Sony Pix plans to increase its marketing budget by 20 per cent to promote its ‘tent pole’ film this year – The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

Tent pole property is the biggest property in terms of raking in revenues

“We are willing to ‘over promote’ this particular film as it is going to be our tent pole property for the year. There will be a significant ad spend this month on the film and we are increasing our marketing budget by 20 per cent compared with last year. The film will have seven breaks with an extended ad inventory,” said Sunder Aaron, Business Head, Pix.

Every year Sony Pix unleashes a tent pole film which is driven by sponsors.

With access to the library of Sony Pictures, Pix has the going for bulk deals to buy license for films which last for 2-3 years. “After the first burst of the film, we air it another 3-4 times. With inflation, the cost of acquiring films is also increasing and we usually hold these licenses for a couple of years,” said Aaron.

But distribution continues to be a major challenge for the English movie channel. Although it has One Alliance as its distribution partner, distribution costs have been prohibitive for the channel as it is unable to make inroads into states such as Tamil Nadu.

At the same time, Pix claims to be a market leader in Mumbai, while its competitor Star Movies tops the English Movies list in Delhi. “Almost 15-20 million viewers watch Pix every week. There is a fight every week as it is a competitive category, but currently we are the leader in Mumbai,” he added.

Purvita@thehindu.co.in

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