MSM's music channel, Mix, to hit screens on September 1

The core focus of Mix will be the age group of 15-24 years. However, the channel also plans to tap into the secondary set, the 25-44-year olds, in a bid to expand its viewership base.

Come September 1, Multi Screen Media (MSM) will foray into the Hindi music domain with the launch of Mix, a pure Hindi film music channel.

Clad in the identity 'Dekho Suno Gungunao', the channel logo will exhibit the seven notes of music, dressed in the seven different colours of the rainbow.

The core focus of Mix will be the age group of 15-24 years. However, the channel also plans to tap into the secondary set, the group aged 25-44 years, in a bid to expand its viewership base.

"There is a certain saturation point that the genre has reached with the youth target group (15-24 years age bracket) and the look and feel of most of the channels serving this genre is almost the same. However, the 25-44-year old is a much-underserved audience set and we intend to tap this bracket, too, with our content," says Neeraj Vyas, business head, Mix. Vyas is also the executive vice-president and business head for Max.

Mix will play approximately 750 tracks in one month, as against the 150-200 tracks that the other players in the genre broadcast, claim the channel executives. It will also build its scheduling based on day parting strategy, like that of radio. This means that each part of the day will be divided into a certain block, depending on the mood, and songs related to that mood will be played to the audience.

"Therefore, the morning block (7-8 am) will telecast devotional songs and will be branded as Arziyan. The 8-12 noon band will play top musicals and will be called Surili Subhah. Meanwhile, the afternoon hours will be targeted at the housewives with romantic songs under the banner Ishq Vishq," Vyas says.

Elaborating further, he notes that this will help the latest offering from the MSM stable in building appointment viewing.

The initial launch of Mix will ride on the back of KBC and across the other network channels. From October 1 onwards, MSM will begin with off-the-network promotions, once the distribution of the channel is in place, states NP Singh, chief operating officer, MSM.

Mix will initially focus on regions such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to build its audience profile.

Man Jit Singh, chief executive officer, MSM, says, "We are glad as the launch of Mix comes on the heels of our flagship channel SET securing the No. 2 position, and other channels, Max, PIX and SAB doing extremely well in their respective genres. All the channels from the MSM Network share the same philosophy of best in class entertainment for the viewers, and with our latest offering, MSM Network is looking at achieving a period of exponential growth and sustained development in the coming future."

Meanwhile, all the offerings from the Sony stable will now also exhibit the Sony logo above their respective logos. Therefore, Mix, PIX, SAB and Max will be called Sony Mix, Sony PIX, Sony SAB and Sony Max respectively.