Date:21/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/01/21/stories/2004012102500600.htm

Back `Content, quality make HBO a leader'

Latha Venkatraman

Mumbai , Jan. 20

NOTWITHSTANDING the World Cup Cricket and the confusion about conditional access system, HBO, the English movie channel, has ended 2003 on a good note. The channel ended with 11 out of the top 15 English movies and carved a share of 42 per cent in its genre, says Ms Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager, HBO South Asia.

According to her, that is a result of a three-pronged strategy - the latest Hollywood film, innovative theme and original programming. "We brought in the latest of Hollywood films. We have 70 per cent of the top 20 films. We also worked on innovative and interesting themes such as `Generation Me'.

"We also had some of our original programming. I think content and quality does make the channel a leader,'' she said.

Ms Bajpai has been elevated to the position of Country Manager, HBO South Asia, from the level of Director-Marketing from January 1.

She believes this formula is sustainable. "It has helped us to break through. The fact that we have tie-ups with four major studios - Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal and Paramount - is a major advantage,'' she says.

The channel is on course to break-even and should be able to achieve this in over a year's time. According to her, 2004 is yet again a crucial year interspersed with the Lok Sabha elections and plenty of cricket matches. "Therefore, the content will play a major role,'' she says. Therefore, 2004 will have several big movie under the slot `Big One' and is starting the year with Spiderman.

"It is important to have movies such as Spiderman so that we are able to keep the momentum going,'' Ms Bajpai said. "We have the critical mass to sustain but at the end of the day, we are a special interest channel in a scenario where there are a whole lot of channels,'' she added.

According to her, HBO's strategy of original programming mix did help to widen its audience profile especially with its theme in 2003 - Japanese Connection. The year 2003 was tough, not a robust year in terms of advertising revenue. Yet there was a noticeable shift in the advertiser profile towards more lifestyle brands, cell phones who turned out to be big spenders in a year when the fast moving consumer goods sector was in a slowdown mode, she said.