Turner Asia Pacific Ventures (TAPV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of American media conglomerate Time Warner?s Turner Broadcasting System, has decided to shut its Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) ?Imagine TV?, as it failed to attract advertisers. It will also stop the channel?s international feed ?Imagine Dil Se?.
?Imagine TV has not performed as expected. While some programmes delivered satisfactory ratings, overall, the channel was unable to achieve the ratings consistency needed to sustain the business and support continued investment,? said Siddharth Jain, managing director (South Asia) at Turner International India. ?We will use our best endeavours to make this as smooth a transition as possible for them.?
Turner India, however, continues to operate its other channels HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network, Pogo, Warner Bros, TCM and Boomerang.
Lack of cash flow was putting pressure on the channel, whose production and star costs are higher. The channel, known as NDTV Imagine before being sold, was consistently ranked low in the highly competitive GEC segment. This was the second time Turner attempted to garner a share of the Hindi GEC segment, which commands a 27.4% share of the total TV viewership.
Real, which was its first foray into the segment, opened with much fanfare with 24 million viewers tuning in, but sunk without a trace in 2009.
Media experts say in a cash-guzzling Hindi GEC business, where production and star costs go through the roof, Imagine?s inability to climb up the ratings chart drove advertisers away, thus putting pressure on channel owners. Lack of quality content beyond the initial months led to a dip in viewership.
?Two things that help make a channel successful are the quality of management and sustainable content beyond the first six months,? said Ashish Bhasin, chairman and CEO (South East Asia) at Aegis Media, a media and communications agency.
Imagine TV was launched by Prannoy Roy?s NDTV in 2008 as a part of its foray into non-news broadcasting. Later, NBC Universal acquired a 26% stake for $150 million. In December 2009, TAPV acquired a 92% stake for $126.5 million. The channel was then renamed as Imagine TV.
Turner restructured Imagine?s management and programming, launching big-ticket shows such as Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, Bandini, and Zor Ka Jhatka. However, Imagine TV continued to be a tier-II GEC ranked much below the tier-I GECs ? Star, Sony, Colors and Zee. Even in the second tier, it lagged Sony?s sister channel SAB TV and Star India?s youth-centric channel Life OK (earlier known as Star One), according to data released by television audience measurement agency TAM Media Research on Wednesday.
In the past, other GECs which struggled and eventually ceased operations, include 9X and Zee Next. ?As India becomes a multi-screen market and not a multi-TV market, there will be erosion in the market share of Hindi GECs, as niche channels gain ground,? said Jehil Thakkar, head (media and entertainment) at KPMG India in an earlier interaction with FE.