Oscar Movies Bhojpuri

About Oscar Movies Bhojpuri

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri is a Bhojpuri-language movie channel in India, part of the PTC Network's bouquet of channels. Launched in 2014, the channel billed itself as the first Bhojpuri movie channel and built its schedule around Bhojpuri films, film-based music programming and industry events. It is owned by G Next Media Private Limited, the company that operates the PTC Network under managing director and president Rabindra Narayan. The channel gained national attention in 2016 when Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data placed it among the top five channels in the Bhojpuri genre, and it has been carried on DD Free Dish as well as direct-to-home and cable platforms. The PTC Network's official website is ptcnetwork.com.

History and Launch

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri went on air in 2014, entering a Bhojpuri television market that was just beginning to attract dedicated movie channels. The channel launched under the name "Oscar Movies" and, in February 2016, its electronic programme guide listing was updated to "Oscar Movies Bhojpuri," formalising its identity as a Bhojpuri-language film channel. In its early communications with viewers, the channel described itself as the "1st Bhojpuri Movie Channel," a positioning that reflected the novelty of a round-the-clock Bhojpuri film offering at the time.

The launch period coincided with growing broadcaster interest in the Bhojpuri market: Enterr10's Bhojpuri Cinema had gone on air in 2015, and Zee's Big Ganga was establishing itself as the genre leader. Oscar Movies Bhojpuri's arrival added a new competitor backed by an established regional network — the PTC Network, which had dominated Punjabi television since the late 2000s and was now extending its footprint into the Hindi-speaking belt with a Bhojpuri offering.

Ownership: The PTC Network

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri is part of the PTC Network, the Punjabi television broadcaster operated by G Next Media Private Limited. The network is led by managing director and president Rabindra Narayan, a veteran of Punjabi television who previously headed Zee Punjabi and ETC Punjabi, and who launched the first Punjabi channel, Punjabi World, in 1998. A majority stake in the network is held by Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Shiromani Akali Dal president, a fact widely reported in the Indian press.

The PTC Network began with PTC News, launched in January 2007, followed by the flagship general entertainment channel PTC Punjabi on August 6, 2008, which became the most popular television network in Punjab within a year. The group's bouquet grew to include the music channel PTC Chak De, the movie channel PTC Punjabi Gold, a second music channel PTC Music, the Sikh religious channel PTC Simran and the online music channel PTC Dhol TV, alongside Oscar Movies Bhojpuri — the network's Bhojpuri-language movie outlet. The network also runs the PTC Play streaming service, the PTC Records music label, PTC Studio and PTC Motion Pictures, and hosts the annual PTC Punjabi Music Awards and PTC Punjabi Film Awards.

Programming

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri's schedule is built around Bhojpuri feature films, the staple of the genre, supplemented by film music and entertainment programming. Like its competitors, the channel programmes movies across the genres that define Bhojpuri commercial cinema — action, comedy, romance, family drama and devotional subjects — drawing on a catalogue of films headlined by stars such as Ravi Kishan, Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Lal Yadav "Nirahua," Pawan Singh and Khesari Lal Yadav.

The channel's programming strategy follows the standard movie-channel playbook: heavy rotation of library titles through the day, prime-time banding of popular films, and event programming around new acquisitions and premieres. Television schedule listings for the channel show a full day of film and film-based programming, reflecting the round-the-clock movie format that defines the genre.

BARC Ratings Milestones

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri's most notable public milestone came in BARC's week 13 data for 2016, when the channel entered the top five of the Bhojpuri genre, replacing ETV Bihar Jharkhand in fifth position with 2,537 impressions ('000). The week's genre table was led by Big Ganga with 27,086 impressions ('000), followed by Bhojpuri Cinema at 15,875, Dabangg at 7,395 and Dangal TV at 5,363 — placing Oscar Movies Bhojpuri in the company of the genre's established names.

The ranking was significant because it demonstrated that a relatively new entrant backed by the PTC Network could break into a genre dominated by Zee's Big Ganga and Enterr10's Bhojpuri Cinema. For advertisers and distributors, the BARC appearance served as third-party validation of the channel's viewership, and the network cited such data in positioning the channel within its bouquet.

