With versatile programming these channels have managed to keep their audience glued to the television sets.A major point of competition amongst broadcasters has been the acquisition C&S rights for new movies.
The genre is cluttered with channels from esteemed media houses such as Essel group, Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd, UTV, B4U, Sahara etc. However there have been a number of new channels that have come up in the recent past. The new entrants include Cinema TV, Wow Cinema, RT Movies, Housefull Movies etc.
The latest entrant to the genre being Viacom 18’s ‘Rishtey Cineplex’. With Rishtey Cineplex ththe network adds the first Hindi movie channel to its bucket. Soon to be launched the channel has already added big ticket movies Bajirao Mastani, Airlift and Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 to its kitty.
IndianMediaBook takes a look at how the genre is sentenced to evolve with changing trends and axioms.
Competitive Strategies
The strategies adopted by most channels differ in terms of the kind of audience they cater to. Early entrants such as Sony Max, Zee Cinema, Star Gold are seen having an upper hand in terms of social experimenting with their offerings.
In terms of content, Sony Max has been focusing on popular Hindi movies however, it has been airing the Indian Premier League for the last eight years. Besides showcasing the Indian Premier League for eight years, Sony Max has also bought India’s first ever domestic rights to air wrestling league.
The channel also gained popularity for the right kind of mix it provides with an entire week dedicated to showcasing movies of one Bollywood actor. The short format comedy fillers namely ‘BittuBakBak’ and ‘Max Fully Deewana’ have been an additional advantage for the network. Some major steps taken by the network were the launch HD services in 2015 and its foray into the second movie channel Max2.
On the other hand, Essel Group’s offers channels such as Zee Cinema and Zee Classic. Founded in 1995, Zee Cinema is well termed as an ‘interactive movie channel’. The channel is positioned as a channel for popular Bollywood movies, while Zee Classic has a strong library of Indian cinematic classics.
Focusing on the rich Indian cinema the channel recently paid an ode to the pioneer of Indian cinema – Bimal Roy by celebrating noteworthy work from the golden era. Prior to this the Zee Classic had taken another initiative of showcasing ‘HasaTohFasa’ Comedy Film Festival on Friday evenings.
In 2013, the network added another channel to the genre called as &pictures. The movies telecasted on &pictures are exclusive to the channel, with someother movies being picked from the common ZEEL library.
Star India, is seen concentrating on relying heavily on acquiring high sponsorship value movies for its movie channel Star Gold. The satellite rights are acquired for a period of 10 years from the production house for every film.
The channel recently acquired satellite rights for movies such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Talvar. The network also enjoys the rights of showcasing Pro Kabaddi League 2016.
Channel Rating Marathon
The rating marathon has been on a steep slope with a single miss getting the channel to lose its position. In the war of ratings, it is observed that Star Gold, Sony Max, Zee Cinema have been striving hard trying to catch hold of the lead position.
According to the BARC measurement matrix, for the 8th week from20th February 2016 to 26th February 2016, Sony Max stood at the first position followed by Zee Cinema, Star Gold, & Pictures.
Movie Premiere Game
According to the FICCI KPMG report, around two years back the upper limit of a single film deal has increased from Rs. 200 Million to Rs. 750 Million. The movies rights are bought by the broadcasters in bulk before its release. Premiering of recent movies does help channels shooting up their ratings however, poor performance can also lead to great loses.
Star Gold was seen invest a bong to secure the premiere rights of Bajrangi Bhaijaan and this is not the only example.
The way forward with the launch of Rishtey Cineplex would definitely need the existing players to rebuild their strategies. The focus will now have to be on creating dynamic content thereby living up to the audience expectations.
