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Tag: Sony Pix

  • Sania Mirza gets set to ‘bond’ on Sony Pix

    Sania Mirza gets set to ‘bond’ on Sony Pix

    MUMBAI:  ‘The name is Bond, James Bond’ is one of Hollywood’s most iconic dialogues, and so has been the Bond franchise. Not surprisingly, it has collected $ 4.1 billion at the box office and still counting. And while the property has been showcased time and again on English movie channels, Sony Pix has taken a step ahead and roped in tennis player Sania Mirza, who launched the franchise as a trainer for the channel’s Pix School of BONDing.

     

    Explaining the initiative to showcase the 50 year old property, Sony Pix and AXN EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik says that in order to sustain Bond’s relevance the channel wanted to create a disruptive and differentiated viewer proposition. “While Bond is synonymous with gadgets, gizmos and girls, these three are transient and keep changing throughout the movies. But the most consistent part is the evergreen Bond attitude. We, therefore, decided to come up with a campaign that would be able to grab attention,” he adds. The campaign is primarily targeted towards the younger audiences.

     

    The channel deliberated for three months before conceptualising the campaign and roped in Mirza for her iconic personality, her resonance with young audiences and the fact that she is a self confessed die-hard James Bond fan.

     

    It wanted to portray Bond’s attitude and desirability through the eyes of a woman. As a trainer at the Pix School, Mirza will be seen giving tips on how men should woo their way to a woman’s heart. Starting on 22 November, the 23 Bond titles will be shown for the next 12 weeks (three months) every Saturday at 7 pm and 9 pm. The tennis ace will be providing nine to 12 lessons, each of one to two minute duration. These capsules will be showcased during the telecast of the movies.

     

    To promote the campaign, three TV promos have been shot at the Filmistan Studio by an in-house team. These are being promoted on all channels of the MSM network. Short snippets like The 23 Bond Villains of All Time and 23 Best Bond Cars of all Time have also been created. Bond memes are being circulated on WhatsApp. A six-city print campaign has been launched where publications are running contests wherein winners will be able to meet Mirza in person. 

     

    Pix marketing vice president Neville Bastawalla talking about the marketing campaign says, “This is the biggest ever campaign done in the English category. We currently have a 12 per cent engagement rate on social media versus our nearest rival which has a five per cent engagement rate. We, therefore, through digital contests and the live chats wanted to leverage our fans with that of Mirza’s.”

     

    Pix has 47.9k followers on Twitter while Mirza has 2.13 million. On Facebook Mirza’s official page currently has 7,698,051 likes while Pix has 2,155,451.

     

    Micromax has come on board as the presenting sponsor. Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 is the powered by sponsor while the associate sponsors are Quikr, Titan Skinn, 99acres.com, Nutrilite by Amway and Crizal by Essilor.

     

    Yagnik says that with the campaign he expects a jump of 20 to 30 per cent in viewership for the channel, which has seen a growth of 25 per cent in the category for this year, so far.

     

    The 23 Bond films that will be showcased are Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun,The Spy who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, AView To A Kill, The Living Daylights, License to Kill, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

  • AXN welcomes crime fighters this November

    AXN welcomes crime fighters this November

    MUMBAI: This November, AXN has introduced two popular shows, Blue Bloods and Elementary. The channel is bringing one of America’s top 10 drama series Blue Bloods to India from 24 November at 9 pm from Monday to Thursday and the latest season of Elementary with Sherlock who is promising to thrill viewers with his incredible deduction crime solving techniques every Friday from 7 November at 10 pm which is closer to US airings.

     

    Elementary offers a fresh take on the famous British detective Sherlock Holmes, who is now living in New York after drug rehabilitation played by Jonny Lee Miller, the star from the film Trainspotting. Lucy Liu of Charlie’s Angels fame plays the character of Dr. Watson. After the death of her patient in London, Dr. Watson’s license is revoked and she is forced to accompany Sherlock to New York as a sober companion by detective’s rich father. Elementary season three, promises to bring some fresh twists and turns as Sherlock Holmes gets a new apprentice and Joan Watson has a new boyfriend.

     

    The saying a family that eats together, stays together could not be more accurate for ‘Blue Bloods’ Reagan family. The three legendary generations of Irish American family, has been serving under American judiciary system on different positions as police officers and acclaimed attorney. Though each one of them have a different style of achieving justice, unanimous integrity is what brings them together and also pulls them apart at the same time. The tight-knit family drama has won BMI TV Award 2013 and Prism Award 2014 and will air every Monday to Thursday at 9pm from 24 November.  

