English Entertainment
Zee Cafe targets 20-40-yr-olds with BBC First drama
MUMBAI: Zee’s English entertainment channel Zee Café has partnered with BBC Worldwide to bring award-winning premium British drama to its audience. Starting from 26 June, the channel will host BBC First content block with 11 new shows set to air every weeknight at 10pm time slot.
The channel has an ongoing deal with BBC for two years. For the Indian audience, the channel will bring another set of 16 British shows shortly.
The new line-up of shows on Zee Café, the main sponsor of which is Nexa , includes: War & Peace, Fleming: The Man who would be Bond, Class, SS-GB, Maigret, Doctor Foster, Top of the Lake, The Kettering Incident, New Blood, From Darkness and Thirteen.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) Premium and FTA GEC business cluster head Aparna Bhosle said, “I will go with my gut feeling. I have lived in this country and I have seen this kind of content and I believe it’s going to work. You will not know unless you try it out. So, it’s a gut call.” “At the launch, we are starting with 11 shows, and around October, we are planning to launch another 16 new shows.”
Speaking about the target audience, she mentioned that Zee Cafe’s high viewership comes from mega metros. “The 7-9pm prime time is working for the channel,” she added.
“For a brand, the starting point is: what do you want to stand for. We launched the channel with the tagline ‘All Eyes On New’. Viewers of this genre are seeking more content. If we look at English GEC, it is largely American content. It’s a great fit for the brand, and we think that consumer will love it,” ZEEL domestic broadcast business CEO Punit Misra said.
Zee Cafe’s marketing campaign will be largely run on digital platforms and the network’s channels. “The campaign will be focussed on big towns as the main viewership comes from those markets, according to measurement system. As English content viewing in India is rising day by day, 20-40 age-group in large towns, we think, will consume this kind of content,” Misra added.
“We are delighted that Zee Café is bringing BBC First to India, which will bring the best of British creativity to an appreciative audience. This is a curation of critically acclaimed and award-winning original British drama, that will challenge perceptions though surprising storylines and unforgettable characters,” commented BBC Worldwide director – global brands and content marketing Julia Kenyon. “BBC First has been successful in countries where it has already launched, across Australia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. We look forward to connecting with the Indian audience who know and enjoy premium drama,” she added.
From compelling narratives to awe-inspiring characters, viewers will get to explore a rich & diverse variety of content. Not just that, they will also get to see versatile actors such as Rowan Atkinson popularly known as Mr. Bean, Dominic Cooper, Sam Riley, Kate Bosworth, Lily James and many more in the BBC First block.
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.
