New South African free-to-air player Breeze TV has released its broadcasting strategy to the investor community. According to the broadcaster, the strategy is closely modelled on those developed by local (if un-named) free to air stations.
‘The strategic essence is simple, yet powerful economically,’ writes Breeze Pty Ltd Chairman Harold Kingmaker in the station’s investor update. ‘The brand has licensed six movies, all made within the last fifteen years, and will repeat them over a sustained period, thereby slashing running costs. The strategy has proved very successful for local broadcasters – in all important aspects Breeze TV is following South African best practice.’
The movies to be shown by Breeze are:
• The Fast and the Furious I
• Pride and Prejudice
• I, Robot
• Anaconda
• The Fast and the Furious II
• Oh Shucks its Shuster
To augment its movie selection the new station has secured the rights to all the worst games of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
‘We’ll show every game between the worst teams at the tournament, and that’s guaranteed,’ says Kingmaker. ‘We know our viewers are really looking forward to Namibia vs Canada. Russia vs Brazil is another highlight. In addition, we’re delighted to say we’ve secured the rights to a quarter final as well, but we won’t be able to reveal which game that is until moments before the match.’
Breeze is mandated to broadcast a high percentage of local entertainment content. Here, the station will follow the local model strictly.
‘Our entertainment producer has got a lot of friends in music PR,’ explained Kingmaker in an interview with this reporter. ‘This is very fortunate as it aligns with the local formula, which relies on not buying material at all. Instead we’ll rely on our producer’s friends giving him free content on their acts that they shot themselves. This creates the opportunity to run two or three local ‘making of’ music documentaries on repeat for stretches of six months or more. Providing we select a twelve year girl star and a rapidly ageing bunch of country-western has beens, we expect similar returns as achieved by other local players in terms of a reduction operational costs.’
And cost, ultimately, appears to be the name of the game. ‘Look, we want to make money,’ concludes Kingmaker. ‘So there’s no point blowing all our budget on content – that’s proved to be the road to bankruptcy. If we don’t spend a cent and cynically ride the public’s willingness to watch any old garbage again and again we’re confident we’ll have a sustainable – and even profitable – business on our hands within year one.’
– Andrew Miller has been a media and corporate ghost writer for the last 13 years. He used to write marketing satire under the John Doe pseudonym for Brand Magazine and Media Toolbox. When not releasing communications bile, Andrew runs Newtown’s Unity Design, a socially orientated arts and media company. Catch up with Unity on Facebook and Twitter.