     

     

    Commenting on the same, Sony Pix and AXN India executive vice president Saurabh Yagnik said “This season, Elementary will get more gripping than ever before and we hope to get a bigger and better response from our viewers. As for Blue Bloods, it is an entertaining family drama and we hope to expand our viewer base with the innovative content that the show has to offer. Though the show is in its fifth season in US, we are giving our audiences an opportunity to watch Tom Selleck return to TV as the patriarch of a clan where crime fighting is the family business from the very first season”.

     

    Watch Blue Bloods starting 24 November, Monday to Thursday at 9 pm and the latest season of Elementary premiering on 7 November, every Friday at 10 pm

  • Witness the power of an undisputed crime eliminator ‘Robocop’

    Witness the power of an undisputed crime eliminator ‘Robocop’

    MUMBAI: Make way for the Ultimate Shiny reboot of the classic, future-shocker with Joel Kinnaman as the critically wounded Detroit detective who is rebuilt by the global OmniCorp as a crime-fighting cyborg. Experience an enthralling evening of action packed entertainment as SONY PIX premiers the legendary ‘Robocop’ airing Sunday, 19th October at 1 PM and 9 PM with a simulcast on AXN.
     
    Witness the cult classic in a new age futuristic film packed with special effects and robot technology. Set in the year 2028, director José Padilha’s Robocop, revolves around a world where mega-multinational OmniCorp headed by ruthless CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) has become the US military’s major contractor. Over in the Middle East, its soldier drones and heavy artillery units are helping to enforce the peace. Back home, its advanced robotics department is helping injured soldiers to walk again. But despite their best efforts, there’s one area of business they haven’t yet cracked… securing America’s own streets.
     
    With US citizens unwilling to accept a police force made up of faceless robots, Sellars devises an audacious solution to fuse a real cop with an artificial body. Enter Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), a principled young detective left mortally wounded after a brutal assassination attempt. OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer but despite OmniCorp’s attempts to control their new ‘product, Murphy isn’t quite ready to play the puppet. Just like the original, the struggle between man and machine forms the backbone of this futuristic action packed film.
     
     
    So do not miss out on non-stop action, premiering 19th Oct, 1 PM and 9 PM on SONY PIX and AXN

  • Chrome Data: English News gains most in week 40

    Chrome Data: English News gains most in week 40

    MUMBAI: English news in the eight metros gained the most opportunity to see (OTS) collated by Chrome Data Analytics and Media for the week 40.

    The genre grew by 1.5 per cent wherein Times Now continued its reign with 85.0 per cent OTS. Hindi movies and Music in the Hindi speaking market (HSM) shared the second position with 0.3 per cent. In the Hindi movies genre, Max was at number one position with 97.1 per cent OTS, whereas in the Music genre, 9XM remained on top with 88.1 per cent OTS.

    English Entertainment in the eight metros witnessed a significant drop of 10.3 per cent. AXN with 67.8 per cent OTS gained in the most in the category. English movies in the eight metros came in second and saw a drop of 4.1 per cent. Pix lead the chart with 74.6 per cent OTS.

    Infotainment channels across India saw a fall of 2.7 per cent. Discovery topped in the category with 86.5 per cent OTS. 

  • Sylvester Stallone’s game-changing Rocky Series back to back on Sony PIX

    Sylvester Stallone’s game-changing Rocky Series back to back on Sony PIX

    MUMBAI: Stay Charged up and Stay Amazed as SONY PIX brings to you an action packed Saturday with Rocky PIXATHON.  A bonanza of all the six Rocky films, Rocky, Rocky I, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V and Rocky Balboa starting 8.00 AM throughout the day only on India’s leading Hollywood movie channel SONY PIX.

     

    Witness the role that defined Sylvester Stallone’s career, tune in to catch ‘Rocky’ at 8.00 am followed by  Rocky II at 10.30 am , where he is seen struggling with his family life after his bout with Apollo Creed. Watch him regain his fighting spirit through a big rematch in Rocky III at 1.00 pm.

     

    Revenge never felt so well, Rocky comes to the heart of Russia for 15 pile-driving boxing rounds of vengeance in Rocky IV at 3.15 pm.  Reluctantly retired from boxing and back from riches to rags, Rocky takes on a new protégé who betrays him in Rocky V at 5.15 pm.  The Rocky saga comes to a close with Rocky Balboa at 7.30 pm which witnesses the low-key narrative detailing Rocky Balboa’s (Sylvester Stallone) post-boxing existence and, eventually, his decision to step into the ring one last time. Tune in and don’t miss a hero that inspires every generation.

