The television is probably the most popular means of entertainment for Indian families. A large number of TV channels are aired in India which target the family audience. However, most of these channels are in Hindi. Although it provides them maximum outreach as more than half of the Indian population understands the Hindi language, the channels could not harness the potential of being more popular in some states.
In a few states of India, the general population, especially the people who reside in the rural areas, fail to connect with Hindi as a language of the entertainment medium. Thus came the need to launch local channels in the regional languages of the states. Most of these regional channels are operated from within the state and with limited budget of production, which made it difficult for them to compete with popular Hindi channels in terms of quality. This created a gap, which was rightly identified by Viacom 18, one of the largest media houses of India, which then introduced a number of regional channels on Indian TV.
A few years back, Viacom 18 came up with an entertainment channel in Marathi language for the viewers of Maharashtra and Goa. The channel Colors Marathi was readily accepted by people because of its content. Initially, the channel aired family soaps and shows based on mythological and historical themes. But, with time, they started diversifying into other genres such as comedy and reality shows that made it popular among the youth as well.
Viacom 18 introduced the viewers of Karnataka to Colors Kannada. Within a few months, it gained huge fandom in the southern state. Last year, it also started the popular reality show Big Boss in Kannada, which earned it all the more popularity. Today, Colors Kannada is the most popular channel in Karnataka, given the limited number of locals interested in Hindi channels. The success of Colors Kannada prompted Viacom18 to launch regional channels in a few more states such as Colors Odia in Odisha and Colors Gujarati in Gujarat.
Today, the market of regional entertainment is huge in India with a large number of regional channels in almost all major languages of the country. In a few states, the regional channels of Viacom 18 are more popular than the general Hindi channels.
