ITV

Tag: C&S television

  • Sahara One to air movies before theatrical release

    Sahara One to air movies before theatrical release

    MUMBAI: For the first time ever, Sahara One will be airing movies prior to their theatrical release. This will start from 10 June with Hum Jo Keh Na Paaye at 8:30 pm.

    Sahara One Television COO Purnendu Bose said, “Indian entertainment space will witness a new era, a new beginning where television viewers, especially viewers on Sahara One would be able to watch mega movies in the comfort of their homes, even before it is released in theatres. The idea is to increase the size of screen. The small screen is getting bigger and bigger and it deserves to be.”

    “Today C&S television reaches 44 million homes, if mega movies are all about entertaining masses, television today offers much greater reach with depth and width across the country. That is the reason why we thought Sahara One Television as an alternative platform to theatrical releases,” he added.

    Agrees trade pundit Taran Adarsh, “In the West, when a film is made, the studio analyses whether the film is for a theatrical, a DVD or a television release. It is a common practice there. But in India, it has always been theatrically released first and then shown on television. it has never happened that a mainstream producer releases his film on television.”

    The other two movies that will be aired this month, apart from Hum JO Keh Naa Paaye are Tum Ho NAand Pehchaan.

    Hum JO Keh NA Paaye stars Abhijit Sanyal, Gauri Karnik and Anupam Kher. Tum Ho NA, stars Jackie Shroff, Ria Sen and Nethra Raghuraman and will be aired on 17 June at 8.30 pm.

    Pehchaan, starring Raveena Tandon, Vinod Khanna and Rati Agnihotri will air on 24 June.

    Hum JO Keh NA Paaye producer Smita Thackeray said, “Television viewership is definitely more than theatres and has amazing penetration. In fact, I think that some soaps are more popular than movies today attracting its own set of loyal viewers. With the kind of promotion from Sahara One, we are definitely bound to reach more viewers through the television release.”

    Bose adds that this move of pioneering Friday releases on television is a definite indicator of the changing trends of film business in India.

  • Broadcasters will consider FTA offering apart from premium pay TV channel, says Motilal Oswal

    Broadcasters will consider FTA offering apart from premium pay TV channel, says Motilal Oswal

    MUMBAI: What will broadcasters do with CAS being implemented? Will the FTA channels go pay? Or will the pay channels go FTA?

    Motilal Oswal Securities in partnership with Inquire has tried to answer questions such as these in its latest study on CAS. The Inquire report has claimed that broadcasters are unlikely to lose advertising revenues in a CAS environment because it will first spread through the four metros and the share that the major cities have of the overall C&S market is relatively small.

    Ø The four metros account for only 15-17 percent of the total 40 million cable subscribers in India. Since the top three networks do not derive any significant advertising revenues from the Chennai market, the effective share of the three metros in total C&S homes is just 10-12 percent.

    However, their implied share of advertising revenues on C&S television would be closer to 20-24 percent. If one assumes only 40 percent penetration of boxes in the four metros in the initial phase, about 12-14 percent of the advertising revenues might come under threat.

    Ø Box offtake is likely to be higher than expected, Motilal Oswal points out. An analogy can be drawn with the Indian cellular market where the subscriber numbers are growing at about a million every two months. In fact, the market is expected to add about 10 million subscribers in the next year, the level reached over seven to eight years.

    Ø Broadcasters (including Zee) are open to floating a mass general entertainment channel to maintain their presence in the basic tier. A new channel can be packaged, branded and floated (using library content or second run programming from the pay channel) in just about a month at a low cost of about Rs 100 million. This would help avert any loss of advertising revenues because of a drop in reach due to low box penetration.

    This would also ensure that the broadcaster has its brand present in the basic tier homes to maintain and build recall and to give viewers a laddering option to graduate to their respective pay offerings when they upgrade to a pay channel. Broadcasters will in all probability run teasers on the FTA chanel to lure them to the pay TV service.

    Off the record conversations with television professionals have revealed that most of the entertainment channels are actually looking at creating a FTA channel, which would have second run programming, that is, Zee TV could float a Zee Basic which will air shows that will do the run on Zee Premium first.