MUMBAI: From the latest and the hottest buzz of the B-town to celebrity interviews, from trending story of the day to spotting celebs late at night, from the celebs’ twitter updates to their other escapades, music channel 9XM is ready to celebrate Bollywood with its new offering ‘9XE’.
A show for all the accurate news on Bollywood in true 9XM style, the channel aims to be a differentiator from the crowd. The 30-minute show claims to be witty, edgy and fast paced. It will be hosted by the Canadian actor and former Kingfisher Calendar model, Mia Uyeda and air every Monday and Friday at 9pm.
With the new property, the channel breaks away from its set pattern of just showcasing Bollywood music. According to 9X Media content head Amar Tidke, it wants to build the channel as a destination. “Being a music channel and playing the latest Bollywood songs, launching a property around Bollywood only makes sense. This destination will further be a differentiator for us as well.”
The show will feature original content shot by the channel itself and will also see a host of fresh talent faces (in terms of presenters). The packaging, styling and tonality of the show is very youth centric.
The strategy adopted by the channel was pretty much clear. Monday’s will be more like a preview by airing box office collections over the weekend and Friday’s will be more from a movie reviews perspective.
“It is not going to be either like a straight reportage or sensationalise things for the heck of it,” adds Tidke on the tone of the show. He further reveals that the programme takes almost two to three days to shoot and a day to edit.
To engage with the large base of Bollywood fans on the internet, 9XE will have a strong presence across various digital platforms where the viewers can further continue to interact and get more of it.
The channel has created a dedicated website -www.9xe.com, a dedicated social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube ( /9XETheShow) and on Instagram (/9XE_THE_SHOW).
9X Media SVP and digital head Vibha Gosher believes that for the first time it has created a destination. “We have never done this before and hence, have treated it like an individual entity, like a separate company.”
Doing justice to it on the digital platform, it has also created a lot of exclusive content available only for the digital buffs.
“You design a television show keeping the television audience in mind. The digital audience is used to have a lot of fun and in a casual manner. The way we are presenting our content on the digital front is different from the show. There is a lot more that one can see on the digital platforms,” adds Gosher.
For instance, on the YouTube channel, it will have news desk every single day which is a news story. “Again news will be news and we know everyone else will also have the same story to tell, but what we are striving towards is a unique take on that event by giving our own perspective,” states Gosher.
Also, the channel has rolled out an Android application. “We have launched it and it is currently available for download. We are empowering it as and when we get more and better content,” says Gosher while adding that in a month’s time, it will also launch an iOs app.
