A first in 5 years, the World Television Premiere of Laxmii breaks TV viewership records

Hindi movie channels have always been a predominant genre in television broadcasting, reaching out to millions of movie-loving viewers every week. Indian audiences, with a high affinity for Hindi movies, have also cherished the opportunity of watching their favorite as well as latest blockbuster movies on TV straight from the comfort of their home. As a result, alongside other major TV genres like GECs and Live sports, Movie channels have also grown steadily in the last 5 years. One of the less known or less talked about high points of Hindi movie channels has been the success of movie premieres on TV wherein Hindi movie channels have garnered a vast reception from television audiences.

While talking about the large viewership that Hindi movies get for movie premieres, recent world television premiere of the Akshay Kumar starrer, Laxmii broke all previous TV viewership records. With a staggering number of 6.3 crore viewers tuning in to it and 2.6 crore impressions, Laxmii became the highest-rated movie premiere on TV in the last 5 years.

At a time when there is a lot of conversation about the shift of audience from TV to OTT, these astronomical viewership numbers from Star Gold are significant indicators of the power TV continues to wield as a medium.

Apart from Laxmii, in recent years, several WTPs have achieved massive viewership numbers, the Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff starrer “War” that premiered on Star Gold last year had also garnered an impressive number of 23.3 million impressions. With Hindi movie channels amassing vast traction, the trend of audiences enjoying new movies from the comfort of their homes was seen to be on the rise.

Talking about the growth witnessed by Hindi movie channels, especially during and post the lockdown period Abhinav Kumar, VP Product Marketing, Paytm shared, “Most genres experienced a decline in Ad volume in 2019 with exception of few, Movies was one of them which grew by 9%. Given that movie as a genre has a vast audience base along with no constraint of fresh content. It became a go-to entertainment option for people during the lockdown. Also, historically, Movie channels drive max viewership from males & their continued presence at home led to further surge in movies viewership.”

Emphasizing the high traction that Hindi movie genres command Vivek Sharma, CMO, Pidilite stated that, “Indian consumers are big movie fans and enjoy watching new/old films & their reruns. Hindi movie channels provide easy and convenient options for families to enjoy the films at home without the hassle of visiting a theatre. This is a win-win situation for both viewers and advertisers. On one hand, where viewers get the opportunity to view films at home, advertisers get a captive target audience as well. Advertisers could have more spots given the breaks between the movies through which they could repeat the messaging.”

Since World Television Premieres of movies like Laxmii, War, Housefull 4, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior have been breaking TV viewership records; it is naturally compared to marquee properties like IPL and ICC Cricket World Cup in terms of TRPs. “Hindi movie WTPs have been historically delivering higher viewership across markets. There have been cases wherein movies haven’t performed well on Box Office but have delivered great ratings on TV (WTP),” stated Kumar.

Further giving us an advertiser’s perspective Sharma shared that, “With restrictions on theatres and other out-of-home entertainment and limited accessibility of OTT platforms, we expect Hindi movie channels to only grow further. Hindi movie channels will remain an important part of our media mix given its reach and relevance with our target audience.”

Hindi movie channels have always been a predominant part of the Indian household. In fact, numerous world TV premieres have achieved impressions that have been way higher than any opening or finale episode of renowned non-fiction GEC shows like Bigg Boss, Indian Idol and KBC.

With data ideally portraying their prowess in this genre, Star Gold now hosted 9 out of the top 10 movie premieres on TV in the last 12 months. This proud legacy of high-impact ratings of movie premieres can be traced back several years, with movies like Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo (2016), Judwaa 2 (2017), Golmaal Again (2018), Housefull 4 (2019), War (2020) and most recently, Laxmii (2021)

With all this put together, Hindi movie channels are now making huge strides in viewership numbers and seem to be consistently delivering impactful results. With every year adding a new viewership record to the genre, their graph appears to be on the rise. Despite OTT being spoken of as the next big thing and a lot of buzz around the shift of audiences, it seems that for now TV is still a leading medium of our country.