Enterr10 Television Network is launching its second general entertainment channel (GEC) in recent months. While the first one was in Bhojpuri, their latest product will be for the Kannada-speaking market.
Strengthening its regional portfolio, Enterr10 will launch Dangal Kannada on September 30. The network, which operates channels like Dangal, the most-watched Hindi GEC, will continue expanding its regional presence despite the COVID-19 pressure the TV industry has faced in the last few months.
The channel will air dubbed versions of shows like Ramayan, Mere Sai, Phir Laut Aayi Naagin, Tenali Rama, among others.
“Dangal Kannada provides a strategic inroad to one of the largest regional markets in the country through which we would like to increase our market share and brand footprint,” said Manish Singhal, managing director, Enterr10 Television Network.
There is no denying that the southern states are both a big and important market for the TV industry. When it comes to viewership, the four south-Indian language markets together matched up to Hindi in terms of sheer size, capturing around 43 percent of the market in 2018.
Viewers of the four southern language markets — Tamil Nadu, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam — had the highest engagement with GEC content, upwards of two and a half hours a day. This was about an hour more than a comparative Hindi channel's, according to a KPMG report.
According to data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council, viewership in the South is increasing. Kannada GECs have been particularly lucrative, with viewership growing by 57% between week 1 and 35 in 2018 over a similar time period in 2016, the most recent compiled data available.
In Kannada, people spend 4 hours 25 minutes watching television per day, as opposed to 3 hours 37 minutes in Hindi.
Along with a growth in viewership, advertiser interest for southern language channels has also increased. According to The Southside Story report 2019, television ad volumes grew 63 percent between 2014 and 2018. There are more than 66,000 advertisers in the southern market, it said.
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