English Entertainment
ZEEL’s &Privé HD channel to target upscale non-conformists in six metros
MUMBAI: There’s a thin sliver amongst the hundreds of millions of cinema lovers in India that gorge on international independent and award winning films. Leading indian TV network Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL) is about to offer them something that is going to keep them glued to their TV sets when &Privé HD launches come 24 September 2017.
“The breeze of change is seen as everyone is focusing on connoisseur, hedonist and explorers, but we are targeting the non-conformist,” says ZEEL English cluster head Aparna Bhosle.
&Privé HD’s tagline is ‘Feel the Other Side’ which distinguishes it from others in the English movie channel genre.
With films from 28 independent Hollywood players and studios such as Paramount and PVR, &Privé HD library boasts of 350 exclusive titles.
&Privé HD, designed and packaged by Zink, a Canadian digital agency, will telecast over 40 premieres in six months after the launch. Moonlight will be the first premier on the launch day, airing on two time-slots — 1 and 9pm. Other premieres and movies on &Privé HD include: Lion, Pele, Jackie, Arrival and Free State of Jones.
“The English movies TV channel market (in India) is worth Rs 4.5–Rs 6 billion; English content viewership (on HD channels) is on the rise,” points out Bhosle.
&Privé HD is targeting the six metros and will be available on Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, and Sun TV. Zeel was in talks with Videocon d2h for distribution at the time of writing.
“In 2015, India had five million HD STBs, which saw a 160 per cent increase over the past three years. Today, we have around 10.8 million HD STBs,” Bhosle revealed.
The marketing and promotional campaign of &Privé HD has been drawn up by FCB Ulka. Zeel’s team has conjured an innovative out-of-the-box promotional plans for the niche channel, apart from pushing the launch TVC on all sister-HD channels. Digital, print and OOH media are slated to start rolling out the messaging for &Privé HD.
“Our digital platform has a reach of 14 million which will help us to increase our viewership. Our outdoor campaign will hit Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru on 18 September and multiplex promotions will start two days before the launch,” Bhosle adds.
Attempts have been made to crack the niche genres in the past with efforts by the likes of NDTV with NDTV Lumiere, which lasted a couple of years, but was pulled off, despite critical appreciation, on account of a lack of a profitable business model. And since then others have entered like HBO Hits, Sony Le Plex and Star Movies Select HD.
A media professional states that times are different now and discerning viewers – around two million of them in India – are willing to pay to watch exclusive differentiated content in HD as evident from the traction Amazon Prime and Netflix have got in recent times. “Hence, it’s quite likely that if Zee sticks by &Privé HD and gives it time, it could end up finding a profitable niche for itself in, let’s say, the next three years,” she says.
That’s how Indian movie lovers are hoping &Privé’s script will play out.
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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.
