'Fox Traveller' is now 'Fox Life'

The channel has rebranded to bring to its viewers fresh content and 'richer' experiences.

Fox Traveller, the travel and lifestyle channel from the Fox Group, dons a new look along with fresh content. Renamed as 'Fox Life - Go Places', the channel has rebranded in order to catch up with the audience's need for exciting and good quality content.

It may be recalled that in March 2013, the channel had ushered in changes in programming, new colors and a promotional campaign titled 'UN'. The channel was launched as Fox History & Entertainment in 2008 and was renamed FOX History & Traveller in May 2011. In October 2011, it was re-rebranded as Fox Traveller.

Talking about the need for a rebranding exercise, Debarpita Banerjee, ‎VP - marketing and communication, at National Geographic and Fox International Channels says, "We have revamped our channel primarily because being leaders of both travel and lifestyle and English entertainment, it was necessary to reinvent, so as to grow the category. Also, it gave us the opportunity to align with the global brand Fox Life."

Fox Traveller believed that journeys were equally important as destinations and hence every communication signed off as "This Journey is fun". The new positioning of "Go Places" is a natural extension of this philosophy, recognising the fact that life should be best lived as a string of never ending interesting journeys that takes you places.

The channel has been broadening its content appeal for a while now as it has experimented with shows like Kitchen Nightmares and Masterchef. It will continue to air popular shows like Eat Street and launch new ones under fashion (Styled by June), World Cup flavour (ongoing show - This is Brasil>, romance and travel (When Patrick met Kylie), food (Sugar Stars) and reality (Clifton Shores).

With the introduction of new shows, the channel saw 57 new advertisers come on board in 2013-14. Coca-Cola, Turkish Airlines, Borges, Microsoft and British Airways have all been valued additions. Some of the most recent advertisers to come onto the channel are Calsberg, Emirates and Twinning.

Has the target group of the channel changed then? Says Banerjee, "Our core TG base remains the same as of now, though we are giving them more reasons to keep coming back to the channel, more often. It is too early to say if there has been a demographic shift." At present, the channel is running more than 250 hours of original content per year. "This may increase or decrease depending on the kind of shows available and what the viewership needs, at the time of decision," Banerjee adds.

As for the promotion of the revamp, Banerjee believes that Fox Network and the channel's online presence is their biggest strength. "We have a huge crowd that interacts with our social network pages regularly, and we continue to engage with them at higher decibels, post the relaunch."

For the record, Fox Life is aimed at viewers in India and other south Asian countries including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The channel aims to present a perspective of the world through the eyes of Indians and undertakes locally produced content. Available in four languages (English, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali), the channel can be viewed on digital cable and satellite television.