Season 2 of Indian TV’s soap opera: All it needs is some background music
Dramatic close-ups and unexpected plot twists reign supreme as two heroes from opposing teams fiercely negotiate the terms of their cooperation. Meanwhile, another two characters make us suspend disbelief as they tear apart their friendship with over-the-top drama, whose fallout even threatens to upset the talks between the first two. Captain America and the Winter Soldier? Nope! I’m just talking about what’s playing out between Disney Star and Reliance Industries on one hand, and Sony and Zee on the other.
India is a complex media market where success is contingent upon the ability to adapt to local audience behaviour, their demand for culturally relevant content, and manoeuvring through an ever-developing policy landscape. Global media giants that have tried to go it alone in India have inevitably failed. Right from the early 1990s, as Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV transformed into India’s largest broadcaster by going after the Hindi-speaking audience, we have seen Viacom, Turner, Disney and many others Indianize.
This is true for almost any large market in the world, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, Latin America and the Middle East North Africa region, to name just a few. Disney has had a chequered run in India. Its first attempt to enter the market in the 90s came apart quickly.
Its second attempt with the progressive acquisition of Ronnie Screwvala’s UTV was a much more solid proposition. It propelled Disney to the top of the kids’ broadcasting pile with Hungama TV and made it the most premium Bollywood force, thanks to UTV Motion Pictures. I was fortunate to have had a front seat watching the early part of Disney’s growth in India over my 13 years at UTV.
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