Bombay Buccaneers

IT'S getting pretty crowded with films on all our channels in Britain. The big boy now on the block is the B4U movie channel coming in after Zee TV and Sony, not to mention some of the smaller players like TV Asia. All of Britain has lived for years with only four channels, and now you have four others for just a sub-continental million-and-a-half. The new seducer is that Calcutta-born steel-mill buyer Laxmi Mittal who set up B4U (a supposedly smartened version of Bollywood For You) along with Kishore Lulla of Eros and businessman Gokul Binani.

The businessmen have launched the new channel in their "individual capacity". This could well be just the first foray into media by Mittal. Does he have further plans lined up for this sector? "Inshal -lah (God willing)," Mit-tal told Outlook at the B4U launch. So, he did not say no.

The rush is now on to grab viewing shares of this market of just a million or so, though B4U is already looking further west to the US. However, it appears that just too many channels might be chasing what is, principally, only a small market. So, B4U and Sony have produced a "strategic alliance" against the dominance of Zee TV. Sony TV is broadcasting cricket and calling it B4U Sony. B4U and Eros have come together as BEN (Bollywood Eros Network). No doubt, some programmes in the future will come signed BEN Sony. They're up against a still-dominant Zee, and, for now, it's those two groups vs Zee. The strategic alliance is likely to last as long as the need for it.

B4U plans to beat Zee with a rush of new films. "B4U's ability to screen new movies less than six months after their theatrical release will be the main driver of the channel," Lulla said at the launch. B4U has promised a premiere every Sunday. It began broadcast on August 26 with none other than the hot new Taal. Zee, too, isn't taking things lying down. It's replying with some premieres of its own. "Competition has only stood to our advantage," Bhaskar Majumdar, CEO of Zee UK-Europe says. "We will now be offering our viewers a high-quality bouquet of three channels, including exclusive music and news coverage." Zee's plans to broadcast on the three channels were announced by Zee chief Subhash Chandra in London earlier this summer. Definitely, Chandra will not be an easy customer to beat.

But he does face rivals with a good deal of money muscle. "We're prepared for a rough ride," said Kishore Lulla at the launch. "We will put in whatever money it takes." Certainly, worrying words for Zee. Except that in this business a willingness to spend is not the same thing as success, as the Ambani paper in India (The Observer of Business and Politics) showed.

The slew of new channels means a lot for the viewer, too much maybe. Five films a day on B4U, three on Zee, three on Sony. It comes with a price tag, of course, and viewers will either stay with Zee, which costs £10-12 depending how you get it, or go for the B4U-Sony packet priced £12.99. However, subscribers have the option of viewing just one of these two channels for a little less. And the star wars are going digital. Sony joined B4U in going digital. Zee is following suit. The channel has plans to go digital from October 1.

'Digital' is a somewhat bothersome word to most viewers who want to simply switch on and watch. This is where lies Zee's advantage. The channel can afford to switch to the digital mode of transmission through its existing cable network. Which means the consumer pays nothing extra for improved services. While Sony viewers will have to go digital through a dish or a decoder. Providers now offer these for free, but bind viewers to a year's contract with a higher monthly fee. Not something middle-class viewers particularly want to do. But it's a matter of time before Sony and B4U make digital easy for viewers.

With digital will come better picture quality and interactive facilities, besides more sophisticated programming devices. For the broadcasters, it cuts costs to a fraction of the millions they pay at present for transponder use in analog broadcast. Therefore, even a small viewership will enable them to break even, and a larger one will, of course, translate into higher profits.

The viewing population is hard to measure accurately. But industry reports suggest a viewership of 150,000 for Zee, who claim they reach 40 per cent of Asian households in Britain. The Sony viewership is estimated around 20,000. It's the younger viewership the channels are chasing. Zee has come in with 'Music Asia' and Sony is coming in with 'Soul Asia' to get into the British Asian music scene. One way or the other, one channel or another, it's all going to mean a growing cultural connection with India and things Indian.