With a promise to offer inspiring and thought-provoking content and meaningful engagements to its viewers, Sony BBC Earth, India’s most loved factual entertainment channel completed 5 years in 2022. The channel has delivered ground-breaking shows along with interesting initiatives this year, making its audience feel alive. As the year 2022 comes to an end, let us have a look at the key tentpoles launched and the important highlights for the year.
Sony BBC Earth’s 5th anniversary
With a tagline of “Make Every Moment Meaningful,” the brand launched an anniversary special 360-degree campaign that included a host of activities. On Instagram, Sony BBC Earth announced a user-generated contest titled #5YearsOfLife, inviting people to share how they have added meaning to someone’s life, through reels using the brand audio. Taking the excitement, a notch higher, Instagram filters were built using augmented reality, the filter worked when users pointed their camera towards the Sony BBC Earth logo (on-air, web, print, and outdoor) and their screens came alive with animated animal figures. This was complemented with a property ‘5 Years 5 Mega Shows’ giving viewers a chance to vote for their favorite movies which were then aired on Sony BBC Earth.
Tentpole show premieres
Sir David Attenborough’s Green Planet from the Planet series was launched on the channel. The channel aligned the promotional phase of the show with Earth Day where ‘Green Planet’ campaign was announced. To engage people, Sony BBC Earth set up a ‘Green Planet’ installation – an Earth exhibit using plants at Phoenix Market City. During this 3-day activation, people received a miniature sapling as a small and meaningful gift for sharing their efforts towards a Green Planet. It was followed by a workshop by eminent Plantfluencer Ann Mathew on ways to upkeep indoor plants and the benefits of home gardening. The miniature saplings were also given to school kids to inculcate the idea of taking care of plants.
Sony BBC Earth premiered the second season of their marquee property ‘Frozen Planet’ in India. A multi-city screening was organized across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. Mumbai witnessed a special star-studded screening with celebrities such as Makarand Deshpande, Jameel Khan, Saumya Tandon, Deepak Dobriyal, Shivin Narang, Rajshree Thakur, Vidyut Xavier, Sushant Singh, Amrita Prakash, Priyamvada Kant, amongst the rest. Additionally, a user-generated contest was launched, and the winners were given access to the special celebrity screening.
Riding on the topicality of the James Webb telescope, the channel premiered the ‘James Webb: The $10 Billion Space Telescope’ show. It gave the viewers a walkthrough of the most powerful astronomical observatory on the planet and showcased the making of the $10 billion glittering space jewel.
Brand IPs
Sony BBC Earth launched the second edition of ‘Young Earth Champions’ with renowned actor and environmentalist Jim Sarbh and Professor Amritanshu Shriwastav from IIT Bombay. This year the contest was themed around the conservation of the planet’s resources – water, land, wildlife and forest, and energy. The top 10 winners received a chance to virtually interact with Jim and the professor on their ideas and exchange thoughts about sustainability.
Launched on Photography Day, this year the digital IP ‘Earth In Focus’ saw a phenomenal response with a 50% increase in entries as compared to the last year. The theme centered around seeking the ‘Thrill of Life’ further divided into subcategories of Landscape, Adventure, and Wildlife. The entries were judged by award-winning wildlife photographer, Rathika Ramasamy.
The channel also came back with yet another season of its school contact program ‘Feel alive hours’. Along with reaching out to schools, holding live sessions with experts, and organizing DIY experiments, they further launched an Inter-School Quiz Contest. This contest allowed children to represent themselves and their schools by displaying their general knowledge to the rest of the world. The property kickstarted in December and will go on till the next year.
On-ground integration
In an effort to be present amongst the brightest minds and engage with college students, Sony BBC Earth collaborated with Narsee Monjee College’s mega cultural festival ‘Umang’. The channel took complete charge of the waste management for the festival and introduced reversal vending machines that awarded those who helped them make the festival a zero-waste festival. The channel helped dispose of 1394 kgs of waste for the event. The channel is associating with IIT Bombay’s Mood Indigo as the sustainability partner for the festival. Across the 4-day event, the channel will be putting up hard-hitting messages across the campus to make students aware of the hazards of the plastic footprint in India.
About Sony BBC Earth
Sony BBC Earth is a premium factual entertainment channel by MSM Worldwide Factual Media – a Joint venture between Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) and BBC Worldwide.
Sony BBC Earth is home to BBC’s award-winning factual programs and the work of some of the world’s foremost factual filmmakers. Rooted in the philosophy of ‘Feel Alive’, the channel promises a grand visual spectacle, positive insightful storytelling, and a new perspective on knowledge and entertainment.
The channel has diverse content offerings ranging from fun, insightful science, nature, and wildlife to adventure and human-interest stories with shows like The Green Planet, Blue Planet II, Serengeti I & II, Dynasties, Trust Me I’m a Doctor, Rick Stein’s India, Bang Goes the Theory, Deadly 60, Planet Earth II, Fishing Impossible, Where the Wild Men Are with Ben Fogle, etc.
The channel is broadcast in SD & HD and is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu across India. Follow Sony BBC Earth on Facebook.com/ SonyBBCEarth, Twitter.com/ SonyBBCEarth, and Instagram.com/ SonyBBCEarth. For more information, visit www.sonybbcearth.com
About Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited (formerly known as Sony Pictures Networks
Sony Pictures Networks is the consumer-facing identity of Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited, which is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, Japan.
The Company has several channels including Sony Entertainment Television (SET and SET HD), one of India’s leading Hindi general entertainment television channels; MAX, India’s premium Hindi movies and special events channel; MAX 2, another Hindi movie channel showcasing great India Cinema; MAX HD, a high definition Hindi movie channel airing premium quality films; WAH, the Hindi movies channel for rural markets; SAB and SAB HD the family-oriented Hindi comedy entertainment channels; PAL, a genre leader in rural Hindi speaking markets (HSM) showcasing the best of Hindi general entertainment and Hindi movies from its content library; PIX and PIX HD, Sony BBC Earth and Sony BBC Earth HD, the premium factual entertainment channels, Sony AATH, the Bangla entertainment channel; YAY!, the kids entertainment channel; Sony Sports Network – SONY SIX, SONY SIX HD, SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 1 HD, SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 2 HD, SONY TEN 3, SONY TEN 3 HD; SONY TEN 4, SONY TEN 4 HD; Sony मराठी, the Marathi general entertainment channel; SonyLIV – the digital entertainment VOD platform and Studio NEXT the independent production venture for original content and IPs for TV and digital media. The Company reaches out to over 700 million viewers in India and is available in 167 countries.
The Company is recognised as an employer of choice within and outside the media industry. It is a recipient of several awards, including India’s Best Companies to Work For 2021 by the Great Place to Work® Institute, India, ‘Aon Best Employers India’ awards in recognition of the company’s unique workplace culture and exceptional people practices, consistently ranked amongst India’s Top 10 Companies with Best Health & Wellness Practices by SHRM & CGP Partners and listed by Working Mother & AVTAR as one of the 100 Best Companies for Women in India.
The Company is in its 27th year of operations in India. Besides having overseas subsidiaries, it has a subsidiary MSM-Worldwide Factual Media Private Limited, and an affiliate, Bangla Entertainment Private Limited in India. For more information, log onto www.sonypicturesnetworks.com
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