BBC Entertainment aims to woo Indian audiences with 100 hours of fresh content this summer

To be housed under the 'London Calling' umbrella, the fresh content, packaged into a season, will be aired from May 19 onwards, targeting the 25+ SEC A and B audiences pan India.

Happy with the audience buzz that BBC Entertainment received from the live telecast of the Royal Wedding in India last year, the channel has designed 100 hours of fresh programming in a bid to woo the Indian audiences.

To be housed under the 'London Calling' umbrella, the fresh content, packaged into a season, will be aired from May 19 onwards, targeting the 25+ SEC A and B audiences pan India.

With an aim to feature programmes showcasing the spirit of London, the content line up will significantly include royal documentaries (The House of Windsor: A Royal Dynasty, The Diamond Queen, The Queen's Palaces, Monarchy: Royal Family at Work), The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations (Thames Pageant -live, concert -live, services of thanksgiving and royal procession - live) and a highlight of the events. Meanwhile, the line up will also include programmes such as London Stories: The Underground, and Timewatch: Crowning a Queen.

As a part of the fiction line up, the channel will launch Sherlock (Series 2), Luther, Spooks, Whitechapel and a mockumentary based on the Olympics: Twenty Twelve (series 1 & 2).

Elaborating on the choice to focus on London to woo the Indian audiences, Ishita Roy, head, marketing, BBC Worldwide Channels South Asia, tells afaqs!, "This year, in light of the 2012 Olympics and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, all eyes are on London. Also, since our last year's experiment with the Royal Wedding being live-streamed on the channel really paid off well, we decided to focus on London this summer."

The channel has already roped in L'Oreal as the associate sponsor for the entire London Calling season; it intends to get six-seven more sponsors on board.

As part of the marketing campaign, the channel will initiate the promotions across digital platforms first, with the launch of a microsite and a game that has been created especially for London Calling. This game will be launched across the BBC Worldwide network and across nine regions. Following this, the campaign will be targeted to particular shows such as Sherlock and Twenty Twelve.

It may be recalled that in January 2011, BBC Entertainment decided to don a new look and extended its programming line up for the Indian audiences with the new positioning, 'Seriously Entertaining'.

Earlier, BBC Entertainment claimed that its USP lies in the fact that it brings British television to Indian homes, especially since other English GECs in India telecast shows created in America by American studios for American viewers, as a part of various content output deals.

BBC Entertainment claims that it has designed programmes keeping in mind the TV viewing habits of the audience at different times of the day, which is a key factor in driving the sampling of the channel.