Sony, Zee, Star Lose Upto 25% Audience To Dangal TV, Big Magic – Here’s The Shocking Reason

Ever since TRAI’s new cable TV regime came into force effective April 1st, major broadcasters and networks such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), Star India, Viacom18 and Sony Pictures Network have witnessed massive erosion of their marketshare.

Little known names such as Dangal TV and Big Magic have witnessed an unprecedented rise in their marketshare, at the same time.

What is the real reason?

This Is Why Sony, Zee, Star Are Rapidly Losing Market Share

Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform is one of the primary reasons here.

Under the new cable TV rules, big-name broadcasters have removed their FTA or Free to Air channels from Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform, and this is proving to be the trigger for losing their viewership.

As the FTA channels from Zee, Sony, Star, Viacom are not available on Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform, people are now watching lesser-known channels such as Dangal TV, Big Magic and others.

As per an Edelweiss report recently shared, these big name broadcasters have lost upto 25% of their marketshare, due to this reason.

Since popular channels such as Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Star Utsav and Star Bharat, are no more available under Doordarshan’s Freedish platform, viewers have shifted to Dangal TV and Big Magic for satisfying their entertainment requirements.

As per the report, this massive shift in audience loyalty has been mainly witnessed in the rural areas.

Increased Marketshare, Increased Revenues For Smaller Brands

As the market share and viewership of smaller channels such as Dangal TV, Big Magic are increasing, so are their revenues and advertisement charges.

Dangal TV, which has a mere 8% market share before the new Cable TV regime came into force, now has a viewership of 21%, which is almost 3 times increase.

Big Magic, which is owned by Zee, now commands 15% share, whose viewership was almost negligent few months ago.

At the same, Dangal TV is now charging Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 for a 10 second ad slot, which is 10X more compared to the pre-April era.

Big Magic too has started charging Rs 8000 to Rs 10,000 for a 10 second ad-slot, which is way more than what they charged earlier.

Meanwhile, Star Bharat’s viewership has dropped to 6%, Sony Pal’s to 2.5% under the new Cable TV regime.

Zee Anmol and Colors Rishtey didn’t even feature in the top 10 list.

We have already reported how Dangal TV become #1 TV channel in India, after beating Star Sports Hindi.

How long will this chaos continue? Not only advertisers, but also industry observers are confused here.

We will keep you updated, as we receive more updates.