Zee Telefilms has been undertaking a restructuring for its English channels over the last six to seven months. One of the results of this is that Zee Café is doing local initiatives. Two such products have launched already --- After Hours, which looks at the latest happenings in the Mumbai social circuit, and Simply Style that is about fashion. Now it is going to launch its first soap, Bombay Talking. Starting on 19 November, the show will look at the glamour of Bombay from the point of view of an aspiring actress who looks to make it big in the film world after having done some sizzling songs in films and music videos.
But that’s not all with the English language channels from the Zee stable. Zee Studio, formerly known as Zee MGM, too is undergoing a programming change with the aim being to showcase blockbusters like the recently-aired The Aviator, which was based on the life and times of the flamboyant American entrepreneur Howard Hughes. If Zee Telefilms senior VP and business head of English channels (Zee Café, Zee Studio and Zee Trendz) Neil Chakravarti is to be believed, then in the near future the movie channel is all set to take on competition head on from HBO and Star Movies by airing one new movie daily. For movie acquisition, negotiations are said to be on with all major studios, including News Corp’s 20th Century Fox and Sony-controlled Columbia Tri-Star.
Apart from the English channels on which he’s upbeat, Chakravarti is also responsible for the convergence-related activities of the Zee Network. He has over a decade of experience across investment banking, operations and strategy in the US, Canada, and Europe. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) and has worked as an investment banker for JPMorgan, covering the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) sectors as well as a financial controller for the Jindal group.
In this interview with Indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Pinto, Chakravarti speaks on the state of Zee’s English channels and some initiatives that he has up his sleeves.
Excerpts:
How do you see the English channels from the Zee stable vis-?-vis competition? |
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Let’s start with Zee Café. Why this localization drive on an English channel? The one advantage that we enjoy is that unlike a Star World or an AXN, both are great channels, the think thank of Zee is in Mumbai. Everybody gets together and we brainstorm on what makes sense and what does not. We decide what challenges need to be taken. The aim is to have enough Indian content coming out of Zee Café that viewers can see on a regular basis. |
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Made in India English programming has been tried out by TV channels to target Indian audiences unsuccessfully in the past. Why do you think Zee café will succeed this time round? |
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What is the type of audience that Zee Café is trying to target through such programming? |
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Since you talked about investments in programming, would you tell us how much has Bombay Talking cost Zee Café? |
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How about a ball park figure to make us understand the type of effort that you guys are putting in? |
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Are programmes like Bombay Talking being launched as the channel had got some feedback? Feedback is a continuous process. Still, at the moment, we are undertaking a brand exercise for Zee Café (being done by FCB Ulka) that will tell us more about the channel and the type of programming that should be put out on the channel. There are certain perceptions about the channel and we want to pinpoint the reasons for them. This feedback will also go a long way in helping us to position Zee Café in its genre. |
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Isn’t the common perception about Zee Cafe that it’s a `repeat of itself’ channel? However, we have also seen that to attract fresh viewers, we need new programming line-up that is relevant to them. And, that’s why you are seeing programmes like Bombay Talking. However, at the end of the day almost every TV channel, except probably the news channels, depend on repeats up to an extent. Another thing that I'd like to add is when we get India-made English programming on our channels, we are also targeting our international subscribers round the globe. Zee Network by far has the maximum number of subscribers overseas (over one million) and such English programming also caters to their needs. |
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But Zee Café, for that matter the other English channels from Zee too, has failed to create a buzz about its programming innovations. How do you feel new viewers will come on board? And, such activities are not restricted to Zee Café only. The other two English channels also have similar activities lined up for them that you’ll see over a period of time. |
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What is the game plan for Zee Studio and is the parent company looking at getting a strategic investor for the movie channel as was the case earlier? |
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Is Zee also talking to News Corp (Star’s parent company)-owned 20th Century Fox and Sony’s Columbia Tri-Star too for acquiring movies? |
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Why don’t you detail the plan to differentiate Zee Studio from the competition? If you see our new properties, then it almost works out several new films every week. Now this activity is going to be scaled up at least one and half times very soon, which would make it almost a new film a day. This, I'd say,is really taking on the competition with big properties. Something like Zee Cinema does with big properties and it's a leader in its genre. |
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What if such innovations don’t pay off for the English channels? At Zee, we are not looking at overnight returns on investments in the English channels. It’s a long haul game and we are willing to wait. I can say quite safely that the return on investments, as you said, will start showing on Zee’s balance sheet much later. We are ready to wait anywhere between 20-30 months time for experiments and innovations on English channels to succeed. |
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What’s happening with Trendz? |
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Lastly, how’s the financial health of Zee’s English channels under you? |
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Photos by SANJAY SHARMA/Indiapix Network |