After news (Times Now, ET Now) and entertainment (Zoom), Times Television Network is set to enter the movie space with Movies Now. This will be an English movie channel broadcast only in the high-definition (HD) format, which the company hopes will provide the necessary differentiation in the market. The channel will be available across analogue, digital cable and DTH platforms throughout India.
Movies Now is entering a space which is already crowded. There are seven players in the category, of which Star Movies, HBO and Pix dominate the pie with 40 per cent, 26 per cent and 17.4 per cent channel share (according to data from TV audience monitoring agency TAM), respectively.
So is this a situation of one too many? Times Television Network Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Sunil Lulla says: “We believe this is a market that has opportunity and strength, given that India has a large young audience. Our research shows that 30 per cent of the people in the age group of 15 to 34 watch movies, and that number has been growing year on year. Today there are close to 40 million viewers watching English movie channels.” Also, adds Lulla, “English movie as a genre has excellent repeat value, so people view it often enough.”
According to Movies Now Channel Head Ajay Trigunayat, the company is looking to have an edge in content as it has tied up with large movie studios — Fox and MGM. Movies Now has a ‘right of first refusal’ contract with Fox, where the channel will get to cherrypick the movies meant for television in India. The partnership with MGM is a one-year deal. Trigunayat says two more alliances are in the pipeline.
“Research done by the company shows that new movies do not drive viewership, and hence the focus of Movies Now will be on library titles rather than new releases,” says Trigunayat. However, the media and entertainment analyst at a leading brokerage firm argues: “Given that Movies Now is relatively new to the space, it will also be financially unviable for it to get the new blockbuster titles. As legacy channels like HBO and Star in India have output deals with the Tier 1 studios, it might go to the Tier 2 studios to source movies.”
Also, how will Movies Now break into a market where the penetration of HD television is still very low? Lulla is confident that with increasing affluence, this market will grow. “Our strategy is to stay ahead of the curve and facilitate growth in the category,” he adds. Also, claims Trigunayat, “A HD channel can be watched on a regular television — it is similar to watching a high resolution file on your laptop.” That may be fine. But, in the future, Movies Now will have to focus on differentiated content and relationships with distributors to score over legacy channels like Star Movies and HBO which have been entertaining audiences for years.