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM) saw a drop of 0.9 per cent, while Hindi movies and Hindi news dropped by 0.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively. Only the religious channels saw a 1.4 per cent increase in HSM.

     

    The all India performance of sports and infotainment channels dipped in week 48. While sports recorded a one per cent drop, infotainment witnessed 2.6 per cent shaving respectively. Only the position of the kids’ channels in the all India market remained stable.

     

    The top Hindi GEC channel in HSM was Star Plus with a 97.8 per cent OTS. Zee TV and Colors were not too far behind with 97.4 per cent and 97.3 per cent OTS respectively. Life OK lagged behind in the race with 94.9 per cent OTS.

     

    Amongst the Hindi movie channels in HSM, Star Gold was the biggest gainer with 96.7 per cent OTS, while UTV Movies lagged at 88.8 per cent.

     

    ABP News was the leader in the Hindi News genre with an OTS of 93.2 per cent. And with 88.9 per cent, CNN-IBN was leading in the English news genre in eight metros, while CNBC Awaaz topped in the business news genre.

     

    Undoubtedly, it has been an interesting week for the channels. Let’s wait and watch how things unfold for the channels in the coming week.

  • ‘Our revenue target is to grow upwards of 30%’ : Star India senior VP, GM English Channels Saurabh Yagnik

    ‘Our revenue target is to grow upwards of 30%’ : Star India senior VP, GM English Channels Saurabh Yagnik

    star India is aggressively building a wide portfolio of English entertainment channels. Its aim: to capture specific needs of different viewers.

     

    Backed by a rise in audience share, Star is eyeing a revenue growth of 30 per cent from its English channels.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Ashwin Pinto, Star India senior VP, GM English Channels Saurabh Yagnik talks about the strategy the network has adopted in growing the consumption for English entertainment channels.

     

    Excerpts:

    After Star India started overseeing the operations of the English channels, what has been the difference?
    The English channels got managed in October 2009. That was when we had a transition from Hong Kong to India. We set up a full team to look into content, marketing and positioning of the channels. With our better understanding of the local market conditions and what people watch, we have added value to the viewer. This is reflected in how our category shares have grown.

    Could you elaborate on the growth of these channels, particularly with reference to this year?
    We have seen results coming from the momentum of the things we did last year. We also launched more channels to strengthen the portfolio; HD feeds for Star Movies and Star World were recently launched. We upped the ante for marketing on Fox Crime and FX. We are going about aggressively building a portfolio that caters to specific viewer needs in various ways. We use this to build consumption and grow the share of Star as a network.

    Even in revenues?
    The pace of growth has been fantastic. Our target is to grow upwards of 30 per cent. This is the kind of momentum we are looking at.

    What are the challenges before English channels at this point of time?
    Growing consumption for English content is the biggest challenge; it is also an opportunity. We tackle this by driving the relativity and relevance of content. You are seeing more on-ground led activities for promotions. Last year we aired the Oscars and did a 360 degree campaign. This time we did the James Bond festival and had a 360 degree approach. This helped the viewers relate more. A similar thing was done with ‘Avatar’ to drive awareness of Star Movies and we used Star Plus as well for the film.

     

    We have done local shows on Star World like ‘Koffee With Karan’ to drive viewership. We are also doing localised promotions around shows. For Masterchef Australia, we brought a jury member down here. Among other things a live chat happened which was well received by the audience. We put legs to our promotional strategy to ensure that people find content that is relevant and relatable. Then you intersperse it with aggregator shows like Koffee With Karan. This is how you break barriers for English consumption.
    ‘Primarily, Star World is a destination for Hollywood shows. That is the DNA. All local content will have to be as exclusive and exquisite as Hollywood aspirations. We will be selective and bring in what fits into our criteria of exclusivity ‘

    Do content costs present a challenge to the business model?
    We have been noticing that in some cases there is irrational pricing for content. This might not sustain itself. What gives us comfort is that we have long term strategic relationships with a lot of studios that gives us depth and width of content. While there are short term challenges in terms of costs going up, we managed to mitigate some of those risks through our long term contracts.

    With more players coming in, how is Star Movies fine-tuning its strategy to hold on to its position?
    Star Movies positions itself not just as a destination for movies but as a destination for Hollywood. The programming strategy is about making content relatable and relevant which means having differentiated and sharply focused festivals throughout the year. We have access to the best titles from various studios. The aim is to amplify properties like a ‘Superheroes Festival’ by adopting a multi-pronged approach.

     

    Also, there are a huge amount of online viewers. We will use this to market and talk about our properties.

    Is viewer loyalty growing for this genre or is it still very much title driven?
    Viewership is largely determined by the titles that are placed but the differentiation that Star Movies brings in is through its premieres and sharply crafted festivals. This helps ensure a very sharp and insightful promise and we are able to reach a considerable set of viewers by going beyond just titles.

    Is HD the future for this genre? Do all English movie channels need to move towards it?
    The future will be beyond HD as well and there will be more innovations. The viewership will move towards HD because of the viewership quality. However, we are not stopping at that as Star Movies is always inventing and innovating and will bring in the latest technology for its viewers.

