Don 2 television premiere

Now many of us filmbuffs are having a common question "why so many new movies are on television?"

Its not like movies are failed to attract crowd in cinema halls and multiplexes. The twist in this tale is that the films are not only fetching good money for the satellite rights but also in some cases, the entire cost of production is recovered. At the same time many television channels are rushing to grab the satellite rights for the latest Bollywood movies and even some under-production films since they have realised that the weekend movies can actually spike their TRPs.

Farhan Akhtar directed motion picture DON 2 has sold its satellite rights even before its release for a whopping 37 crores. It's Zee TV who has bought the satellite rights for this movie.

Result?

Rates of Satellite TV Rights of Bollywood Films are soaring high. Films like Raajneeti and Kites have been lapped up by TV channels for Rs 20 crore, Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots sold its TV rights for a whopping Rs 38 crore. Recently Ra One has smashed the record of 3 Idiots. Ra One tv legal rights sold for Rs 40 crores till now its the biggest satellite deals to take place in the history of Indian cinema.

Where TV Channels are heading?

In last six month We have seen Star India  to spent the highest to bag any big-ticket bollywood movies that in result make its close contenders such as Zee Cinema and Max stay behind in TRP game.  Star India got a spike in viewership with 150 GRPs (gross rating points, a measure of audience size) in the past six months. Not only that TV channels are making huge profit from air time selling on television premiere. 

Mr Hemal Jhaveri, Vice-President, Star Gold, said: 

Today the minimum amount to bag a blockbuster is almost Rs 20 crore after factoring in inflation, while in the past the rights were as low as Rs 7 crore. There is an element of risk as in any other business but there are syndication and advertising revenues which compensate for it.

Highest rates for a Hindi film channel (a Saturday/Sunday movie) are between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 per ten-seconds. A normal blockbuster non-premiere would be between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 while a premiere such as the recent blockbuster Singham which is being premiered on Star Gold would command between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakhs for a ten-second spot.

© photos courtesy of INKCINCT