English Entertainment
AXN, HKTB take viewers through a Bollywood Odyssey
MUMBAI: Action entertainment with local relevance! That is the path that AXN’s latest cross promotional initiative will take.
The broadcaster has teamed up with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) for a special Hong Kong Bollywood Movie Odyssey. It airs on 27 November at 10:30 pm with repeats on 16 December at 9:30 pm and on 17 December at .5:30 pm.
Hosted by former Miss World Diana Hayden the show will take viewers to Hong Kong locales that Bollywood film producers have made use of. Films like Company, Naam, Gumrah have all had important sequences shot in Hong Kong in locations like Victoria Harbour and The Peak.
This is the second major collaboration between the two parties. A couple of years ago AXN had organised the India Challenge event in conjunction with the HKTB. The winning team was then sent to Hong Kong to compete in the Hong Kong AXN Challenge.
Speaking on the latest initiative AXN Asia VP marketing and creative services Gregory Ho said, “This is a fascinating collaboration between two Asian brands. While many Indians relate with Hong Kong as a shoppers paradise and for its gourmet delights it is also the action capital of Asia. It is synonymous with action films. Legends like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan came from there.
“This show is an attempt on our part to strengthen lifestyle programming on the channel. With this we are trying to go beyond the reality genre. When people see the above mentioned Bollywood films again they will appreciate them more because of the perspective our show will bring to the table.
“We chose Diana Hayden because she is spontaneous and articulate. When you air a show across Asia you want someone well polished that viewers across the board can identify with.”
AXN will air also the Hong Kong Movie Odyssey on 20 November at 10:30 pm with repeats on 9 December at 9:30 pm and on 10 December at 5:30 pm. This looks at Hong Kong movies whose filmmaking style has influenced the world including Bollywood
Ho added that AXN’s parent Sony has a production facility in Hong Kong where films are made. So titles like So Close, Double Vision will air dubbed on the channel next year. In all the channel has around 10-12 films from Hong Kong in the pipeline. However we do not have any plans to air Indian action films in subtitles.”
HKTB South and South East Asia regional director David Leung added, “The show will give viewers the opportunity to see Hong Kong’s cosmopolitan lifestyle and fusion of cultures. We hope that the show will stimulate viewers desires to eat and drink in the same locales that their film heroes did.
“Earlier this year we did focus group promotions like the Bollywood Map. This shows the different locations in Hong Kong where Hindi films have been shot. We however felt the need to move from print to the electronic medium to create a larger impact. Therefore we tied up with AXN.”
“We are also talking to Indian film and television producers regarding shooting in Hong Kong. We are confident of finalising deals by the time Frames is held in March 2005. We will make major announcements at that event. Later this year Hong Kong will organise the Winter Fest.
” We will be using the Indian radio and print medium to spread awareness about the same. We are also hopeful of using brand ambassador Jackie Chan in the future. Indians connect with him strongly. It is basically a matter of his schedule and willingness to work with us to promote Hong Kong in India.”
Sony assistant VP marketing Rohit Bhandari who looks after the channel in India stated that the broadcaster is also working with the Malaysia Tourism Board. Right now vignettes promoting that country are airing on the channel.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
