After Rishtey Cineplex, Viacom18 to launch Colors Kannada Cinema

Entertainment network Viacom18 will be launching its second movie channel with Colors Kannada Cinema. The network entered the movie channel space with the launch of Rishtey Cineplex in 2016. The new movie channel will also help the broadcaster strengthen its presence in the south India television market, where it already has two Kannada general entertainment channels (GEC) — Colors Kannada and Colors Super, and a Tamil GEC which was launched earlier this year. The channel will go live on September 24.

Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, Viacom18, said, “Colors Kannada Cinema is an important addition to our offering and a first in genre expansion in the regional space. This demonstrates our strategic commitment to deepen and widen our presence as we drive regional growth aggressively. This move would help us to increase our market share, both in terms of viewership and revenue, in the country’s third biggest regional market. Finally, as we look to leverage synergies across our brands, Colors Kannada Cinema complements our portfolio play across our forays into filmed entertainment production and filmed entertainment broadcast.”

Viacom18 has a strong presence in the Kannada TV market. With two GEC’s in its portfolio, the broadcaster has managed to snap up 46 per cent of the market share in terms of viewership. With the addition of a dedicated movie channel, the network hopes to capture an even larger share of eyeballs in the market.

Ravish Kumar, head of regional entertainment at Viacom18 said, “At Viacom18, our strategy has always been to make significant inroads to achieve market leadership, especially with our regional portfolio. 

Movies contribute about 11 per cent of the total television viewership in Karnataka and COLORS Kannada Cinema is launching at the opportune time with the regional cinema industry witnessing an exponential growth in consumption, across screens.”

Parameshwar Gundkal, Business Head - Kannada Entertainment Cluster, Viacom18, "With a robust library of over 450 films, we have strategically curated our movie line-up to appeal to a wide range of audience. Going by the Brand philosophy - Mane Maneya Chitramandira (Har ghar ka theatre) the family entertainment movie channel will usher a fresh in-home cinematic experience for Kannadigas as it celebrates 84 years of the Sandalwood film industry with iconic classics, blockbusters, award-winning and latest films making it a premiere movie destination."