     

    So do not miss out an entire day packed with non-stop action with the Rocky PIXathon on 6th Sept, 8.00 AM onwards  only on SONY PIX.

  • 1 pm weekend slot, the second primetime for English movie channels

    1 pm weekend slot, the second primetime for English movie channels

    MUMBAI: No one will disagree that at 1pm in the afternoon, the TV remote is controlled by housewives. But on weekends comes an added dilemma. Joining the fray for the remote are her children, husband and in laws all tuning in to watch their favourite movies or shows at the same time. In the ensuing melee are English movie channels that are all smiles as the 1 pm slot, particularly during the weekends has seen an increase in viewership.

     

    “The 1 pm slot today is the most important slot after the evening primetime as it garners the second highest viewership after the 9pm slot,” informs Romedy Now and Movies Now content head Mansi Shrivastav. The channel believes it is a potential target for repeats of previous night’s blockbuster movies. Earlier titles include X-Men: The Last Stand and Ghost Rider-The Spirit of Venegence.

     

    Similar thoughts are echoed by Star India English cluster general manager Kevin Vaz who says that the genre is heavily consumed at this time with Star Movies scraping a 21 per cent relative share. Knowing the slot’s potential, Star Movies had introduced it as a ‘one break movie time’ band to give the viewer a theatre like experience.

     

    Out of the entire day, the afternoon band contributes nearly 25 per cent of the viewership to the English movie genre, claims Sony Pix and AXN EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik. “The 1pm slot is the second biggest day part for Sony Pix and majority of the viewership comes from younger demographics,” he says. This has come from premieres such as Skyfall, Hobbit, Captain Philips, Hobbit 2, Grown Ups 2 and MIB 3.

     

    Most channels show repeat telecast on weekdays while weekends are reserved for big  premieres.

     

    However, Turner International India English Entertainment south Asia senior director and network head Dhawal Katkar feels that weekday mornings and afternoons are emerging as the new favourite amongst youngsters for its two channels WB and HBO. Whereas, the genre itself has been witnessing a drop in primetime viewership for the entire week, he adds. HBO’s afternoon lineup includes GI Joe: Retaliation, The Hangover 3, Jack Reacher, The Great Gatsby and Star Trek: Into Darkness while WB’s premieres include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Due Date, Spiderman, Suckerpunch.

     

    However, channels strictly ensure that adult movies are not repeated in the afternoon. While a movie shown at night may have adult content, the same cannot be shown in the afternoon due to children being present in the viewing audience.

     

    According to media planners, a 10 second ad slot for the 1pm slot movie could command rates in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 4000 in the weekday with a 10 to 15 per cent rise on the weekends.

     

    Maxus managing partner north and east region Navin Khemka says, “Brands are keen to invest at this spot due to the increasing number of premieres and it draws kids and teenagers as well.” The weekend slot is heavy on content he adds.

     

    Another media planner quipped that the weekday spot is picked by women centric brands such as FMCGs and online shopping portals so this time should be more sharply targeted. However Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan informs, “1pm slot is not a high viewership slot, rather viewership starts picking up post 2pm.”

     

    While media planners vary on the role the 1pm weekend spot plays, they all agree that it helps garner added viewership in a very fragmented segment.

  • ‘Captain Phillips’ to premiere on Sony Pix on 27 July

    ‘Captain Phillips’ to premiere on Sony Pix on 27 July

    MUMBAI: Sony PIX, India’s leading English Movie channel, invites you to watch the Indian television premiere of the award winning biographic movie, ‘CAPTAIN PHILLIPS’ on Sunday 27th July 1pm and 9pm only on Sony PIX.

     

    Captain Phillips is an examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. When the Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (played by two time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks), and his crew spot pirates approaching, they alert the authorities and try to fend them off. But with no security or guns on board, they’re soon overtaken.The head pirate, Muse (played by Barkhad Abdi), takes over the ship and declares himself captain.Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillip’s unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Catch the high seas drama, inspired from real-life events on 27th July at 1pm & 9pm only on Sony PIX.

     

    Tune in to watch the Oscar nominated drama; ‘CAPTAIN PHILLIPS’ on 27th July 1pm and 9pm only on Sony PIX

     

  • Sony Pix goes big on social media and promotions

    Sony Pix goes big on social media and promotions

    MUMBAI: In the genre of English movies in India, nine players have been vying aggressively for a larger market share and online presence. One amongst these nine is Sony Pix. Read on about its efforts which include innovative micro properties on Facebook and giving out ‘money can’t buy merchandise.’

