Sony Set To Launch English Channel In September

Global major Sony is launching an English channel in India for the first time which will beam only action-based programmes. Called AXN, the India launch is scheduled for September, 1998.

The channel is already being shown in various south-east Asian countries like Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines. The feed will be extended to India through the Abstar-IIR satellite.

Disclosing this, Kunal Dasgupta, chief operating officer, Sony Entertainment Television, said the idea was to enter a niche market not occupied any other channel.

"It didn't make much sense to launch another Hindi entertainment channel as there are far too many players in this segment. It would have been a clone of Sony and we would have spread ourselves too thin by introducing yet another Hindi channel," he said.

 

The 24-hour channel will be a pay channel and is primarily targeted at children and teenagers.

"There is a large audience in India for action-oriented movies like the James Bond series. Films featuring action heroes like Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarznegger are also extremely popular with the Indian audience. It is on the basis of this that we have decided to launch such a channel and are confident of a good response," Dasgupta explained.

The channel will telecast at least one action film a day and programmes on sumo wrestling. The subscriber charge has been fixed at between Rs five and Rs six.

A section of the cable and satellite industry, however, is sceptical about the chances of success of such a channel. A senior executive of a rival satellite channel said, "It is doubtful whether there is a market for an exclusive 24-hour action channel. There are already a number of other channels in which action programmes can be viewed," he said.

Meanwhile, Sony has shelved its plans to launch an exclusive news-based channel in India. Dasgupta said that the news segment was already over-crowded.

Apart from the state-owned Doordarshan, the other players in the news segment are STAR and Zee India TV.

He also claimed that Sony had broken even in 1997-98 with capitalised billings of Rs 101 crore. The company hoped to double it in 1998-99.