Viacom18 picks BT distribution for Colors
February 17, 2017
BT Media & Broadcast has announced its association with Viacom18, one of India’s fastest growing entertainment network, to bring its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel, Colors, to Sky subscribers in UK in HD format. BT will manage the channel’s distribution into London’s BT Tower via its dedicated, high capacity Global Media Network (GMN), and fully manage the uplink and downlink of the signal to and from the satellite which will beam the channel into people’s homes.
Colors, available immediately, is renowned in India and other markets around the globe for its Indian adaptations of popular UK entertainment formats like Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars. Its availability in HD starting this week, marks the first time that Viacom18 has brought HD content to the UK market. This move is expected to not only attract new viewers but also enhance the overall viewing experience for its existing UK audience. Viacom18 broadcasts more than 36 channels in India, including some of the top performing channels.
Commenting on the HD feed, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18 said, “Over the past few quarters we have been focused on accelerating the expansion of our global footprint. Our maiden association with British Telecom will take our flagship channel Colors HD into the homes of Sky TV subscribers, providing them with access to not only the best of Indian content but also an enhanced viewing experience.”
Adding further, Raj Nayak, CEO – Hindi Mass Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “The quality of the viewing experience is so much better in HD, offering customers a more compelling and higher quality viewing experience. With Colors introducing HD feed in the UK market, we are looking forward to a deeper connect with not only the viewers in the region but also the advertisers.”
Commenting on the launch of the HD feed, Anuj Gandhi, Group CEO – IndiaCast, said, “Colors UK has been providing quality content options to audiences in the UK for over 7 years. Our partnership with SKY and BT for the launch of the HD feed is testimony to our commitment towards showcasing top-notch video quality to viewers, making Colors UK HD the top-of-mind entertainment destination for viewers.”
Mark Wilson-Dunn, VP of BT Media and Broadcast said, “Today’s deal with Viacom18 is a significant one for our growing Asian business. Viacom18 is one of India’s biggest and most recognised entertainment brands and we’re really excited to be helping it to capture larger UK viewing audiences by supporting its new HD offering. Culturally, TV plays a major part in keeping people of Asian origin living in Europe and other parts of the world connected with their families and heritage. Our role in helping to do that is something we are very proud of.”
“Our Global Media Network helps broadcasters and entertainment companies from all over the world to expand and succeed in new markets. Any by providing a future-proof path to upgrade to HD and UHD content distribution services, industry leading levels of reliability and 24/7 performance monitoring, there’s no better choice of partner than BT.”