The Hindu Business Line : ‘Original content sets HBO apart’

HBO’s original productions in the past include movies like Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (starring Halle Berry) and series like Band Of Brothers (produced by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg), Rome, Angels in America and Entourage,apart from the “runaway success” Sex and the City. Towards the end of summer, viewers will get to watch the new season of Entourage. Post summer, HBO will run a new series Big Love — in the third quarter.

HBO says original productions give viewers variety and value addition, apart from its staple offerings of Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Ms Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager, HBO, says: “Original series and movies set us apart from the rest. It’s like the icing on the cake.”

How has the Indian audience taken to ‘HBO originals’? “Entourage Season 1 & 2 were premiered in July 2007. We brought back these seasons on popular demand earlier this year (Jan & Feb). Entourage was the most successful English series across all English channels (Source: TAM CS AB 15-44, 5 metros, 15 July 2007 — 29 Sep 2007). We will be premiering Season 3 in June, followed by Season 4 towards the end of the year,” explains Ms Bajpai.

Sex and the City, which premiered in 2003, consistently appeared in the weekly top 20 programmes across English movie channels, a first for any English series, says Ms Bajpai.

High recall value

“All six seasons of this series were the most watched programmes across all English channels. It is still regarded as a benchmark to measure the success of other English series. The last season was shown in September 2006, more than 18 months back — but the series and its characters still enjoy a high recall value with audiences across ages.”

Although the channel has enjoyed success with its originals, HBO, however, does not want to increase the proportion of original content — from 15-20 per cent currently.

HBO has “a good balance” of original content and blockbusters. We will continue to maintain that, says Ms Bajpai. After all, HBO is known for its strong portfolio of Hollywood blockbusters and we wouldn’t want to tamper with its core and niche, she adds.

Sustaining interest

On the competition front, Ms Bajpai says Star Movies and HBO are the top two English movie channels though there is “no clear number one.” On competition from the latest entrant — ‘World Movies’ from UTV — Ms Bajpai says all new channels make a “big splash initially” but what’s key is how long they can sustain the interest.