English Entertainment
Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Quantico’ makes smashing debut on ABC with 7 mn viewers; India awaits premiere
MUMBAI: This girl tread on the trail that none before her have. She wiped out all boundaries and it seemed as if to her, no goal or dream was unachievable or out of bounds. We’re talking about the golden girl of Indian cinema – Priyanka Chopra, who is currently making waves on American television courtesy Quantico and living her dream Queen size. With 7.1 million viewers tuning in for the premiere episode, Quantico has shattered ratings records on ABC.
It was a bold move on Disney owned ABC Network’s part to cast an Indian actress as the lead for their television series but the ‘no risk, no gain’ policy seems to have paid off for the network. Quantico’s premiere episode has given ABC its best Sunday ratings since the 2012 telecast of Desperate Housewives’ finale.
Be it the larger than life scripting and narrative, the top notch production, or the fan base that Chopra has in the US as a Bollywood actress as well as a pop singer — the fact is that Quantico may just be perfect answer to what ABC Network was looking for. With an average demo rating of 1.9, the pilot episode aired on 27 September topped other popular shows on the network like Revenge and Once Upon A Time by a good margin, as per reports from international media. To reiterate, that’s over seven million viewers in a single day!
Chopra’s growing popularity internationally, especially after her pop album release, is no secret. Her recent public appearance during the NBA match between Warriors and Cavaliers where they played the Quantico promo, made headlines instantly. However, having said that, it certainly doesn’t compare to her fan base back home in India.
It’s a proud moment for Chopra’s fans, who are waiting with bated breath for Star World and Star World HD to premiere the show in India on 3 October.
Chopra was recently seen reassuring a fan on Twitter, who questioned why her Indian fans have to wait seven days for the show to air in India. “@priyankachopra -:))) we are so deprived in India…why do we have to wait for one whole week to see your first episode? Not fair #Quantico,” a fan tweeted.
Chopra responded back saying, “Tried my hardest @priyaguptatimes to show in India ASAP! Can’t wait for u all to c it on 3rd October!”
It does seem a tad uncanny that while shows like Downton Abbey, Modern Family, Homeland and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, are being simulcast in both the US and Indian network on Star World and Star World HD, a show likeQuantico, which has an obvious Indian connect and the potential to be more successful on home turf, is airing seven days after its airtime in the US.
It will be interesting to see, if the broadcaster buckles under pressure from Indian fans, if they continue to demand Quanticoto be simulcast after the pilot episode is released.
While it will be a one of a kind fan service for Chopra on the network’s part to allow the show to be simulcast here, the current air-time schedule might actually work in the show’s favour. Some argue that it couldn’t have been a better way to introduce the show in India — among a flurry of excitement of its international success. After all, having a Bollywood star as a cast isn’t always an assurance of the show’s success, as we observe from the fate of shows like Yudh, which starred none other than Amitabh Bachchan.
While the show’s fate in India will only be decided after the pilot episode on 3 October, the broadcaster can easily piggy back ride its marketing and promotions on the buzz, which is already stirring around the show. What’s more with Chopra and the entire Bollywood fraternity cheering her on social media, the excitement is palpable.
Social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are already abound with gossip about the show. Whatever little screenshots, dialogues and status updates that Indians can source online is effective in working them up for the premiere. Now, whether the show and Chopra’s role as an FBI agent will be able to live up to this hype, we will know soon enough.
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.
