MUMBAI: Last year Fox International Channels (FIC) India rebranded its lifestyle channel Fox Traveller to Fox Life. Its focus and philosophy was on interesting journeys that took viewers places.
Encouraged by the response that the channel in its new avatar has so far received, the plan is now to launch new shows in different genres within lifestyle—fashion, music, travel, food, etc. Specialised weekend programming is one area of focus in addition to continuing to strengthen content at 9 pm, 10 pm and 11 pm.
Speaking to Televisionpost.com FIC India VP, content and programming Swati Mohan said, “We’re going to have more of these genres and engage with our viewers in a much bigger better way. The channel is well known for theme-based travel shows. Be it about food ‘Twist of Taste’, music-oriented ‘SoundTrek’ or fashion-centric ‘Style and the City, Fox Life has been able to create differentiated content through these.”
Talking about the reason for the channel’s philosophy, she noted that the youth travel nowadays for a reason, not just to see a place. “It is very purpose driven now. That is why we are focusing more on the journey and experience. The channel has lined up a host of exciting content, exploring different faces of an enriching life, like music, travel, fashion, food, and some more.”
She noted that last year the channel led the travel and lifestyle and English entertainment genre for more than 40 weeks. “There had been many weeks when Fox Life was as large as the combined strength of the genre competitors. Last year, we also switched to the new refreshed Fox Life and our viewers just loved it.”
The importance of food
Mohan points out that food is one of the important genres in lifestyle. “The food genre, if done well, works very well with the viewers. “Some of our top shows have been food shows like ‘Food Safari’, ‘Street Foods Around the World’, ‘Eat Street’. One of our most successful local productions ‘Twist of Taste’ is also going into its fourth season. And we will continue to keep investing in differentiated food shows through this year.”
She noted that food is probably too broad a term to club so many distinct shows. This is because Fox Life has created shows that showcase food in unusual ways from travel shows focused on what to eat and where (‘Eat Street’), to cookery shows simplifying world cuisine to its most delicious (‘The Twist of Taste’), to celebs letting their hair down on a road trip across Australia (‘Boys Weekend’), to international chefs exploring Indian cuisines (‘David Rocco Dolce India’) and now a culinary adventure through wild Kenya with (‘Tales from the Bush Larder’). “Hence Fox Life programmes are not only restricted to food but also explore other dimensions such as travel and lifestyle,” she added.
Upcoming properties
In terms of the big properties coming up in the coming few months, a lot of it not surprisingly is food related. She points out to ‘Tales from the Bush Larder’, which went on air last month. An Indian-origin Kenyan, Kiran Jethwa takes viewers on a culinary tour of Kenya in the show. This month ‘Go Food with Vikas Khanna’ airs. Khanna leads the viewers through global gastronomy on weeknights at 9 pm. Each week, viewers can watch the best food-travel experiences of Fox Life in a different part of the world: The first week looks at Italy, the next week the show goes down under to Australia. Then it travels to the US, followed by Great Britain the week after. The chef offers his personal take on the food there and the place.
‘Getaway – India’, meanwhile, returns for new episodes this month. “Fox Life’s classic holiday guide is back with special episodes set in India. Cricket star Brett Lee and Miss Australia take a trip of a lifetime across Delhi, Benares, Jaipur and Kerala. They try out the high life at luxury hotels, and also experience the heartwarming side of India, connecting with fans and new friends,” she said.
Another returning food show is ‘Street Food Around the World’. Foodie traveller Ishai Golan returns for a new season. This time he heads off to iconic cities including Rio do Janeiro and Tokyo.
Later this year in May the broadcaster focuses on fashion by bringing back ‘Style and the City’ in May. “Our top-rated show where we see celebrated designers of the country travel through India with a celebrity to marry local influences and create a master dress. This year we’ll be back with new designers and new cities from across the country,” explained Mohan.
Finding the right ingredients
What are the elements that shows in the lifestyle genre need to work? Mohan points out that Fox Life as a channel embraces all the genres within lifestyle, be it travel, food, fashion, music, party and more. “We feel that ‘genre’ might be a segregation that we as broadcasters give to shows—and not necessarily how viewers watch them. It’s important to find ingredients that bring people to the channel and shows.” For her the key to a show successfully connecting with viewers lies in exciting hosts, people following their passion, great visuals, high energy and pace and an attitude that wants to live life to the fullest. “These are the ingredients of any Fox Life show, irrespective of the genre,” she notes
Her aim at the end of the day is that the shows should go beyond just introducing a viewer to a destination. “We focus on experiential travel, so lifestyle becomes one of the ways to lens it.” She offers the example of ‘Sound Trek’, which takes urban musicians on a journey across the country to collaborate with folk and classical stalwarts.
Stronger focus on primetime
Fox Life’s strategy rested on giving a lot of focus to the 9 pm, 10 pm and 11 pm slots last year. “We have also managed to tighten day-time programming to map our viewer’s needs and have seen massive growth. In the coming year, apart from continuing focus on these day parts, specialised weekend programming is something that viewers can look forward to.”
Viewer loyalty
For Mohan the key to the channel’s success has been that viewers have stayed with it even after the rebrand. “Fox Traveller has had a consistent leadership of two years and though the channel saw a revamp to Fox Life in June last year, we still stand tall among the competition. It is heartening to learn of the loyalty that our viewers have showcased over the past few years. The new slate of content for Fox Life has not just helped our viewer base grow, but has enabled many more opportunities for advertisers to leverage and create content. In FY14, we have had over 50 new advertisers, also making the channel as popular among advertisers for regular spends and creation of co-branded properties.
“Our strongest viewership markets, as for even the genre, would be the four metros.”
She, however, added that the channel as of now is not looking at other language feeds.
Content acquisition strategy
In the past few years content being produced in the lifestyle genre by content creation companies has grown by leaps and bounds. At global markets like the upcoming MipTV in April, there is a plethora of lifestyle content available for broadcasters like Fox Life to buy. For Mohan the channel’s content acquisition strategy uses its unique brand philosophy as a filter at all times. “As long as a show is a fit for our brand, is within our content pillars and something that will appeal to our growing viewer base, it will find itself on the channel.”
Going local
In terms of local shows, the channel will bring back local franchises from last year like ‘Style and the City’. “Apart from that, we do plan to launch a couple of new productions as well,” she said.