India’s largest broadcaster, STAR India, has extended the newly launched ‘Ok’ brand beyond the Hindi general entertainment segment (GEC) with the launch of a new movie channel, ‘Movies Ok’. As with ‘Life Ok’, conceived and developed to compete with market leader STAR Plus, Movies Ok will slug it out for eyeballs with STAR Gold in the Hindi movie category.
Sanjay Gupta, chief operating officer, STAR India, said, “This is our first attempt to extend the Ok brand beyond the Hindi GEC space. The tagline is jo apne paas hai wohi khaas hai (the ones who are close are special) and this mantra would be visible in the content shown across the channels with the ‘Ok’ branding.” Movies Ok would screen movies for hardcore family consumption.
Movies Ok will compete for viewership in a segment that has close to 12 channels, including SET Max, Zee Cinema, UTV Movies, UTV Action and Zee Premier.
Hemal Jhaveri, general manager, Movies Ok, said, “We have the investments in place to introduce multiple channels. We have a library of around 1,200 movies, which would give us the room to differentiate the content we offer on both our movie channels.”
The Hindi movie genre is the third most-watched segment. According to a Ficci-KPMG report on the Indian media and entertainment industry released in March, the Hindi movie category accounts for around 12 per cent share of the overall television viewership, trailing behind regional channels (33.4 per cent) and Hindi GECs (27.4 per cent).
While STAR India does not have immediate plans to add more channels under the ‘Ok’ banner, Gupta said the extension of the brand would help in expanding the broadcaster’s market share. “In the next two years we are not going to launch any further channels under the Ok brand. We will build Life Ok and Movies Ok to expand our footprint in the Hindi speaking market.”
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STAR Plus has a market share of around 21 per cent in the Hindi GEC segment. The launch of Life Ok has helped the broadcaster gain a share of another seven per cent (TAM). Gupta is hopeful Movies Ok would enhance the broadcaster’s footprint in the Hindi movies genre.
In line with the re-branding exercise carried out in STAR Gold in September last year, both movie channels would screen six movies every day. Ad duration would stay limited at six minutes per half an hour.
In a one-of-its-kind inaugural initiative, Movies Ok would premiere seven movies for a week. These would include titles like 'Kahaani', 'London Paris New York', 'Ek Deewana Tha', 'Jodi Breakers', 'Saat Khoon Maaf', 'Bumboo’ and ‘Gali Gali Chor Hai'.