Movies is one of the few genres where Emirati, Arab and Asian audiences truly overlap, and broadcasters are cashing in on the trend with dedicated movie channels Yash, a billionaire, loves Isha, a medical student, and hires Gaurav to watch her while she studies abroad and also woo her for Yash. As luck would have […]
Movies is one of the few genres where Emirati, Arab and Asian audiences truly overlap, and broadcasters are cashing in on the trend with dedicated movie channels
Yash, a billionaire, loves Isha, a medical student, and hires Gaurav to watch her while she studies abroad and also woo her for Yash. As luck would have it, Isha falls in love with the poor and lowly Gaurav, instead. Meanwhile, the upper-class Taj is also in love with Isha and their marriage is arranged and to cut a long story short, they all live happily ever after.
Still with me? You might be one of the tens of thousands of Emiratis and Arab Expats who watched Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat, one of the most popular movies shown this year.
Whats noteworthy here is that Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat isnt an Arabic movie nor was it screened on an Arabic channel. Its an all-song, all-dance Bollywood blockbuster shown on Zee Aflam, which among Emiratis, beat box-office hits such as Transformers, The Hunger Games and Salt.
The Bollywood-Aflam phenomenon is clearly something thats generating interest in the market. Of the handful of new channels tview has added this year, the Disney channel UTV Movies Arabia and B4U Aflam are both targeting this genre, while the existing channel Imagine Movies has also moved into the territory which previously Zee Aflam had to itself. Zee Aflam is still the undisputed leader, but a look at the figures shows some interesting trends as the new arrivals make their presence felt.
Bollywood-Aflam
Ive included MBC2 here as a benchmark, although, of course they focus more on Hollywood movies. Note how the new channels get closer to the established leaders as they build up marketing and viewer promotion.
It could be the plot of a movie itself a well-established incumbent challenged by upstart rivals upsetting old loyalties. Though I cant imagine any of them realising they are really in love with the other and getting married, and that probably spoils the ending.
Whats also interesting is that the audience isnt cannibalised, perhaps a lesson for other genres and channels. It appears to be largely attracting new viewers. In the 13 weeks at the end of 2012, the average total weekly TRP is under 70, but in the first 13 weeks of 2013, it goes up above 90, so thats additional viewing, with Zee Aflam and MBC2 remaining fairly stable or decreasing, but only very slightly.
Its largely a Khaleeji audience. Arab Expats prefer the Arabic and Hollywood movies served up by MBC 2, Fox Movies and Rotana Cinema, although they dip into Bollywood too, occasionally.
Interestingly, its one of the few genres where Emirati, Arab and Asian audiences truly overlap. If I was an advertiser, I would certainly be looking at it as providing great bhangra for my buck.
The same channels among the South Asian audience display a similar trend. (see Figure 2) How does that translate into commercial returns though? Movies, in general, are a difficult genre in terms of audiences and ratings. A movie channel will rarely feature highly in the overall rankings, yet individual programmes may bring in very good figures. Unfortunately, the focus in this market has been on time slots and cost rather than rewarding or paying for airtime by generating ratings points, but in future, we hope to see more focus on bringing in viewers and that will be good for movie channels.
The trick is to predict the types of audience watching each movie or channel, which is of course what advertisers want to know when they part with their cash.
In general, the audiences for movies are mainly male. You might even be surprised that a movie like Titanic is 60% male (Arab Expats) which is in line with the overall population, going up to 75% for an action movie like Ninja Assassin. Even the Bollywood movies get a mostly male Emirati audience, with 55% male viewing for Do Knot Disturb.
Finally, theres always more than one way to produce research and judge what makes a successful movie.
The Angelina Jolie movie Salt, for example, ranked 5th in all HHs at midnight on Wednesday, March 20 after being 6th on Thursday, February 14, also at midnight, and there were several more transmissions. Combine the viewing and it ranks 4th overall.
The list would look very different if we only looked at individual programmes. Inexplicable as it may be to martial arts fans, Ninja Assassin screened only once, yet was 2nd in individual programmes and still comes in at number 5 on combined viewing. On an individual transmission basis, the top Emirati programme would be Beverley Hills Chihuaha, but that might be a plotline where fact is stranger than
fiction.
