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Viacom18 is set to launch its English general entertainment channel (GEC). It would be its biggest addition to its English genre count that so far had the niche Comedy Central and the music channel, VH1.
The group received its licence from the I&B ministry this week for the pay channel and is expected to launch it. Two sources with knowledge of the plans for the new channel, confirmed the imminent launch. One of them says, “It is a big launch but can’t disclose much, as the date of launch is yet to be firmed up.”
An email sent to the company went unanswered.
According to trade partners of the broadcaster, one of the tentative names for the channel, used so far, is Colors Infinity, taking after the biggest brand in the network's kitty (covers a Hindi GEC and regional channels). However, it might not be the one to get finalised.
Jehil Thakkar, head – media and entertainment, KPMG, which co-authors the Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report every year with FICCI, says, “English GECs comprise a small market in terms of viewership. However, it is a coveted viewership at that because a lot of the aspirational and premium brands target it as it consists of trend-setters and decision-makers. Most of the larger networks will try and have one or two English GECs so as to maintain relationships with such advertiser brands.”
The English GEC will also add to Viacom18’s distribution arm, IndiaCast’s muscle-power, when it comes to negotiating content deals with distribution platforms such as multi-system operators and DTH players. It lacked the wider English entertainment spread that some competing networks have had so far. While quite a few of Viacom18’s channels carry a Hindi-English mix of programming such as MTV and Nick, it had only two under its only-English category.
STAR India, on the other hand, has a mix of general entertainment, infotainment, niche interest and movie channels in English such as Star World, Star Movies, FX, Fox Crime, National Geographic, Fox Life, besides HD and specialised versions of some these brands such as Star World Premier HD and Nat Geo Wild. The Zee Entertainment Enterprises has Z Cafe and Z Studio.
Industry experts, however, point out that Viacom18 had music-turned-youth channels like MTV, music channels like VH1 and Comedy Central with a male-centric viewership that catered to the upmarket English entertainment viewing demographic. But the new English GEC would help the network to garner a more general audience in the space, including a better targetting of women.
The KPMG-FICCI report of 2015 quotes TAM data from 2014 to peg English entertainment (GECs and movie channels) with 0.9 per cent of the total viewership but a 4.6 per cent of the total ad expenditure (five times higher percentage than viewership share). Hindi GECs have 31.2 per cent of the viewership but 27.5 per cent of the AdEx share, while kids channels 7.3 per cent of viewership but only 3.8 per cent of the ad spends.
