Star Gold seeing growth on back of Bollywood premieres: Hemal Jhaveri

With 4,733 million GVTs (or Impressions) in 2018 [Weekly average, 2+, HSM U+R], the Hindi movies genre has grown from strength to strength from an average growth of 4,163 million GVTs (or Impressions) in 2017. 

Among the Hindi movie channels, Star Gold has delivered the biggest Bollywood premieres in the last year, with 7 out of top 10 Bollywood Premieres aired within the genre being showcased on Star Gold. 

Launched in 2000, Star Gold firmly believes in ‘Karo Dil Ki’ philosophy, which reflects the attitude and aspirations of the core audience. In 2011, Star Gold underwent a revamp and since then, several successful blockbuster premieres have been aired on the channel. Acquiring good content has been an important milestone and deemed as a never-seen-before innovation in the ecosystem of television broadcast rights. 

In conversation with Adgully, Hemal Jhaveri, Executive Vice President & GM, Hindi Movie Business, Star India, speaks about the evolution of the Hindi Movies genre, factors contributing to the growth of the genre, content strategy for Star Gold and more. Excerpts: 

What kind of growth has the Hindi Movies genre witnessed in the last few years? What are the factors contributing to this growth?
The Hindi Movies genre on TV is no longer a snacking category. Both premieres and repeat airings get consistently high ratings. The movies genre is also the highest audience aggregating genre on TV, and Star Gold has the highest reach on TV among urban audiences. 

Hindi movie channels are constantly bringing fresh content to viewers. More than 40 per cent viewership of the Hindi movie channels comes from the releases of the last 3 years [Viewership data basis HSM Urban, 15+ males]. 

Movie content has increasingly become universal in nature. In fact, women delivered higher ratings on the premieres of ‘Golmaal Again’ as well as ‘Judwaa 2’. Counter-intuitively, young, upscale and metro audiences react the most to premieres. This is the audience that continues to consume TV very heavily. 

In fact, Bollywood premieres are among the biggest events on TV – ahead of award shows, reality content, talent hunt shows, and even some cricket matches. 

In your views, what kind of content really works for this genre in order to attract more viewers?
The movie category is not as strongly skewed towards males as it was before, with 46 per cent viewership coming from women (as against 42 per cent in 2014). As a result, a mix of content works for the category. Action, Comedy and Drama movies together account for 80 per cent viewership in the genre. [Viewership data basis HSM Urban 2+]. 

What is the YOY growth that Star Gold has seen over the past few years?
A ‘consistent’ strategy of always maintaining a bank of top Bollywood titles every year has worked for us. We have never strayed away from Bollywood. 

For the last 4 years, Star Gold has delivered the top Bollywood premieres among the Hindi movie channels, including ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’ (17.7 million), ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’ (17.3 million), ‘Judwaa 2’ (10.9 million), and ‘Golmaal Again’ (12.1 million) [2+, HSM Urban]. 

Furthermore, last year 7 out of top 10 Bollywood Premieres aired within the genre were on Star Gold. Last 3 biggest premieres in the genre that have rated above 4 TVR were on Star Gold: ‘Judwaa 2’ (10.9 million), ‘Golmaal Again’ (12.1 million), and Baaghi 2 (10.6 million). 

In the current competitive scenario where we see similar kind of content on all the channels, what’s the strategy for Star Gold to make differentiation in the content that they showcase?
Star Gold showcases the latest Bollywood blockbusters – ‘Judwaa 2’, ‘Golmaal Again’, ‘Raid’, ‘Baaghi 2’. While South-dubbed content has grown in viewership, Bollywood content is still the largest audience aggregator and distinguishes the channel from the competition. 

Star Gold is the only top channel that is still Bollywood-heavy, with 70 per cent viewership coming from Hindi content [Viewership data basis HSM Urban, 15+ males]. 

Even in the future, Star Gold will continue to focus on Bollywood Blockbusters. Our upcoming line-up includes: ‘Sanju’, ‘Stree’, ‘Kaala’, ‘Total Dhamaal’, ‘Kalank’, ‘Super 30’ and Ranveer Singh’s next film on the 1983 World Cup. 

With the highest reach in HSM Urban Market, what kind of strategies are you opting to target the Tier 2 and 3 markets?
We curate the latest Bollywood blockbusters for our audiences and that is what has contributed to our success across markets. 

The rural reach for overall Star Hindi Movie channels portfolio is 189 million individuals on an average for the last 13 weeks [2+, HSM Rural].