English Entertainment
Fifth milestone: Comedy Central with 67 mn viewership observes 10 pc FCT growth
MUMBAI: Comedy Central launched in India on 23 January 2012 and has grown to be a famous English entertainment channel and a multi-platform brand offering best ever consumer products and on-ground events such as the Chuckle Festival. The channel has today become one of the most preferred channels for advertisers, across automobiles, e-commerce, FMCG and electronics categories. By providing quality television content from four of the biggest studios- NBCUniversal, Warner Bros, Sony Picture & CBS, Comedy Central enjoys a viewership of over 67 million and claims to be number one on social media platforms in its genre. The channel’s FCT has grew by 10 per cent in the financial year 2017.
Giving a High5 to all its fans on its fifth anniversary, Comedy Central is all set to celebrate in style. With something for everyone, such as a pro-social campaign Comedy Central Spread the Cheer, a unique initiative to spread happiness in places you least expect, exclusive collection of South Park merchandise for die-hard fans and a world preview of the latest season of Suits for its viewers – along with a host of other exciting activities on offer!
“When we launched Comedy Central five years ago, we were entering into completely virgin territory. Seeing how the channel has now grown to become the country’s No. 1 English Entertainment channel and a multi-platform brand is proof that quality entertainment will always be appreciated – and I’m not just talking about the viewers who keep coming back for more but also the advertisers who keep believing in us. Staying true to our commitment this year, we plan to focus on bringing the latest seasons of our popular shows and spreading cheer with our initiatives,” said Viacom18 head youth and English Entertainment cluster Ferzad Palia.
In the second edition of Comedy Central Spread the Cheer, Comedy Central aims to take its signature brand of happiness to the differently-abled, through a special combination of on-air programming and off-air initiatives. In partnership with The Rotary Club, Comedy Central will upgrade the education infrastructure for the visually-impaired in 3 schools – Hellen Keller Institute, Victoria Memorial School for the Blind and NAB Centre. This initiative will empower over 500 visually-impaired youth every year, making them employable under the Government’s quota for the differently-abled.
The channel has partnered with well-known brands like Costa Coffee, Gold’s Gym, Mad Over Donuts, Kidzania and Radio One to roll out special initiatives for the differently-abled across more than 100 outlets and help spread awareness. The channel has also partnered with Give India, enabling the viewers to join the movement and contribute in their own way. As a special gesture, the channel will also be taking 100 differently-abled kids to spend a day at KidZania, Delhi.
Viacom 18 is all set to make Vh1 Supersonic India’s first ever fully accessible music festival through its college-connect program, some reputed educational institutes will also upgrade their infrastructure and conduct workshops. The channel is also exploring ways to showcase the achievements of differently-abled sportsmen and other achievers, through radio and social media, to encourage the community.
Comedy Central fans will also get a chance to attend a Before The World premiere party for the post season-break episode of one of Comedy Central’s most popular shows, Suits season 6, in Mumbai and Delhi at Summerhouse Café and Monkey Bar at Bangalore on 25 January.
On digital media, Comedy Central will host an epic boomerang video contest, where viewers can show off their moves with a 5-step dance, to celebrate the channel’s birthday and win exclusive official merchandise.
All this over and above Comedy Central’s fabulous Birthday programming, including the best episodes of its five most beloved shows – Penn & Teller: Fool Us! In Vegas, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Citizen Khan, Mom, Whose Line Is It Anyway? from Monday to Friday at 8 pm. On Sundays, treat yourself to a 10-hour marathon of Impractical Jokers and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (all 10 seasons).
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.