The Bhojpuri Film Awards

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri associated itself with the Bhojpuri film industry's awards ecosystem, carrying coverage of events such as the Bhojpuri Film Awards 2016. Awards programming is a staple of Indian movie channels: it delivers star-studded event viewing, reinforces the channel's relationship with the film industry, and provides promotional inventory around the biggest names in the business. For a Bhojpuri movie channel, the film awards are among the few large-scale industry events available for telecast, and the channel's involvement signalled its ambition to be seen as an insider in the Bhojpuri entertainment world rather than merely a buyer of film rights.

Distribution and Availability

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri has been distributed across satellite, direct-to-home and cable platforms. The channel appeared on DD Free Dish, India's free direct-to-home platform, where it was added in place of a test channel slot — a placement that gave it access to the platform's vast rural audience in the Hindi-speaking states. It was later removed from DD Free Dish's MPEG-4 slot, a change noted by satellite-tracking forums in 2019, reflecting the churn of channel carriage on the free platform as slots are re-auctioned.

Beyond DD Free Dish, the channel has been carried on direct-to-home operators and cable networks serving Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The PTC Network's channels are also available on streaming and OTT platforms, including the network's own PTC Play service, and the group has expanded its international distribution to serve the Punjabi and Indian diaspora — though Oscar Movies Bhojpuri itself is primarily an India-focused offering aimed at the Bhojpuri-speaking domestic market.

The PTC Network Bouquet

Within the PTC Network, Oscar Movies Bhojpuri sits alongside a set of Punjabi channels that give the group unusual breadth for a regional broadcaster. PTC Punjabi remains the flagship general entertainment channel; PTC News covers news; PTC Chak De and PTC Music serve music audiences; PTC Punjabi Gold is the Punjabi movie channel; PTC Simran is the 24x7 Sikh religious channel; and PTC Dhol TV operates as an online music channel. In February 2019 the network expanded this bouquet significantly, launching PTC Punjabi Gold, PTC Music, PTC Dhol TV and PTC Simran in the United States within a span of two weeks using Amagi's cloud playout platform, and rolling the new channels out in India around the same time.

The addition of Oscar Movies Bhojpuri to this bouquet gave the network a presence in the Bhojpuri market to complement its dominance in Punjabi television. The group's infrastructure — cloud-based playout, an in-house music label in PTC Records, film production through PTC Motion Pictures and the PTC Studio music platform — supports all of its channels, including the Bhojpuri movie outlet.

Competition in the Bhojpuri Genre

The Bhojpuri movie genre is one of Indian television's most competitive regional segments. Big Ganga, the Zee Entertainment channel, has long been the genre leader by viewership, followed by Enterr10's Bhojpuri Cinema. Other competitors include Dabangg, Zee Biskope and the free-to-air offerings that cycle through DD Free Dish. Oscar Movies Bhojpuri's positioning within this field rests on the PTC Network's backing and its early-mover claim as a dedicated Bhojpuri movie channel.

The genre's economics favour broadcasters with deep film libraries and free-to-air distribution, since the core audience — concentrated in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, with migrant pockets in the metros — is highly price-sensitive. Channels compete on the freshness of their libraries, the frequency of premieres and the strength of their festival programming, and carriage on DD Free Dish remains the single most important distribution battleground.

Digital and Social Presence

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri maintains a social media presence, including a Facebook page that the channel has used to communicate with viewers about carriage — responding, for instance, to viewer queries about when the channel would be added to specific DTH platforms. Television schedule websites carry the channel's daily listings, allowing viewers to check film timings without an electronic programme guide. The PTC Network's digital extensions, including PTC Play and the network's YouTube channels, provide additional touchpoints for the group's content, though the Bhojpuri movie channel's primary identity remains its linear broadcast.

Key Facts

Oscar Movies Bhojpuri is a Bhojpuri-language movie channel launched in 2014 as part of the PTC Network, operated by G Next Media Private Limited under managing director and president Rabindra Narayan. The channel, which updated its on-air name from Oscar Movies to Oscar Movies Bhojpuri in February 2016, programmes Bhojpuri feature films and film-based entertainment. It entered BARC's top five Bhojpuri channels in week 13 of 2016 and has been carried on DD Free Dish as well as DTH and cable platforms. Its sister channels include PTC Punjabi, PTC News, PTC Chak De, PTC Music, PTC Punjabi Gold and PTC Simran. Official website: https://www.ptcnetwork.com.