Star India rising: Eyes TV rights of Bollywood hits with Rs 100 cr in hand

After leading in the general entertainment channels (GEC) space with Star Plus, the Star India network is now propelling Star Gold , its Hindi movie channel, to achieve a similar feat by bagging the rights of potential blockbusters such as Bodyguard, Ra One, Rock Star and Housefull -2 with an investment of over Rs 100 crore.

Paying not less than Rs 20 crore to buy the rights for each of these films, Star India is in a mood to splurge (in spite of the risks involved) on big-ticket movies in the Hindi film genre where it recently got a spike in viewership with 150 GRPs (gross rating points, a measure of audience size) in the past six months in spite of close contenders such as Zee Cinema and Max.

Speaking to

Business Line , Mr Hemal Jhaveri, Vice-President, Star Gold, said: “Today the minimum amount to bag a blockbuster is almost Rs 20 crore after factoring in inflation, while in the past the rights were as low as Rs 7 crore. There is an element of risk as in any other business but there are syndication and advertising revenues which compensate for it.''

Remakes win the day

While the usual factors such as the story, production house and director are taken into account, it is remakes of old successful films and even regional films with established benchmarks which help broadcasters in picking the right portfolio of films. “Not all films are picked up by broadcasters and pricing for the films chosen is more like real estate prices, which are not constant,” explains Mr Jhaveri. Besides, the rates for the rights are also dependent on the stars featuring in the film. Besides, the ad rates for blockbusters are generally at a premium. According to media planners, the highest rates for a Hindi film channel (a Saturday/Sunday movie) are between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 per 10 seconds. A normal blockbuster non-premiere would be between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 while a premiere such as the recent blockbuster Singham which is being premiered on Star Gold would command between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakhs for a ten-second spot.

The fact that a movie like Singham continues to run in theatres and is also being premiered on Star Gold this weekend is also expected to perk up the ad rates as more viewers would be lured into watching the film on television than spending money on to catching it at the theatres. Other recent blockbusters, such as the Hrithik Roshan-Farhan Akhtar starrer Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is also being lined up for the festival season on Star Gold.