BBC Entertainment gets makeover for Indian market
By IANSWednesday, January 12, 2011
NEW DELHI - With a bouquet of factual, lifestyle, drama and comedy shows, BBC Entertainment has been relaunched with a refreshed look to cater to the urban, English-speaking Indian audience.
The channel boasts of a line-up of popular British shows like “Dancing With The Stars”, “Top Gear”, “Colin & Justin’s Home Heist” among other food and lifestyle shows.
“Lifestyle is emerging as a big category in the Indian market these days. The audience wants to watch a lot to improve their lifestyle. We are bringing the best of British content to the Indian, English-speaking, upscale viewers in metros and mini-metros. People already have Indian content, now they want international,” Deepak Shourie, director, south Asia, BBC Worldwide Channels, told reporters at a press conference here Wednesday.
The channel has been designed especially for the Indian market after a lot of research, he said.
“We did rigorous research on the concept of a multi-genre channel, we researched the bouquet of BBC shows that could be used as part of this India-specific channel and we also took focus groups for research,” said Shourie.
Mornings on the channel have been dedicated to lifestyle shows, aimed to inspire ideas for home and design, fashion, and cooking. The late morning to early evening time slots has entertainment programmes like “Gok’s Fashion Fix”, “Hotel Babylon” and “Grand Design”.
Prime-time family viewing includes detective series “Sherlock” and “Human Planet”, shot in some of the most remote locations in 40 countries.
After 10 p.m., the channel will air glossy and edgy shows like “Top Gear” and “The Graham Norton Show”. BBC Entertainment in its new, brighter avatar has been available to viewers since Monday.
