MUMBAI: It is very easy to say that the television industry in India is in a state of stagnation and soon will fall prey to the new predator- digital, as has happened in the west. But then, when you have a constantly innovating broadcaster like Star India, the perception can be false. Setting trends has been a regular habit for the media baron Rupert Murdoch backed broadcaster and it’s repeating itself again.
"We launched the first HD channel in India and the rest followed the trend. Now we are launching the HD feed of Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies, which is a first in the Bengali space," says Kevin Vaz.
This Bengali new year (Poila Boishak), the front-runner in the Bengali entertainment space, Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies will have their HD offering to woo their consumers with an exquisite viewing experience. "We have a 51 per cent market share when it comes to viewership, we have 8 to 9 shows always featuring among the top shows, which clearly proves our superiority and our leadership in the space. It's our responsibility to go and invest on an innovation like this," asserts Vaz.
There are a lot of new shows that Jalsha has launched recently and a good number of them are there in the pipeline. "It's not just launching a channel, it's about backing it up with adequate content also. We have shows like Krian Mala which in HD will give viewers an all new experience to cherish. We are coming up with our 100 episodic show Mahanayak starring Tollywood super star Prasenjit Chatterjee. It will be our biggest production ever and when you have a show like this going HD, is a certain proposition," explains Vaz.
"The HD feeds will be exact replicas of the SD channels" confirms Vaz, which also rules out the possibility of exclusive HD premiers. But the network will not follow the replicating strategy when it comes to monetisation. "As a group, Star India monetises HD separately, and we will continue to do this with the two new Bengali HD offerings also," he adds.
A media planning expert on condition of anonymity says, "HD is emerging as an exclusive platform to cater to the niche or rather the top of the pyramid audience and the rates too are reaching a premium, at least in the English entertainment genre. This new offering from Star in the regional Bengali market too will have its premium price. And it's not only the people from that region who will consume the content, Bengali people across the country will enjoy the offering, so from the brands point of view, its not only that particular region but the entire community that the channels will reach out to."
The launch will be backed by aggressive 360 degree marketing, "We will promote it across all our HD offerings, this is a big launch that we are doing and we will back it in every possible way," Vaz concludes.
