Viacom 18, The Owner Of Nickelodeon India, To Launch Brand New Entertainment Television Channel 'Rishtey' In The UK

From Indiantelevision.com:

Viacom18 to launch new channel Rishtey in UK

MUMBAI: Viacom18 will soon launch Rishtey in UK, a new mass entertainment Hindi entertainment channel that will complement its existing flagship channel Colors.

Rishtey will be launched in UK first by IndiaCast, showcasing content from a spectrum of genres including format shows, fiction, music and news.

The free-to-air (FTA) channel will be available on Sky Digital, it is learnt. Test signals are on and the launch is expected next month.

Rishtey will air re-run shows of Colors and also have original content.

Viacom18 operates a bouquet of channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Vh1, Colors, Sonic and Comedy Central. It is also engaged in the film business through Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Says Viacom18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats, “While we have a horizontal presence across television entertainment, with the launch of Rishtey, we now begin the phase of strengthening our presence in each vertical as well.”

Colors CEO Raj Nayak adds, “With ‘Rishtey’, we intend to create a new category within the general entertainment space, and given the rich mine of content within the Viacom18 Group, we’re confident of ‘Rishtey’ resonating well with both – viewers as well as advertisers.”

IndiaCast COO Gaurav Gandhi states, “Rishtey offers a wide range of variety entertainment programming that will engage, entertain and delight the South Asian audiences in the UK. As a free-to-air service, Rishtey perfectly complements our flagship brand Colors, by reaching out to a much wider audience base and giving them a taste of our much loved programming."

Also, from Best Media Info:

Viacom18 to launch a new channel ‘Rishtey’

To be launched first in the UK by IndiaCast, it will be part of the Colors family and the second Hindi GEC from the group

Viacom18 today announced that it will soon launch its new channel, Rishtey. To be launched in the UK first by IndiaCast, Rishtey promises to offer ‘variety entertainment’ showcasing content from a spectrum of genres including format shows, fiction, music, news and more. Rishtey will be the latest addition to the Viacom18 bouquet of channels that currently includes six entertainment channels – MTV, Nickelodeon, Vh1, Colors, Sonic, Comedy Central – and the film business, Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Rishtey will be Viacom18's second channel in the mass Hindi entertainment space after its flagship channel Colors which launched in July 2008. It will be a free-to-air (FTA) channel and a part of the Colors family.

When asked about Rishtey being launched in India, the Colors spokesperson declined to make any comment.

Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18, said, “While we have a horizontal presence across television entertainment, with the launch of Rishtey, we now begin the phase of strengthening our presence in each vertical as well.”

Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, said, “With Rishtey we intend to create a new category within the general entertainment space, and given the rich mine of content within the Viacom18 Group, we’re confident of Rishtey resonating well with both viewers as well as advertisers.”

Launching Rishtey in the UK, Gaurav Gandhi, COO, IndiaCast, said, “Rishtey offers a wide range of variety entertainment programming that will engage, entertain and delight the South Asian audiences in the UK. As a free-to-air service, Rishtey perfectly complements our flagship brand Colors, by reaching out to a much wider audience base and giving them a taste of our much loved programming.”

Also, from afaqs:

Colors' upcoming sibling GEC Rishtey to share content in the UK

The second GEC from the Viacom18 banner will be launched in the UK on September 3. It is learnt that the network has bought over the Sky digital channel 831, after Imagine Dil Se went off air in the UK a few weeks ago.

Viacom18, the parent network of Colors, one of the top Hindi GECs, has announced that it will launch another Hindi GEC in the UK. The free to air channel, Rishtey, will be the first launch under the newly formed distribution network, IndiaCast, while it will be the seventh entertainment channel of the network as a whole, along with MTV, Nickelodeon, Vh1, Colors, Sonic and Comedy Central.

In an official communiqué, Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, Viacom18, says, "While we have a horizontal presence across television entertainment, with the launch of Rishtey, we now begin the phase of strengthening our presence in each vertical."

Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, says that the network is confident about the new channel, on the back of the content of the Viacom18 Group.

Gaurav Gandhi, COO, IndiaCast says that the channel will cater to a wider audience base, being an FTA.

It is learnt that Rishtey may share content with its sibling channel Colors for the latter's simulcast-worthy shows, new offerings and Hindi movies. It was also learnt that it will primarily be used as a free window to promote premium properties from Colors. Though the channel has refused to comment on any aspect of programming, market sources reveal that it may broadcast content from its news channels such as CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 and regional shows from its recently acquired Eenadu network.

Shows such as Jai Shree Krishna (telecast on Colors when the channel was launched) and Kurukshetra will be telecast on Rishtey, along with a new singing reality show which will be simulcast on Sahara One and Colors, along with some channels in Pakistan.

Interestingly, though, the content of the channel will be quite similar to Colors, which is already available in the UK market as a pay channel. The network chooses to call the channel a 'variety entertainment channel' with 'hybrid programming'.

Initially, the channel will show repeat content. Apparently, it was mandatory for the network to launch the channel within a stipulated time period, or risk losing the EPG slot as per Sky's terms and conditions.

Some media experts suggest that this may be an attempt to follow a strategy similar to that of STAR Utsav, which is a free to air channel that airs repeat telecasts of Star Plus' shows. However, launching the channel in the UK seems to be a strange move. It is possible that this is an attempt by the network to sample the content on a wider audience base and using a free to air channel is a better option than converting the flagship pay channel to an FTA channel.

A media planner says that the content strategy definitely decreases the spends on the content by 75 per cent, as this kind of content would not cost more than a quarter of what original programming would.

The branding of Rishtey is similar to Colors, with the corporate multi-coloured petal and a similar font.

Tags: Colors, Rishtey, Viacom18, Sudhanshu Vats, Raj Nayak, Kurukshetra, Gaurav Gandhi, IndiaCast, MTV, Sonic, Imagine