by Jade Smith
Published Wed, May 4th 2016, 10:04 | Entertainment
In a trend setting move, the Indian TV channels have decided to use subtitles for all their shows and movies being aired on television. This move allows all the hearing impaired to watch and enjoy the shows being aired and need not miss out on the fun.
Of all the Indian TV channels in Dubai, the one channel free for Indian language viewers, is MBC Bollywood and unlike the name suggests, it not only shows Bollywood movies but also shows a large array of Indian made TV shows, this TV channel is probably unique in the world in. The channel offers two subtitle displays, one in the language of the TV program and an Arabic translation as well helping people in the middle east to enjoy their shows.
This particular TV channel was re-launched in 2013 using the Digital Nilesat to broadcast MBC's 14th channel, claiming to deliver a fresh approach to screening of Bollywood movies, delivers the regionally cultural relevant daily series and the premium celebrity magazine shows which are so popular with the Indian and Arabic viewers. MBC Bollywood also screens some movies and TV shows which have been dubbed into Arabic. Still most of the content is broadcast in its original form, with only the subtitles available in Arabic. MBC staff have actually christened the channel in-house as "Bollywood 2.0". This channel joins the increasing number of Asian themed channels geared towards the Arabic market. Most of the movies the channel shows are more modern Bollywood productions with contemporary themes and modern settings.
Currently there are at least six other channels showing Bollywood movies and Asian TV shows around the clock but all of them are dubbed into Arabic and only some of the shows have subtitles for the hearing impaired. The number of Indian TV channels in Dubai that actually screen the TV show or movie in its original language format was zero until MBC Bollywood came along. The fact that this channel has been so successful by screening movies in their original languages with Arabic subtitles has made a lot of other local TV executives sit up and take notice.
There is plenty of Indian television content available in Dubai but all the rest of it is on paid TV channels, currently the number of Arab households paying for TV is a staggering 4.35 million, they get to choose from over 250 channels of which at least six are in South Indian languages. The authorities have said that currently paid TV uptake in the Arab world is running at 14% growth annually. This market is totally dominated by two players, the first one is the Dubai-based OSN and it's competitor beIN sports Arabia which was formerly known as Al Jazeera sports. Most of the Indians staying abroad prefer using YuppTV an over-the-top network service provider offering Indian tv channels in Dubai and latest movies to its viewers with just a nominal fee.
As part of the OSN pay-TV network they have launched several locally based South Indian language channels in a Netflix style service for $10 a month, the main reason they said they had to do this was to combat the piracy that is rife in the region. As well as having specialized Indian TV channels in Dubai, OSN will also have over 5000 hours of licensed Arabic and English content as well as a large amount of children's content on children's channels. The OSN service not only caters to the Bollywood Indian languages but to other languages like Tagalog and Chinese.