MUMBAI: Amid a toughening economy, Viacom18 has tweaked its growth plans. Pushed back for launch is the Hindi movie channel, for which the company had invested over Rs 2.5 billion in acquiring movie rights.

The channel will now launch next year, perhaps coinciding with an improved ad economy.

Viacom18 is also planning to launch regional entertainment channels next year.

Two smaller launches will take place this year. The company will launch within three months Comedy Central and another channel for young audiences.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Viacom18 is planning to launch two niche channels.

"Given the changing dynamics of the television business in this market, we have decided to strategically re-prioritise our growth plans and are now planning to launch Comedy Central and a channel for young audiences within the next three months, while deferring the launch of our Hindi movie channel," Viacom18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla said in an official statement.

"We are a young organisation and therefore have the agility to tweak our plans as may be required. Given the direction of growth across our businesses, we intend to launch our Hindi movie channel some time next year, with a model that will cut the lead time to leadership significantly...like we?ve been able to achieve in our other businesses," he further added.

Last month, Viacom18 had appointed Ravish Kumar as head of its proposed Hindi movie channel. Kumar was earlier Star India EVP and general manager for regional channels, handling Star Jalsha and Star Pravah.

Kumar will now explore the regional prospects of Viacom18.

"We have also decided to focus more attention to regional language entertainment and Kumar will be leading our efforts to explore and launch that part of the business in the coming year," Chawla added.

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MUMBAI: Star Gold has ramped up its movie acquisition budget to Rs 1.5 billion, lapping up blockbusters to fight in a genre that is to see a new entrant in Viacom18.

Upping the ante, Star Gold has stitched a deal with Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision for its upcoming slate. ?This is an outright acquisition deal. We will get 6-7 movies that Shree Ashtavinayak is producing for the next two years. The first of these is Bol Bachchan,? Star Gold senior vice-president Hemal Jhaveri told Indiantelevision.com.

The other recent purchases include blockbusters like Bodyguard, Ra One, Rock Star, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Housefull -2.

?We are giving the channel a big push. We are setting the pace with the world TV premiere of Singham. The Rs 1 billion grosser at the box office is being telecast on 10 September at 9 pm,? said Jhaveri.

Singham, in many ways, will set the pace for a much more aggressive Star Gold. The movie screened first on Star Gold, keeping the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Star Plus waiting.

Star Gold is also considering simulcast of bigger movie titles with Star Plus. For high-priced acquisitions, the general practice is to first show the title on the GEC as the advertising rates are much higher. "We are looking at simulcasts. All this will depend on the movie mix,"said Jhaveri.

As part of the growth strategy, the challenger brand has decided to further up the movie screenings to six a day, drawing in from Star?s library of over 400 movies across diverse genres.

Star Gold has repositioned with ?Karo Dil Ki? as its new brand philiosophy. ?We have moved a long way from when we started as a classic Hindi movie channel in 2000. We have unveiled a new logo during the screening of Singham. The broadcast design is done by Dynamite Design,"said Jhaveri.

Star Gold?s rapid surge in audience popularity has come in the last four months, following an overhaul of strategy. ?Since we took some important strategic decisions in November, we have seen a 29 per cent growth in GRPs (gross rating point). We have even become No. 1 in certain weeks, ahead of Max and Zee Cinema. We are gearing up to sustain the momentum,? said Jhaveri.

An important pillar of that strategy was to increase the number of movies telecast daily on the channel from four to five. Also, content was beefed up on the evening movie slot that ran just a single ad break.

?We have the shortest ad breaks. We run commercials of 12-minute duration to an hour of content compared to the industry norm of 17-18 minutes. This has gone a long way in identifying the viewer need,? said Jhaveri.

Narrowing the gap between the theatrical release to the telecast of big-ticket movies on the channel is also an important strategy. ?Being the last mile user, shorter windows would help. We could even show Salman Khan?s Bodyguard during the festive season,? averred Jhaveri.

Will Viacom18?s launch of a Hindi movie channel affect Star Gold? ?The revenue pie is only going to expand. We are prepared for competition. And even price rationalisation in movie acquisitions is round the corner,? said Jhaveri.

Media analysts believe the Hindi movie channel space will have four big players in the top tier. "Star has ramped up its movie acquisition investments. In FY?11, Star spent around Rs 1.5 billion towards movie acquisitions, up from Rs 950 million a year ago.They clearly want Star Gold to stay in the top tier," an analyst at a broking firm said.