Imagine TV
Overview
Imagine TV was a Hindi general entertainment channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, although its founding company described its base as New Delhi in some records. It broadcast Hindi serials, mythological and historical dramas, and high-profile reality shows to audiences in India and, through an international feed, to viewers worldwide. The channel was launched on 21 January 2008 as NDTV Imagine, was renamed Imagine TV in 2010 after a change of ownership, and was closed on 11 May 2012, a little over four years after it began.
In its short life Imagine TV moved through three distinct phases: an ambitious launch by the NDTV Group, which was entering general entertainment for the first time; a takeover by the American broadcaster Turner; and a final period in which, despite occasional successful programmes, it could not achieve the consistent ratings a Hindi general entertainment channel needed to survive in one of the most competitive genres in Indian television.
Launch by NDTV
The channel was established by the NDTV Group under the stewardship of Sameer Nair, the former chief executive of STAR India, whose track record in Hindi entertainment made the launch one of the most closely watched in the industry. It went on air in India on 21 January 2008 as NDTV Imagine. Filmmaker Karan Johar was tied up with the channel as creative consultant and as ambassador of the Imagine brand, an association intended to give the new service glamour and credibility with both viewers and advertisers.
NDTV launched the channel in partnership with NBCUniversal, the American media group, but NBCUniversal left the partnership in October 2009. Even without that partner, the launch represented a major change of direction for NDTV, a group best known for news, and placed it in direct competition with Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television, the established leaders of Hindi entertainment, at a moment when a new rival, Colors, was also about to transform the market.
Early Programming and the Ramayan Strategy
Imagine's opening schedule was designed to look different from its rivals while still covering the genres Indian audiences expected. Its most discussed launch programme was a new version of the Ramayan, produced by Sagar Arts, the family production house behind the most famous earlier television telling of the epic. The Ramayan gave the channel an immediate prime-time identity and strong early attention, and it remained one of its signature shows as the story later moved into the Luv Kush chapter, following Sita and her sons.
Around that centrepiece the channel built a varied fiction line-up. Titles from its early years included Radhaa Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhayengi, Jasuben Jayantilal Joshi Ki Joint Family, Main Teri Parchhain Hoon, Raajkumar Aaryyan and the romance Kitani Mohabbat Hai, which developed a loyal young audience and returned for a second season. The family drama Bandini became one of the channel's best-known serials, and the social drama Jyoti also formed part of its recognised prime-time block. By 2009 the channel's leading shows, including Jyoti, Ramayan, Bandini and Kitani Mohabbat Hai, were running five nights a week, a sign of how central they had become to the schedule.
Reality Television and Swayamvar
If fiction gave Imagine its base, reality television gave it its headlines. The channel became best known nationally for Swayamvar, a reality series in which contestants competed to win the hand in marriage of a celebrity bride or groom. The format ran for three seasons on the channel: Rakhi Ka Swayamvar in 2009, built around Rakhi Sawant; Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega in 2010, built around Rahul Mahajan; and Ratan Ka Rishta in 2011, built around Ratan Rajput. The series, presented first by Ram Kapoor and in its third season by Hiten Tejwani, generated extensive press coverage far beyond the channel's usual ratings.
A fourth season, built around Veena Malik, was in preparation when the channel closed and was cancelled with it. Around Swayamvar, Imagine scheduled a broad range of other non-fiction, including the celebrity chat and comedy show Oye! It's Friday!, the dance programme Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan, the past-life regression format Raaz Pichhle Janam Ka, Rakhi Ka Insaaf and Pati Patni Aur Woh. In February 2011 the channel launched one of its biggest reality bets, Zor Ka Jhatka, an obstacle-course format hosted by Shah Rukh Khan in the 9 pm weekday slot. Later fiction launches of that period included Pardes Mein Mila Koi Apna, the historical series Chandragupta Maurya and the mythological Dwarkadheesh: Bhagwan Shri Krishna, alongside continuing dramas such as Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo, Jamuna Paar and Saware Sabke Sapne Preeto, which were still on air when closure was announced.
Change of Ownership: The Turner Acquisition
In December 2009 it was announced that Turner Asia Pacific Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, would acquire a controlling stake in the channel's owner from NDTV. Turner acquired a 92 per cent stake in Imagine in a deal reported at 126.5 million US dollars; other reports of the completed transaction put the price paid to NDTV at 117 million US dollars. The acquisition was completed in February 2010, when shares amounting to 85.68 per cent of NDTV Imagine Ltd. were transferred to Turner Asia Pacific Ventures, with further equity taking Turner's control to 92 per cent.
