Tag: Twentieth Century Fox

Excel Home Videos wins 2 Fox Marketing Awards

MUMBAI: Home entertainment major Excel Home Videos earned two Awards for India at the Twentieth Century Fox Awards for Excellence in Home Entertainment.

This is the first time that an Indian company has received honours from Fox for the home entertainment segment. The company swept two of the four awards for India, including ‘Highest Growth’ and ‘Best Theatrical Synergy”.

The other two awards were won by Hong Kong. The award ceremony held at Bali, Indonesia witnessed nine countries, including South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, among others, competing for top honours.

The award for ‘highest growth’ was for the 67 per cent growth the company achieved in the last fiscal. Excel Home Videos, which owns the largest DVD catalogue in the country and enjoys a retail penetration of over 12,000 retail outlets, attributes the success to its product quality, technical brilliance and innovative marketing. Apart from Fox, Excel also represents other entertainment majors like Walt Disney, MGM, Merchant Ivory, HIT, Shringar, and EA amongst others in India.

The award of ‘Best Theatrical Synergy’ was conferred for the pioneering efforts of the company in successfully using theatrical synergy to promote Home Video Products. Says MN Kapasi, MD, Excel Home Videos, “Merely coinciding the release hasn’t achieved us the feat. The entire effort has been well coordinated with effective pricing, DVD visibility in stores, innovative advertising, among other aspects”. The experiment began with the DVD re-release of the Brad Pitt starrer ‘Fight Club‘ last February. The English DVD did roaring business with the pre-launch hype of the Sohail Khan starrer. The success was later duplicated with a string of Marvel titles including X – Men 1, X – Men 2, X – Men 3, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Elektra, and Daredevil, among others.”

The Awards, in its third year, were presented by Richard Crook, vice president, International Licensees, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

October 1, 2007
Excel videos line up Oscar Film Festival on DVD

MUMBAI: With the 79th Annual Academy Awards around the corner Excel Home Videos in association with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Merchant Ivory Production has launched an Oscar DVD Film Festival.

The fest titled ‘Oscar Fever 2007’ will continue from 22 Feb tol 15 March. It will feature 46 movies including The Sound of Music, Aliens, The French Connection, Gentleman’s Agreement, Titanic, Tora!Tora!Tora!, Braveheart, Sideways, Great Expectations, Miracle On 34th Street, The Abyss, Walk the line, Boys Don’t Cry, The Full Monty, Independence Day, The Longest Day, Moulin Rouge, Mrs DoubtFire, The Omen, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Mary Poppins, Cold Mountain, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pearl Harbor, Dick Tracy and, Howards End.

Says Excel Home Videos managing director M.N Kapasi, “This is the first time in Indian Home Entertainment that multiple Hollywood Studios have come together for a Movie Extravaganza. This is a great opportunity for cinema buffs to expand their collection and also upgrade their VCDs to high end DVDs.”

The Festival will feature a unique reward point system with movies with more Oscars carrying higher points. There are also opportunities for consumers to win free DVDs.

The other movies in the fray include Master & Commander, My Cousin Vinny, Patton, Wall Street, Speed, All that Jazz, Cocoon, Planet Of The Apes, Road To Perdition, The Fly, Hello Dolly, How Green Was My Valley, The Incredibles, Tarzan, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Pocahontas, Colour of Money among others

February 24, 2007
Excel Home Video looks to grow the TV DVD segment

MUMBAI: Earlier this year Excel Home Video entered the television segment. It released the first seasons of Desperate Housewives and Lost.

Encouraged by the response the company is now looking to add more titles to that list.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com this afternoon, Excel Home Video MD MN Kapasi says, “Our focus is only on English shows as those in the SEC A and A+ segments watch them. They can thus afford to buy them. We will be releasing the second seasons of Lost and Desperate Housewives. These rights were got from Buena Vista.

“We will now be releasing seasons 1-5 of 24 as well as Prison Break and The Simpsons. These rights we got from Fox. Other titles include Boston Legal and Grey’s Anatomy. The Hindi segment is not cost effective. If you want sell a DVD of a Hindi soap like a Saas Bahu then you would have to price it cheap.

“By the end of the fiscal year March 2007 we will have eight English TV DVD titles. For the next fiscal we will add another seven to eight titles. We are looking at specialised content like aerobics and possibly adventure sports.” The television venture helps Excel build on the relationship it already has with Fox and Disney as far as films are concerned.

Excel Home Video has 1,000 English film titles on DVD. One of its latest releases has been Ice Age 2. To push it kicked off an offer in association with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Each DVD has a hologram. If the hologram matches the hologram shown on the channel then the consumer gets Ice Age 2 merchandise which has been imported. This way Kapasi says consumers become more aware of legal products as pirated stuff do not have holograms.

On the retail level when a consumer buys a DVD he can get an Excel VCD exchanged for a DVD and just pay the price difference. The Ice Age 2 DVD has a coupon. The consumer just has to mail the coupon. To push Ice Age 2 Excel also did wall executions in retail outlets like Planet M, Rhythm House. The dubbed version of Ice Age 2 in Hindi will be released later this month. New titles coming up are Cars, X-Men 3 and Pirates Of The Carribean 2. To push X Men 3 Excel will have ads on Pix and AXN. This too will be a hologram linked effort.

Excel also did the innovation of re – releasing the first Pirates film on DVD to coincide with the release of the sequel. It also re released the first two X Men films to coincide with the theatrical release of X Men 3. “This strategy of synergy marketing has worked well for us” adds Kapasi.

