MUMBAI: Softline Creations has debuted in the television space with the launch of its first 24-hour satellite Hindi movie channel Cinema TV, a genre that is grappling with rising acquisition cost of movies and cut throat competition among the top three players.

A free-to-air channel, Cinema TV is currently available on three DTH platforms - Reliance Big TV, Videocon D2H, and Airtel Digital TV. To extend its reach in non-C&S markets, the channel is exploring partnership with DD Direct plus.

Headed by Hitesh Sabharwal, the channel has roped in Raju Shrivastav as brand ambassador. The channel is being promoted through digital, print, and outdoor ads besides running cross-channel promos.

"We have a library of 800 movies comprising across genres like drama, action, comedy, thriller and classic," says Sabharwal, who has earlier worked with Zee TV, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Times Group and Astro Group.

Some of the movies that the broadcaster will air include Don, Rang De Basanti, Murder, Tangewala, Quickgun Murugun, Humse Badhkar Kaun, Wardat, and Sanam Hum Aapke Hain. A large chunk of the library comprises yesteryear classical movies.

So how will Cinema TV tackle competition? "We have defined the prime time in the evening at 7.45 pm; we have also introduced kind of an appointment viewing for our viewers. Movie channels can be differentiated through presentation of content and the kind of programming that is offered in between movies," says Sabharwal.

The brand tagline is derived from "Har cheez ka sahi waqt hota hai". "This will relate to the the fact that every movie has an appropriate time to watch. Through our channel, we aim to bring the family together by catering to the tastes of each member through several genres of movies," he says.

The channel is following a distribution strategy that will move up from lower towns. "Our distribution strategy is different from other channels as we are starting from Tier V cities and then moving on to Tier I cities," avers Sabharwal.

The fight in the movie space, however, won?t be easy as it is dominated by biggies like Max, Star Gold and Zee Cinema.

MUMBAI: Movies Ok, the second channel from Star India under the ?Ok? banner, is being readied for launch on 6 May coinciding with the start of the Aamir Khan show Satyamev Jayate.

Star, the parent company of Movies Ok, had earlier rebranded its youth-focussed Hindi general entertainment channel Star One as Life Ok, giving it a distinct content identity after its new launch.

Movies Ok will be positioned as a family movie channel and will be headed by Star Gold general manager Hemal Jhaveri with a separate team being carved out for it.

"We are launching Movies Ok on 6 May. It is being positioned as a family movie channel and will complement Star Gold," Jhaveri tells Indiantelevision.com.

The company is still in the process of finalising a carriage deal with cable and DTH operators. The channel will be free-to-air to begin with.

"The clear cut differentiation will be the way one treat?s content and Movies Ok will be packaged differently from Star Gold. We have a library of over 1000 movies. A typical operator of a movie channel needs at least 250 movies to run it," says Jhaveri.

The new channel will be promoted during Star?s ambitious show, Satyamev Jayate. Star will also use radio and digital platforms.

"Specialisation is the way forward for Hindi movie channels. If you look at it, globally there are several genres like family, action, horror and so. We will promote the movie channel on the show Satyamev Jayate," Jhaveri adds.

Hindi movie channels enjoy a 16 per cent share in the CS4+ TG Hindi Speaking Market, as per a Tam report titled ?Impatient Generation?.

Services, auto, personal accessories and telecom are some of the categories that spend heavily on Hindi movie channels. The ad revenue market for the genre is pegged at Rs 8 billion and is expected to grow 15-20 per cent this year.

MUMBAI: Marred by controversies and drop in viewership, the Indian Premier League no longer rings alarm bells for other broadcasters like it did in the first three years when the share of the official broadcaster Max zoomed past most others by a big margin.

The Hindi movie channels who till 2010 used to draw up aggressive plans to shield themselves from the IPL onslaught are today talking in terms of ?business as usual?.

Star Gold vice president Hemal Jhaveri declares that the channel saw 10-15 per cent growth in viewership last year. His statement resonates with competitor Zee Cinema, which according to the channel?s business head Mohan Gopinath, also grew by 10-15 per cent.

UTV Movies did not participate in the story.

The fact that IPL viewership dropped by as much as 25 per cent last year has also bolstered the Hindi movie channels as they take on IPL.

According to TAM, Max?s share had slipped from 16.03 per cent in 2010 to 12.1 per cent in 2011 during the IPL. The share of Hindi movies went down during the same period from 24 per cent in 2010 to 21 per cent in 2011.

The fact that Max, the official broadcaster of IPL and a key player in the genre, remains out of the race for almost two months when the IPL is on also adds to the excitement for the rival networks.

?IPL like any other cricket tournament can?t be wished but at the same time there would be a huge audience that would want to look at other programmings. If you have a strong lineup, viewers will come to you even if it is cricket, a high point or launch of a big show,? says Jhaveri.

Star Gold is targeting the afternoon and primetime slot. ?We are focusing on the afternoon slot keeping the vacations in mind and for prime time we, of course, have pretty strong lineups for the next two to three weeks. " The list includes Dabangg, Tees Maar Khan, Singham and Golmaal.

