HITS Movies Eyes Expansion

On the heels of a strong launch in Singapore, HITS Movies is eyeing further expansion across Asia.

Launched October 1 on StarHub’s basic entertainment group tier, HITS Movies ranked third in prime-time ratings among 14 channels. It is also available on StarHub’s Freeview tier as a special promotion, where it ranked second out of 14 channels in prime time, just behind the Chinese entertainment service Hub E City. It logged almost 315,000 regular viewers throughout the month.

“HITS Movies blockbuster debut on StarHub is a testament to the strength of our core proposition of The Best… All in One Place,” said Avi Himatsinghani, CEO of Rewind Networks. “At Rewind we are very focused and committed to drive consumption and deliver new value for anyone who is a basic entry level pack subscriber—either via a traditional set-top box or an OTT aggregator app. We launched HITS Movies as an entry tier movie proposition for all subscribers.”

Himatsinghani continued, “We have long believed that the subscription video ecosystem will thrive and that consumers will stay and pay if they see value, spend more time and consume more services via their pay-TV subscriptions.”

The company is looking to replicate the Singapore success “on other platforms and markets across our Asian footprint,” Himatsinghani said. “Our pay-TV affiliate partners need more of these solidly curated branded entertainment destinations that can deliver strong consumption and complement their local content strategy.”

Sandie Lee, VP and channels head at Rewind Networks, added, “We look at our branded channel destinations as playlists that people will love and follow. For HITS Movies, we have selected and curated evergreen and recognizable movies in a simple manner—with programming that people will understand, watch and love, so they can trust our brand, become loyal viewers and ambassadors for the service.”