Anil Ambani’s direct-to-home (DTH) division Reliance BIG TV is in talks for high definition (HD) content to be aired on its DTH platform. The company will invest Rs 150 crore in content acquisition and is believed to be in talks with global media houses like BCC, CNN and Comedy Central for non-film content.
The content will be made available to BIG TV subscribers on a pay-per-view format. The company is also in talks with Fox Star Group with which BIG TV had recently signed a marketing alliance for ‘Avatar’. It is in talks to introduce Fox’s niche channels like Fox Crime, Fox Adventure, Fox Music and other National Geographic Channels on BIG TV.
The company has also initiated discussion with MSM Discovery for its new channels, including Discovery HD Channel, Discovery Science, and Discovery Turbo.
BIG TV plans to invest Rs 350 crore in the next four years to acquire new non-film content for its DTH service in the next 16 months.
According to BIG TV sources, “Pay-per-view of its non-film shows recorded 150 per cent growth over its current viewership average for film-based pay-per-view content.”
When contacted, Reliance BIG TV spokesperson said: “An entire bouquet of HD content will be made available to our 2 million subscribers by Q1 of next financial year.”
While the comedy channel ‘Comedy Central’ will help BIG TV add another niche channel to its DTH service, the alliance with BCC will give access to BIG TV subscribers to current affairs programmes and political news from the US, Europe and Asian regions. and popular chat shows.