The channel is also pinning hopes on Sujay Ghosh? Kahaani which would be released sometime later during the summer vacation.

Zee Cinema is betting on the afternoon slot. Says Gopinath, ?Historically, Zee Cinema has not been affected by the IPL because we have been doing our stuff on Zee Cinema Dopahar which we will be continuing."

Gopinath is planning to air movies Tarzan and Mr India targeted at kids.

?There will be an afternoon slot during the month of May driven towards the movie watching viewers apart from the blockbusters that we will be airing in the prime time. We recently did a premiere of Don 2. Movies like Tarzan, and Mr India which are watched by kids will be aired during the IPL,? Gopinath avers.

MUMBAI: Star Gold, which has ramped up its movie acquisitions to give the Hindi movie channel an edge over competitors, is on a roll. Ra.One, Shah Rukh Khan?s most talked about movie of 2011, earned strong ratings, signalling a trend of some of the big movies catching eyeballs on Hindi movie channels.

Ra.One, which was premiered on Star Gold at 9 pm on 21 January, clocked a TVR of 6.7.

The movie, however, failed to break the earlier records that were set by movies like Singham (8.7 TVR) and Bodyguard (10 TVR) on Star Gold, Dabangg (9.2 TVR) on Colors and 3 Idiots (10.88 TVR) on Set.

The Ra.One premiere on Star Gold garnered a market share of 28 per cent.

Star Gold GM Hemal Jhaveri said, ?At Star Gold, we intend to sustain the momentum of airing successful movies with the forthcoming premieres of Rockstar, Housefull 2 and Kahaani besides other successful movie festivals and contests. These are now key milestones in our journey having become the most preferred Hindi movie destination for our viewers.?

MUMBAI: Broadcasters continue to pay steep for acquiring telecast rights of movies that they prize. Competition in the genre is also ensuring that they catch these movies ahead of their box-office release.

Multi Screen Media (formerly Sony Entertainment Television India), a traditional high spender, has recently acquired the rights of hit movie The Dirty Picture, which is still running on cinema theatres, and two yet-to-release films, Ek Tha Tiger and Talaash.

Industry sources said MSM paid Rs 140 million for The Dirty Picture but the price for the other movies could not be ascertained.

The company, which runs Hindi general entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television (Set), Sab and Hindi movie channel Max, has also acquired the rights of Ladies Vs Ricky Behl. 

MSM chief operating officer NP Singh said, "Yes, we will be airing The Dirty Picture in a couple of months. Apart from that, we also have Ladies v/s Ricky Behl. And you will see Aamir Khan?s next Talaash and Salman Khan?s Ek Tha Tiger, exclusively on Sony Network." He, however, refused to disclose the acquisition cost of these movies.

The movie genre is heating up with Star Gold, Star India?s flagship movie channel, acquiring movies aggressively. Additionally, its new programming strategy of more movies and less advertisements has pushed other players to pull up their socks. As a result, the prices of movie acquisitions have not lost steam.

A top executive in a rival network said on condition of anonymity, "The movie acquisition cost is now obscenely high and it is not making business sense to acquire movies at such prices. Moreover the "bold" strategy of Star Gold is spoiling the market. If other players follow suit, we will all be in trouble. Viacom18 has also put its plan on hold because it is not a viable business model any more."

Earlier this year, Viacom18 had syndicated over 500 of its movie titles to Star India for an estimated Rs 4.5 billion.

In 2011, MSM?s other big acquisitions include Murder 2, Aakarshan and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.

MUMBAI: In a move that is bound to add muscle to its movie library, Star India has entered into a movie syndication deal with rival Viacom18.

As per the deal, Viacom18, which runs Hindi general entertainment channel Colors, has offloaded 500 of its Hindi movie titles to Star India for an estimated Rs 4.5 billion.

Viacom18 was aggressively building up its movie library as it was planning to launch its own Hindi movie channel. However, with competition, rising acquisition costs and a mounting internal debt, the company decided to defer the launch plans.

Star India is already a major player in the Hindi film space with over 700 titles in its library. Moreover, the company has started to premiere big-ticket movies on Star Gold, the movie channel. It has also taken some bold steps like reducing the ad breaks and airing 6 movies daily, which has forced other players to change their business models.

Talking about the deal, Star Gold general manager Hemal Zaveri said, ?This is the first of its kind deal that we have entered into.?

Colors spokesperson said, ?As part of our overall strategic plans, we have off loaded part of our film library. We still have a large library and have also kept enough runs to take care of our main channel needs.?

The most pressing need for the group companies, TV18 and Network18, is to reduce their debt load. ?For Viacom18, the deal makes sense as its launch plan has deferred and it allows the company to monetise a part of the library. Also, the amount directly reaches to the bottomline,? a media observer said.

To a query on Viacom 18?s strategy for acquiring films for Colors in future, the spokesperson said that they would look at acquiring new movies on syndication if and when the need arises. However, the company is still holding on to the plan of launching the movie channel. ?The movie channel is an integral part of Colors? growth
strategy and we will revisit our plans at an appropriate time,? the spokesperson said.