English Entertainment
Times’ Srivastava says entertainment channels aiming for 33% ad rate hike, Movies Now 2 rebranded as MNX
MUMBAI: Times Network, with seven movie channel, has decided to rebrand its Movies Now 2, now renaming it as MNX. The brand, the Network believes, is now ready to stand on its own feet with its unique identity as a brand.
With the legacy brand setting up high standards, the Network claims, its time for MNX to take up the challenge. With what the Times Network called ‘a full blown’ cross-platform promotion without naming, MNX is being promoted in print, outdoor and radio.
“Increase in the viewership leads to increase in ad rates as well. The Times Group garners one-third of the English viewership in India. And so, we are aiming for 33 per cent increase in the ad rates,” Times Network EVP & head – entertainment cluster Vivek Srivastava told Indiantelevision.com
MNX will showcase movies from its 4-5 different libraries which has a collection of around 1500 movies. MNX has lined up its properties for the weekdays and weekends: Wild Ones: Weeknights (Mon – Fri), 11 pm, Xtreme Nights: Weeknights (Mon – Fri), 9 pm, WTF (What The Flicks): Weeknights (Mon -Fri), 7 pm, Bad ass Weekends: Sat -Sun, 9 pm, Stacked Sun 9am-9pm, Get Lucky, Xterminator: Dusshera special, Xplosive Nights: Diwali special and Call X – Viewers Choice.
“Movies Now 2, which was launched a year ago, worked excellently — with its distinct identity, library and positioning. As the channel grew, it started giving tough competition to the top three players, and it was necessary to give it a new identity from the current and future perspective,” the EVP said.
“Movies Now 2 was not doing justice to the legacy brand — Movies Now. Therefore, it was essential to rebrand it,” he said, and claimed the “response from the sponsors has been fantastic.”
MNX was unveiled with the telecast of its first Big Bang Movie – Mad Max Fury Road on 15 July 2017. Adding to the bandwagon of fun-filled movie festivals will be properties such as Xtreme Nights on Weeknights at 9pm.
Xterminator will be a special movie festival during Dussehra (September 21 – September 30) which will showcase movies such as Olympus Has Fallen, The Mechanic, Hobbit and Journey to the centre Earth, to name a few.
Finally, for its viewers, the channel will give them a chance to get lucky with awesome and super cool gadgets daily with MNX Get Lucky Contest as part of their Watch and Win Movie Festival.
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.
