MUMBAI: BT Media & Broadcast, the global media services business of BT last Friday evening announced its association with Viacom18, one of India’s fastest growing entertainment network, to bring its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel, Colors, to Sky TV subscribers in the UK in High Definition (HD) format starting 14 February 2017. 

BT will manage the channel’s distribution into London’s BT Tower via its dedicated, high capacity Global Media Network (GMN), and fully manage the uplink and downlink of the signal to and from the satellite which will beam the channel into people’s homes.

Colors is renowned in India and other markets around the globe for its Indian adaptations of popular UK entertainment formats like Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars. Its availability in HD starting this week, marks the first time that Viacom18 has brought HD content to the UK market. This move is expected to not only attract new viewers but also enhance the overall viewing experience for its existing UK audience. Viacom18 broadcasts more than 36 channels in India, including some of the top performing channels such as Colors, MTV, Rishtey, etc.

Commenting on the HD feed, Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “Over the past few quarters we have been focused on accelerating the expansion of our global footprint. Our maiden association with British Telecom will take our flagship channel Colors HD into the homes of Sky TV subscribers, providing them with access to not only the best of Indian content but also an enhanced viewing experience."

Adding further, Viacom18 CEO – Hindi Mass Entertainment, Raj Nayak said, “The quality of the viewing experience is so much better in HD, offering customers a more compelling and higher quality viewing experience. With Colors introducing HD feed in the UK market, we are looking forward to a deeper connect with not only the viewers in the region but also the advertisers.”

Commenting on the launch of the HD feed, IndiaCast Group CEO Anuj Gandhi said, “Colors UK has been providing quality content options to the audience in the UK for over seven years. Our partnership with Sky and BT for the launch of the HD feed is testimony to our commitment towards showcasing top-notch video quality to viewers, making Colors UK HD the top-of-mind entertainment destination for viewers.”

BT Media and Broadcast VP Mark Wilson-Dunn said, “Today’s deal with Viacom18 is a significant one for our growing Asian business. Viacom18 is one of India’s biggest and most recognized entertainment brands and we’re really excited to be helping it to capture larger UK viewing audiences by supporting its new HD offering. Culturally, TV plays a major part in keeping people of Asian origin living in Europe and other parts of the world connected with their families and heritage. Our role in helping to do that is something we are very proud of.”

“Our Global Media Network helps broadcasters and entertainment companies from all over the world to expand and succeed in new markets. Any by providing a future-proof path to upgrade to HD and UHD content distribution services, industry leading levels of reliability and 24/7 performance monitoring, there’s no better choice of partner than BT.”

BT Media and Broadcast is active in the Asia-Pac region, where the bulk of its business involves carrying local TV channels across it GMN for distribution to people of Asian origin in UK, Europe, USA and Canada, where they are broadcast to air by companies such as SKY, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish and Rogers Cable. Currently, BT Media and Broadcast carries more than 100 TV channels from India for this purpose alone.

BT’s GMN is a purpose built network designed to meet the needs of media and broadcast companies and is capable of delivering fast, reliable and secure LIVE TV and media files to major locations across the globe. It is a proven, high-capacity IP based network that has already successfully delivered live international transmissions of 4k UHD events. Using the latest MPLS and IP technologies, it delivers LIVE, high quality, uninterrupted video content to over 40 major media gateways worldwide.

Also Read:

VH1 Supersonic '17 to hit big, 20 sponsors on board, more IPs in pipeline

Vh1 to air Grammys, Beyoncé leads: pub screenings in 12 cities

Free Colors HD on Sky in UK from 14 Feb