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Tag: Netflix

  • Understanding the Netflix-Sony Pictures-WWE tangle

    Understanding the Netflix-Sony Pictures-WWE tangle

    MUMBAI: If this does come true, it would be good news for wrestling fans. There have been rumours in the market that it’s quite possible that the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) programmes might shift to Netflix in India come next year. Timelines are not clear but sports rights watchers  are guesstimating that  this could happen sometime beginning next fiscal, that is from April 2025.

    Netflix had in January 2024 agreed to pay $500 million per year ($5 billion for 10 years with an option to renew for another 10 or to exit after five years) to TKO Holdings the parent of WWE, for the rights to air the show Raw in the US, the UK, Canada and Latin America with other territories being  added in the future. In every other market, Netflix has the rights to  air Raw and the other two weekly shows, SmackDown and NXT, plus all of its major showcases, including WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

    This includes India. However, the India rights have been with Ten Sports which has been under the Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) umbrella for nearly 10 years  and the two together have had the rights for around two decades. WWE shows have been the top rated programmes on Ten Sports channels and have been their staple programming ever since.

    In the,  US the current deal gets activated in 2025 and Netflix will air the first episode of Raw on n 6 January 2025. The Intuit Dome in California will be the location for the hosting of the debut episode. The rights vested with Comcast’s USA Network until October 2024, but the WWE gave it a short extension till the end of the year. It is one of USA Network’s top shows, drawing an audience of 17.5 million over the course of a year. Then, 82 per cent of Americans say they’ve heard of WWE. As of June 2024, WWE had 90 million fans in the US, according to market research firm SSRS/Luker.  To top this all, Raw which made its debut in 1993 has a back catalogue of 1,600 plus episodes. 

    Ditto is its popularity in India, though the number of fans may be in a much higher zone. Estimates  are that the WWE  and its fighters have  a large fanbase – the largest fan base outside of the US  – in India it has ballooned to in excess of 100 million.   As they say in India everything happens at scale, ditto with TV shows too. In fact, it is highly popular amongst young kids and the youth, Around five years ago, the WWE had estimated that its shows get about 335 million unique viewers annually in India with almost 40 per cent  of them being women. This is what encourage SPNI’s acquisition team to acquire its rights from TKO Holdings from 2020 to 2025.  It turned out to be a good decision as the WWE programming block is one of the top earning properties on Ten Sports and draws loyal audiences. And of course advertisers. 

    With the rights deal with SPNI  coming to an end in India in 2025, and Netflix acquiring the programming rights for the  world for the next 10 years, it’s quite logical to assume that SPNI may find it difficult to re-negotiate its renewal of rights with TKO Holdings for the Indian market. For Netflix is sure to use the WWE as a subscription driver and one major way it can do that is by keeping the matches exclusive on its streaming service and keep out SPNI from showing them on television.  

    “WWE is sports entertainment. So it’s as close to our core as you can get in terms of sports storytelling,” Netflix’s  Ted Sarandos had said during one of the investors calls. “We are in the sports business, but we’re in the part that we bring the most value to, which is the drama of sport.”

    In all probability, Netflix will also develop shoulder programming which could be documentaries or dramatised series  around professional wrestling. 

    The coming months will tell us which way the cookie will tumble – Sony Pictures Networks  or Netflix in India. Until then we can get back to our TV screens, if you are a WWE hardcore fan, and watch the coming matches on satellite and cable TV.

  • Knorr & Netflix set off a dare-to-slurp-ramen-noodles craze ahead of the Squid Game 2 launch

    Knorr & Netflix set off a dare-to-slurp-ramen-noodles craze ahead of the Squid Game 2 launch

    MUMBAI: Fans of the hit Korean global hit Squid Game and of Korean cuisine have a double delight coming their way. Not only will they get to the watch its second season when it hits Netflix on 26 December they will  also get to slurp up their Korean noodles while watching the show. 

    Food major Knorr – part of Hindustan Unilever- has partnered  with Netflix to launch a special edition Korean ramen range inspired by the show. This includes Squid Game-themed packs in three flavors: Jjajangmyeon, Spicy Kimchi, and Gochujang Chicken. 

    A 90-second film has been launched featuring masked guards and a front man challenging a group of young participants to finish a bowl of spicy Korean ramen in 60 seconds. If they fail, the frontman warns, they will be eliminated.  The participants dig into their bowls and slurp away to their soul’s delight, but they also find it spicy.  The red light-green light doll, Young-hee, makes a cameo and looks around. As the seconds tick down, one of them drops down a trap door as he has been tardy in his eating. The others hurry to finish their bowls. As the stop clock stops, those who don’t finish, drop down trapdoors. 

