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“We have grown by 25% in ad revenues…”

Pallavi Srivastava May 26, 2010
 

Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager, South Asia, HBO Asia shares the channels performance, marketing plans and talks about competition from new channels in a rendezvous with MediaWorldBuzz’s Pallavi Srivastava…

Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager, South Asia, HBO Asia


MediaWorldBuzz: How has been 2010 so far for HBO?
Shruti: In terms of ad revenue we have grown more than 25% in the first quarter of this year as compared to the same period last year. We got a great support from our advertisers and the number of advertisers on our channel has also gone up. Ratings are also as healthy as they have been last year.

MediaWorldBuzz: What is the marketing strategy for HBO in the upcoming months?
Shruti: Our channel believes in spending small but spending smart. Also, what will be called a small spend in the industry will be called a significant spend in the category. Our marketing strategy is to clearly focus on our ‘tent pole’ property. For example in the first quarter this year we have put in lot of efforts in promoting Hollywood Premiere League 2 (HPL). We are now following that with HBO originals. We have also spent significant marketing bucks on our yearly campaign called ‘Summer with HBO’. So these are our ‘tent pole properties’. Apart from that, we have individual title properties and the marketing spend on such properties depends on the bigness of the title. Like a big property for us in the beginning of the year was ‘The Dark Knight’ so we spent a lot of money on its marketing.
   

MediaWorldBuzz: Is there any strategic difference in the way you market your ‘tent pole’ properties vis-à-vis the individual titles?
Shruti: When we market the ‘tent pole’ properties, we use multiple media platforms be it print, radio, outdoor, other TV channels and internet in a big way. So in short, the marketing plan for the ‘tent pole’ properties is much more comprehensive and well grounded.

MediaWorldBuzz: This time HBO has significantly increased its spend on internet. What has led to that decision?
Shruti: Because more and more target audience of our channel is getting on the internet. Two years ago did people know what Facebook was? No, not many of them. But today it’s a rage. We will grow where our audience will grow.

MediaWorldBuzz: So how much more are you spending on internet this year as compared to last year? And what are the new media vehicles on the internet that you are advertising on?
Shruti: Well, this year the spends on internet will go up by 50% than what they were last year. This is because the focus on this medium is higher in this fiscal. There are certain portals like LinkedIn, where we have not advertised earlier but we think such sites will have potential HBO viewers so we are capturing ad space there.

MediaWorldBuzz: On an overall basis, how much has your advertising spend gone up?
Shruti: Well, our over all advertising spends are pretty much the same as last year. We will grow our ad spends as our revenues grow more in future. So it will be in alignment with that.

MediaWorldBuzz: Coming to the programming part now, what is the programming mix at HBO between the Hollywood content and the HBO originals?
Shruti: The HBO Originals which are the original content (both movies and TV series) produced by HBO for HBO, currently form less than 15% of the total content in India. The rest is Hollywood movies.

MediaWorldBuzz: What about the contribution of HBO originals to the revenues of the channel?
Shruti: See, you can’t really do cost per title but yes major share of revenues in India comes from movies. But at the same time, series build loyalty both in terms of advertisers and audience. So, the focus really will be on blockbusters.

MediaWorldBuzz: Over the last couple of years, English movie genre has seen a lot of new channels being launched. How do you see that affecting the category?
Shruti: New channel launches will create fragmentation in the category. Obviously, audience will have more choice but it will not affect the category in a big way. You have to see that Hollywood has a limited output. So how much of that output is going to these other channels? The bulk of the output (of Hollywood) is coming to HBO and a significant part of it is going to Star Movies. The rest of the channels are showing movies that have come on HBO or Star Movies. Thus, though there is channel fragmentation in the category but still the quality programming is limited to the top channels only.

MediaWorldBuzz: What’s your take on HBO’s competition from DTH platform which is offering Hollywood content on pay-per-view basis, especially when it is available on a ad-free basis?
Shruti: The world over experience says that this always co-exists with movie channels. It never becomes so significant that it starts competing with a movie channel. I was going through some pay-per-view numbers for movies in India and it was so less. A Hollywood movie in the country gets around 3000-4000 people to watch on pay-per-view on DTH. So, you are talking about 30 million households watch English movie channels and then you are talking about 3000-4000 people who watch movies on pay-per-view. There is no competition.