Why BBC Entertainment had to close down in India

Yesterday, BBC Worldwide announced that two of their three channels available in India, BBC Entertainment and CBeebies, would be ‘withdrawn’ from India by the end of November. The announcement confirmed that BBC World News would continue to be available.

“The decision to withdraw these BBC channels has not been an easy one to take. India is a dynamic and fast growing media market but remains uniquely challenging for pay-TV channels. Specifically, delays in digitisation and the need for channel operators to pay cable platforms for carriage makes the economics of running channels very challenging at this time,” BBC Worldwide said in a statement.

[caption id=“attachment_512210” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The closures of the two channels underline the need to ensure digitisation across the country as soon as possible. AFP[/caption]

At the core of the decision seems to be the outgo on carriage fees. According to an estimate, “if you wanted to ensure that your channel was carried throughout North India on the prime band on cable, you have to spend Rs 28 crore per year, if you are new, or Rs 22 crore if you are existing one,” says a report.

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On social media, the disappointment with the decision is palpable. “I seriously don’t know how I am going to manage without CBeebies quality programming for my daughter and BBC Entertainment for myself. It is situations like this that make it impossible not to watch pirated content. I pay a proper cable operator so I can receive high quality programming. Now that set-top boxes are mandatory, why is BBC not able to monetize their channels successfully?” asks Smita Jha.

“Oh no!!! I love Extreme Makeover……..why should the minority of us who watch english shows have to suffer..Ii wish BBC would reconsider,” says Smitha Andal.

Why do the channels need to shut down, when the channels seem to be popular? Smita Jha, quoted above, has the answer - that BBC is not able to monetize the channels. The major input cost for the channel is not the content (all of which are programs which have originally been created for other BBC channels in the England), but the carriage fees.

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BBC Entertainment and CBeebies are not the only channels suffering thanks to the combination of underreporting of subscribers by the cable operators and the high carriage fees. These twin problems are being addressed, thanks to the decision to force digitisation first in the four metros (now underway) and later in the rest of the country. However, for many niche and special interest channels, the low advertising yields, thanks to the low measured audience, the pace of digitisation might be too slow for them to be able to fund the losses till subscriber revenues rise and carriage fees are rationalized.

The BBC decision is unfortunate - the channels will be missed by many loyal viewers. But all is not lost; many of the programmes one sees currently may become available on channels such as, for example, Discovery, as the content on these channels will become freed to BBC’s syndication arm.

The closures of the two channels underline the need to ensure digitisation across the country as soon as possible. If channels are not able to successfully monetize their viewers and are forced to pay exorbitantly for carriage, the writing is on the wall: we’ll hear of more closures.

Disclaimer: Firstpost is owned by the Network 18 group which owns channels which compete with channels owned by BBC Worldwide