Big Magic partners Videocon d2h; expands footprint to 60 million homes

Interestingly, the channel, which is a regional general entertainment channel, will be listed in the Hindi GECs list and not in the regional channels' list in the EPG.

Big Magic, a Hindi regional general entertainment channel launched by Reliance Broadcast Network, has tied up with Videocon d2h to increase its reach to 15 million more households. The channel will now be present in about 60 million households across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

What is interesting to note is that the channel hasn't listed itself in the Hindi GECs list. The Electronic programme guide (EPG) of Videocon d2h has listed the channel in the Hindi GECs list and not in the regional channel's category.

The channel is currently present across the distribution networks of Airtel, DD Direct, Dish TV and Reliance Digital TV, along with Hathway, Incable, Digicable, DEN, 7 Star, ABS, Siticable, Star Broadband and GTPL, amongst others.

It is not available on Tata Sky. Sunil Kumaran, business head, Big Magic, reasons, "We are in discussion with them and subject to bandwidth availability, we should be coming on the platform soon."

Digitisation is set to change a lot in the subscription and carriage amounts in the near future. Kumaran says that the priority of the channel currently is to build reach. "We are currently focusing on building reach of the channel with our refreshing line-up of shows. We are confident that we will be able to do that and thereby create enough pull to drive subscription revenues. The decrease in the carriage fees is sure, but it depends on the platform mix and markets."

Videocon d2h offers 444 channels and services. It also has 22 HD channels. Apart from these, it has Active Music, which includes 41 audio/video active music channels, 24 hours a day.

Saurabh Dhoot, director, Videocon Group, on this channel addition, says, "With regional channels being the flavour of the season, we are strengthening our network and working towards being the preferred DTH choice."