MxMIndia

Tag: Sunil Punjabi

  • AXN India announced a content acquisition deal with CBS Studios International bringing many popular from January 27

    AXN India to bring top English shows, inks content acquisition deal with CBS

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading English general entertainment channel AXN India announced a content acquisition deal with CBS Studios International on Friday. AXN, which has been airing home CBS shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NCIS: Los Angeles has now acquired five more shows, namely Elementary, Beauty and The Beast, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0 and Reckless.

     

    The channel will have exclusive rights to air all episodes of the newly acquired shows from CBS Studios International starting this January, notes a communiqué.

     

    Sunil Punjabi

    Talking about the deal, Sunil Punjabi, Business Head, AXN India said, “The current deal with CBS Studios International has only strengthened our long-standing relationship with them. AXN has always been the home to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NCIS: Los Angeles. The new shows will further add approx 100 hours of content airing close to the US every year. This deal is all set to strengthen the ever-expanding bouquet of AXN programming.”

     

  • AXN India is gearing up for full-on thrills spanning the entertainment spectrum. The star of the broadened content lineup is The Apprentice Asia. MxM India spoke to AXN's Sunil Punjabi on the whys and hows

    Jaldi 5 with Sunil Punjabi: Action, drama, entertainment

    Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia is geared up for its next original production, The Apprentice Asia, which will premiere on AXN across 21 countries in Asia in the first half of 2013. Call for participation for the India region began on November 15. We asked Sunil Punjabi, Business Head, AXN India Networks, why the channel needs The Apprentice.

     

    01. Programmes like The Apprentice and reality shows in the same genre have not done very well in India earlier. And this series will premiere across Asia. What was the rationale behind bringing the show on board?

    As far as The Apprentice and other reality shows are concerned, programmes that have some amount of interactivity built in tend to do better than plain shows that go on air. We ourselves did India’s Minute to Win It two years ago, and we built in a fairly large amount of interactivity. With the amount of interactivity and local presence, content offtake is higher because the viewer also starts engaging with the programme. Hence, engagement at the consumer level with localization is going to be the big differentiating factor for such shows.

     

    For The Apprentice at the Asia level, participants will be taking part from India in the selection process. It is where we believe local flavour comes in. Apprentice Asia should see better traction on the ground.

     

    02. How is AXN planning to create buzz around the show?

    We have pushed in the online campaign, apart from opening for entries on November 15. We are doing a lot of ground activation, contacting some 150-odd corporates across six cities with the aim of reaching working people one-on-one.

     

    We will reveal more plans as we come close to the airing of the show.

     

    03. Does The Apprentice or Minute to Win It gel with the programming of AXN, which essentially is Action TV?

    We have always been a thrill channel, and thrill can be action or drama. Or even dance. If you look at our top shows like So You Think You Can Dance, it is all about excitement. It is a very high-energy show and it gets the eyeballs, apart from other top-rated high-drama series like CSI and CIS, Leverage, Supernatural and Amazing Race. These are content blocks with lots of thrill built in, and that is the positioning that we’ve always maintained.

     

    India’s Minute To Win It – every activity that you look is based on the excitement. For that matter, Apprentice is going to be one challenging task. If you see the US and UK versions, every task that participants go through is time-based and there is heavy involvement in these episodes. And that is how it fits into AXN.

     

    04. Is AXN aiming to include all genres in its programming, and thus moving away from the original concept of an action channel?

    We have broadened the perspective. We have broadened the content line-up because at the end of the day we believe that there is a lot of International content, which can be brought to the India viewer. Apprentice has never been done in India, it has been done only in the US and UK. Actually, we are looking at an Indian version of Amazing Race soon. These are high-intensity formats.

     

    We believe that consumers want different types of content. The revised positioning of AXN is based on the consumer feedback that we have got over a period of time saying that they need more programmes that are high-energy.

     

    05. Apart from The Apprentice, which other non-action shows is AXN targeting?

    Amazing Race will start in January. There is Voice 4, which is slated for March. A strong drama series of Steven Seagal called True Justice 2 will be coming up also in January. It is a 12-part one-hour series that we are launching as part of Big Thrill Fridays, which is positioned around fresh and as-close-to-US-launch content. There is a new series of Leverage, a modern-day Robinhood series, which will begin in the month of Feb-March. An original production of Sony Pictures, Hannibal, will debut in March. It is an original AXN US production.

     

    It is a fairly good mix of high-drama, high-action, high-energy entertainment.

     

    As told to Ananya Saha

     

  • Overseeing the day-to-day management of the channels, Mr Punjabi will develop business opportunities and channel equity

    Sunil Punjabi is India Business Head for SPT Networks

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia has appointed Sunil Punjabi to lead its Indian operations in the newly created role of Business Head, India. Mr Punjabi is based in the company’s Mumbai office to lead its local team in all business functions, with the responsibility for the profitability for SPT’s networks in India, said a release from the company.

     

    Overseeing the day-to-day management of the channels, Mr Punjabi will develop business opportunities and channel equity. He will lead the team in developing the go-to market strategy for new channels as well as oversee the development, acquisition and production of a content mix for SPT’s networks in India. Mr Punjabi is also charged with driving marketing strategies to grow the channel brands and to pursue further distribution opportunities. He reports to Ricky Ow, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Networks, Asia, Sony Pictures Television, who is based in the company’s regional head office in Singapore.

     

    Mr Punjabi brings 12 years of well-rounded experience in the Indian media and entertainment industry across key business functions including advertising sales, marketing, theatrical exhibition, business development, production, distribution, and operations.

     

    “We are pleased to welcome Sunil to drive our business in India. His acumen and experience across all functions will be key assets to lead our channels to greater heights in one of Asia’s largest and most competitive TV markets,” said Mr Ow.

     

    Mr Punjabi joins the company from one of India’s top three film exhibition chains, Cinemax India Ltd., where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2010. Prior to that, he worked at Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. where he was Senior Vice President for Business Development, leading the new media, mobile telephony and syndication divisions’ integration with the company’s sports and music TV channels.

     

    Mr Punjabi was instrumental in the formation in Fox Star Studios, the joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox and Star TV, and was also involved in major films including Slumdog Millionaire and My Name is Khan.

     

    Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia, based in Singapore, was established in 1997 as the Asia headquarters for Sony Pictures Television Networks. It operates five ad-supported 24/7 channel brands in the region which are wholly owned by Sony Pictures.