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With the battle for satellite rights of movies heating up and a slew of new channel launches, Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) are increasingly banking on dubbed movie content.
According to rating agency, TAM Media Research, from just about 16 dubbed movies aired on Hindi GECs in the first six months of 2010, the numberhas grown to 50 in the first six months of this year.
In fact, the contribution of dubbed movies to all the feature films played on the GECs has grown to 9 per cent in the first half of 2012 compared to a mere one per cent in the first half of 2010.
GEC broadcasters believe the improved quality of production of south Indian movies has increased their acceptance. In addition, with the viewership getting more and more fragmented, broadcasters have to constantly keep airing new kind of content.
Ms Manisha Sharma, Weekend Programming Head, COLORS, said, “Cost of acquisition of Hindi movie content has gone up in the past few years and there are limited number of hits.”
She added that the fact that a slew of new channel launches in the Hindi general entertainment and Hindi movie channels space has led more players vying for same number of movies. This has made broadcasters willing to experiment with south Indian dubbed movies.
Tam Media said that in the first six months of 2010, there were 25 telecasts of dubbed movies on GECs, this includes repeat telecast. In 2011, it increased to 113 and in the first six months of this year the number stood at 117.
Bollywood is already experimenting by making Hindi remakes of South Indian movies, besides releasing Hindi movies in regional languages. Ms Sharma added that while Telugu movies rate well, some Tamil movies have also done well for broadcasters.
Ms Sneha Rajani, Senior vice-president and Business head, Sony Entertainment Television, said, “If dubbed movies rate well and draw higher viewership, the trend could catch up among general entertainment broadcasters.” She added that the company’s movie channel has been airing dubbed movies for the past few years though only 2-3 dubbed movies have been aired on its general entertainment channels.
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