ITV

Tag: Younger

  • Comedy Central revamps; positions as ‘Your Happy Place’

    Comedy Central revamps; positions as ‘Your Happy Place’

    MUMBAI: Taking a cue from the age of cut-throat competition, which demands constant innovation, Comedy Central India has revamped itself with a new look and tagline. What’s more, the channel has also lined up a slew of new shows.

     

    Moving away from the tagline of ‘Laugh it off,’ the channel has now adopted ‘Your Happy Place’ as its new ethos. 

     

    Three and a half year since its launch, Viacom 18’s Comedy Central is now poised for a new beginning with ‘Your Happy Place,’ which will reflect on the channel from 10 September, 2015.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Viacom 18 executive vice president – English entertainment Ferzad Palia said, “We had launched with ‘Laugh it off’ three and half years back and now after serving the country with comedy and laughter, we think it’s time for us to call it ‘Your Happy Place.’ The fact is established now that Comedy Central is a place that will make you happy and hence the new tagline.”

     

    Comedy Central aims to bring a fresh take on its brand elements and content with this change. The new look showcases this positioning by using a rich and vibrant color palette, slick animation and an overall design package that is very easy on the eyes. Using the circle to signify locations and happy zones, these elements also help to highlight each show. The use of innovative stickers helps qualify these shows as well. The entire creative aspect was taken care of by the in-house team.

     

    Understanding the pulse of its viewers, Comedy Central India has repositioned itself aiming to increase the engagement with viewers through a new line-up of diverse shows in September including the likes of Younger, Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, Your Family or Mine and The Mindy Project Season 3.

     

    “This is just the beginning. We will have more new shows coming in and it will be a new Comedy Central with ‘Your Happy Place,’” informed Palia.

     

    While content acquisition costs have been increasing at a brisk pace, the question is whether the English entertainment genre in India has a strong enough revenue model. To this, Palia said, “The English entertainment space has spread enormously over the last few years. So the demand has increased and subsequently the cost has gone up. When it comes to Viacom 18, we have our business model and we are doing good. Comedy Central has performed beyond expectations both from consumer point of view as well as business point of view.”

     

    Apart from high cost of content, piracy is another menace that the English entertainment genre has been grappling with. However, now with the US simulcast and instant premieres, that aspect is partly taken care of. That aside, will the emerging OTT platforms and Netflix’s impending arrival, pose a threat to the channels having English shows? Palia replied, “I don’t think there will be an either – or situation in India. Both platforms will compliment each other. By paying Rs 250 per month, one gets a huge number of channels. It will be difficult for an OTT model to come in and cause disruption. I think the emergence of OTT will be good for consumers but it will co-exist with television.”

     

    Palia is of the opinion that English entertainment viewers are not only limited to Phase I and II areas of digitisation, but phase III and IV areas will also play vital role in ensuring growth of the English entertainment genre. “If we see the social media insights, a huge number of impressions are registered from the phase III and IV areas. Those areas are important and English content consumers are very much there. So I think time ahead will be hugely positive.”

  • SS Music attempts to grow ‘younger’ in its sixth year

    SS Music attempts to grow ‘younger’ in its sixth year

    MUMBAI: Southern Spice Music (SS Music), the Chennai-based multi-lingual music channel targeting the youth, has entered its sixth year of operations. The channel is firing on all cylinders to keep up with its young and contemporary image, and on the anvil are a few new properties.

    This year, the new program line-up begins with Reliance Launchpad, a new programme aimed at discovering new singing talents. The show will be a contest for aspiring singers, hosted by a VJ/singer and judged by a prominent personality. All shortlisted participants will be promoted by the channel and the public will vote to choose the winners.

    Cinema Central is a new film-based programme on Southern Spice Music, hosted by VJs Pooja and Gibran. Cinema Central focuses entirely on film personalities and their respective films. It flows as either a film-based episode or artist-based episode. Each episode shall be a weekly, 30 minutes programme featuring about a film or film-star. The interaction mainly focuses on the star’s entry into the film Industry and the developments in career of the artiste to date. Cinema Central screens exclusive clips of an particular film star and also focusses on the performance of the team behind the camera.

    Briefing indiantelevision.com, SS Music programming & production manager James D’Cruz states, “It is popularly observed that it is a mammoth task to retain attention of the youth for any period of time. A vibrant youth-targeting channel as ours needs to retain not only their interest and viewing, but also encourage involvement through interactions with our VJs. And this quest for new programming from our end has led to introduction of new programs, currently welcomed by our target viewers. We do hope that our upcoming properties will go on to make a big success of themselves and in the process, help maintain the top of the line ranking among music channels, particularly in South India.”

    Alternately, Southern Spice Music will propose a theme for every month and scenes from movies within that theme will be telecast accordingly. For instance, if it’s the Vijay month, the viewer will have the pleasure of getting to see excerpts from four movies starring Vijay that month. This will be accompanied by interviews and reviews of the star.

    The channel will retain its ‘senior-most’ property Reach Out, which is into its sixth year. VJ Craig continues to host the show.

    One of the recent properties SS Music has launched, Room with a View, delves into the glitzy world of cinema with our movie aficionado VJ Shyam, who interviews stars, reviews the latest block-busters and takes you into the world of movie-making. An add-on to this show is the premiere night titled Red Carpet, which covers film premieres and celebrity parties.

    New properties Is-cool and Between the Lines mainly target viewers, who are looking for non-film/non-music content. Is-cool is a programme that captures the snapshots of the school life. The show incorporates the history of the school that is being profiled, its vision, academic curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Is-cool was launched in March.

    Between the Lines, which also launched in March 2006, is a 20-minute talk show. The programme features high profile personalities from the world of literature and the fine arts.