Are Hindi Movie Channels viable?

One can see hoardings splashed all over announcing the arrival of an exclusive digital Hindi movie channel, B4U. Then there’s STAR Network planning to launch STAR Cinema, a movie channel dedicated to Bollywood stars. PEN is also looking at starting a cinema channel in the near future. The first satellite Hindi film channel to be launched was Zee Cinema and surprisingly, for more than five years it did not have any competitor. Now, suddenly there’s a spurt of activity in this region. But the moot question is: are Hindi movie channels a viable prospect, specially in the face of competition from cable movie channels?

“It’s not a question of viability but that of availability,” opines Amit Khanna of Plus channel. “Hindi movies are regularly shown on the general entertainment channels. Also the rights for almost all the films have been bought out by these channels and there are not enough movies now, I wonder from where these channels are going to find the software” he questions.

“Right now, exclusive Hindi movie channels may not do well but that’s because movies are being shown by any and every channel. When the satellite boom happened in India the channels were not geared for it. They did not have enough programming content, so films were the best option. But in a couple of years things will change. Films will slowly move out of general entertainment channel, there will be more categorisation and movies will be exclusively showed on movie channels.” Raj Nayak, STAR Movies

Endorsing his view, Rajesh Pant, Chief Operating Officer, Sony, says, “Software is lagging behind the hardware. There is pressure on the product (Hindi films) as there’s not enough of it to go around. Out of 200 films made every year barely one or two become superhits, five do reasonably good while around 10-12 are passable.” Probably, that’s the reason why Sony preferred to have a mixed fare for SET Max instead of devoting it completely to films. “The customer has three favourites. As a marketing proposition it made sense to have the best of movies and cricket, besides events on the channel,” reveals Pant.

Zee Cinema, a pay channel which could have exploited its monopoly so far has been very slow in telecasting blockbusters. A leading cable operator who doesn’t want to be named says, “Zee Cinema is still showing films from its old library. It hasn’t updated its film repertoire at all.” Atul Saraf of Seven Star, another leading cable operator says, “When Zee Cinema was launched, it promised to telecast a mega film every month but after premiering about four films, it stopped doing so.”

As a matter of fact, when it comes to airing blockbusters, both Sony and Zee prefer to show them on their general entertainment free-to-air channels rather than on SET Max or Zee Cinema respectively. Why can’t they air it on the movie channels and promote them? “Zee and Sony get a larger viewership. Also, these channels earn more revenue. For instance, the spot rate on Zee Cinema is only Rs 3000-3500 per 10 secs while on Zee TV it is much higher,” explains Ram Hingorani, CEO, CVO. Yogesh Radhakrishnan, director, etc says, “The copyrights for a film costs anywhere between Rs 5 - 10 crore. The channel has to recover the cost which is possible only if it shows on its main free-to-air channel.” That explains why Zee Cinema has been airing old flicks time and again.

Denying this, a spokesperson for Zee says “In the past couple of months Zee Cinema has aired many new films. In fact, the channel has shown films that haven’t been telecast even on Zee TV, like Terrorist and Daag - The Fire, and this trend will continue.” Echoes Pant, “In May, SET Max aired Vaastav, a recent blockbuster which wasn’t shown on Sony.” Unlike the Zee network which telecasts a new movie first on Zee TV and repeats it on the same channel, Set Max repeats the telecast of a new movie on Set Max. Yet, Zee Cinema is faring well according to TAM/INTAM ratings. Ram Hingorani,CEO, Indusind Media, opines that the quality of Set Max is not upto the mark. He is awaiting the arrival of B4U to guage its quality and decide which of the two, his cable network would carry, though the latter would be a pay channel.

However, Yogesh Radhakrishnan cautions that cable operators are not interested in pay channels anymore as they are already shelling out Rs 65 per subscriber for the existing channels. “More channels means more money which the cable operators are not willing to pay,” he informs. Yet, etc is also soon jumping the bandwagon of movie channels.

Though all the new movie channels are welcome, the more the merrier for the viewer, one wonders how they are going to sustain? “That depends entirely on the movies you are showing,” says Raj Nayak of STAR Movies. He should know because he is heading the most popular English movie channel in India, STAR Movies. “Right now, exclusive Hindi movie channels may not do well but that’s because movies are being shown by any and every channel. When the satellite boom happened in India the channels were not geared for it. They did not have enough programming content, so films were the best option. But in a couple of years things will change. Films will slowly move out of general entertainment channel, there will be more categorisation and movies will be exclusively showed on movie channels.”

As of now, it’s the English movie channels that outnumber the Hindi movie channels. There are four exclusive English movie channels including STAR Movies, HBO, Hallmark and Zee Movies. Apart from these, there’s TCM which shows classic English films through the night and AXN which showcases action flicks. But these channels cater to a miniscule percentage of the Indian population, as the majority is hooked onto Hindi films. Whether the forthcoming movie channels will whet the viewers’ appetite for desi films is something worth waiting for and taking a dekko.

Chaya Unnikrishnan