Colors delays launch plans for movies channel

Colors’ parent company Viacom18 has confirmed that the launch of its Bollywood movies channel has been put back until next year.

Ahead of the movies channel, Viacom18 will launch two channels. One will be Comedy Central and the second a niche channel for the youth. Viacom18 will also be launching regional channels next year.

“Given the changing dynamics of the television business in this market, we have decided to strategically re-prioritise our growth plans and are now planning to launch Comedy Central and a channel for young audiences within the next three months, while deferring the launch of our Hindi movie channel,” Viacom18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla said in an official statement.

“We are a young organisation and therefore have the ability to tweak our plans as may be required. Given the direction of growth across our businesses, we intend to launch our Hindi movie channel sometime next year, with a model that will cut the lead time to leadership significantly…like we’ve been able to achieve in our other businesses,” he further added.

Last month, Ravish Kumar was brought in as the General Manager and Head of the new channel.