English Entertainment
Comedy Central sets pace for ultimate celebration with over 100 hours of non-stop FRIENDS ultra marathon for its 6th birthday
MUMBAI: Birthdays and New Years are great occasions to make resolutions for participating in marathons. However, this is one marathon which calls for hanging up your running shoes and grabbing the best spot in front of the telly with a bowl of munchies to keep you going because, for the first time ever in the world, Comedy Central is presenting a 5 day long, F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ultra Marathon from January 19 to 23, 11 AM onwards!
Aiming for a totally different kind of world record where marathons are concerned, Comedy Central ensures over 100 hours of non-stop entertainment, as it gets ready to celebrate its birthday with the world’s best friends ever Joey, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross.
Bringing in its 6th birthday, the brand is doing a variety of fun activities like hosting the biggest F.R.I.E.N.D.S parties Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata, Watch & Win contest with official F.R.I.E.N.D.S Merchandise rewarding the longest binge sessions through 5 days. Comedy Central, in partnership with Airbnb, is hosting the Longest Slumber Party and many more engaging activities on their social media pages. After all, what’s a birthday without F.R.I.E.N.D.S.?
Commenting on this one of a kind campaign, Viacom18, Head- Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Ferzad Palia shared, “When we launched Comedy Central 6 years ago, our goal was simple – we wanted to give India a place for quality English Comedy Entertainment. And within months of its launch, we realized that the audience and the advertisers were not only lapping our content up but wanted more of it. Over the years, Comedy Central has been loved for showcasing the best in quality entertainment such as The Mindy Project, The Graham Norton Show, SNL, Suits and Young Sheldon. But F.R.I.E.N.D.S. is the one show that refuses to lose its hold over the audience no matter what. It’s a show that holds the same appeal that an old friend does – it’s comforting, it’s relatable, and it makes you feel good. Thus, today, when we are celebrating our 6th Birthday, it was but natural for us to celebrate it with F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Also, this is just the beginning. The never been done before, 100-hour binge for F.R.I.E.N.D.S is just a small peek of the disruptive programming that we have planned for our viewers in 2018.”
Launched in India on January 23, 2012, Comedy Central enjoys a viewership share of 30% and has remained a steady/consecutive No.1 in viewership last year. With 4.5+mn social media followers, that is growing each week, the brand has persistently worked towards engaging content for consumers with specially curated show categories, consumer products and pro-socio campaigns. Source (BARC: 15-40 Mega cities AB)
Comedy Central has created its distinct place in consumers’ hearts with special offers across multiple platforms such as Watch With The World – bringing to India world class shows such as Suits, Young Sheldon, Will & Grace, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and more, in real time; Spread The Cheer – pro-socio campaign offering joy and happiness; Comedy Central LOL Club Cards – gifting specially curated offers for it fans. The unique initiatives undertaken by the brand has also won 40+ awards over the past 6 years across India, Asia and the World, making it the number 1 in English Entertainment industry.
Comedy Central boasts of partnerships with marquee brands like Café Coffee Day, Mad Over Donuts, Gold’s Gym, Kidzania, Radio One to maximize reach amongst its consumers across age groups and personalities. The brand also strives to bring on more smiles through its annual CSR initiative – Spread The Cheer. The latest edition, in association with several NGOs such as Give India, Bhumi, Deepalaya to name a few, has spread the cheer amongst many deserving but less fortunate children. With such innovative initiatives, Comedy Central will strive to remain India’s Happiest Place.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