    And the front man removes his mask to reveal himself to be Gulshan Grover mouthing his famous dialogue: “Front man. Nooo baaaad maaan.”

    Throughout the film, the background music and chants are inspired from the Squid Games series, making for an eerie and thrilling film. It ends with a voice over challenging audiences watching the film to dare to enter the dare to slurp challenge. 
     

    Influencers

    Consumers can do so  by picking up a special Knorr Squid Game pack which features designs from the series and includes a QR code for the Dare-to-Slurp game, offering them a chance to win a trip to Seoul and attend a Squid Game fan event.

    The film – which also has a 40 second version – is being blasted across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and heard on Spotify. On YouTube, it had generated 10 million views in just nine days.

    An extensive out of home advertising campaign has been planned. 

    As of the night of 19 December, key opinion leaders (read influencers) had been posting videos about them taking part in the challenge.  Knorr’s digital campaign features 45 of them including Orry, Urfi, Falguni Pathak, and Yashraj Mukhate, taking on the Dare to Slurp challenge. Underground rappers Big Deal, Yungsta, Yoki, and Seige are also creating exclusive raps for the campaign. 

  • MIP London announces David Beckham and Bela Bajaria as headliners

    MIP London announces David Beckham and Bela Bajaria as headliners

    MUMBAI: MIP London, the  international content and networking market (23-27 February 2025) from RX Global, is putting all its energy behind  making its  inaugural edition an even greater success. 

    It has announced that Netflix  chief content officer Bela Bajaria and football club owner, entrepreneur, co-founder of content studio, Studio 99 and global brand ambassador David Beckham will be on stage  at the IET Savoy Place in a special in conversation fireside chat. 

    “We promised the TV industry to deliver big moments and future-facing conversations at Mip London next February,” said director of MIP London and MIPCOM Cannes Lucy Smith .“Bela and David are hugely impactful figures culturally and globally each with great influence and unique perspectives on creating content and connecting with audiences and both with significant international platforms. It’s a privilege to welcome them both to the MIP stage in London.” 

    Collaborators on the Emmy award-winning documentary series Beckham, and with Studio 99 now in production on the highly anticipated forthcoming series following the story behind Victoria Beckham’s fashion business, the pair will share the main MIP London stage, and respective insights, on Tuesday 25 February. 

    Hosted at the Savoy Hotel and the IET London, MIP London is a new multi-genre international marketplace with an embedded future-facing conference that aims to deliver more business and opportunities during a key content week in the global TV industry calendar.

     

  • Netflix looks to spread Squid Game 2 fandom, partners with Duolingo for Korean language course

    Netflix looks to spread Squid Game 2 fandom, partners with Duolingo for Korean language course

    MUMBAI: K-Dramas, K-Pop are all the rage amongst India’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha. And there’s a fascination with all things Korean whether makeup or food. or Korean wear And to tap into that demand, mobile learning platform  Duolingo  has partnered with Netflix’s global sensation Squid Game to promote Korean language learning through a unique and immersive campaign.

    Titled Learn Korean or Else, the initiative blends Duolingo’s signature humour with the high-stakes intensity of the hit series, inspiring fans to commit to their Korean lessons just in time for the highly anticipated premiere of Squid Game Season 2 on 26 December 2024. 

    As part of the campaign, Duolingo has updated its Korean course to include phrases and keywords inspired by the show, deepening fans’ connection to its cultural and linguistic nuances.

    As per the press release Duolingo is adding over 40 keywords and phrases from Squid Game to its Korean course, enabling learners to connect even more closely with the series. 

    By learning Korean, Squid Game fans can appreciate the renowned series on an entirely new level, experiencing dialogue, expressions, and cultural context in ways only possible through understanding the language.

    “We saw a 40 per cent increase in Korean learners just after Squid Game Season 1, underscoring the powerful connection between entertainment, culture, and language learning,” said  Duolingo CMO Manu Orssaud. “This campaign allows us to continue that momentum in a way only Duolingo can—with humour, intensity, and a bit of chaos! We hope fans will accept Duo’s challenge to learn Korean and immerse themselves in the experience.”

    “Great stories can come from anywhere, and last year, about 13 per cent of hours viewed on Netflix in the US were non-English titles — with Korean, Spanish, and Japanese stories attracting the biggest audiences. Embracing the authenticity of these local stories is important to us. Duolingo was the perfect partner for Squid Game Season 2 because not only did we see fans gravitate toward the app to learn Korean after Season 1, but also as a brand, they were willing to go bold with us,” said Magno Herran, Vice President of Partner & Brand Marketing at Netflix. “We discovered a lot of shared traits between Duo the Owl and the Pink Guards — very determined and menacing. So we made it official and gave Duo a Pink Guard uniform and ultimately created something we know fans will love and talk about, cheering A-ssa! in celebration.”

