"We shook the category from its slumber," says Ferzad Palia as Colors Infinity turns one

The channel has roped in more than 100 advertisers over the last one year.

A year ago, a media conglomerate in India invited the press to announce a new English general entertainment channel. The ambience did not seem to be that of an English entertainment channel launch. While there were cut-outs of popular characters, posters of the show which the youth of the nation was talking about at the time, and several other such aspects, the biggest attractions were the images of Bollywood biggies Karan Johar and Alia Bhatt.

An English general entertainment channel launch featuring two popular Bollywood faces? What were they doing here? Were they going to team up to launch a new show?

"They are the co-curators of the newly-launched Colors Infinity," announced the media conglomerate Viacom18.

Naysayers said it was just a publicity stunt. Perhaps. But, courtesy that, the launch started trending organically on social media platforms, and the buzz was generated even before the channel hit television screens. The unusual run did not end with Karan and Alia; it continued with back-to-back episodes of popular shows, simulcasts, and many more such innovations.

"Clustered and no space for new," read expert comments. But, 'Orange is the New Black' and 'Fargo', read the hoardings, and the unusual run continued. Six months into the business, the channel made another unusual one-of-a-kind announcement which was 'The Stage' -- the first home-grown English non-talk show content. 'The Stage' was an English reality singing show preparing for its second season. The winner of the first season hailed from Varanasi.

It's been a year since then. Ferzad Palia, head, English and Youth Entertainment, Viacom18, says, "We shook the category from its slumber."

According to Palia, the two consumer insights that the channel discovered before its launch were: We don't get the content at the time we want to get the content; we don't want to watch one episode a week. "And, that's what the team worked on," says Palia.

"We have over 100 advertisers, and we don't sell cheap. We are significantly at a premium compared to most of our competitors. We are trending ahead of competitors who have been there for over 15 years now, so we have seen a significant growth in our ad sales. On the financial part, we are ahead of our plans," are his words after completing a year-long journey in the English entertainment genre.

Palia is content with the distribution of the channel as he feels it has reached all the regions that matter. Seeding the channel and making people sample it was one of the biggest challenges, he feels.

"We stayed true and committed to our vision of expanding the viewership base of the English entertainment in general, and increase the market share of Viacom18's English cluster. I'd say we are well on track to realise our vision with 60 per cent of Colors Infinity's viewership coming in from the non-metro market, and our English cluster commanding 53 per cent market share in the genre," informs Palia.

Shedding light on the original English content creation ecosystem at this stage, Palia says, "We are at a nascent stage when it comes to original English content creation. Writers need to think English and that will take some time. The web is showing good signs of evolution, and I am sure we will see that on television, too."

Palia says that the company plans to increase its focus on local English content this year, as well as bring in the latest seasons of its popular shows. "Finally, we are committed to continue our innovations on the viewing experience with Infinity-on-Demand, instant premieres, and essential viewing," he concludes.