Film broadcast rights drop 10% in 2024 amid shift to streaming, piracy issues

Broadcast rights for films declined to ₹1,300 crore in 2024 from ₹1,500 crore in 2023, Ficci-EY said in the report released late March.

Experts attributed the decline to films premiering on digital much before linear television, along with piracy, which dents the revenue for any project to varying degrees. Further, Hindi films no longer suit the tastes of family audiences in north India, where viewership, if any, is dominated by dubbed southern films.

“Satellite rights for movies have been in structural decline and no broadcaster is going aggressive on acquisition rates given that the cable and satellite growth numbers are flat. Plus, there is only so much you can make from advertising,” film producer Shariq Patel said.

While there is no demand for smaller-scale, non-star films at all on TV, with the industry grappling with a huge number of unsold movies, Patel added that the rights of southern films are acquired at a lower cost than premium Hindi films.

“Their stars are not just more recognisable in the Hindi belt now, the movies are also more TV-friendly than, say, urban-centric Bollywood. Their entire tonality is more mass-market,” Patel explained.

Piracy problem

Other than the wider perception that films will be available on OTT platforms within eight, and in some cases, four weeks, experts said all movies are struggling with the big problem of piracy where even big-ticket, star vehicles are available on messaging apps and other services on the day of release.

“So many people in small towns are able to watch pirated versions of new movies on local cable channels. All films are available post 12 pm on the Friday of theatrical release. In such a scenario, where will satellite money come from?” asked Yusuf Shaikh, business head of feature films at production and distribution firm Percept Pictures.

Broadcast industry executives said even theatrical successes fail to grab eyeballs on TV on premieres or subsequent runs. This has led to a decline in advertising rates, which don’t justify the steep price that producers ask for while selling satellite rights for their films.

Box-office successes such as Kalki 2898 AD didn’t strike satellite TV deals before or immediately after release. The broad understanding is that TV has been relegated to the third medium of content consumption, after the advent of video streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and ZEE5.

Some say that this is a problem of content and lack of appeal for TV audiences. As far as Hindi movies go, broadcasters say mid-budget, experimental and slice-of-life films that are made more often in Bollywood have not found favour with family audiences over the past few years.

While titles such as Badhaai Ho and Queen struck big at the box office, especially in big cities and multiplexes, they are hardly a saviour for broadcasters when it comes to single TV households across India.

“Cable television may no longer be a metro phenomenon, but movie viewing does take place on TV in tier-two and tier-three towns where internet penetration may not be that great. TV isn’t going away anywhere but it is a problem of content,” film producer, trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar said.