    The partnership leverages Duolingo’s beloved mascot, Duo the Owl, who has taken on the role of a Squid Game Pink Guard. Like the series’ challenging environment, Duo isn’t afraid to raise the stakes. Whether chasing down users in videos or appearing at fan events and on billboards, Duo reminds fans to learn Korean or “face the consequences”.

    Campaign Highlights

    ●    Creative Series: A suspenseful teaser video introduces Duo as a Pink Guard, setting the stage for the Learn Korean or Else message, which will also run on Netflix’s ad-supported plan. Following the teaser, an extended music video, directed by Warren Fu (Dua Lipa’s Levitating and Megan thee Stallion feat. RM’s Neva Play) and choreographed by award-winning dancer and choreographer Sean Bankhead, features Duo leading a high-energy dance routine with guards in a K-pop remix of Squid Game’s Pink Guards as they humorously chase a learner who forgot to complete their Korean lesson. The cinematic videos will air across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

    ●    “Korean or Get Eaten”: Netflix’s music lab team created a K-pop remix of the ominous song, Pink Guards, now available on Spotify. The track Korean or Get Eaten, uses a naming convention Duolingo employs for its music tracks to playfully threaten learners to do their lessons (e.g. Japanese or Broken Knees, Spanish or Vanish). The lyrics, performed in both English and Korean, spotlight the recognisable Red Light, and Green Light game played in Squid Game and feature hidden threats in Korean, only understandable if you did your Korean lesson (e.g. 살아 남아야지 Don’t you wanna survive? 빨리 외워 “Hurry up and memorize it). The track supports the campaign’s dance challenge on social media, encouraging fans to engage with Korean culture through a fun, viral music experience.

    ●    TikTok Interactive Game Filter: An exclusive TikTok filter, inspired by the show’s Red Light, Green Light game, lets users test their Korean skills with voice-activated challenges featuring Duo as Squid Game’s menacing doll in the iconic pink suit.

    ●    Out-of-Home Stunts: In true Squid Game style, Duolingo and Netflix are taking over Koreatown billboards in LA, and NYC, with cryptic Korean messages challenging viewers to “learn Korean to stay safe”. In an unforgettable live stunt, Duo and his Pink Guards will hack Netflix’s iconic Sunset Boulevard marquee billboard, replacing the English words with Korean, in their menacing attempt to influence fans to learn the language.

    As fans eagerly await Squid Game Season 2, Duolingo is set to bring them closer to the action than ever before—through language. With viral social content, immersive fan interactions, and innovative language learning challenges, Duolingo’s Learn Korean or Else campaign will be impossible to ignore.

  • YouTube crosses a billion hours of viewing on TV daily globally in 2024

    YouTube crosses a billion hours of viewing on TV daily globally in 2024

    MUMBAI: Hopefully, this will settle the argument once and for all.  It’s not Amazon Prime, it’s not Netflix, it’s actually YouTube which is dominating the living room. The latest end of the year report released by the Alphabet-owned streaming platform shows that globally viewers streamed over a billion hours of content on their TVs daily. A billion, yes, please , don’t fall of your chair, it was a billion hours, that makes it about 365 billion hours of viewing in 2024 on TV screens for YouTube. This was revealed by senior director product management YouTube on TV Kurt Wilms in a blog post on the YouTube site.

    Content that viewers traditionally watch on TV, like sports and kids programs, gained momentum on YouTube this year, says a blog rounding up YouTube’s viewership trends. Watch time of sports content, YouTube says grew 30 per cent year over year, as users visited it  to get their line up of clips, highlights, and post-game interviews, all in one place. That is going to sky rocket in the coming year if creators take to Watch With which it has begun piloting. Watch With is a service which allows influencers to provide live commentary, analysis, and real time reactions to games and events, for their audience. It transforms  creators into sports casters.

    YouTube says podcast watching is growing rapidly on TVs.  Viewers watched over 400M hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices. They’ve been tuning into podcasts similarly to how one would tune into a late-night talk show. The lines between audio-only podcasts and videos have blurred, and more creators are evolving to a multimedia storytelling approach to deepen connection with their audiences on YouTube, says the streamer. 

    The surge in living room viewership is no accident. The share of videos uploaded to YouTube in 4K is up by over 35 per cent year over year, as creators prioritize high-quality viewing experiences that truly shine on TV screens. And that investment is paying off: the number of creators making a majority of their revenue from TV is up more than 30 per cent year over year.

