Dangal TV plans to do high impact non-fiction in 2020: Joy Chakraborthy

Dangal TV, the Hindi GEC from Enterr10 TV Network, has been consistently topping the ratings charts in the Hindi GEC space ever since BARC India started releasing data in the post NTO regime, and the channel’s dominance became even more prominent ever since BARC split the ratings data between pay and free platforms. 

Launched 10 years back, Dangal TV has been able to build up an impressive viewer base on the back of its content line-up that includes a mix of mythological and historical shows as well as re-runs of select popular old shows. 

As per BARC India data for Week 45, Dangal TV continued to lead in All Platform with a gross viewership of 1,062,033. Dangal TV’s viewer base is spread mostly across the Hindi heartland, but the channel has also managed to win over the urban audiences. 

Joy Chakraborthy, CEO, Enterr10, decodes Dangal TV’s success to Adgully. 

Why does the Hindi heartland still love to watch mythology content?
We Indians are culturally routed people and very high on religious beliefs and this faith percolates through generations. Everyone grows up hearing mythological stories and content around this subject is evergreen and will remain. This genre has a huge advertiser affinity too and most players want to ride on the high from day one, even before the rating verdict is out. 

Is TV viewership in these regions growing?
The TV viewership shows a minor growth, if at all. However, there are shifts in genres viewed. At the same time, advertiser interest in these markets is at an increase and therefore, Dangal TV forms a part of most plans. 

Have you revised your ad rates post NTO? By how much?
Our channels were on a growth trajectory and, therefore, work on rate increase was in progress anyways. In the midst of that, NTO happened and to answer your question, yes, the rates have gone up drastically to commensurate with the performance of the channel. 

Which categories of advertisers are opting for your platform?
We have all categories present in our channel...FMCG, though, is a category that enjoys the spread of our reach the maximum. We have almost all brands in this category advertising on our channel. 

Do you have plans to get on to the digital bandwagon?
Digital is something which is part of our strategy going forward, as that helps monetisation too. We will share them with all as and when we are ready to disclose the same. 

As the year comes to an end what have been the key milestones for the channel?
This year has been eventful for us as we were in the process of increasing our original content line-up, whereby, we successfully launched ‘Phir Laut Aayi Nagin’, ‘CIF’, ‘Darr Ki Dastak’ and further strengthened ‘Crime Alert’. We also invested in distribution and strengthened our reach further on the pay platform. These have helped us strengthen our sales approach and monetise better too. Milestones have been endless and our future plans are to set many more. 

What is your vision for the channel? How do you plan to expand the audience and your content portfolio?
The vision for the channel is to maintain the leadership position and grow further – be it on the viewership front or on the revenue front. In order to do this, we have already invested in distribution, placement as well as content. As mentioned earlier, we already have launched original content on the channel with complete focus on monetising on them well. More differentiated content will be launched on the channel in days to come. We are also contemplating doing a high impact non-fiction in the coming year, which will also help us increase the yield of the channel.