English Entertainment
English entertainment & movie channels’ line-up this New Year
MUMBAI: Taking the Christmas cheer into the New Year, which will be sprinkled with splendid celebrations across every corner of the world, English entertainment and movie channels have also gone that extra mile to wind up 2015 for its viewers.
What’s in store for viewers are power packed shows and movies as a New Year treat. As we bid farewell to 2015, those who are staying put at home in front of the television on New Year’s eve as well as the first day of 2016, here’s what lined up for that extra doze of enjoyment in terms of movies and shows across English channels.
Read on:
AXN
The English entertainment channel will enthral viewers with its midnight marathon by airing the sixth season of Sex and the City on 1 and 2 January, 2016 as the New Year special programming from 12 am to 5 am.
The channel will also telecast the first season of Limitless on 1 January from 11 am to 8 pm. The show portrays a man who gains the ability to use the full extent of his brain’s capabilities.
Colors Infinity
The recently launched English entertainment channel will air Mr. Robot on 31 December, 2015 starting from 2 pm all day long. Elliot Alderson is a young cyber-security engineer living in New York, who assumes the role of a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot meets a mysterious anarchist known as Mr. Robot who recruits Elliot to join his team of hackers, named ‘fsociety.’
Comedy Central
The year-end will showcase the best of comedy aired on Comedy Central throughout 2015. The channel will air season 1 of Mom, an award winning mother-daughter comedy on 31 December, 2015 from 6 pm to 8 pm. The show follows the story of single mom Christy played by Anna Faris and her battle against alcoholism and drug abuse.
The channel will also air season 3 of Citizen Khan from 8 pm to 10 pm. The story revolves around a family after it arrives back from a trip to Pakistan, Mr Khan’s mother-in-law announces she wants to move into a home. When Sam, the head of a local care centre arrives, Mr Khan is over-the-moon. That is, until he discovers the mother-in-law may be worth some money. With the help of son-in-law-to-be Amjad, a ridiculous disguise and a spying mission, Mr Khan tries to stop naani moving out at all costs.
FX
FX, for the very first time in India will premiere a funny yet terrifying prank show, Scare Tactics on 1 January at 8 pm. Scare Tactics is a hidden camera prank show that puts victims into terrifying situations, usually involving movie-style special effects and makeup that recreates horror movie clichés. The victims, generally four per episode, are set up by friends and/or family in tandem with the producers.
The channel will also premiere The X-Files – Essential Collection, starting from 1 – 28 January, 2016 every Monday to Friday at 11 pm. The series will consist of 20 selected episodes from previous seasons of The X Files personally chosen and curated by original series creator, Chris Carter along with some never-seen-before footage as a build-up to the all-new miniseries of the cult sci-fi show releasing in 2016!
Movies Now
Movies Now, as part of 100 Mania, will air Man of Steel at 9 pm on 31 December. The channel will also add an extra element of excitement for its viewers by giving out an iPhone 6S as a prize on the day.
Additionally, MN+ will treat its viewers by premiering Kate Winslet’s Little Chaos at 9 pm on New Year’s Eve.
The channel will also hold the mega-premiere of the Hollywood comedy, That Awkward Moment on 1 January at 11 pm. The movie stars Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller, and is written and directed by Tom Gormican.
The movie revolves around three best friends and the turmoil’s of their relationships, which results in them deciding to stay single and enjoy life. Things however change when the boys Jason, Daniel and Mikey start juggling their single life with their romantic interest as things get really awkward for them to handle.
Romedy Now
The channel will add to the joy of New Year by airing the widely loved show How I Met Your Mother all day long from 9 am to 9 pm. The channel will also premiere She’s Funny That Way at 9 pm.
Star Movies
The channel is all geared up with an exciting line-up of best of Hollywood movies this New Year. The channel for its 31 December schedule will air Exodus: Gods and Kings at 1 pm followed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at 5 pm. Next in line is Real Steel, which will be aired at 7 pm followed by Titanic at 9 pm.
On 1 January, the channel will premiere X-Men at 2 pm followed with Fantastic Four at 4 pm. X2: X-Men United will see its broadcast at 6 pm with X-Men: Days of Future Past scheduled next.
Star Movies Select HD
Star Movies Select HD will air a few blockbuster hits on 31 December starting with Tangled at 5 pm followed by Wall Street at 7 pm. The next in line is The Bourne Supremacy at 9 pm and Gone Girl at 11 pm.
The channel, for its 1 January treat, will air movies like Mary Poppins at 11 am followed by The Grand Budapest Hotel at 1 pm. The heart-warming movie, Fault in our Stars will be telecast at 5 pm. Viewers will also be able to enjoy other movies like Remember the Titans at 7 pm, Snow White and the Huntsmen at 9 pm and Alan Partridge: The Movie at 11 pm.
Star World Premiere HD
The channel has lined up a row of special programming reflecting the spirit of celebration called, Mad Hatter’s Party. The party will begin on 31 December from 12 pm onwards with season 1 of Muppets. The show includes characters Kermit the Frog, Rizzo the Rat, Beaker, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Waldorf, Rowlf the Dog, Bobo the bear and many more as the cast.
The Muppets serves as a parody of other mockumentary-style series, such as Modern Family, Parks and Recreation andThe Office, by employing the same single-camera setup filming style with the implication of a documentary crew filming everyone.
The channel will also air season 7 of Modern Family on 1 January at 12 pm. The show known for its crazy antics among the members of the Dunphy and Pritchett families follows their daily lives as they deal with ups and downs in hilarious ways just like modern-day families in real-life who encounter various situations every day.
Star World
Star World and Star World HD, following an online poll asking viewers to pick the show they’d like to watch, will air back-to-back episodes of Two Broke Girls on 31 December and 1 January from 12 pm onwards. The poll, #YouPickTheShow wherein the channel had asked the users to vote for their favourite show was conducted via Star World’s digital properties and the choices given to the viewers were: Two and a Half Men season 12, Two Broke Girlsseason 4 and Melissa & Joey season 4.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
