Colors ropes in Big B to endorse UK/USA launch
Viacom-18 has roped in Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador to market the UK and USA launch of its Colors channel, later this month.
It has now come to know that the much awaited channel, which has been performing tests successfully off the Sky Digital EPG for the past week, will see Bachchan associate with the channel for a second time.
Earlier, Bachchan was a part of Colors’ hugely popular Indian ‘Big Brother’ series, known in India as ‘Bigg Boss’. He hosted the last series of the reality show and played the part of ‘Pop Philosopher’. He is now being lured for another series to be shown on the channel later this year.
On today’s developments, Colors CEO Rajesh Kamat said, “Rare coupling of charisma and inherent talent is what makes Mr Bachchan the right choice for endorsing the channel. We are honored to have him on-board and are confident that, with his association with us, we will meet with similar success outside India.”
Bachchan said, “My association with Colors began with Bigg Boss Season 3. Now, by taking on the responsibility of being its brand ambassador, I feel extremely honoured in being able to partner a media channel that has been a conduit of social change while churning out excellent quality entertainment. I am sure Colors, with its myriad hues of entertainment, will spread its magic in the US and UK as it did in India.”
Viewers may recall that Bachchan endorsed one of the first satellite Asian TV channels in the UK back in the early 90s’ – TV Asia before it was taken over by ZEE Network.
In his blog, Bachchan said, he will begin shooting for the creatives for Colors’ international launch phase this week (picture above). He said, “I now play their [Colors] Brand Ambassador for their release in UK and USA. A coming of a complete circle. Not so very long ago we were all there to launch another TV channel, TV Asia, a first. And now a brand ambassador for Colors. The wheel of time keeps moving on. Another moment from another classic from my Father.”
As reported earlier, Colors in the USA will be known as ‘Aapka Colors’ due to another service already being present there with the same name. In the UK, as BizAsia.co.uk exclusively revealed first, Colors will retain its original identity and be launched in the former slot of 9XM on the Sky EPG – channel 829.
Initially the channel will be available free-to-air and then subsequently be added to the VIEWASIA package as a premium service, which BizAsia.co.uk exclusively confirmed a few days ago.
Colors is expected to launch on the Sky Digital platform, as well as USA simultaneously, later this month.
For viewers who wish to view the video tests of Colors on Sky Digital, follow the steps below to tune into the old 9XM channel label:
-> Using your Sky Digi remote, go to Services Menu
-> System Setup (4)
-> Add Channels (4)
-> Enter frequency: 11.427 (V), FEC: 2/3, SR: 27500
-> Find Channels and Press SELECT
-> Highlight “9XM” service and press Yellow button.
-> Return to Services Menu
-> Other Channels (6) on STB / (8) on Sky+
-> “9XM” should be listed and available
