BIG CBS joins the rush for English GECs

One more big player has joined the

English general entertainment channel (GEC) space, with Reliance Broadcast Network (RBN) launching a 50:50 joint venture with CBS Studios International.

BIG CBS Networks will roll out three channels in October this year. While BIG CBS Prime will target the general audience, BIG CBS Spark will be a youth channel and BIG CBS Love would target women.

Presently the English GEC space has three players – AXN, Star World and Zee Café, which together have just 1.29 per cent share in the overall TV advertising pie. These channels have 62 per cent, 26.2 per cent and 11.8 per cent market share in the English GEC space respectively, according to data from TV audience monitoring agency TAM.

So is it a case of one too many? RBN Chief Executive Tarun Katial does not agree. He says the advertising pie is growing and since the three new channels will be paid channels, the new company is also banking on subscription revenues.

“We plan to get 25 million subscribers by the end of the first year,” says Katial. The three channels will offer CBS content including serials like Hawaii Five-0, The Defenders and Blue Bloods, Survivor, and America’s Next Top Model . The channels will also draw from 70,000 hours of content from CBS's programme library. In addition, the joint venture will also acquire content from third party suppliers and will consider producing original English language programming, in future.

On the possibility of having local content, Armando Nunez, president, CBS Studios, says, “Down the road if we see a possibility for local content we will produce it here. We have very popular formats of shows like Entertainment Tonight which can be customised for the Indian markets.” The channels will be aired across the Indian subcontinent covering India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan.

Though both the companies are listed entities, they seem to be wary of giving any specifics of the deal. “It is a 50:50 JV in every possible way. Suffice to say that both the partners hold equal stake in the company,” says Nunez.

However, a media advisor of a leading Mumbai-based consultancy firm says, “It looks like CBS would be providing the content for which it has taken equity in the company instead of upfront payment while RBN will use its network in the industry to market the content”.

But how long can the JV continue with a library of available programmes? “It is not just the existing library but new programmes will keep getting added to it as we produce new content for our channels in the US,” says Nunez. “We are looking at a situation where we would bring to the Indian audience our content soon after it has been aired in the US. So that should also address the issue of piracy as people would get a channel to access the content they want and not see it on pirated DVDs or illegally download it from the Internet,” he adds.

Katial says the company has a game plan to tackle the issue of distribution of niche channels where operators might ask for higher carriage fees. “We are focusing on the digital distribution platforms which is Direct-to-Home (DTH) and digital cable. We have signed a deal with BIG TV and hope to sign up with other operators soon,” he says.

The JV is also exploring the possibility of a movie channel and a news channel going forward. “As you might know, CBS News is a well-recognised news channel brand worldwide. As of today the Indian government does not allow a foreign network to set up a news channel. Going forward, we might discuss the opportunity with Reliance,” says Nunez.