television premiere instead of streaming movies on OTT (over-the-top) platforms as an alternative. Vijay Sethupathi’s Tughlaq Darbar, Reliance Entertainment’s Mandela and Aelay and Tamil film Sarbath are among titles that saw a release on satellite television, cashing in on holiday weekends when broadcasters are known to grab family audience eyeballs and good festive advertising.
The strategy works better for small-budget films that make profits by way of satellite right sales followed by a digital premiere, not being able to command the high rates that OTT platforms are willing to pay as they vie for big star, mainstream movies for direct-to-digital release. “Means of commercial exploitation and norms of windowing (for premieres on