HBO, Star Movies, AXN, Zee MGM and Hallmark- all English movie channels, but each one with a different persona, each one with a different set of audience and each one with a different look, feel and movie-menu. This time, we look at what sets each of these channels apart and what makes some of them click more than the others.

It's said (and religiously believed) that a marketer's biggest fear is a customer who switches brands easily. And if that is what marketers of the English movie channels also fear, they have a reason to panic some more. Have a look at the TVRs of HBO, Star Movies and AXN below.

TG: 15-34/M/F/ Sec ABC

While the TVRs of the 3 channels remain more or less the same throughout, there are sudden peaks in the same. TVRs of Star Movies, for example, peak in the 3rd, 13th and 15th week. These were the times when Star Movies aired some of the biggest block buster movies- 'Terminator-Judgment Day' and 'Aliens 3' in the 3rd week and 'Jurassic Park' and 'Jurassic Park-The Lost World' in the 13th and 15th week respectively. Again, look at the TVRs of HBO. They peak in the 2nd week and during this time, 'The Mummy' was aired on the channel.

Does all that analysis boil up to something? Certainly! Does it spell danger for the marketers? Undoubtedly! From what the analysis shows, the English Movie channels survive only on block-busters. Minus the block-busters, the TVRs of these channels experience a sudden dip. And if the fact that the English Movie channels survive only on block-busters, there is certainly scope for a lot of work for the brand managers and marketers!

As we close the curtains on the TVR analysis, let us now have a look at the profile of the audience these movie channels attract and how they shape the channels overall look, feel and personality. Look at the gender and age charts below.


TG: 15-34/M/F/ Sec ABC

A look at AXN's program menu will be enough to give you the reasons why it has about 70% male audience and only 30% female audience. As compared to AXN, HBO and Star Movies can boast of a more proportionate mix of the genders; while HBO has about 60% male audience, Star Movies has about 40%. So, now you know where to look if you want to target men.

Moving from genders, let's move to see how age groups are distributed across channels. HBO has an audience spread out equally between the age groups of 15-24 and 25-34. Certainly good for planners looking for a wide, well distributed age group! Both Star Movies and AXN are dominated by a more mature audience, with about 60% in the age group of 25-34. Again you know which channel has a more fuddy-duddy image and where to place your brand for the right image.

Although we had a fairly good look at the audience profile of English Movie channels, the fact that these channels cannot boast of a loyal audience base makes the audience profile analysis, if not totally, yet somewhat invalid, since the lack of loyalty factor leads to changing viewer profiles. Does that make media planners a little uncertain?