Why is Colors Marathi so popular?

Posted by Mukti Soman on June 26th, 2019

When Viacom 18 launched its flagship channel Colors in the Hindi general entertainment genre, Indian television was already in a matured stage with a large number of high quality channels competing with each other. Almost every market expert expressed their concern regarding the competition which would be faced by Colors. However, Colors passed the initial test, of gaining the audience’s attention, with flying colours. Indian audience’s loved the sleek and smart look of Colors and gradually the loyal viewers of the competition channels started changing their loyalty to Colors. Today, Colors has managed to become the market leader in the segment of Hindi general entertainment. You would find very few people in India who are not aware of the popular soap operas and reality shows aired on Colors.

With such tremendous success of the channel, Viacom 18 decided to diversify the brand name of Colors into the regional general entertainment market. This resulted in the launch of channels such as Colors Marathi, Colors Tamil and Colors Bangla. Colors Marathi was launched as a general entertainment channel in Marathi for the viewers of Maharashtra and Goa. The channel was readily accepted by people because of its content. Initially, the channel aired family soaps and shows based on mythological and historical themes. With time, they started diversifying into other genres such as comedy shows and reality shows. There are a number of shows aired on the channel which have gained a lot of popularity among the youth too. However, it faces competition from the Hindi channel Colors which has its own dedicated fan base. Also, Hindi is a popular language in the Maharashtra-Goa area. The competition between these channels is further helping Viacom 18 keep the channels of other media networks away from the scene.

After Viacom 18 was successful in capturing the regional markets which previously had general entertainment channels, it started venturing into the language markets which were still in their nascent stage. One such market was the Kannada language market. In Kannada, the competition was not between Colors Kannada and Colors, since Hindi is not a popular language in Karnataka. Rather, it was a competition between Colors Kannada and other Kannada channels. Within a few months of the launch of Colors Kannada, Viacom 18 came up with a version of the popular reality show, Big Boss in Kannade. This helped them become the most viewed channel in Karnataka.

This strategy of Viacom 18 to aggressively penetrate the regional entertainment market in different states is a very good one. It has helped opened up competition in the regional entertainment genre which has eventually helped in the improvement of content.