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The feed will premiere with the popular Ripley’s Believe It
or Not . Incidentally, it was in September last that a media
report had quoted AXN assistant vice president marketing and sales
Rohit Bhandari saying a dual feed was in the offing. Later AXN Asia
marketing V-P Gregory Ho denied the possiblity in an interview.
When contacted Bhandari offered, "Yes at that time we were
considering the propositions, but nothing was decided. When I spoke
to the daily, all I said was that a programme like Ripley's believe
it or not would be popular even if it was made in any Indian
language and I was assured of its success if I were to dub it. The
newspaper created a headline stating that we were going for a dual
feed. It was completely incorrect. Me saying that I want to get
married doesn't translate into me getting married soon!"
The channel will be introducing the dual feed on an experimental
basis, only one hour per day, for about three months. Bhandari offered
that besides the show, the channel would also be dubbing six odd
movies.
Audience who wish to to get the Hindi feed will have to contact
their cable operators and make arrangementa.
There is a likelihood of the channel gradually include some other
high rated shows in the one-hour time block, but that again will
depend on the popularity of this experiment, says Bhandari.
According to the channel, the attempt is to establish a connect
with its audiences and broaden its viewership base.
SET's executive vice president Rohit Gupta was quoted in the release
as saying, "AXN has been very successful in striking a fine
balance between managing a firmly entrenched international brand
while infusing just the required amount of local flavour to give
viewers the Buzz. AXN constantly ups its ante by bringing viewers
a unique mix of on-air programming and off-air activities, whether
its bringing India’s first reality TV show the AXN Extreme Dhamaka,
the AXN Hot N Wild Contest or introducing the latest dual
feed."
"Banking on its unique positioning and solid brand familiarity,
we are sure this initiative is going to be a huge success with the
Hindi speaking viewers thereby enabling AXN to effectively build
bridges with a larger audience base and entrench its roots further"
he adds.
Just some more proof (if proof were needed) as to the importance
of the Indian viewer's sensibilities to channels that have a pan-Asian
reach?
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