English Entertainment
Get over your weekday blues with a dose of Instant Premieres on COLORS INFINITY
MUMBAI: If you suffer from Monday or any other day blues, fret not, COLORS INFINITYhas discovered a cure to Lunaediesophobia (The phobia or extreme dislike of Mondays). For viewers that experience the blues, COLORS INFINITYwill transform insufferable Mondays(as well as all other weekdays) into exciting, entertaining and enjoyabledayswith a spectacular line-up of Instant Premieresthat viewers will undoubtedly look forward to.
Starting October 7, COLORS INFINITYinfuses a fresh line-up of shows that will spruce up your primetime viewing, with a variety of options from crime-fighting superheroes to witches, vampires & werewolves; from heart-stopping medicos to serial hackers, serial killers& also serial teenagers.
“Our commitment towards making television viewing a thoroughly enjoyable experience for viewers is evidenced by our exceptional programming. Day in, day out we’re showcasing an assortment of the latest and the best content from around the world to viewers in India. Airing within hours of their international telecast, shows from our Instant Premieres line-up are amongst the must-watch and most-recommended lists. We’re also adding a dash of reality with The Bachelor as well as a critically-acclaimed sitcom Younger. COLORS INFINITYguarantees viewers’ weekdays will be just as exhilarating or more than their leisured weekends.” said, Hashim D’Souza – Head of Programming, English Entertainment, Viacom18.
Block your calendar from Monday to Friday forthis unmatched line-up of shows;
Mondays
10pm – Batwoman – Season 1 premiering on October 7
Three years after billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego Batman disappears, his cousin Kate Kane sets out to overcome her demons and become a symbol of hope by protecting the streets of Gotham City, as Batwoman!
11pm – Mr. Robot – Season 4 premiering on October 7
The highly-anticipated fourth season of "Mr. Robot" brings the critically-acclaimed, Golden Globe®-winning drama series to a thrilling conclusion. Emmy® winner Rami Malek reprises his star-making role as Elliot Alderson, a cyber-security engineer recruited by the mysterious Mr. Robot (Golden Globe® winner Christian Slater) to join fsociety, an underground hacker group bent on sparking a global revolution. The final season picks up after the undoing of fsociety's infamous Five/Nine hack, which targeted the multinational conglomerate E Corp in a bid to erase the world's debt. Now that the economy has rebounded, Elliot and Mr. Robot unite to take down the top 1% of the top 1% and save the world from the powerful group of people controlling our lives from the shadows.
Tuesdays
10pm – Black Lightning – Season 3 premiering on October 8
Jefferson Pierce is a man with many faces. A former Olympic athlete, respected educator and a father of two, he’s also Black Lightning, superpowered protector of Freeland with the ability to sense and harness electricity.In the season three premiere, Agent Odelltightens his grip on the Pierce family, leaving Freeland without Black Lightning and Thunder.
11pm – The Good Doctor – Season 3 premiering on October 8
Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital's surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues.
Wednesdays
10pm – The Flash – Season 6 premiering on October 9
After being struck by lightning, CSI investigator Barry Allen awakens to discover he has been granted thegift of super speed. Teaming up with S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry takes on the persona of The Flash, theFastest Man Alive, to protect his city.In the season six premiere, Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) and Iris (CANDICE PATTON) deal with the heartbreaking loss of their daughter, while the team faces their greatest threat yet.
11pm – Arrow – Season 8 premiering on October 16
Oliver Queen was missing and presumed dead for years before being discovered alive on a remoteisland. He returned home to Star City, bent on righting the wrongs of his family and fighting injustice. Asthe Green Arrow, he protects his city with the help of a team of vigilantes.
Thursdays
10pm – Riverdale – Season 4 premiering on October 10
Things aren't always what you expect in RIVERDALE. Based on the characters from Archie Comicsthis drama is a bold, subversive take on the surreality of small-town life. As the residence of Riverdale prepare for its upcoming Independence Day parade, Archie (KJ Apa) receives a phone call that will change the rest of his life forever.
11pm – New Amsterdam – Season 2 premiering on October 10
"New Amsterdam" returns for an exhilarating second season full of gripping, emotional and inspiring medical stories. Dr. Max Goodwin and his heroic team of doctors and nurses continue their mission to provide outstanding care for their patients while healing the ailing medical system from within. Last season’s heart-wrenching finale left multiple lives hanging in the balance after an ambulance crash involving Max, his wife Georgia, their newborn daughter Luna, Dr. Lauren Bloom and Dr. Helen Sharpe. Find out who did not survive and how this tragedy will affect the personal and professional lives of New Amsterdam’s dedicated medical professionals going forward.
Fridays
10pm – Legacies – Season 2 premiering on October 11
The show follows Hope Mikaelson, the "tribrid" daughter of Klaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall, who has descended from some of the most powerful vampire, werewolf, and witch bloodlines. Two years after the events of ‘The Originals’, 17-year-old Hope attends the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. The school provides a haven where beings such as vampires, witches, and werewolves can learn to control their supernatural abilities and impulses.Hope is determined to go back to Mystic Falls, Alaric looks into the night Malivore was destroyed, and Landon keeps an eye on Rafael while MG goes to Atlanta.
11pm – Prodigal Son – Season 1 premiering on October 11
Malcolm Bright, whose father Dr. Martin Whitly, is the infamous serial killer known as "The Surgeon”. Now a profiler working with the New York City Police Department, Malcolm is forced to confront his father after a copycat serial killer uses his methods of killing.
Monday to Friday
8pm – Younger – Season 1 – 6 premiering on October 7
Based on the book by the same name, Younger follows a 40-year old divorced mother, who after being mistaken for being younger than she really is, decides to take the chance to reboot her career and her love life as a 26-year old!
9pm – The Bachelor – Season 23 premiering on October 7
Season 23 features 26-year-old Colton Underwood, a former professional football player and charity founder from Washington, Illinois, looking for his prospective wife from a pool of romantic interests.
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.
