Lifestyle India Rising Star Wildlife Digital Vibes China Leading Transplant Destination Health World watch Entertainment Fashion & Style English Judicial Attire Prev Issue Next Issue

In movie-obsessed India, the battle for the booming TV film market is about to dominate small screens across the country as two new networks look to win over home audiences.

An Indian child switches channels while watching television in Mumbai
© AFP/File Sebastian D'Souza

Television still earns 60 percent of India's total entertainment industry revenues and TV executives are battling for leading roles in the swiftly expanding sector.

Two new movie channels are being launched in India within eight weeks -- one showcasing Hindi language films, one English -- to challenge the established order of India's multi-channel industry.

In February, Sahara One Media and Entertainment launched its Hindi movie channel Filmy with a glitzy Bollywood party promising "to redefine the way cinema is consumed on television" with a group of sassy presenters.

Not to be outdone, Sony brought Hollywood actor Will Smith to Mumbai ahead of the April 1 start of its new Western film channel channel, Pix, with new and classic movies targeting India's growing urban young middle-class.

Filmy business head Ashutosh says its early audience figures are "extremely encouraging" but admits it needs months to get within "striking distance" of the big Hindi movie channels -- Star Gold, Sony Max and Zee Cinema.

Analysts are mixed over Filmy's prospects despite screening one of the major hits of 2005, the underworld movie "Sarkar" starring the biggest superstar of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan.

"It's too early to predict but it's not as if I'm unduly impressed," says Komal Nahta, the editor of trade weekly Film Information. "It hasn't created much of an impact but it takes at least six to eight months."

Even with a string of other movie networks available among the 80-130 channels in most cable and satellite packages, analysts say there is great potential for growth. Television -- both terrestrial and cable -- reaches little more than 40 percent of the population.

Total revenues from the television industry in 2004 were 139 billion rupees (3.1 billion dollars). The Confederation of Indian Industry predicts it will reach 371 billion rupees (8.3 billion dollars) by 2010, with subscriptions amounting to two-thirds of that total.

Movie channels will be among those benefiting from the expansion, say analysts.

"The next best thing for a (successful) movie is for satellite distribution on television as that's creating new revenue," says media analyst Ram Patnaik of BRICS Securities.

"There is definitely room for them. The mass media is playing a bigger role in India ... obviously movie channels are going to play a major role as well," he adds.

Hindi movies are dominant in the Indian market, capturing up to 16 percent of late night viewer share in Mumbai compared to four percent for Western movies, according to a 2004 study by Tam Media Research.

But Pix executives hope to tap into India's growing middle-class where some 400 million people are aged under 35, and believe it is a group that would appeal to advertisers.

"English-language movies are themselves a niche genre in India and we have to be realistic," says Sunder Aaron, business head of Pix.

"But we have an expansion of people connected to the outside world because of the Internet, work, even in call centres, and with more newspapers in English. That's potential viewers.

"I think there's still room for a couple of English language channels if you have a distinct offering for the market," he adds.

Aaron is looking for growth in the big cities which has most of the 61 million homes that subscribed to cable or satellite in 2005.

Only three years ago, that figure was 40 million and by 2010, India is tipped to overtake Japan to become Asia's leading money-earning market for cable and satellite broadcasters.

Network heads are looking to satellite television to open up India's vast rural areas that are home to two-thirds of India's 1.1 billion population and include some of the most dedicated fans of the Bollywood movie industry.

But in the short-term, the industry hopes people like Lakshmi Muralitharan, 26, a human resources worker from Bangalore, will be drivers of growing audience numbers.

Waiting for a friend outside a cinema in Mumbai, showing this year's Hindi big hit "Rang de Basanti" as well as Oscar-winning film "Crash", Muralitharan says she mainly watches Western films on television.

She has seen Filmy while channel hopping -- "I didn't like the hosts" -- but says she would watch the new Pix channel. However, for both genres, she sees room for expansion.

"Most of my friends watch English movies on television. But there are avid Hindi movie watchers who will watch any of them if they're on," Muralitharan says.

View and Post comment on this article

© 2005 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.