     

    The channel has been following a three point strategy since 2012. Sony Pix and AXN EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik explains, “We began by investing in quality content. We then wanted to build a stronger perception and thirdly we wanted to innovate to break the clutter.” 

     

    Firstly, the channel invested in content by tying up with MGM. It bought the Bond franchise for three years including Sky Fall. Along the way, Pix had a makeover in late 2013 changing its previous tagline ‘Hollywood is Here’ to its current one ‘Stay Amazed’. The identity was unveiled with the world premiere of Skyfall in October 2013.

     

    It also premiered Men in Black 3 and The Amazing Spider Man. During the MIB3 premiere, Pix had launched an anti-alien day, where the channel said that eliminating various kinds of aliens from society was the need of the hour. Hash tags were displayed on the TV screen during the premiere, encouraging people to tweet. At that time, Yagnik had said that the initiative had trended through the day at number one and two in India and worldwide at number four. Similarly, with The Amazing Spiderman, Pix pitched the campaign around the amazing people in every person’s life, creating a web of amazing characters and stars.

     

    Earlier, the channel had also created ‘Premiere PIXathon’ where four back to back movies were premiered on a single day. “We chose movies that had four big stars, or spoke about Hollywood’s four big stars and what makes them click with the audience, four big cricketers and their achievements, and with this, we used the message of the ‘power of four’ for our big Premiere Pixathon,” Yagnik had said at that time.

     

    For 2014, the lineup includes Captain Phillips, The Hobbit: Desolation of the Smaug, The Amazing Spider Man 2 and Hercules.

     

    Next, to build a stronger perception, the channel started ‘Pix Premiere Nights’ on Facebook to give viewers an opportunity to watch a movie a day before it is actually released in India. Winners are chosen on the basis of a contest. In all, 2,200 winners across 10 cities will be provided passes to watch a mega movie on 11 screens. To facilitate the winner’s attendance, a special helpdesk has been set up. So far the contest has been held for Robocop, Spiderman 2 and The Hobbit.  Next in line is The Expendables 3. As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com, one such initiative could cost the channel anywhere between Rs 2-3 crore.

     

    Pix, which has more than two million followers on Facebook, according to Yagnik, decided to break from the clutter by creating micro properties on Facebook like: ‘Legendary Monday’ which has inspiring stories about celebrities; ‘Thoughtful Tuesday’ that is all about celebrity quotes; ‘Pixonomic Wednesday’ has box office collection facts while ‘Desi Thursday’ is a clash between Bollywood and Hollywood. ‘Superhero Friday’ includes all about action heroes while ‘Saturday Talks’ is about famous movie dialogues. The week culminates with ‘Gizmo Sunday’ which is all about gadgets.

     

    The channel plans to announce breaking news about Hollywood through the re-launch of its animated character ‘Notty Pixy’ on Facebook. “She is a gossip reporter who provides Hollywood news first in India,” Yagnik says. He flips a well bound book to showcase a list of Hollywood stars, reporters, movies, events and websites that are the “sources” for ‘Notty Pixy’s’ news.

     

    How has the three point strategy helped Pix?

    Revealing TAM data, the channel says that during the first quarter (April 14 to June 14) Star Movies stood first with 19.80 per cent market share while Pix followed closely at the number two position with 19.30 per cent share. The difference was just 0.50 per cent. However, in the same quarter during the primetime slot, Sony Pix led the charts with a market share of 23.6 per cent with Star Movies a distant second having a market share of 17.90 per cent (TAM Market: All India 1 Mn+ TG CS 15+AB).

     

    On Facebook, Pix has been leading the number one spot with 11.68 per cent engagement rate. Engagement includes likes, comments, shares and number of fans. In the second place is Movies Now with a 4.55 per cent engagement rate. Star Movies India and HBO India follow next with engagement rates of 3.35 per cent and 1.07 per cent respectively. Tonic Media is the digital agency that looks after these activities for Pix.

     

    Sharing details about future plans of the channel, Yagnik says that the channel will provide its audience with ‘money can’t buy merchandise’. For example, viewers can win the blue t-shirt worn by Tom Hanks for the film Captain Phillips, which will be premiered on 27 July. Yagnik adds that the t-shirt comes with a certificate of authenticity. Soon thereafter, the blood stained shirt and tie worn by Jamie Foxx in the movie White House Down is up for grabs.

     

    Yagnik revealed that Pix has been seeing revenue growth upwards of 25 per cent and is now available in HD on platforms like Dish TV, Hathway, Fastway and in Cable.

