MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Ltd, the commercial arm of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), may launch two more channels in India by 2008 — BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle.
Recently BBC has launched two channels - BBC Entertainment and CBeebies — on Tata Sky. These two channels have been added to the super-saver package of Tata Sky. Globally, BBC Worldwide has 21 channels with a turnover of over €784 million. Prior to this, BBC Worldwide has already made its mark in India through its print partnership.
Christine Leo-McKerrow, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific, BBC Global Channels, said: “BBC Entertainment and Cbeebies conducted a research last year before entering the India market. We underestimated the pertinence of the BBC brand here in India and was really surprised to discover the brand’s strength. In our global channel’s portfolio we have six channels -BBC World, BBC Entertainment, CBeebies, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and BBC HT. There is definitely room for BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle in the country but it is a matter of figuring out the right time to bring these to India. I would like to see it happen next year.”
Though Leo-McKerrow declined to divulge any information regarding the network’s investments in India, it is learnt that BBC has made investments in two phases. In the first phase, the network has invested in getting these two channels in India and in the second phase they have paid Tata Sky for the bandwidth which includes the technical cost.
She added: “When we came to do our India plans we found various models for launching the channels. For example, there are some channels that go in the top-three slots to have the advertising sales and then there are some channels that are not so aggressive about ad sales but still expect to make money. And we are looking at the second slot and so we expect to be profitable. Our economic model is sound and is based on profit.”
source : DNA
Recently BBC has launched two channels - BBC Entertainment and CBeebies — on Tata Sky. These two channels have been added to the super-saver package of Tata Sky. Globally, BBC Worldwide has 21 channels with a turnover of over €784 million. Prior to this, BBC Worldwide has already made its mark in India through its print partnership.
Christine Leo-McKerrow, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific, BBC Global Channels, said: “BBC Entertainment and Cbeebies conducted a research last year before entering the India market. We underestimated the pertinence of the BBC brand here in India and was really surprised to discover the brand’s strength. In our global channel’s portfolio we have six channels -BBC World, BBC Entertainment, CBeebies, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and BBC HT. There is definitely room for BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle in the country but it is a matter of figuring out the right time to bring these to India. I would like to see it happen next year.”
Though Leo-McKerrow declined to divulge any information regarding the network’s investments in India, it is learnt that BBC has made investments in two phases. In the first phase, the network has invested in getting these two channels in India and in the second phase they have paid Tata Sky for the bandwidth which includes the technical cost.
She added: “When we came to do our India plans we found various models for launching the channels. For example, there are some channels that go in the top-three slots to have the advertising sales and then there are some channels that are not so aggressive about ad sales but still expect to make money. And we are looking at the second slot and so we expect to be profitable. Our economic model is sound and is based on profit.”
source : DNA