    To further fuel this growth and support creators, YouTube recently made it even easier for viewers to subscribe to their favorite channels while watching on TV by adding the subscribe button directly to the video player. Early tests of this streamlined button show more than a 40 per cent increase in net subscribers through TVs.

    Here’s more: families continued to watch together on TVs in 2024. After rolling out an option to easily switch between YouTube and YouTube Kids profiles on TV directly from the YouTube app last year, parents had expressed that they wanted better control. And the streamer is gearing up to introduce a new parent code feature that gives parents the power to prevent kids from accessing content that might not be age-appropriate. 

    (The picture is courtesy the Hathway Cable and Datacom annual report)

  • Swati Shetty’s & Grant Kessman’s prodco Bridge7 acquires Slumdog Millionaire sequel rights

    Swati Shetty’s & Grant Kessman’s prodco Bridge7 acquires Slumdog Millionaire sequel rights

    MUMBAI: For those who know Swati Shetty, they will always commend her for her never-say-die spirit. The Los Angeles-based former Netflix director international originals & acquisitions and  producer of Umrika has got together with former CAA agent Grant Kessman to set up a production outfit Birdge7.

    And amongst the first transactions it has done is acquiring the film sequel and television series rights of the Oscar winning, Danny Boyle-directed Celador produced Slumdog Millionaire.

    This is what the duo had to say after striking the deal with Celador: “Some stories stay with us long after the credits roll and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is undoubtedly one of them. Its narrative is universal, cutting across cultural and geograpahical lines and it embodies the kind of stories we love — ones that bridge entertainment with profound human experiences. What makes ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ extraordinary is not only its cinematic brilliance — spanning storytelling, music and its remarkable accolades, but also how it brought together talent from across the world to make a global winning team.”

    Celador International chairman Paul Smith expressed his confidence in the duo acquiring the rights and said the studio was looking forward to working with Bridge7. 
     

  • Yamaha Motor teams up with Netflix for sci-fi anime Tokyo Override

    Yamaha Motor teams up with Netflix for sci-fi anime Tokyo Override

    Mumbai: Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announced it has collaborated with Netflix, one of the world’s leading entertainment services, on the production of Tokyo Override, an original anime streamed globally, exclusively on Netflix on 21 November 2024.

    Tokyo Override is set in Tokyo 100 years in the future where AI has been integrated into daily life and all aspects of urban living is automated. In this sci-fi anime full of motorcycle action, existing and originally designed motorcycles roar through the streets of Tokyo.

    Yamaha Motor’s collaboration with Netflix for this project began when we received their request for permission to select and use Yamaha motorcycles in the anime. We cooperated by providing 3D data, images, and sound recordings of the YZF-R1, superbike, and the VMAX, muscle cruiser. In addition to these iconic models, hoping that we could attract the audience to become interested in the world of motorcycles, we also assisted in building the anime’s world of 100 years in the future, offering ideas for mobility, designing the race machine concept “Y/AI”, and providing other support such as supervising the sound effects.

    The YZF-R1, VMAX, and Y/AI are all featured in the anime series. We also created a full-scale concept model of the Y/AI, to be world premiered at the Motor Expo 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand running from Nov 29 to Dec 10.

  • Netflix India promotes Vibha Chopra

    Netflix India promotes Vibha Chopra

    MUMBAI: Recently, she has been posting on Linkedin only when she gets a promotion. Two years ago, Vibha Chopra had put out an update on the professional site when she moved on from Amazon Prime Video to Netflix as head of Hindi film licensing in India.

    On 13 November,  once again she used the platform to  announce that she had been promoted in the Ted Sarandos-headed organisation. “Stoked to share that I am starting my new position as director – Hindi film licensing at Netflix, India,” she stated on Linkedin.

    Chopra has come a long way from the time she was heading global syndication and international film distribution at Zee Entertainment for two years. And prior to that the fitness enthusiast headed Zee Film Studios International in Mumbai for four years. Before that Chopra spent a good three years at Zee America as vice-president brand solutions and special projects. 
     

  • Asia Pacific region leads in Netflix Q3 2024 results

    Asia Pacific region leads in Netflix Q3 2024 results

    MUMBAI: The Asia Pacific region is shining for Netflix. At least as far as net subscribers additions  (net paid adds) are concerned.  The region at 2.28 million net adds in Q3 calendar year 2024 was the topmost contributor. It was followed by  2.17 million net adds in Europe, middle east and Africa (EMEA) and 0.69 million net adds  in the US and Canada.  Latin America saw a shaving off of 0.07 million net adds during the period. This was revealed by the global streaming giant in its  latest financial performance report on Thursday in the US. 