After the acquisition the channel was rechristened. The NDTV name was dropped and from March 2010 the service was known simply as Imagine TV. The takeover also brought the channel's sister services under the same owner: the Bollywood music channel Imagine Showbiz, which had been part of the original deal, and Lumiere Movies, the world cinema channel that had begun as NDTV Lumiere. Turner already operated HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network, Pogo and other international brands in India, and Imagine TV became its attempt to establish itself in Hindi general entertainment, the largest and most lucrative genre in Indian television.
The Turner Years
Turner invested in the channel and refreshed its line-up, with an explicit ambition stated by its programming leadership in early 2011 to place Imagine among the top three Hindi general entertainment channels by the end of that year. The schedule settled into a mix of roughly 70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent non-fiction, and the channel continued to launch new serials and reality formats, including the programmes described above.
Some individual shows delivered satisfactory ratings, and a FICCI-KPMG industry report cited programmes including Dharam Patni, Zor Ka Jhatka and Ratan Ka Rishta among the notable launches of 2011. The difficulty, as Turner's own closure statement later acknowledged, was consistency. Hindi general entertainment was dominated by rivals with far larger marketing budgets, long-running hit serials and stronger distribution, and Imagine's successes were not sustained enough, or frequent enough, to lift the channel as a whole into a secure position.
Closure
On 12 April 2012, Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific announced that it would cease the business operations of Imagine TV, together with its international feed, Imagine Dil Se, with effect from that day. In its statement, Siddharth Jain, Managing Director for South Asia at Turner International India, said the channel had not performed and grown as per expectations, and that while some programmes had delivered satisfactory ratings, the channel overall had been unable to achieve the ratings consistency needed to sustain the business and support continued investment. Turner therefore made what it described as a carefully considered decision to cease operations.
At the announcement the channel remained temporarily on air showing re-runs of its programmes while official obligations were completed. It closed finally on 11 May 2012. Programmes then in production or on air, including Dwarkadheesh and Saware Sabke Sapne Preeto, ended without their planned conclusions, and the planned Veena Malik season of Swayamvar never took place. The closure was Turner's second exit from Hindi general entertainment, following the failure of Real, its earlier joint venture channel with Alva Brothers.
Audience and Market Position
Imagine TV's audience was the mass Hindi-speaking entertainment audience targeted by every major general entertainment channel, and that was precisely its problem. Unlike a niche channel, a Hindi general entertainment service needed very large daily ratings simply to cover the cost of original prime-time fiction. Imagine attracted devoted followings for particular shows, most visibly the youthful romance audience for Kitani Mohabbat Hai and the much larger curiosity audience for Swayamvar, but it never converted that programme-level interest into channel-level loyalty on the scale of Star Plus, Zee TV or Colors.
Its experience was widely discussed in the Indian media industry as a case study in the difficulty of launching a new Hindi general entertainment channel against entrenched competition, even with experienced leadership, a famous brand ambassador, international partners and, later, the backing of a global broadcaster such as Turner.
Digital Presence and Afterlife
Imagine adapted to the early online video market during its life. In December 2009, the online and mobile video service NyooTV agreed a deal with NDTV Imagine to distribute its ongoing and past television shows on that platform, an early example of an Indian entertainment channel making its serials available through a third-party digital service.
After closure, the channel survived in audience memory chiefly through its best-known programmes. Ramayan, Bandini, Jyoti and Kitani Mohabbat Hai continued to be discussed and watched in repeats and online clips, and Swayamvar remained a reference point in discussions of celebrity reality television in India. The talent the channel had showcased, from its hosts to the leads of its fiction, continued to work prominently on rival networks.
Legacy
Imagine TV lasted just over four years, but it left a clear mark on Indian television history. It was the project that took NDTV beyond news, it brought Karan Johar into a formal association with a television channel brand, it revived the Ramayan for a new generation of prime-time viewers, and it created in Swayamvar one of the most talked-about reality formats of its period. Its takeover also represented one of Turner's largest investments in Indian entertainment.
Its closure in 2012, announced frankly as a ratings and business decision, closed the Imagine story that had begun in 2008. Together with the earlier disappearance of its sister channel Imagine Showbiz in 2011, it marked the end of the entertainment network that NDTV had set out to build, and a reminder that in Hindi general entertainment, individual hit shows were not enough without consistent performance across an entire schedule.
