English Entertainment
Sony Picture Networks India rebrands AXN
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India’s english entertainment channel AXN, known for its action heavy shows, has been re-branded to give it a more edgier look.
The changes include a new logo, packaging and tag line. Playing on their original palate of red, the channel urges viewers to live ‘R.E.D,’ which stands for Reality, Entertainment and Drama.
The channel, which is home to some of the most iconic characters, hopes to increase its viewership with this re-branding exercise.
The change will come into effect from 24 January, 2016 with the premiere of the drama series Billions, which will be aired at 11 pm every Sunday.
The re-branding was undertaken by Leo Burnett India.
“With the new logo, we want to cater to the young evolving mindsets. It’s time the brand goes to the next level with a more contemporary positioning and a fresh, new look, to appeal to the discerning audience segments, who seek intelligent action. More than just an adrenaline rush, they seek a mind rush while watching their favourite shows and characters. To cater to this mind-set, we have re-calibrated our positioning, brought alive through LIVE R.E.D. for the entire brand universe in a seamless manner,” says SPN India executive vice president and business head – English entertainment cluster Saurabh Yagnik.
With this transformation, AXN seeks to diversify its portfolio away from its action genre by airing ‘intelligent’ action shows with more intense, smart and unexpected characters.
The channel has retained its trademark representation with the colour red. He further adds, “Red because it leverages to bring alive what AXN as a brand stands for. The channel’s new look and feel showcases the content diversity of the channel, builds association with shows and characters and articulates what consumer gratification is. It is the channel, product and consumers’ truth that we have brought alive.”
The new logo is accentuated by a 3-D pyramid with elements of mystery and convergence and will bring alive the channel’s diverse content offering Reality, Entertainment, Drama, and the consumer gratification of Rush, Excitement, Dream through its characters and shows.
AXN’s content offering includes a mixture of reality shows like The Voice, Top Gear, Fear Factor, entertainment shows like Minute to Win, and dramatic shows like Sherlock, Hannibal, Ray Donovan, Billions, Elementary and Dexter, amongst others.
As of now, the channel has no plans to change or tweak its content strategy, though it will keep bringing new American shows. The channel will continue to cater to the premium target audience in India.
AXN seeks to cater to both types of consumers that exist in society: the influencer as well as the adopter. While the former includes tech-savvy people who want to watch shows with the US, the latter are not very active in the space and seek help from the influencer about which shows to watch. “The adopters are adopting and soaking into the genre. We want to bridge this gap between both the viewers’ cluster. We bring shows, which serves both of them,” asserts Yagnik.
The channel claims to have a market share of 28 per cent in the entire English entertainment genre and has set a task to build shows and characters associations with the channel.
AXN’s new look will roll out across the channel’s on-air and online platforms as well on various social media platforms.
Speaking about the imminent competition from the American OTT platform Netflix’s entry into India, Yagnik says, “It is good to have global competition in the space. It’s a good opportunity. The fact remains that all the networks have many hours of content – local as well as international. Everything that enters the market has its own plusses and minuses when it comes to content consumption. Ultimately it’s going to benefit the consumers.”
This new push towards evoking emotions as well as gaining viewers through gripping and diverse content strategy is what the edgy channel plans to do in 2016. The aim will also be to retain its position in the market by coming up with more credible and buzzy shows.
“With the rise in the Hollywood shows consumption in India, AXN will continue to get up to date shows for our fresh from the US slot,” concludes Yagnik.
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.