    Overall, that totted up to five million net paid sub adds in the latest quarter, giving the streamer 282.7 million subscribers globally. It also helped increase its revenue to $9.8 billion  – a 15 per cent rise over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Net income also showed improved to $2.3 billion.  

    The company said it was working on  improving its  product/market fit in APAC and it had a strong local content slate in Japan, Korea, Thailand and India in Q3. As a result, its  revenue growth rate in APAC (19 per cent growth year on year) led all regions.  The  revenue growth figures for the other regions were: US & Canada and EMEA  (16 per cent – 10 per cent growth in average paid members and five per cent growth in average revenue per member) and Latin America (nine per cent). 

    “..(We are)…increasingly seeing a steady drumbeat of hit titles from countries around the world,” said Netflix co-CEO, president & director Gregory Peters, during an earnings call with investment analysts. “…you’ve got Japan. You’ve got Korea. You’ve got Thailand. You’ve got India. This represents, again, that decade-plus investment in those creative communities, working with local storytellers there and making sure that they have the capability to tell their stories in a compelling way. So that’s super exciting and we expect to see more of that.”

    Among the shows and films from APAC  which did well in the quarter included: Tokyo Swindlers  from Japan (10.5 million views) and Culinary Class Wars from South Korea (11.0 million views),  Officer Black Belt  (South Korea, 32.8 million views), and Maharaja (India, 22.6 million views).

    Netflix revealed that it streams around 200 billion hours of content yearly and that engagement continues to be healthy at about two hours per day per paid membership on average, despite the impact of paid sharing.  That is only expected to go up with the push into live streaming of the WWE  for 52 weeks, the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight (15 November), and the NFL in December.

    Peters said that “it’s worth noting that our share of viewership in even our biggest countries is still less than 10 per cent of TV time. So we look at this as there’s a huge opportunity to grow that share by.. invest (ing) more in our slate, continue (ing) to improve the variety and quality of our offering.”

    Additionally, it is continuing its push into the ad based free subscription service which grew 35 per cent in term of number viewers getting into it. This is being done through refining the tech in its back end platform , increasing the number of viewers signng up for it and coming up with new formats for advertising.

    On the content front , Netflix  Ted Sarandos said that Q3 had some big hits: Perfect Couple, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and Nobody Wants This.

    He added that “we’re really excited about our Q4 slate because it’s filled with great big titles from the U.S., from Brazil, from Korea, from the U.K., from Germany…. Carry-On, Piano Lesson, Spellbound, Six Triple Eight, Emilia Pérez.  So when we look forward into 2025 and beyond, we want to build on that success So our 2025 slate, I look at that as another ambitious step towards this push to make us even greater for our members. 
    So looking into 2025, you’ve got new seasons of our biggest shows: Wednesday, Squid Games, Stranger Things, on top of new shows from Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy, a new Knives Out film from Ryan Johnson, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, even the return of Happy Gilmore. So we could not be more excited about where we sit right now and where we’re heading.”

     

  • SPNI hires Nimisha Pandey for top programing job at Sony-SAB

    SPNI hires Nimisha Pandey for top programing job at Sony-SAB

    MUMBAI; It’s homecoming for television creative professional Nimisha Pandey. Market sources say that she is set to join Sony Entertainment Television’s profitable Sony SAB channel as its programming head.

    For those not in the know, Nimisha had joined Multiscreen Media (as Sony was known then) for two years as an executive producer between 2004-2006 at the start of her career after completing her course in direction from the Film & Television Institute of India in Pune.

    It may be recalled that the long-serving NP Singh had retired as Sony Pictures Network India CEO a couple of months ago; he was replaced by content star Gaurav Banerjee. Nimisha is one of GB’s (as he is known) first unconfirmed senior creative hires since taking over.

    Nimisha was last the chief content head, originals at Zee5 for almost four years. Prior to that she was director international originals for nearly two years at global streaming powerhouse Netflix’s India ops Before that she held the position of head of content at Alt Balaji for three years.

    She has  had year-long-project-led stints at various production houses right from Balaji Telefilms, 4 Lions Films, Fireworks, Directors Kut, Sphere Origin (for three years),  and Shreya Entertainment over the years.

    We tried to reach out to the normally effervescent and bubbly Nimisha but she was unavailable for comment. Neither was anyone from Sony; it, being a Sunday.

    With the buzz being extremely strong, Indiantelevision.com decided to go ahead and report her appointment.

    With 20 years’ varied experience under her belt producing and commissioning shows, Nimisha does seem like the right candidate for the job.