Disney Star aims to strengthen its position in the regional television space

[A4Akash]

The Disney Star network is looking to strengthen its hold on the regional television space, as viewers emerge from the pandemic to demand quality content and are open to discovering new stories and characters that are close to reality.

“Our approach to regional content is driven by the fact that TV penetration is extremely high in these regions. Especially in the southern states, it stands at over 90%. Therefore, we programme a much higher volume of content, including scripted and non-scripted shows, for these markets," Krishnan Kutty, head-business and content, Disney Star for south India and Maharashtra, said in an interview. Increasingly, the idea is to create content that can connect with reality and offer audiences aspirational heroes to look up to, Kutty said.

According to the Ficci-EY media and entertainment report 2023, 56% of TV viewership in 2022 was in Indian regional languages. Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, and Bhojpuri channels saw the largest growth in reach in that year. In 2022, regional channels received 19% more ad volumes compared with national channels, the report said.

Disney Star to strengthen regional play

Disney Star aims to strengthen its position in the regional television space as viewers demand quality content and are open to discovering new stories and characters close to reality.

www.livemint.com

 

[JollyLNB]

What’s their plan for Star Kiran since it’s struggling badly? And how about the merger with the Viacom18 regional channels? Will most Colors channels be scrapped?

 

[A4Akash]

What’s their plan for Star Kiran since it’s struggling badly? And how about the merger with the Viacom18 regional channels? Will most Colors channels be scrapped?

I think if the merger will happen Colors Odia will be merged with Star Kiran.

 

[Raju lal]

What’s their plan for Star Kiran since it’s struggling badly? And how about the merger with the Viacom18 regional channels? Will most Colors channels be scrapped?

Its not a hard task to get into the Odia top 5 as the #1 & #2 channels holds major share while rest of the three channels has a minor viewership number and those are secondary channels. Star Kiran able to touch top 3 within weeks of launch and a its a milestone regarding overtaking Colors Odia which launched first. Then the channel went down.
Its mainly due Star's lack of interest. Newly launched channels commonly introduce many new shows with heavy marketing throughout an year. But Star is not doing that as well as Star Kiran sometimes seems to be a shut down channel, everything made slow, no new shows, Youtube channel get freezing for long term etc. Such disinterested activities from Star side placed the channel to corner.

 

[Mylanji]

Its not a hard task to get into the Odia top 5 as the #1 & #2 channels holds major share while rest of the three channels has a minor viewership number and those are secondary channels. Star Kiran able to touch top 3 within weeks of launch and a its a milestone regarding overtaking Colors Odia which launched first. Then the channel went down.
Its mainly due Star's lack of interest. Newly launched channels commonly introduce many new shows with heavy marketing throughout an year. But Star is not doing that as well as Star Kiran sometimes seems to be a shut down channel, everything made slow, no new shows, Youtube channel get freezing for long term etc. Such disinterested activities from Star side placed the channel to corner.

It failed because of Tarang TV's unauthorised adaptations of Star shows. I'm 100 percent sure Tarang TV did not take prior permission from the rightholders (Star) before remaking those shows. And there's no one to stop them. Both Tarang TV's Asha and Star Kiran's Shanti were based on the SJ show Sreemoyee. But Tarang TV became the first one to make the remake without even taking permission from Star. The result - Asha became popular with the audience while Shanti failed to garner eyeballs because both were based on the same story.

A case in point, Sun Bangla launched a show called Debi which was a remake of a Sun TV show (don't know the name). However after 5 months of being on air, it suddenly vanished. Then it was reported that the makers (Shashi Sumeet Productions) did not take prior permission from Sun TV before remaking that show in Bengali, therefore the channel axed the show.

So Star should sue Tarang TV for these unauthorised malpractices. But probably they won't. Because now they're more concerned about their merger with Reliance and Viacom 18.