He says that 50 per cent of Excel’s above the line marketing activities are done through television. Print he adds has not really delivered. Excel not surprisingly also advertises in select multiplexes through slides as that is one place his TG frequents.

Excel has also come out with the strategy of having Movies and More outlets. This is a place where one can buy DVDs and VCDs. Right now there are 11 mostly situated in multiplexes. The plan is to increase the number to 40 by the end of the fiscal. There will also be a presence in malls.

Excel has around 30 Hindi films in its library including Dor and Lagaan. Kapasi rues the fact that there is no method in the price one pays to get the rights for a Hindi film. A producer according to him often quotes a price without looking at factors like the market size. He is hopeful that with new producers like Farhan Akhtar coming in the situation will improve.

In terms of targets he says that the company expects a 40 per cent growth in turnover for this fiscal. Bottomline growth is expected to be in the range of 18-22 per cent. The efforts of Excel have not gone unnoticed. Fox is happy about the way Ice Age 2 has fared on DVD. Fox VP intl licensees Richard Crook says, “The success has sharpened our focus on India’s growing home entertainment market. Excel Home Videos our licensee in India, has delivered a fantastic job by successfully targetting the festive holidays”.

November 1, 2006
FIM and Twentieth Century to deliver movies, TV shows for download

MUMBAI: Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Twentieth Century Fox have inked a multi-year agreement to provide feature films and television shows on a download-to-own basis across the FIM network. Fox Interactive Media’s network of properties will have access to Fox Entertainment Group’s catalogue of content including hit feature films such as X-Men The Last Stand and The Omen as well as episodes of television series like 24, and Prison Break.

IGN Entertainment will be the first FIM property to offer a selection of on its Direct2Drive site (www.direct2drive.com) in October 2006 with additional FIM properties including MySpace.com to come.

“Our drive to deliver Twentieth Century Fox content via the most powerful online platforms is advanced substantially by this agreement. Offering Fox content in conjunction with FIM properties enables viewers to access the best movies and TV shows from multiple platforms in the Fox family,” said Fox Entertainment Group president digital media Peter Levinsohn.

Initially, FIM will offer films from Twentieth Century Fox including new releases, made-for-TV movies, direct-to-video releases and select content from the Twentieth Century Fox film library on IGN’s Direct2Drive site. The site will also offer current television series from various Fox entities such as Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fuel TV, Speed, and FX with a selection of shows available within 24 hours of initial broadcast.

In an industry first, purchased movies and television shows will be immediately transferable to Windows Media compatible portable devices providing users with a convenient way to take the video content with them on the go.

“Today marks an important step as we continue to build a bridge between the worlds of user-generated and top-quality, professional content, further enhancing our range of consumer offerings across both free, ad-supported and paid download business models. With more than 75 million monthly users and one of the largest entertainment communities on the web, we are thrilled to begin offering our users exciting content from Fox,” said FIM president Ross Levinsohn.

The agreement with Twentieth Century Fox will enable FIM, already a leader in downloadable games with Direct2Drive, to expand its offerings with premier TV and movie content. Direct2Drive will promote the new offering throughout the IGN Entertainment network, including IGN.com, Rotten Tomatoes; and Film Force, among other sites.

Direct2Drive’s secure digital download service will enable users to transfer content to up to two PCs and one portable device per PC. Content will be available at approximately $19.99 for new feature film releases and $1.99 per TV series episode.

August 16, 2006
Fox to offer films for online download

MUMBAI: Fox Interactive Media (Fim) and Twentieth Century Fox have announced a multi-year agreement to provide feature films and television shows on a download-to-own basis across the Fim network.

Fim’s network of properties reaching more than 75 million people a month in the US (ComScore MediaMetrix) will have access to Fox Entertainment Group’s films such as X-Men The Last Stand and The Omen. On the television front, episodes of series like 24 and Prison Break can be downloaded.

IGN Entertainment will be the first Fim property to offer a selection on its Direct2Drive site in October 2006, with additional Fim properties, including MySpace.com.

Fox president digital media Peter Levinsohn says, “Our drive to deliver Twentieth Century Fox content via the most powerful online platforms is advanced substantially by this agreement. Offering Fox content in conjunction with Fim properties enables viewers to access the best movies and TV shows from multiple platforms in the Fox family.”

Initially, Fim will offer films from Twentieth Century Fox, including new releases, made-for-TV movies, direct-to-video releases and select content from the Twentieth Century Fox film library on IGN’s Direct2Drive site. The site will also offer current television series from various Fox entities such as Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fuel TV, Speed and FX, with a selection of shows available within 24 hours of initial broadcast.

In an industry first, purchased movies and television shows will be immediately transferable to Windows Media compatible portable devices, providing users with a convenient way to take the video content with them on the go.

Fim president Ross Levinsohn says, “Today marks an important step as we continue to build a bridge between the worlds of user-generated and top-quality, professional content, further enhancing our range of consumer offerings across both free, ad-supported and paid download business models.

“With more than 75 million monthly users and one of the largest entertainment communities on the web, we are thrilled to begin offering our users exciting content from Fox.”

The agreement with Twentieth Century Fox will enable Fim to expand its offerings with premier TV and movie content. Direct2Drive will promote the new offering throughout the IGN Entertainment network, including IGN.com, Rotten Tomatoes and Film Force, among other sites.

August 16, 2006