MUMBAI: It's hoping to make a big impact on Indians love for everything Bhojpuri. Mumbai-based Dishum Broadcasting flagged off the free-to-air Bhojpuri TV GEC Dishum just as India entered its seventy-first year of becoming independent.
Branded Bhojpuri Dhamaka- Dishum, it is expected to have the majority of its audience in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Jharkand, apart from the millions of Biharis/Jharkandis spread all over India and the world.
The company's management is working on making Dishum available on major Indian DTH and cable TV platforms such as Tata Sky, Airtel, Den UP, Siti Maurya, Dash Digital and other local MSOs. The goal: to reach a cumulative 65 million C&S homes. The international rollout will follow later.
The channel has a slate of programmes covering both, fiction and non-fiction at different time slots covering devotional, bhakti, mythological, drama, movies and music.
Dishum has launched in a cluttered Bhojpuri TV space crowded with the likes of BIG Magic (now owned by Zee), Dabangg, Dhamaal, and movie channels like Oscar Movies Bhojpuri, Bhojpuri Cinema TV, apart from other DD channels and news services.
However, the company’s director Vishal Gurnani is undaunted by the competition and is quite focused on pole-vaulting the new launch into the second position amongst Bhojpuri channels in the next six months.
Says he: "We are here to bridge the void left behind by Mahuaa, and are looking forward to bringing world class content, packaging and production values to the large Bhojpuri audience spread across UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the migrant Bhojpuri audience across India and the world. We are working with the best production houses and the research agencies to understand the audience better.”
Observers are of the view that Dishum will have its task cut out. Recently, the Bhojpuri cinema ecosystem saw investments being upped in production of movies.
“However, the challenge has been in collection at the box office; the theatres simply refuse to pay up for a successful movie,” says a media observer. “While this does not directly affect Dishum, it shows the lack of transparency in that ecosystem. Dishum, being free to air, will have to depend on advertising. And, advertising spends from local brands; not just the national FMCG brands from the likes of Levers, P&G, Patanjali, Dabur etc. The latter will give it loose change in terms of ad spends. However, if it does manage to nurture and collect from local advertisers, it could have a good future.”
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