Discussion Why having bollywood films as core part of its content strategy will prove hugely beneficial for HD Hindi Movie Channels? Explained with key facts.

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dino29

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So as u can see from BARC weekly ratings charts that Dhinchaak is getting most of the dubbed cinema audience from regions where Free Dish has strong presence (as other chs too in same table r mostly Free Dish ones) and mostly these would comprise of rural or semi rural areas. Add to this even Star Utsav Movies with its bollywood centric strategy is performing extremely well on Free Dish which means in rural and semi urban regions

In urban pockets or in regions where pay tv platforms have strong presence Dhinchaak is not in Top 5 though it is available across DTH/Cable platforms, also as we have seen earlier (when BARC released genre wise data) Star Gold / Star Gold 2 remained in Top 5 consistently in these regions banking on bollywood content. Sony Max was getting good ratings but then again large part of it might b from people having DTH or Cable TV in semi urban or rural north /west india pockets and south india while very less from urban pockets. Now even that edge might b lost as Dhinchaak has acquired much of Sony Max dubbed cinema library and going ahead even premiering new dubbed films on it.

So Star/Disney is best position as far as SD hindi movie channels is concerned, they have dedicated bollywood movie audience base across all regions and platforms. Others with dubbed south indian movies on both Free Dish channels as well as Pay TV platform chs seem to b in tough spot bcoz of content strategy not being in alignment with situation as it exists

Now comes the part why having dubbed cinema as main content on HD channels won't work for any broadcaster. Firstly as decode from above observations that most of the dubbed cinema audience have Standard Definition boxes (Free Dish boxes or DTH/Cable TV ) and reside in rural /semi rural /semi urban regions or some might b having HD boxes but most might subscribe to SD chs bcoz of affordability. This means core audience of dubbed south indian cinema do not have access to HD chs. Even if HD Hindi Movie Channels prices r reduced still there won't b much of upward swing in subscription bcoz only few have HD boxes.

Having Bollywood Cinema on HD channels is the winning forumula. Not only there r more HD connections in urban or semi urban parts of India but there is large part of audience here who loves watching bollywood films. Also most of them can afford paying somewhat higher amount for HD channels. So this would massively contribute to ratings of the concerned HD Hindi Movie chs and there would b some additional viewership coming from semi rural or rural audience who watch bollywood films and have HD boxes / subscribed to HD chs.

Viacom18 has taken right step forward by reverting back to bollywood films centric content strategy on Colors Cineplex HD. Zee and Star/Disney already follow this but star/disney needs to have diff schedule for Star Gold HD rather than simulcasting SD content as it would add more appeal towards the channel. Sony needs to implement this asap on Sony Max HD as with current strategy this channel would not get ratings
 
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Also HD movies Zee and Sony are priced at ₹19 and ₹15. Don't expect me to pay ₹15 to watch South movies that are available for free streaming on youtube. Star is offering combo of Bollywood, Hollywood and even some South dubbed movies. And Some movies like Sivaji and Robot are fine for HD channels. Others are just unacceptable after their premieres. Even if they think there is an audience base which they want to capitalise. They can have a dedicated South hour block for once a week airing South movies.
 
Looking at Colors Cineplex HD and how it pulled itself back to Bollywood, Sony Max HD needs to revert to its pre-2017 strategy of having predominantly Bollywood movies at major time slots throughout the day, and big South movies only at primetime evening slots. It needs to rotate movies from a wide variety of production houses such as YRF, VVC and T-Series among others. We know that Sony Max is actually quite good in creating promos, so it should keep up the reputation.
 
Looking at Colors Cineplex HD and how it pulled itself back to Bollywood, Sony Max HD needs to revert to its pre-2017 strategy of having predominantly Bollywood movies at major time slots throughout the day, and big South movies only at primetime evening slots. It needs to rotate movies from a wide variety of production houses such as YRF, VVC and T-Series among others. We know that Sony Max is actually quite good in creating promos, so it should keep up the reputation.
They don't have the library. They will have to wait until the merger.
 
Looking at Colors Cineplex HD and how it pulled itself back to Bollywood, Sony Max HD needs to revert to its pre-2017 strategy of having predominantly Bollywood movies at major time slots throughout the day, and big South movies only at primetime evening slots. It needs to rotate movies from a wide variety of production houses such as YRF, VVC and T-Series among others. We know that Sony Max is actually quite good in creating promos, so it should keep up the reputation.

Primetime evening slots should not be reserved for dubbed south indian movies . Ofcourse when a big dubbed south indian movie has premiere then having simulcast airing on both SD and HD feeds during evening slot is fine but on most of the other days bollywood films should form 100% of schedule or on some days few 1 or 2 dubbed south indian movies can b added as part of content line up of these HD Hindi Movie Channels.

What i mean to say is that only select /key content from dubbed library should b aired on HD Hindi Movie chs
 
They don't have the library. They will have to wait until the merger.

They do have a good library if we count in popular as well as offbeat/critically acclaimed bollywood films. Ofcourse they have lost many films to star/disney or Viacom18 but with the zee merger they can get access to more films and fill the void.

So if they want they can right away revamp content strategy of Sony Max HD and cater to bollywood audience
 
Also HD movies Zee and Sony are priced at ₹19 and ₹15. Don't expect me to pay ₹15 to watch South movies that are available for free streaming on youtube. Star is offering combo of Bollywood, Hollywood and even some South dubbed movies. And Some movies like Sivaji and Robot are fine for HD channels. Others are just unacceptable after their premieres. Even if they think there is an audience base which they want to capitalise. They can have a dedicated South hour block for once a week airing South movies.