     

    According to Maxus managing partner north and east region Navin Khemka “the channel is trying to use innovative ways to capture audiences. By giving out exclusive merchandises it will attract audiences who will participate in a genre that is fragmented. They key objective is to build loyalty for the channel and therefore is a good strategy.”

  • Sony Six banks on FIFA finale to reach viewership target

    Sony Six banks on FIFA finale to reach viewership target

    MUMBAI: This Sunday, 13 July, the biggest sporting event FIFA 2014 World Cup will crown its ultimate champions: Germany or Argentina. Sony Six, which bet big on FIFA to churn out viewership claims that the game has garnered them good TVTs.

     

    The World Cup has also been a money spinner in terms of ad rates for the games. It can be noted that for the initial matches the ad rate for a ten second slot was selling for Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh. But now the figure has doubled. “The ad rates for a 10 second slot for the last four matches were sold for Rs 5 lakh ,” says MSM president Rohit Gupta. But according to some media planners the sum quoted is too high and marketers would end up paying between Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.

     

    Sony Six business head Prasana Krishnan says, “The football story in India has been pretty good for our channel. It has been a driver for growth in terms of viewership. The singular prime time slot of telecasting games at 9:30 pm has paid well.”

     

    For the audiences in CS male 15+ years category, Sony Six had 605 TVTs, Sony Aath had 209 TVTs, Sony Pix had 85 TVTs and combined the three channels had a combined total of 899 TVTs. For the West Bengal market, (CS male 15+ years) Six had 218 TVTs, Aath had 203 TVTs, Pix had 27 TVTs and the combined TVTs were 448. According to the channel, its TG mostly lies in the CS 15+ category.

     

    In terms of reach (in 000s), for CS 4+ years at an all India level, Six had a reach of 43,968; Aath 9,816; Pix 5,350 and combined reach of 50,184. Though Krishnan had expected Six’s reach to be 125 million during this FIFA World Cup, he is yet optimistic about the final. “The World Cup is not yet over, we expect the total number to increase,” he says. Giving viewers a local flavor through Bengali commentary on Aath and the resultant viewership numbers is validation of their strategy being a success, Krishnan added.

     

    According to TAM data sourced from the channel for week 16 to week 26 (13 April to 5 July 2014) Six has been placed number one for 11 weeks now. Krishnan adds “It is a pointer for the future. In the next five years many international titles like UEFA Euro 2016 and FIFA World Cup 2018 will help our channel immensely. The time zone for FIFA will be more favorable this time for our telecast to the Indian audiences as FIFA will be held in Russia.”

    The male and female ratio in terms of viewership for this FIFA World cup has been 67 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. Compared to the FIFA World Cup 2010, female viewership has grown.

    When questioned which has been the best performing market for Sony Six so far Krishnan says, “No prizes for guessing. It has been West Bengal followed by Kerala, Mumbai, Chennai and Assam.”

    But what is Six’s strategy once FIFA ends? “We have a few properties lined up already. The Caribbean Premier League took off on 11 July and later in the year we will be focusing on World Kabaddi League and Champions Tennis League while NBA JAM is set to hit the ground in September 2014,” Krishnan says proudly.

     

    It seems like the channel is all set for the year. Meanwhile, it’s time to relax and enjoy the finale of FIFA World Cup 2014.

  • Chrome Data: Religious genre gain the most

    Chrome Data: Religious genre gain the most

    MUMBAI: Chrome Data Analytics & Media has released the opportunity to see (OTS) data for week 19. As per the report, the highest gainer for the week was Religious channels in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM).

     

    Aastha channel continued its reign on the genre with 97.9 OTS while the genre overall jumped 0.6 per cent.

     

    English News channels in the eight metros came in second with a minute difference of 0.1 per cent, taking its reach up by 0.5 per cent. Times Now, once again, topped with 88.5 per cent OTS.

     

    Next came in Hindi News channels in the HSM with 0.3 per cent rise. ABP News with 93.9 per cent OTS was the topper in the genre.

     

    Hindi GECs saw a minor rise of 0.1 per cent in the HSM with DD National on top with 97.6 per cent OTS.

     

    As for the bottom four genres, Sports across India fell 0.5 per cent. Ten Sports scored the most with 77.6 OTS.

     

    English Entertainment channels and English Movie channels in the eight metros fell 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively. AXN with 72.5 per cent and Pix with 76.3 per cent OTS topped their respective genres.

     

    Music in the HSM saw a drop of 0.2 per cent with Mix topping the charts with 88.7 per cent OTS.