There was a time when shows such as The Flash, and The Arrow among others brought Indian viewers to channels such as Star World, Zee Cafe among others. But all that seems to be a thing of the past now, with broadcasters bringing down the shutter on English general entertainment channels such as Star World, AXN, among others. However, a few broadcasters such as ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd besides Viacom18 have kept the light on English GEC channels. “There are only a few reasons as to why a broadcaster would keep these channels still running when in terms of advertising revenue these channels barely add to the pie. One perhaps is the contract for content syndication, which is yet to end. Most of the content is syndicated for three-fours from international studios or broadcasters, for which Indian TV company pays an annual fee. Secondly, some channels are sold as part of bouquets, hence that keeps the pipe running,” Anand Chakravarthy, chief growth officer, Omnicom Media Group, told BrandWagon Online.
Email queries sent to Viacom18, ZEEL, and Culver Max Entertainment (Sony) remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story.
Source: TAM AdEx Report
According to analysts one of the reasons for these channels to lose their life is the entry of video over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, and Amazon among others which have been able to build a strong pipeline of international content. Not to mention both of these platforms subscription based, are devoid of any advertising. For instance, Netflix’s mobile monthly plan starts at Rs 149 and goes up to as much as Rs 649 per month. Similarly, Amazon Prime Video which is part of Amazon Prime comes for Rs 1499 for a year, Rs 599 for three months and Rs 299 for a month. Compared to this, in the case of linear TV, a viewer who is a subscriber of Tata Play has to pay for the basic pack called which comes at Rs 199 per month. This pack consists of English news channels, and Bengali regional channels among others. Viewers typically have to cough up more starting from Rs 5.9 per month, each for channels such as Colors Infinity, and Comedy Central to Rs 16.52 per month for Disney International HD. “While people want to watch content at their leisure, the New Tariff Order (NTO) 3.0 has made the basic packages very small, meaning that English content is an upper tier, and the consumer will have to bear an additional cost to subscribe to them. Meanwhile, OTT is providing you with recent content at a better cost,” Paritosh Joshi, principal, Provocateur Advisory, explained.
Source: TAM AdEx Report
The decline in viewership which thereby lead to a drop in advertising revenue is yet another reason behind broadcasters shutting down English GECs. According to FICCI-EY reports, English language share remained stable with a minor dip of one percent. Over 1,14,000 hours (72%) of television content was produced for general entertainment channels, of which
20-25% was in Hindi while the remaining was in regional languages, the report stated. With regional content walking away much of the pie, English remains low. According to industry estimates, the cost of a 10-second advertising spot currently ranges anywhere from Rs 200-500 during prime time. This is a huge drop when compared with 2019, when a 10-second during prime-time cost Rs 1,800-3,000. Not to mention, most of the time, these channels run promos of their shows to cover up for lost ad space. As per the directive by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a channel is allowed to show 10+2 minutes of advertisements in an hour.
Source: TAM AdEx Report
To be sure, ad volume on English GECs has dropped every financial year. For instance, between FY22 and FY23, ad volume declined by 29.1 percentage points. Ecommerce-Media, entertainment channels, and social media were the leading categories which advertisers throughout all FY23. The top five categories added nearly 50% share of ad volumes during each Financial Year between 19-23. Interestingly, Voot from Viacom18 Media and Zee 5 Zee Entertainment were the leading advertisers during Financial Year’19-23. What this means is that the sister brands of broadcasters ran promos of their shows during ad breaks. The top five advertisers added a 37% share of ad volumes between FY’19-23. “There is no or very less revenue to earn from English GECs. At the most, these channels can help drive a small amount of subscription revenue in very small towns, where the Indian audience is yet to subscribe to international video streaming services,” a media analyst said on the condition of anonymity. To be sure, English remains an aspirational language for many Indians, but that is not being fulfilled by video streaming services and not linear TV.