MUMBAI: Fox Life India, a channel that offers everything in the lifestyle genre from music, fashion, party, style to reality, has just turned one! And it’s been a year of celebrating food, fashion, music and travel. Owned by Fox International Channels (FIC), Fox Life India was launched on 15 June, 2014.
Back to the roots
The channel has seen multiple name changes. From Fox History and Entertainment, it was renamed Fox History and Traveller in May 2011. In October 2011, it became Fox Traveller and last year, the channel was christened Fox Life.
Going through numerous revamps by logos changes, the channel changed its logo five times from November 2008 to present. Subsequently as the channel dropped history related shows from its programming milieu and only had content related to travel and sight-seeing, it took on the name of Fox Traveller. Finally making a stagnant move, the channel changed its name to Fox Life, thus turning it into a lifestyle channel.
Action over the last 12 months
While it started as a channel that showcased travel and food, Fox Life later expanded the genre by adding lifestyle elements to the programming mix.
Fox International Channels India business head Swati Mohan believes that the journey has always been fun and the one with Fox Life has been truly spectacular. “Fox Life is a huge lifestyle channel in the FIC portfolio worldwide and here in India, we’re trying to keep on that global legacy while maintaining our local flavour. It’s a perfect mix of Indian and global content that showcases various aspects of lifestyle. Our fans and audience have loved the change,” Mohan tells Indiantelevision.com.
Adventure, Experiments, New Journeys
The channel delivers a slate of watch-together content like Soundtrek (second season), a music show, which featured artists from across the country and their take on classic old songs. Another hit show on the channel was Twist of Taste, which went into its fourth season and was hosted by Vikas Khanna.
Style and the City, the perfect fashion show, which goes behind a celebrity’s fashion closet also premiered its third season in May.
In addition to these India made shows, the channel has shows from around the world such as Getaway, which takes you to the best locales on the globe, Into the Unknown with David Beckham, a show which features the star and his bike ride through South America, Eat Street and Street Food Around the World, showcases the most yummy-licious food from the world over.
“We were the leaders in the travel and lifestyle genre with Fox Traveller and we have maintained that stance with Fox Life. The addition has been the new shows and contest genres that we’ve added,” states Mohan.
She further adds, “It really has been a year of change and through the 12 months we’ve been working hard to give our fans the best lifestyle mix. We’ve added so many sub-genres and grown the travel and lifestyle genre at large, which as the leader in the segment was our prerogative to do.”
The Buzzing machine
The channel attracts good eyeballs on social media. On the channel’s official Facebook page, it garners more than three million likes and has been decorated with it’s been #onederfuljourney since the past three days. On YouTube, it has more than 2,000 subscribers. On Twitter it has 25,000 followers. On the channel’s first anniversary, the hashtag #FoxLifeTurnsOne was also promoted.
In order to keep viewers engaged throughout the year, Fox Life has used the on-air medium to create engagement and visibility. Moreover, it has also offered audiences a lot of live tweeting options, watch and win and real time engagement with the channel.
For the show Twist of Taste, it got a famous food blogger in Mumbai to take 25 people on a dessert food walk around the city. Participants got to see a side of Mumbai they hadn’t and FB - Twitter fans followed the winners on their walk.
Another way in which the channel connects with its fans is by letting them interact with show hosts like Vikas Khanna, Rochelle Rao, Kiran Jethwa, David Rocoo and others.
For Soundtrek this year, Fox Life created a campaign for which it won silver for the ‘Outstanding Programme Image Campaign’ category at Promax.
“The journey so far has been great and we’re looking at going places in the future too. To grow the channel and give our fans all of that they need in the lifestyle space is the way to go and that’s what we’re going to do,” concludes Mohan.
For the record, the channel, which caters to the lifestyle segment was originally launched in Italy and now reaches to 73 countries in 19 different languages. Fox Life India reaches to more than 52 million households across the country.
