English Entertainment
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.”
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.
