Sony Pictures India spins one for the planet
After entertainment and sports, the network targets the infotainment genre with a new channel on wildlife and nature with partner BBC Worldwide
Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India along with its partner, BBC Worldwide (the non news arm of BBC) will launch Sony BBC Earth and Sony BBC Earth HD on March 6 under a joint venture between the two called MSM Worldwide Factual Media. With this, the network’s bouquet of channels increases to 29 and BBC quietly steps back into the non-news features space in India.
SPN labels the genre that it will now operate in, ‘factual entertainment’. The segment has seen significant growth in viewership and reach in India, especially with digitisation catching on in the country. As a result, the genre has seen the addition of many channels over the past four years. Discovery Networks India has the maximum channels, 11, in the space, followed by broadcasters like National Geographic and TV18. What made SPN think it would be a good idea to enter an already seemingly cluttered genre?
“Every time we launch a new channel, we are asked this. It was the same with sports and music. We feel that we have the content and strategy to break the clutter and come out on top. From a network and distribution point of view, we want to give viewers a complete bouquet and we found the network lacking in infotainment or factual entertainment and so here we are,” says CEO NP Singh. The channel will be launched with a reach of almost 80 per cent (of the total digital cable and DTH market), having a presence on almost all digital cable and DTH platforms.
For BBC Worldwide, it is the start of its second innings in the country, having pulled the plug on its entertainment and kids channels in 2012. Paul Dempsey, President (global markets), BBC Worldwide says, “India offers great scale and after doing some research, we got to know that after news, the most popular content from BBC is in the factual entertainment space. The BBC Earth brand had good recall among the audience. By some counts, this content was almost as popular in India as it was in the UK. We’ve had a good relationship with Sony in the past and so we decided to partner with them.”
For its Indian launch, the channel has adopted the brand tagline of ‘Feel Alive’. Consisting of content ranging from wild-life to adventure and science, the portfolio includes some of the most watched shows from the BBC library including David Attenborough narrated Planet Earth II. The channel is hoping to get viewers to associate the brand with the BBC’s traditional strength in such content and at the same time, use the tagline to generate an online buzz around its shows. A series of videos around forthcoming shows has already N P SINGH been online.
“We want to establish the brand distinctively and create awareness about the programme slots. Then we move to creating awareness and promoting the content. With ‘Feel Alive’ we are saying that the stories you’ll see on Sony BBC Earth will be about life and the co-existence of humans with nature. We want to distinguish the brand and its content at every step,” says Saurabh Yagnik, EVP and business head, (English Cluster), Sony Pictures Networks India. He elaborates further that the channel will operate around three pillars – providing grand visual spectacle, airing never seen before content and positive and insightful storytelling.
The channel will start with 15 hours of fresh content on the weekdays (three hours a day from 8 pm to 11 pm) and CEO, SPN India released close to five hours of content over the weekend (also aired around 9 pm). The channel will have defined programming slots. The challenge however will be creating a strong distinction between the shows that will air on Sony-BBC Earth and other channels. Also given the relatively narrow band of viewership that such channels work within, it would require a significant amount of offline marketing push via hoardings and targeted media offerings for the channel to break away from the clutter.
The network is hoping a high profile launch along with a celebrity brand ambassador will help establish its identity with the viewers in the initial days and then, the programmes would work their trick and keep them hooked. As part of its brand communication and promotion, it has roped in Kareena Kapoor Khan as the brand ambassador for the channel. Her association currently is limited to the channel’s launch promotions and brand film, but the network may explore more ways to involve her as the time progresses.
What made the channel choose an actor-celebrity for shows that are far from the world of Bollywood and entertainment? The channel says that its choice was defined by the target audience for the channel. SPN believes that it can bring in the young viewer (college student, first jobbers and professionals being the core audience) and this segment identifies closely with the actor.
With this launch, three of the four major entertainment networks in the country now have a play in the infotainment space directly or indirectly. In case of Zee, it is through the brand Living Foodz while for Star India, it is through the parent Fox’s joint venture with National Geographic. While Viacom18 doesn’t have any infotainment channel as of now, one of its partners, TV18, operates History TV18 through a separate JV with A+E Networks.