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MUMBAI: Earlier this year Excel Home Video entered the television
segment. It released the first seasons of Desperate Housewives
and Lost.
Encouraged by the response the company is now looking to
add more titles to that list.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com this afternoon, Excel
Home Video MD MN Kapasi says, "Our focus is only on English
shows as those in the SEC A and A+ segments watch them. They
can thus afford to buy them. We will be releasing the second
seasons of Lost and Desperate Housewives. These
rights were got from Buena Vista.
"We will now be releasing seasons 1-5 of 24 as
well as Prison Break and The Simpsons. These
rights we got from Fox. Other titles include Boston Legal
and Grey's Anatomy. The Hindi segment is not cost effective.
If you want sell a DVD of a Hindi soap like a Saas Bahu then
you would have to price it cheap.
"By the end of the fiscal year March 2007 we will have
eight English TV DVD titles. For the next fiscal we will add
another seven to eight titles. We are looking at specialised
content like aerobics and possibly adventure sports."
The television venture helps Excel build on the relationship
it already has with Fox and Disney as far as films are concerned.
Excel Home Video has 1,000 English film titles on DVD. One
of its latest releases has been Ice Age 2. To push
it kicked off an offer in association with Twentieth Century
Fox Home Entertainment. Each DVD has a hologram. If the hologram
matches the hologram shown on the channel then the consumer
gets Ice Age 2 merchandise which has been imported.
This way Kapasi says consumers become more aware of legal
products as pirated stuff do not have holograms.
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One of the wall executions done at Planet M
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On the retail level when a consumer buys a DVD he can get
an Excel VCD exchanged for a DVD and just pay the price difference.
The Ice Age 2 DVD has a coupon. The consumer just has
to mail the coupon. To push Ice Age 2 Excel also did
wall executions in retail outlets like Planet M, Rhythm House.
The dubbed version of Ice Age 2 in Hindi will be released
later this month. New titles coming up are Cars, X-Men
3 and Pirates Of The Carribean 2. To push X
Men 3 Excel will have ads on Pix and AXN. This too will
be a hologram linked effort.
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An innovation by Excel at Crossword
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Excel also did the innovation of re - releasing the first
Pirates film on DVD to coincide with the release of the sequel.
It also re released the first two X Men films to coincide
with the theatrical release of X Men 3. "This
strategy of synergy marketing has worked well for us"
adds Kapasi.
He says that 50 per cent of Excel's above the line marketing
activities are done through television. Print he adds has
not really delivered. Excel not surprisingly also advertises
in select multiplexes through slides as that is one place
his TG frequents.
Excel has also come out with the strategy of having Movies
and More outlets. This is a place where one can buy DVDs and
VCDs. Right now there are 11 mostly situated in multiplexes.
The plan is to increase the number to 40 by the end of the
fiscal. There will also be a presence in malls.
Excel has around 30 Hindi films in its library including
Dor and Lagaan. Kapasi rues the fact that there
is no method in the price one pays to get the rights for a
Hindi film. A producer according to him often quotes a price
without looking at factors like the market size. He is hopeful
that with new producers like Farhan Akhtar coming in the situation
will improve.
In terms of targets he says that the company expects a 40
per cent growth in turnover for this fiscal. Bottomline growth
is expected to be in the range of 18-22 per cent. The efforts
of Excel have not gone unnoticed. Fox is happy about the way
Ice Age 2 has fared on DVD. Fox VP intl licensees Richard
Crook says, “The success has sharpened our focus on India’s
growing home entertainment market. Excel Home Videos our licensee
in India, has delivered a fantastic job by successfully targetting
the festive holidays”.
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