Colors Infinity celebrates first birthday

The channel that started with eight international premieres and eight advertisers now has over 100 advertisers and reached out to 200 million viewers

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | August 2, 2016

Colors Infinity, an English General Entertainment channel launched on July 31, 2015, has completed a year. Starting with eight international premieres and eight advertisers on board, Colors Infinity has managed to reach out to 200 million audiences. Capturing 60% viewership of the aspirational, neo-urban consumer in India, the channel has seen rapid growth with over 100 advertisers on board.

Ferzad Palia

“It has been a fascinating one year for us. When we essentially set out with our plans two years ago, we couldn't have imagined the kind of success we have had with Colors Infinity and what it has done for us as an English entertainment cluster is phenomenal, probably the strongest cluster in a very short time. We are a very young company so we managed to come into some genres very late because we started as a three-channel company. When we saw the success of VH1, we saw a great opportunity to ramp up our English entertainment business. Then came Comedy Central in early 2012 and we saw the success of comedies in film and we saw further growth in English. So we said it is time to strengthen the bouquet even further and that is how Colors Infinity was conceived,” said Ferzad Palia, Head English and Youth Entertainment, Viacom18.

Colors Infinity is known for showcasing differentiated content with instant premieres of headliners like Mr Robot, Tyrant, Better Call Saul, Heroes Reborn, Blindspot, Shades of Blue and Flash in the first year. With innovations like Essential Viewing, Instant Premieres, Live Binge and Infinity-On-Demand, Palia believes the channel has been able to shake the category from its slumber.

Asked if the focus in the coming years will be on differentiated content, Palia said, “We are bringing in trends which are there across the world. You have to throw it out to see whether the audience will appreciate it or not appreciate it and there has been a lot of learning from that as well. There are some shows which have just not worked for us. That is part of the experiment. You have to keep giving fresh content. We did not know whether Shark Tank will work for us but Shark Tank has literally become a revolution. So those are the kinds of things we will continue to focus on. Some may work, some may not work. Thankfully, we have had a year where most things have worked and some have not worked,” said Palia.

The channel has seen a quarterly advertising growth of 30% in terms of the number of advertisers coming on board. On their future expectations in terms of revenue, Palia said, “We have built a very healthy base for ourselves in the first year. We are trending ahead of competitors in our first year, which is the best possible sign you can ask for. We are very clear that we are in this for the long term. There is a certain monetisation plan that we have and we will not go beyond a particular threshold with any advertiser. It is a hard market out there but there is a plethora of options for all advertisers, that is why we are not for the sake of filing up inventory, filing up ads but the realisation per unit is well in line in what we had in mind both for the SD and HD feed.

Colors Infinity is now gearing up for the second season of their first-ever home-grown English language music TV show, 'The Stage', which will premiere in September. In addition to The Stage, the channel will further amplify its international offering with launches of new shows such as Nashville, and Law and Order; as well as new seasons and Instant Premieres of Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, iZombie and Shades of Blue. Reality shows So You Think You Can Dance and My Kitchen Rules are slated to return to the channel with their new seasons.

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