English Entertainment
AXN looking to cement brand loyalty with critically acclaimed ‘Alias’
MUMBAI: AXN’s action plan to maintain and increase channel share is simple. Build up viewer loyalty by exposing viewers to fresh and invigorating programming genres that they cannot get elsewhere. Towards this end, the channel will launch Alias next month exclusively in India.
On hand to explain the programming strategy at a media briefing was Gregory Ho, AXN Asia V-P marketing. Said Ho: “AXN’s brand values are adventurous, daring and irreverent though the last one is not in the dictionary sense of the term. We are not serious in tone like CNN. We also don’t aim to educate like Discovery or National Geographic. Our aim is to add panache and pizzazz without which peoples’ lives would be boring. AXN is a place where the viewer can escape the humdrum routine of everyday existence. Unlike broadcast veterans we are upstarts who feel the need to build a certain kind of lifestyle where one can chill out.”
On the advertising front, Ho noted that although last year was tough, this year the situation was improving with some clients returning to the channel. After all, Ho reasoned, one can only retreat to a certain extent when the business environment is unfavourable. If a company goes back too much then it risks losing out on market share.
As far as marketing initiatives were concerned, Ho said the channel would look towards the radio as a medium to get the “buzz” across. Though relatively new, the radio medium is fast catching on with upwardly mobile urbanites, he said. Then there is the AXN action movie festival that kicks off on 17 September in Chandigarh. It will travel to 10 cities across the country including Mumbai, sometime in October – November.
Ho stressed that it was the channel’s serialised shows and not movies that helped build brand loyalty, as films are essentially title driven. Citing TAM data for the five metros Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore for 1-29 June C&S homes Section A, B in the 15-44 age group, AXN got a market share of around 33 per cent when Guinness World Records aired, he said. The closest rival was HBO with a share between 15-22 per cent. Likewise Ripley’s Believe It or Not garnered a share of 28 per cent with closest rival HBO at 13 – 22 per cent. Records’ ratings no doubt were helped by the Record Holder contest held by the channel earlier in the year in Mumbai, he added.
The most impressive ratings were however, generated by C.S.I. The show airs every Monday at 9 pm and for the period 30 June to 3 August the all adult share was 38 per cent. With women the share rises to 42 per cent. No other channel for the same time band bagged a share of over 15 per cent. Assistant V-P Sony Rohit Bandhari said that a certain trend was noticeable over the past couple of years on AXN. If a show had an intelligent and intricate storyline then more women tuned in.
Alias should have women tuning in as the central character played by Jennifer Garner deftly dodging stereotypes of the bimbo or the quintessentially dumb blonde displays a vulnerable emotional side, which is easy to relate to. In January Garner won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sydney Bristow, a seemingly average woman who in reality lives a double life working for a spy agency with an anti-government agenda. Besides possessing a useful knowledge in martial arts she also speaks foreign languages like Japanese. ‘Alias’ was one of only three shows which had unrestricted access to the CIA and its resources. The show has received 11 Emmy nominations. In Asia the show is launching exclusively in India every Monday from 2 September at 8 pm in the Prime Zone band. It will replace C.S.I. The show will also repeat on Wednesday’s at 10 pm replacing Wolfgang Peterson’s The Agency, which will complete its first season on the channel this month. The show managed to attract a share of 26 per cent last month, says Ho.
In other Asian countries Alias will launch next year Ho said.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
