MUMBAI: And now following in the footsteps of &Prive HD, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has announced that it is rolling out &flix come 1 pm on 3 June 2018 on major DTH and digital cable TV platforms. The target audience for the new offering: the striver, which the channel defines as those who are always pursuing new experiences, are ready to upgrade and take that quantum leap.  

Thus &flix will feature 52 premiers of hit movies – amongst a total roster of 400 - that have stories that show not just what is, but what could be. Among the top notch titles -  that it has acquired from 10-11 independent Hollywood players and studios such as Sony, Paramount and Disney - that will debut on &flix feature: Spider-Man: Homecoming, Baby Driver, Life, The Emoji Movie, The Atomic Blonde, Jumanji and Blade Runner 2049.

&flix is initially seeking a market in the six metros and will be available on Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Sun TV, Hathway and TCCL to name a few to start with.

According to ZEEL premium channels- business cluster head Aparna Bhosle, 60 per cent of the total English content viewership comes from mega cities and has been growing at a CAGR of an impressive 35 per cent over the past three years.

“Out of the 183 million TV households, 51 million households consume English movies in India,” she elaborated.

Keeping in mind, that it is targeting millennials, its agency Publicis and the in-house team has laid out an expansive digital and print campaign in combination with cross promotions on sister HD channels and the great outdoors.

The idea is to get 350 million impressions over six weeks with messaging going out on platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, BuzzFeed, HuffPost and many more. The Twitter integrated outdoor innovation to unveil the channel’s first communication saw movie fans tweeting 10,000 tweets along with the channel’s hashtag, generating more than 52 million impressions in just 24 hours in the process.

“The brand proposition, Leap Forth, was created with the thought that you can have an extraordinary life with unlimited possibilities if you dare to take the leap,” shared ZEEL CMO Prathyusha Agarwal with indiantelevision.com.  “Our marketing campaign has been chalked out keeping in light the awe-inspiring larger than life experience we wish to offer. Our innovations, across mediums, reflect the magnitude of our offering, surely making it one of the biggest launches in our sector this year.”

Sources reveal that a marketing and promotional budget in excess of Rs 5 crore has been kept aside for the launch activity.

“For our ever-evolving audiences who are spoilt for choice, &flix will fuel the drive to take a quantum leap and break out of their orbits,” added Agarwal. “Our research led us to understand that over 60 per cent of all English movie viewers fall under the category of un-satiated strivers. With &flix, we aim to enthral the audience which is persistent in its pursuit of new experiences and is not easily satiated.”

&flix’s packaging was assigned to Canadian design agency Zink which is behind &Prive HD’s look as well.

At stake is a piece of the Rs 550-crore-600-odd crore spend that brands and media fork out on the English movie genre. Five brands have come on board as launch sponsor partners.  Among these feature Fiama (ITC), Lloyd (Havells), 100 Pipers (Pernod Ricard), Amazon Fire TV stick and Domino’s Pizza, revealed ZEEL EVP Sales Mona Jain.  She adds: “The strong brand proposition has helped us connect with some of the key like-minded brands across sectors. The response has been extremely positive from our clients and such partnerships further validate our belief in our offering. We are hoping to drive synergies with more brands as we embark on this new journey.”

According to insiders, the spot rates that it is asking for from agencies are even higher than &Prive HD as &flix is available in both HD and SD feeds.

Bhosle is sanguine that the heightened activity in the English movie genre is likely to work positively in its favour and she sees it growing faster and at a higher rate than in the past two years.

Shall we say Amen to that?