English Entertainment
Sony Le Plex HD launches; destination for acclaimed & blockbuster movie titles
MUMBAI: Movie buffs are in for a treat as folks at Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) have come up with a premium fun hangout place for Hollywood film lovers. Called Sony Le Plex HD, the channel will be a house to not just from mainstream Hollywood movies but also acclaimed movies. With the brand tagline #WhereYouBelong, the channel is aimed at providing true plex experience on television.
The channel went live on 23 August.
SPN already has a English movie channel Sony Pix. After a 3-4 month long research, the network saw a clear need gap wherein the viewers were underserved with acclaimed movie titles. The differentiator amongst the two channels apart from their unique product packaging is unique content properties providing a clear audience demarcation between the two.
According to SPN India English cluster EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik, what lacks in the industry is clear distinctions between Hollywood loyalists and casonava. He says, “The two channels have different boundaries true to the consumers need gap. As viewers were not able to watch their loved movies, we thought about coming out with a perfect solution. Building a channel is not just about great titles. There also is a need to build conversations around the product so as to build a brand in mind.”
Apart from securing deals with existing production studios, this new channel has first output deals with Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, PVR and Lionsgate.
Sony Le PLEX boasts of 400 plus movie titles that include 200 award winning movies. In their Le Premiere slot, one can catch 52 premieres in 52 weeks of the year with one on every Sunday at 9 pm. The other slots of the channel are The Magicians slot which will showcase the movies and the magic that happens behind the camera of critically acclaimed movies such as The Inglourious Basterds, Schindler’s List, Taxi Driver, Gladiator, Philadelphia and many more.
The Noon Show which will air movies every Monday to Friday at 1 pm, 9 o’talk aimed at inspiring conversations through listicles. 12 listicles inspired themes will connect the common elements amongst the uncommon audiences driven by a distinguished anchor. And, other spots like The Night Show and Love That Scene.
“The growth of Hollywood cinema in India has resulted in segmentation of audiences into two distinct categories. One, being the mainstream cinema offering action and special effects movies, while the other is the non-mainstream cinema that focuses on the storyline, plot and the acclaim of the movie. The market for non-mainstream cinema is currently underserved in our country and Sony Le Plex HD aims to cater and own this segment. The channel will not only showcase critically acclaimed films but also build an ambience around them in a way that enables great conversations and will help create a common ground for people to build a community of quality movie lovers,” says Yagnik.
Zoya Akhtar has been roped in as the community ambassador for the Sony Le Plex community. Akhtar will be talking about few premieres and will build the community. The key premieres will have conversations with her. Her role will be to reach out to all movie lovers and build a tribe that appreciates good cinema. Akhtar will also be seen actively engaging with movie buffs across various social media platforms owned by the channel.
“Zoya represents contemporary style of filmmaking and have made beautiful movies. She is relatable with our brand and people look at out for her work. We needed a person who can create communities. She is a movies buff and loves conversation around movies. Her persona and the way we perceive our brand have many things in common,” adds the channel head.
“Great movies and great storytelling is what I constantly chase and this is exactly what Sony Le Plex HD has to offer. It’s that perfect space where movie lovers, including me, can interact with each other over their favourite Hollywood movies. Sony Le Plex HD has an exhaustive list of quality and acclaimed films and the top three that come to my mind are Foxcatcher – which is awesome, Spotlight which is an academy award winner and Ex Machina. The channel is not just about showcasing great movies but will also create a community of movie lovers who will drive great conversations around movies. I am glad to be the Community Ambassador for Sony Le Plex HD and co-create this community of people like me who simply love watching good movies. It is indeed the perfect hangout for all movie lovers,” adds Akhtar.
The channel is targeted on Hollywood loyalists which they classify to be dreamers, achievers, geeks, artists, etc and certainly don’t have any age boundaries. It is for premium audiences which are young at heart. The channel’s logo has been designed by MediaLuna while Leo Burnett is their creative agency partner.
SPN rolled out this channel in HD feed because according to them there has been significant price elasticity in country. The audiences are not used to paying for content yet. But the fact that India always works on inflection point between affordability and consumption cannot be neglected. Yagnik opines that SD is about size and scale that you have to build. Its distribution has to be wider which the market needs to support. “There are certain considerations that are to be taken before launching a SD channel. The loyalists can move to SD later on. We had to come up with a differentiator in HD,” adds Yagnik.
With this channel, Sony plans to cater to the 7 million odd HD subscribers in the country.
The channel has almost been rolled out on DTH platforms like Airtel, Tata Sky, etc and cable TV services.
As far as the marketing is concerned, the channel will be marketed extensively in the top 6 metros with various promotions on their own HD network on tv and will leverage print as well as social media to build the channel.
The channel is already in talks with few premium brands to hop on board for the channel and has a separate sales team in place for the same. “Ideally revenue generation from advertisers and subscription should be 50:50. Though, it depends on the various channels as they are bundled with different networks. But, if you talk about Sony Le Plex HD, we would like to generate revenue more from the subscription than advertisers. For now the hybrid business model is working properly for us,” adds Yagnik.
If guesstimations are to be believed, the channel will be priced high due to its unique offering at around Rs 50.
Though, Sony Pix and Sony Le Plex HD will not have same titles, there is a possibility to have simulcasts for a few movies.
With an array of Hollywood movie channels being launched by various networks, one conclusion that we can arrive at is that there is a clear-cut consumption of English content. The increasing number of schools providing English education, high box office collections, social media conversations, etc clearly shows significant potential for English in India.
SPN, with this new addition, has a total of approx 700 movie titles under their umbrella. Looking at the current consumption, the English entertainment genre is only going to grow and expand in the coming years.
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.
