MUMBAI: A spree of movie acquisitions, big-ticket premieres, a tough fight at the top and two channel launches marked the first half of 2012 in the Hindi movie channel space.
The tussle was for snatching market share and, unfortunately these efforts failed to expand the overall viewership of the Hindi movie channel genre.
Star TV took the fight to the other networks with the launch of a second Hindi movie channel under its OK brand. Armed with a vast movie library, Movies OK has had a strong start, becoming the fourth player in the space with over 60 GRPs. The leader channel, whether it is Star Gold or Zee Cinema or Max, enjoys around 120 GRPs.
Star has also been aggressive on the acquisition front, taking the whole library of 500 films from Colors whose own movie channel launch has been put on hold. This allows Star to play its content around its two channels.
Star premiered movies like Ra One and Housefull 2 while Zee Cinema aired Agneepath and Don 2. These television premieres helped the channels gain viewership ratings.
Movies OK launched a programming block to premiere seven movies on seven consecutive days in May. The channel premiered movies like Kahaani, Jodi Breakers, London Paris New York, Bumboo, Gali Gali Chor Hain, Saat Khoon Maaf and Ekk Dewaana Tha, right after the IPL ended.
UTV Movies, the Bollywood movie channel from the Disney UTV Network, unveiled its new logo, portraying the premium positioning of the Hindi movie channel. The new logo takes forward its 'Jeeyo Bollywood' positioning.
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