English Entertainment Channels Reaches The End Of The Road

Revenue pressure and TRAI’s pricing regulations have forced English TV channels to end there broadcast in India. As per the latest news, Sony Pictures Networks India has shut down AXN and AXN HD earlier this month, while lifestyle channel FYI TV18 and FYI TV18 HD too went off-air on July 8. Star India too is expected to follow the same path and plans to discontinue Star World soon. 

The new tariff order (NTO) introduced by TRAI to regulate channel pricing and fixing a reasonable pricing rate, has proved as a move which reduced subscribers for niche and English entertainment segment. Viewers can now pay for only those channels which they mostly watch, hence TRAI brought forward a proposal for change and reduce the price cap, for these channels. Indian Broadcasting Federation in response knocked the doors of court and filed a petition in the Bombay High Court for some relief. The matter for the same is still under sub judice. 

Channels that are badly hit are mostly the English entertainment and lifestyle channels. The new tariff order by TRAI brought down their viewership with each channel priced at Rs.15. High rates of these channels threw them out of the race and they did not find their place in most default base packages. This made them depend on consumers who would subscribe to them in their most premium packages. 

“The regulation change brought about by NTO 1.0 saw the entire category experience an absolute reset,” notes Kartik Mahadev, business head, premium channels, ZEEL.

The numbers released by BARC say that Comedy Central had 10.64 lakh impressions from June 20-26 whereas Star Movies recorded 2.1 crore impressions.

Coming to the general entertainment channels (GECs), they have also witnessed a fall in the number of viewers owing to the lack of fresh content but still, they are in a better position than English entertainment and movie channels. Citing the example of Colors, the channel was ranked 10 in BARC’s list saw a 33 crore impression between June 20 to 26.

“When English entertainment channels first took off in India, nearly 20 years ago, they catered to an audience that was seeking access to international content. However, as content acquisition became expensive, and viewers drifted to digital platforms to view the latest shows, these channels lost out,” says Pawan Jailkhani, chief revenue officer, 9X Media.

“Our unique offerings will stand out as enablers of bringing an aspirational, English-comfortable audience on board. They can watch premium international content that they are not able to directly associate with on digital, due to restrictions behind paywalls,” says Mahadev.

In this situation, when channels are imposed with TRAI regulations and also a huge revenue hit, English Entertainment channels particularly those featuring English Entertainment, Movies, and Lifestyle have lost 50%, 37%, and 36% of their revenues coming from the advertisement . Advertisement rates too saw a huge dip in English entertainment channels with charges ranging from Rs.800 – 1500 for 10-second slot and it is very low when compared to other advertisement charges. For English movies, charges range across Rs. 1200-2500.

“English entertainment channels have been falling off the radar of advertisers for nearly two years now,” notes H Vishwanath, managing partner, MediaCom. He added advertisers who reached out to their target audience on these channels earlier, have realized that the same set of viewers is now on digital.

This reduction in the rates has brought a huge loss for the channels as per industry executives. As the number of audiences is less and there is also a loss of 60-70% being incurred, it becomes hard for the broadcasters to keep the channel running. Broadcasters on the other hand feel that advertising-driven video streaming platforms can fetch much more money than these channels.