How did Comedy Central gain popularity?

Posted by Mukti Soman on April 25th, 2019

The best thing about Indian television is the sheer variety of genres available on the channels. Any person visiting India would be surprised to see the wide range of shows that are aired on Indian channels. The most remarkable thing is that almost all the channels have a significant viewer base. Among all the genres of television channels, the most popular is general entertainment. You would find general entertainment in a number of languages in India. However, no other language can touch the market share that is enjoyed by Hindi general entertainment channels. Besides the general entertainment channels, you also get a number of other popular genres such as news, sports, cinema, spiritual, adventure etc. You will find channels of these genres in all languages. The most intriguing thing is the existence of genres within genres, such as sports channels dedicated to specific sports such as cricket or lawn tennis.

Among all the aforementioned genres of channels, one genre which has witnessed a special growth over the years is English entertainment. There was a time when several super hit English language programmes were dubbed in Hindi and aired on general entertainment channels during unpopular hours. Today, the audience for English entertainment has matured a lot. The urban youth is very keen on consuming English entertainment, especially the TV programmes that are produced in the USA. The American media houses have identified the huge potential of the market in India and are pushing for their programmes to be aired on Indian TV. However, Indian television must strengthen its position in English entertainment as the whole idea of television is facing competition from online streaming platforms. So the English channels aired on Indian television must upgrade the quality of their content in order to compete with the online streaming platforms.

There are a few genres in English entertainment that will never go out of business. These genres are music and comedy. Music channels such as VH1 have continued to maintain their popularity. The English comedy channel Comedy Central, which is based on stand up sketches and gags, is constantly gaining popularity among Indian viewers. There has also been an increase in the number of sitcoms which are being watched in India. Given the popularity of English programmes, quite a number of American sitcoms have started introducing Indian storylines as well.