KC Global Media Asia Brand Promo!
- Thread starter Otaku
- Start date
Yep and Animax got removed from Sony LIV.
DashMajor
EntMnt Knight
Any chance KC Media can do business here ? Is there any non competative clause ?
What prevents KC Global Media to launch Animax, AXN, Gem, and One in India?
The Indian market is quite difficult for international/multinational channels. It's not just about affordability or viewership, because KC Media channels and other niche channels are available in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal via local cable and DTH operators. They get it at cheap rates.
The main problem is Indian environment is not suitable for the success of niche channels. Some reasons include :
New Tariff Order : As per TRAI's new regulations, people can select individual channels instead of package bundles. Earlier the operators and channel owners could cover up the costs of niche channels by utilizing the profits earned by popular channels in a given package. But now it's not possible to sustain such channels which only a particular group of people watch - biggest example being AXN.
High Carriage Fees : Channels need to pay cable and DTH operators some fees to broadcast their channel. Unfortunately, the carriage fees in India is very high as compared to its neighbors. While popular channels can afford to pay, the less popular ones are unable to do so - biggest example being Animax.
Reluctant Authorities : The channel owners and distributors in India are not interested in investing and purchasing licensing & broadcasting rights for channels that would be watched by only a handful of people. For example, when Sony Pictures Asia owned AXN, Animax, Gem, One channels, Sony India could have got India rights easily. In fact, Sony LIV was getting Animax Asia feed from Sony Pictures Asia at a very cheap rate. But despite of requesting them many times, they didn't add Gem and One. Similarly, Turner (who owns Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Pogo) never launched OhK TV in India. Indian broadcasters ask for high amount of money which turns off these international channel owners.
Internal Issues of channels : Small companies like Plus Media Networks which own Aniplus & K-Plus, tVN corporation, or Wakuwaku Japan corporation, look for those territories that are small, demographically homogenous, favourable laws, or have a high per capita income, so that they don't encounter losses. They find Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka to be more favourable than India, other than Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam.
Online Video-On-Demand & Piracy platforms : On one hand there are legal streaming VOD platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Viki, Viu, etc. On the other hand there are piracy sites like Kiss group, Gogo group, NewAsianTV, OnDramaNice, etc and of course Torrents. Most of the Indian population who want to watch such niche content are younger people who have regular access to internet at affordable prices. So channels seem to be unfeasible. Recently, Disney discontinued Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior in many international territories and moved all its content to Disney Plus. In Australia for example, people don't subscribe to TV anymore; everything is available online. India might follow suit in future.
Countries like Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia had an audience since long before who wanted to watch east Asian content. Whereas the Indian audience wanted to watch local shows mostly. So the niche channels could pave their way at an early stage there but not in India. Now it seems even more unlikely.
The only way we can watch is if the channel owners host live streams of their channels on their own apps or websites (with subscription).
They can enter since they recently expanded in our neighbour country Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal.