HBO plans more channels despite low revenues

MUMBAI: Admitting that a blackout in this city due to a court order had hit its revenues, English movie channel HBO has said it was looking to bring more channels into India if DTH broadcasting took off in the country.

"We are looking to bring in more channels into India, but right now there are no concrete proposals. All I can say is the possibility cannot be ruled out," Shruti Bajpai, country head for HBO Asia, told reporters here.

"We are waiting to see how the DTH set up works in India, but all indications are that it will be a success."

Though HBO's blackout in Mumbai for nearly three months -- due to a high court order allowing only movies with U and U/A certificates to be aired -- had resulted in loss of advertising revenues, Bajpai said the channel would make up for this.

"Mumbai is a very important market and there has been a dent in ad sales, but we have had a 20 per cent growth year-on -year, which is quite healthy," she said.

When asked whether the court order had affected programming in a major way, she said, "It does affect us in the sense that we cannot show titles that have adult ratings, but I believe the broadcast bill will address all these issues.

"There are mature viewers who want to watch movies and an adult certificate does not mean we advocate sleazy movies. There can be a time slot where such movies are shown."