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Hallmark heroes to speak local languages soon

NetScribes/Rajiv Banerjee

When in India, speak as the Indians do. That's exactly what Hallmark Channel plans to do. By June 2001, the channel plans to provide international content dubbed in Indian languages.

Hallmark will venture into providing original Indian content after studying the response to the dubbed programmes.

"To begin with, Hallmark will start beaming international programmes dubbed in Hindi. Dubbing will begin by June and the programmes will be telecast on Hallmark soon after," Durba Mandal, marketing manager, Modi Entertainment Network, told NetScribes.

MEN handles the marketing of Hallmark's Indian operations.

Mandal added that the dubbed programmes would be used as a barometer of audience response to the content. "The management will decide to produce Indian content only after gauging the success of the dubbed programmes," she said.

This development comes soon after the appointment of a new programming chief at the channel. Kirstine Layfield was brought in recently to look into acquisitions of quality content worldwide for telecast on the channel.

Hallmark's accent on content dubbed in local languages is in line with the increasing trend among foreign channels to dedicate airtime to Indian audiences. Discovery and, more recently, Animal Planet already have slots that provide dubbed programmes for Indian viewers.

Such a strategy serves two purposes - it gives the channel greater penetration and enables it to attract more advertising revenues.

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