Dangal TV – a free, ad-supported, linear television service – recently became India’s most-viewed channel. Launched more than 15 years ago with a name that literally means wrestling and/or riot, its footprint expanded to a bouquet of entertainment services, including a streaming platform with seven million subs. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to Manish Singhal, MD of Dangal owner, Enter10 TV.

How and why did you launch a general entertainment channel (GEC)?
In the 1990s we used to distribute Ayurvedic products and apparel. To help propel that business, we launched a tele-shopping channel in 2001 that we converted into a music channel in 2006. When we were running the music channel, the genre had an audience share of 12%. When we studied further, we realised that movie channels have a viewership share of 18%. Though the content costs for each of them was different, all the other costs were the same. And there’s a larger market to address. We shifted to the movie category in 2008. Then we studied it again. The total viewership of Hindi GEC was 35%. There wasn’t that much competition in Hindi GEC then and the genre had an even larger market. At the same time, movies were getting very competitive with 22-25 channels. There were only 12-13 Hindi GECs. We were a free-to-air channel, but that was not a big advantage then because all the big networks (Star, Sony, Zee and Viacom18) were there.

What aided Dangal TV’s rise to number one?
In 2015, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) was set up to create and run a currency for TV viewership. Its sample and coverage were much better than the earlier Television Audience Measurement (TAM). As a result, rural homes and states where the coverage had been poor, started getting better representation in the sample. About 70% of the homes we reach are through DD Freedish (India’s state-owned free direct-to-home platform, which now reaches 58 million homes or over 240 million Indian viewers, largely in the Hindi heartland). This then started reflecting on our ratings. Then in 2019, the four large networks withdrew from DD Freedish (apparently to protect their pay business). That is how we became the number one channel. 

What were the learnings before and after you became number one?
There is no difference between before and after 2019. We were doing exactly what we did before – running a 24-hour TV channel. How to programme the channel, what show should come after which, that is what we do even now. The only big change is that more money is now being demanded (by cable operators) to place the channel.

What is the Enter10 portfolio like now? Where does the bulk of your revenue (US$73 million in the financial year ending March 2024) come from? 
We have five channels. Dangal TV (original programming), Dangal 2 (a library channel for Hindi general entertainment), Bhojpuri Cinema, for which we produce 25 to 30 films a year. Then there is movie channel Enterr10 and Enterr10 Bangla. About 70% of the revenue is from Dangal TV and the rest is from the other channels. In January this year we launched Dangal TV in the U.K. We are planning Dangal Odia and Telugu. Also we have a one-year old streaming service with seven million subscribers.
 

▶ Published in ContentAsia's 18-30 June 2024 eNewsletter