First segmented channel 'Epic' to go on air this August!

The Indian television industry is characterized by channels of different genres- each experimenting with different concepts, storylines and programming. But how about a channel that caters only to a particular class or segment of viewers and only airs programmes related to the segment. This idea though new to India, promises to open up a whole new category of segmented channels in the new digitization era. And the idea has found favour from none other India’s leading industrialist, Anand Mahindra who is one of the investors of Epic Television Network, floated by Mahesh Samat, ex-managing director of The Walt Disney Company India.

In an interaction with Adgully, Samat, MD, Epic Television Network said, "The reason behind launching Epic is because it offers stories set in Indian  mythologies and history which we aim to bring to our consumers. Being India’s first genre specific Hindi entertainment channel, Epic would be the first brand in television that aims to create IP’s and strong characters beyond television.” An alumni of IIM-Kolkata, Samat spearheaded Walt Disney’s Indian business for close to five years before turning entrepreneur.

With its launch the channel opens a new category in Hindi entertainment, termed as ‘segmented’, that presents thematic content focused on a particular genre, thereby, offering increased choice and different viewing opportunities.

Says Samat, “With digitisation we now have nice opportunities to produce new and interesting content for our viewers. As an individual we all have a strong connect with our history so from the consumer point of view, we understood that this is the right time to launch a channel like Epic. Set against backdrop of Indian history, folklore and mythology, Epic will showcase our past into entertainment in a contemporary format.”

As Hindi GEC channels too are working on to explore the mythological genre with different shows, how competing it’s going to be for Epic, “We are a segmented television channel with new content, so there is no competition. Coming to other channels we are taking away viewers from other channels it’s just that we are providing them addition opportunity to get diverse content,” avers Samat.

Epic is a full HD channel with all its shows shot with HD cameras and will be available on all DTH and digital platforms across all major markets in India. The programming strategy will contain a mix of fiction shows, narrative non-fiction shows and short form content. Epic will beam programmes of different content catering to the entire family. The underlying objective is to be informative as well as entertaining.

“Today viewers are becoming demanding and when they are paying for the content they would like to see diverse viewing opportunity and that is where Epic stands for. We are working on content part and planning to limit our shows as we will have three-four hours of fresh programming every day,” said Samat.

On marketing front, Epic is looking out for social media opportunities, sampling content over the weekend and loads of other marketing activities to create awareness about existence of the channel Epic.

The channel is yet to get regulatory approval and is also looking up for partners and distributors for the channels. On investors front, Samat said they have got few top profiled investors but didn’t disclosed their names but yes he confirmed that Mahindra Group’s Chairman Anand Mahindra is one of them.

As for likely hurdles, Samat said, “Digitisation as thrown up an opportunity for all content creators, if we overlay our whole strategy we see that opportunities are bigger than the risk, so we looking this in a form of opportunities than risk.”

Amongst several other shows which are still under process, one of the Epic’s show will be based on Indu Sundaresan’s novel The Twentieth Wife that is about Mehrunissa, the twentieth wife of emperor Jahangir. Epic is said to be go on air in August 2013. “In near future we are planning to explore Epic beyond the Television by getting into Digital, Publishing, Retail/IP and Theatre/Live,” concluded Samat.