₹1000 Crore Grosser Of Biggest Pan-India Star Fails To Crack Deal For TV Rights, But Why?

After completing their theatrical run, traditionally, movies make their way to OTT and TV channels. With the influx of streaming platforms, small screen audiences have steadily declined, especially the movie watchers. While feature films used to take a minimum of 12 weeks or more before they debuted on TV and mostly eyed festive releases to boost viewership, streaming platforms are making them available in less than a month of their theatrical release. One latest title, the biggest box office hit this year, is witnessing the after-effects of this trend.

When will this pan-India film premiere on TV?

Satellite rights are an important contributor to the film's revenue. Makers usually lock in a partner before release but it seems like one of the latest pan-India films is struggling to sell its TV rights.

According to reports, Kalki 2898 AD, starring Prabhas , Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone has failed to seal a deal for its TV premiere so far. The movie released on May 9 and emerged as a box office winner. In fact, the Hindi collections of the mythological film with sci-fi elements did better than the Telugu version. Despite all its success in theatres and growing OTT viewership, the film has not yet closed its satellite channel deal.    

What's the problem here?

According to reports, producers of Kalki 2898 AD first tried to convince Star Maa Group to close the deal for the film's TV premiere, but the channel didn’t show much interest in paying the exorbitant fee that was demanded. Zee Group has reportedly agreed to purchase the satellite rights, but they have not yet sealed the agreement.

The channels are not showing interest in buying films, even if big stars feature in them. They are not generating revenue from this content, as people are consuming it on OTT platforms way before they premiere on TV.