MUMBAI: In an increasingly fragmented and competitive English entertainment market, the fight for the top dog slot is only getting more intense by the day. Star Movies has now asserted its number one position among English movie channels in India, Singapore and Malaysia.
 
 

The channel states that in Singapore, more viewers have tuned into it than any other Hollywood movie channel while in India it is also holding top spot as the country's number one English movie channel, with 22 million people tuning in each week. The channel has quoted data from TNS Singapore, cable, 4+, 1 Jan 2005 to 28 July 2005, and from Tam c&s, 4+, 26 December 2004 to 16 July 2005. Furthermore Tam data c&s 15+ 8 -11 pm 1 January 2005 - 30 June 2005 shows that in India Star Movies leads among the Indian entertainment channels. It managed a TVR of 0.15 and a share of 24.7 among the English entertainment channels. Its arch rival HBO followed with a TVR of 0.13 and a share of 21.2.

In Malaysia, where substantiated ratings became available in April 2005 the channel claims to have consistently outstripped the competition, attracting more viewers and showcasing more top-20 movies than any other Hollywood movie channel. The channel has quoted data from AGB Nielsen Media Research, Cable, 6+, 1 April 2005 to 16 July 2005. Upcmoning films on the channel will include Million Dollar Baby, I, Robot, The Day After Tomorrow, Dodgeball, National Treasure and Starsky & Hutch.

Star Movies has deals with 20th Century Fox, Buena Vista (including Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures), MGM / United Artists, Lakeshore, Myriad Pictures and DreamWorks SKG. The deal with Dreamworks is for India and Pakistan only.