MUMBAI: It's changing all right. Zee MGM is shedding is relaxed attitude and gearing up for action to push the channel. Be it in terms of programming, promotions or marketing.
The channel claims to have garnered more share than other movie channels during its Bond movies festival from 3 October 2003 till 24 October 2003. While during one of the movies in the Jim Carrey movie festival 12 November to 26 November, the channel shares were more than its contemporaries. Besides the cross-channel promotions the channel also made its presence felt in the on ground promotions.

 
Keeping up with the competition, the channel makes it a point to select class A and class AB movies. Apart from that, movies on popular demand are also selected. Zee's movie arm aims to bolster it with good promotion and right publicity. According to the channel sources, during the airing of one of the Bond movies the channel chase shot up to 2.07 percent as compared HBO 0.62 per cent and Star Movie 0.32 per cent in Mumbai. Even in the capital Delhi, the channel shares were 1.41 per cent, as for the competition it was 0.94 per cent for HBO and 0.16 per cent for Star Movie.

With the 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm being the prime time for the channel, it has divided the time band into slots specific to every month including Romantic Mondays, viewers choice Tuesday Zee MGM Select, The great Money chase on Wednesdays, Total action Thursdays, Bond Special on Saturday and Weekend Blockbusters on Sunday.

The special flavour of the month includes the Oscar awarded movies. While the channel has remained tightlipped, but industry sources claim that there is lot of action scheduled to happen in the coming month.

With the channel having picked up a list of movie including the new releases Serendipity, Confessions of a dangerous mind and Chicago, the festive offering on the channel is Chicago on 25 December at 9:00 pm as a Christmas special.

But how has it affected the channels? According to the channel sources the number of the brands to endorse the movies has definitely risen. While brands like Britannia, LG, Samsung, Nokia, Hutch, Mahindra and Mahindra continue to be on board, the channel has got Asian Paints, Fiat, Honda, Airtel, Panasonic, Addidas, Mc Donald, Parryware, and BPCL.