Star to launch Movies Ok on 6 May

MUMBAI: Movies Ok, the second channel from Star India under the ?Ok? banner, is being readied for launch on 6 May coinciding with the start of the Aamir Khan show Satyamev Jayate.

Star, the parent company of Movies Ok, had earlier rebranded its youth-focussed Hindi general entertainment channel Star One as Life Ok, giving it a distinct content identity after its new launch.

Movies Ok will be positioned as a family movie channel and will be headed by Star Gold general manager Hemal Jhaveri with a separate team being carved out for it.

"We are launching Movies Ok on 6 May. It is being positioned as a family movie channel and will complement Star Gold," Jhaveri tells Indiantelevision.com.

The company is still in the process of finalising a carriage deal with cable and DTH operators. The channel will be free-to-air to begin with.

"The clear cut differentiation will be the way one treat?s content and Movies Ok will be packaged differently from Star Gold. We have a library of over 1000 movies. A typical operator of a movie channel needs at least 250 movies to run it," says Jhaveri.

The new channel will be promoted during Star?s ambitious show, Satyamev Jayate. Star will also use radio and digital platforms.

"Specialisation is the way forward for Hindi movie channels. If you look at it, globally there are several genres like family, action, horror and so. We will promote the movie channel on the show Satyamev Jayate," Jhaveri adds.

Hindi movie channels enjoy a 16 per cent share in the CS4+ TG Hindi Speaking Market, as per a Tam report titled ?Impatient Generation?.

Services, auto, personal accessories and telecom are some of the categories that spend heavily on Hindi movie channels. The ad revenue market for the genre is pegged at Rs 8 billion and is expected to grow 15-20 per cent this year.