By A Correspondent
Media honcho Raj Nayak has reason to smile. The stars of his Hindi entertainment bouquet of Viacom18 shone really very well in the last week of 2016. That’s Week #52 – Dec 24 to 30, 2016 – the data for which was revealed on Thursday (Jan 5) where Colors and Rishtey topped the Urban and Rural tables respectively. In the combined Urban+Rural roster, Colors was #1 and Rishtey #3.
Here are the numbers:
By A Correspondent
Four years after selling a large Hindi films library to rival Star India and shelving plans to launch a Hindi movie channel, Viacom18 has announced its plans to fill in the gap. A move that has been described as a “no-brainer†for any entertainment network by a trade analyst.
Films like Bajirao Mastani, Airlift, Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 and still-to-be-released flicks like Force2, Kapoor and Sons and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil are part of the Rishtey Cineplex arsenal. “The channel’s launch further paves the way for new film acquisitions to offer quality film-based entertainment and big television premieres to viewers,†a communiqué adds.
Commenting on the launch, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO – Viacom18 said, “With the launch of Rishtey Cineplex, we are entering the large Hindi movie genre thereby filing a pivotal whitespace and offering a holistic Hindi entertainment ecosystem from our stable.â€adding: “The movie channel will bolster the networks reach across India and help us dial-up our engagement levels with our viewers. It will also enable us to offer 360-degree value to our advertisers creating more opportunities for on-air promotions enabling optimization of ad inventory across the networkâ€.
Interestingly, the channel will not piggyback on the ‘Colors’ brand as a slew of non-Hindi channels did in the in recent months. It is christened ‘Rishtey Cineplex’ and thereby indicating that Viacom18 could further the ‘Rishtey’ franchise which has until now been occupied by a free-to-air re-runs channel.
Said Raj Nayak, CEO – Colors and Rishtey: “We have scripted a great success story for brand Colors with it being extended into regional languages and English entertainment. Each of these channels has helped us cater to an intrinsic viewer demand. We are now all set to give impetus to brand Rishtey with the launch of our exclusive Hindi movies channel Rishtey Cineplex that will help us fortify our Hindi entertainment portfolio.â€
Is there room for another Hindi movie channel? The analyst we spoke with said yes, emphatically, adding a caveat: “It’s a function of the films you win rights for and how you place them – between your flagship GEC and thereby earn ratings for it and the movie channel which is where it should ideally belong.â€
As per the latest data of BARC, the pecking order of Hindi movie channels is: Sony Max, Zee Cinema, Star Gold, Movies OK and &Pictures.
By A Correspondent
After its successful launch in the UK and India, Viacom18 and IndiaCast have announced the launch of the Hindi general entertainment channel ‘Rishtey’ in the US and Canada. Adding the festive fervor for viewers in the region, Rishtey is now available to the US audiences on Dish and Dishworld on channel 699 and to Canada viewers on Rogers Cable on channel 924.
With seven channels already available in North America, IndiaCast currently has a comprehensive portfolio of brands in the region that covers a wide range of entertainment offerings. Rishtey is the eighth channel in the region and will be available on a paid subscription format. With the launch of the Rishtey on Dish and Dishworld, the channel will now be available to around 160K households in the US.
Commenting on Rishtey’s foray into the US & Canada, Gaurav Gandhi – Group COO IndiaCast said, “US and Canada are the most important international markets for South Asian entertainment and we are delighted to launch our second Hindi entertainment channel, Rishtey, in this region. Our flagship brand Aapka COLORS has seen unprecedented success in the region over the last 4 years. With the launch of Rishtey, we address the audience’s need for variety entertainment and Rishtey will be the classic ‘family channel’ with something for everyone in the South Asian household. Over the last two years, the Rishtey, in its different avatars, has developed a strong foothold in the UK and in India and we are extremely confident that the brand will be a huge success here as wellâ€
By A Correspondent
The re-run Hindi general entertainment channel genre has met with limited success in the country. Doordarshan had DD Bharati, Star India has Star Utsav and earlier this year, Zee launched Zee Anmol. But now comes the news that Colors is set to launch Rishtey. How well Colors is able to rewrite the rules of the game remains to be seen, but the action in the genre has begun. According to industry circles, some revving up with news on Rishtey is being seen. Star has already moved former Life OK marketing head Pratik Seal to the role of the Star Utsav business head. Mr Seal was marketing head of Micromax before he moved to Star India.
Rishey is an existing Viacom18 entertainment channel from the Colors bouquet. It was launched as the second entertainment channel from Viacom18 in the UK market and has met with much success.
Now Colors hopes to extend this relationship with viewers to India with the free-to-air GEC. In fact Doordarshan’s DD Direct DTH service website already has this post: “DD Direct Plus added a new general entertainment channel Rishtey to its channel line up by replacing Test 308 channel. Rishtey is a new Entertainment channels from Viacom18 group. The channel is a test feed and it is going to be officially launched soon.”
When asked, a Colors spokesperson said “Rishtey, the second entertainment channel from the Colors bouquet that was launched in UK last year has had a very successful run. This free-to-air channel has reached out to a much wider audience base and has held a strong No 2 position in the Hindi GEC category in UK. We are currently testing the signals for Rishtey in India and will launch the channel at an appropriate time.”
Media planners are meanwhile happy to see the revival of the re-run genre. According to a planner who preferred anonymity, television has various new entrants, and re-runs can do very well if packaged and marketed well. “What we have seen right now is shovelware – just dump some old hits. If there’s a good programming strategy and if marketed well and even if there’s some new content put in as a teaser, it could easily cross the 100 GRP mark,” he said adding: “We have seen a classic case of CID re-runs on Sony. The channel has made hay with them.”
Hmmm. Watch this space.