English Entertainment
Zee Studio unveils its brand new ideology-‘See it all’
MUMBAI: One of India’s English movie channels, Zee Studio has unveiled its brand new ideology ‘See it all’ for its viewers. The channel revealed it’s all new look with a newer library of movie collection that offers a range of genres including action, comedy and animation.
Speaking about the new brand strategy Zee Studio and Zee Café executive vice president and business head Anurag Bedi said that their study reflected that with vast globalization, the reach and perception of Hollywood movies has changed over a decade in the country. The study further revealed that English cinema is not limited to a certain niche elite class anymore and the younger generation has a lot of exposure to western entertainment and that has led to massive change in consumption patterns.
He further goes on to add, “With Zee Studio’s refreshed look we aim to give the viewer what he is looking for. Additionally, the research revealed that today’s tech savvy young generation who is major chunk of our viewer base expects greater quality content and a high definition experience from television channels. Hence the effort to renew Zee Studio’s look and content is a landmark moment for our business and brand.”
Throwing light on an extensive marketing plan specially designed for the refresh, Zee Studio and Zee Café marketing head Sharlton Menezes commented, “As part of our 360 degree communication plan, we detailed out a multi-media, multi-touch point campaign to ensure that the refresh delivers the brand promise of ‘See it all’. Larger than life movies, big stars and famous characters are the most tangible strengths of Hollywood, which will be leveraged to endorse the channel’s refreshed imagery.”
Tapping the potential to engage with the youth via a multi-layered engagement platform, this campaign will be present at over 30 trade media agencies across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Zee Studio is inviting fans to click pictures with the 10 feet tall Transformer stationed at Cyber City, MPG, Arena, Dentsu, Signature Tower, Cyber Plaza in Delhi and Phoenix mall in Mumbai.
Furthermore, ‘See it All’ will be supported with a social media leg across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For 15 days, starting 3 October 2014 the channel has started a ‘See it All” contest for its viewers to tune-in to the 9 pm movie and answer simple questions to win gadgets like iPhones and iPads.
Zee Studio’s new identity was introduced in conjunction with the channel premiere of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol that was telecasted on Friday, 3 October at 1pm and 9 pm respectively. Legendary actors such as Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale and others will be also scorching the screens throughout the month and beyond.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