True. I raised the price point issue in my post. Lowering price range will attract more audience but currently this is applicable largely for bollywood audience as i have explained in my post. Many bollywood films r also available for free streaming on Youtube or other platforms and much of the urban audience also has access to OTT platforms hence reducing prices of HD Hindi Movie chs will help to draw this audience back towards the channel

Having dubbed cinema as main content on HD Hindi Movie chs and reducing prices will not b of much advantage for broadcasters as this still won't lead to increase in viewership. Reason being only very less % of dubbed cinema audience have HD boxes and of those who have not all will subscribe to HD Channels when price is reduced

You mentioned it right star/disney SD and HD movie channels not only are quite affordable in pricing but their content mix is quite awesome . Though still they need some more improvements
 
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Adding to subject of this thread, zee/sony and viacom18 needs to start new channels for dubbed hollywood films. So many good dubbed Hollywood films from various studios like Sony Pictures / Columbia, MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros/ New Line Cinema , Universal, Lionsgate and many other smaller studios not finding space on any hindi channel. Star/disney only broadcaster focusing properly in this genre, Only select dubbed hollywood films being aired by zee/sony while Viacom18 has no content from this genre. If they have a HD Feed too for such channel then it will more awesome.

Currently zee/sony is airing many hollywood/foreign films with multi language option on And Flix / Sony Pix and even star/disney doing so for select films on Star Movies. Issue is that these channels are not part of basic bouquet of broadcasters hence have limited reach thus nullifying the advantage of this initiative.
In latest NTO 2.0 compliant RIO , star/disney has made Star Movies available in basic bouquet (Star Value Bouquet) thus indicating that going forward UTV Action might be rebranded to bollywood movie channel or a channel with mix of dubbed south indian/bollywood films and cease to cater to dubbed hollywood films audience incase Star Movies enables multi language options across all of its Hollywood Films Content. Let's see what sony/zee does though their latest bouquet have no changes identical to Star /Disney but they should replicate star/disney strategy in this genre be it having a separate channel for dubbed hollywood films or making Sony Pix/ And Flix available in basic bouquet (Sony Happy India Pack / Zee Family Pack) with all content available in multiple languages.

Star Gold Select should also be included in Star Value Bouquet
 
@dino29 bro. Here's what I want Sony Zee to do in the future.

Sony Max/Sony Max HD: Bollywood only movie channel. Sony Max HD can act like niche movie channel with different feed. They already treat SET HD and Sab HD like these.

Zee Cinema/Zee Cinema HD: South and bollywood mix content

&Pictures/& Pictures HD: International dubbed movie channel in hindi, tamil & telugu. Just like it's & branded english movie channel. They can discontinue audios for english movie channel.

Zee Classic/Zee Classic HD (rebranded Sony Max 2): Classic movie channel until 90s

Zee Bollywood/Zee Bollywood HD (rebranded &Xplor HD) - 90s to movies till date.

Zee Anmol Cinema needs to rebrand. Its name is too long and unattractive. Same is the case with Sony Wah. They can relaunch both with numbers like Sony Max and Sony Max 2. They can shutdown &Prive HD too. &flix can International non Hollywood movies. I think 4 English movie channels are enough. They can launch channels in other genres like HD music channels too.
 
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@dino29 bro. Here's what I want Sony Zee to do in the future.

Sony Max/Sony Max HD: Bollywood only movie channel. Sony Max HD can act like niche movie channel with different feed. They already treat SET HD and Sab HD like these.

Zee Cinema/Zee Cinema HD: South and bollywood mix content

&Pictures/& Pictures HD: International dubbed movie channel in hindi, tamil & telugu. Just like it's & branded english movie channel. They can discontinue audios for english movie channel.

Zee Classic/Zee Classic HD (rebranded Sony Max 2): Classic movie channel until 90s

Zee Bollywood/Zee Bollywood HD (rebranded &Xplor HD) - 90s to movies till date.

Zee Anmol Cinema needs to rebrand. Its name is too long and unattractive. Same is the case with Sony Wah. They can relaunch both with numbers like Sony Max and Sony Max 2. They can shutdown &Prive HD too. &flix can International non Hollywood movies. I think 4 English movie channels are enough. They can launch channels in other genres like HD music channels too.

Well i do not want them to shut down any of the current channels.

Sony Max can become a bollywood movie channel only if they lose all Goldmines Films till then it cannot happen as Goldmines Library cannot b shared with Zee just like T Series bcoz of dispute. If they resolve it well n good. Max HD can have both popular and offbeat / critically acclaimed bollywood films.
Zee Cinema can try being a bollywood channel airing primarily last 15 yrs bollywood films and offloading Pen Studio dubbed south indian cinema to Sony Max. Zee Cinema can continue being a bollywood movie channel with few dubbed films.

And Pictures can continue airing youth appealing bollywood films as well as dubbed hollywood films. And Pictures can accomodate more dubbed hollywood films and less bollywood content

Zee Bollywood can have mix of bollywood films from 90s, 2000s while Sony Max 2 should air only romantic /comedy movies from retro till 2000s.

Zee Classic can continue having mix of classic films from 1950s to 1980s

And XPlor HD can continue with offbeat / critically acclaimed bollywood cinema but expand its distribution. If it decides to shut down then distribute its library between Zee Cinema HD and And Pictures HD.

Sony Wah mix of bollywood, dubbed south indian and dubbed hollywood films while Zee Anmol Cinema should become a pure bollywood channel competing with Colors Cineplex Bollywood, Star Utsav Movies
 
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