    By when do you expect to breakeven on the HD feeds?
    They are a premium offering. You need an HD STB and an HDTV. We are driven by advertising and subscription. The idea is to breakeven in the second year.

    Tam data shows that Star World has increased its share despite new entrants. What have been the reasons for this?
    A lot has happened on Star World. We started with the stripped format on the weekdays with a sharp promise and focus. This helped grow appointment viewing. We did exclusive, glamorous local shows like Koffee With Karan. This aggregated audiences. Our digital engagement and what we did in the social media space has helped us build a loyal set of viewers. They are excited about watching us.

    Which are the genres that are working the best for you? Sitcoms and crime dramas work very well as does local programming. ‘Masterchef Australia’ is also performing well. The range of shows that do well is broad based.

    What role does localisation play for Star World?
    Primarily, Star World is a destination for Hollywood shows. That is the DNA. All local content will have to be as exclusive and exquisite as Hollywood aspirations. We will be selective and bring in what fits into our criteria of exclusivity. While localisation is important, it is not our backbone.
    Is non primetime becoming important?
    Yes! We see viewership here as well. The scheduling is based on viewership patterns so that we get unduplicated audiences across time bands for various shows. We slot shows based on viewer profile. We run omnibuses of our weekly offerings on the weekend. So people can do a catch up. This allows more viewers to watch us outside primetime as well.

    Could you talk about the increase in marketing innovations?
    There has been a significant step up in this area. For instance when ‘Community’ was launched, people got a customised message explaining the show by star. When we launch shows we talk to people asking them their views and why they want to watch it. We put this as a part of our promotions. We could have stars of a show coming down to India. This is an interesting possibility. On Star World, you have the biggest shows launching.

     

    We are doing a high decibel campaign around ‘Terra Nova’ which is a sci-fi show. The Torrentz property on weekends is to bring shows as close to the US airing date to India. This is how we build Star World as the destination for the best American shows fresh from the US.
    Are you expanding distribution beyond DTH for FX and Fox Crime?
    Digital is the right place. This is where a large part of consumption of English GECs is going to happen. The kind of audience that we target is affluent and will move towards DTH as the viewing experience there is better. That is where people consume more. We believe that digital is the right way to go. We don’t have analogue plans for them.
    Is the English GEC big enough to have channels according to TG and audience profile?
    We have had a different strategy based on our own insights. Star World has a healthy portfolio. Fox Crime is not based on a demographic cut or of the TG; it is based on the fascination that people have for a particular genre. With FX, we looked at catering to the evolved sensibilities of the more discerning viewer. Our strategy is based on viewer behaviour and mindset.
    As more entrants come in, how much of a challenge is fragmentation?
    There is enough penetration but lesser category share. We are the second largest English speaking population in the world. But the share of English GECs is nothing to talk about in relation to that. With more affluence, education and people becoming more global in their mindset, the consumption of English content will only grow. Also disposable incomes are growing and the propensity to consume branded products is the highest in this category.
  • BBC to launch kids, English entertainment channels in India

    BBC to launch kids, English entertainment channels in India

    MUMBAI: The kids and English general entertainment space in India is about to get a tad more crowded. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of UK pubcaster the BBC, has announced that it will be launching two channels in India shortly – preschoolers’ channel CBeebies and BBC Entertainment, offering drama and comedy.

    The launches are part of a global rollout of four new TV channels that will include BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle. BBC Worldwide has stated it also plans a high definition channel in the future. The four channels will be broadcast across all media: linear TV, VoD, mobile and online.

    BBC Entertainment and CBeebies are due to be launched in India first. BBC Entertainment will replace BBC Prime in some countries, initially Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Thailand.

    BBC Worldwide said the expansion of the channels would be decided on a country-by-country basis. As part of its plans to ramp up its channels business globally, BBC Worldwide is setting up regional offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Heading operations in Asia is Christine Leo-McKerrow who has been appointed senior VP for tghe region.

    CBeebies will air in India in Hindi and English and will not carry ads. “We will be setting up an advisory board made up of local/Indian psychologists, doctors, teachers, parents etc to advise us on our programming and ensure we remain relevant and trustworthy,” Darren Childs, the managing director of global channels at BBC Worldwide, has been quoted as saying in a media report.

    In the UK CBeebies targets children below the age of six. CBeebies’ basic aim is to educate and entertain the BBC’s youngest audience. The service provides a range of pre-school programming designed to encourage learning through play for children aged five and under, in a consistently safe environment. For the CBeebies launch in India the channel will have a panel of pyschologists, experts to decide on the programming content. The aim is to ensure relevance and trustworthiness.

    BBC Entertainment, meanwhile, will aim to offer the best of British shows in different genres like comedy, drama and light entertainment.

    Localisation: A report in the UK’s Times says that while initially the plan is to air British shows, the BBC is also looking at generating content from India. It might also look to buy Indian production companies if the business successfully kicks in, the report adds.

    Childs was quoted saying that the company is trying to change how it approaches the international channels business and fit things into a local market perspective rather than push them out from London. He also says that the chanel is close to getting a distribution deal.