|  MUMBAI:
UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd (UGBL), the broadcast arm of UTV Software Communications
Ltd, is reworking its business plan. Two years after launch, it is pulling the
curtain down on Bindass Movies, the youth channel that showed international movies
dubbed in Hindi.
UGBL
will bring in its place UTV Action, a Hindi action movie channel, that will target
male audiences. The channel will launch on 1 January and don the tagline 'Be Prepared.' "We
are completely phasing out Bindass Movies this month-end. We are replacing it
with UTV Action," UGBL chief executive MK Anand tells Indiantelevision.com. UTV
will utilise its existing movie library from UTV Movies and Bindass Movies to
create the genre-specific channel. UTV
Action will have four original movies daily, including one Bollywood film. The
channel, however, will predominantly air international movies dubbed in Hindi.
"We will air three big titles every week," says Anand.
"UTV Action is
a channel targeted at the male audience. We are launching the channel in all Hindi-speaking
markets (HSM) with a strong focus on A, B and C cities with one million plus viewership,"
says Anand. UTV
is going to bank on the fact that action content fetches high GRPs (gross rating
points). "This results in higher return of investment (RoI) for us,"
says Anand. UTV
Action will be a pay channel, priced at Rs 10. The channel has already roped in
advertisers that include Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, TVS Tyres and HCL computers. "We
are also targeting sports and news broadcasters to advertise on the channel as
we have a male-skewed audience," says Anand. The
channel will show in January titles such as Men in Black -I, Black Hawk Down,
End of Days, Bad Boys-II, Grudge, Vertical Limit, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,
Desparado, Godzilla, Blade, Ab Tak Chappan, Border, Chandni Chowk to China, Race
and Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl. The
marketing of the new channel will be high across TV, outdoor and on-ground activities.
Around 3500 of 10-second spots have been booked in 20 TV channels across multiple
genres.
UTV Action has booked around 300 hoardings across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata,
Ahmedabad and Lucknow. The channel is also using digital cinema across 50 + cities
to promote its launch. UTV
has roped in GroupM as the media agency while Taproot has done the creatives. | 
