Colors Rishtey, formerly Rishtey (meaning ‘relationships’), is a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) owned by Viacom18. Originally launched in the UK in 2012, Rishtey was launched in India in 2013 as a free-to-air channel showing old Colors programming. In January 2019 it became a pay-TV channel, and, on 1 March 2019, Rishtey was renamed to Colors Rishtey.
Colors Rishtey does not usually show its own original content, but rather repeat telecasts of current and recently-discontinued Colors shows, as well as older shows of that channel. Similar channels showing old shows and repeat telecasts of mainstream Hindi GECs are Star’s Star Utsav, Zee’s Zee Anmol and Big Magic, and SPN’s Sony Pal (however, much of Big Magic’s programming is original). These channels were all available on the state-owned DD Free Dish satellite platform until 1 March 2019.
Viacom18 has only one mainstream Hindi GEC, namely Colors. The other three large networks in the Hindi GEC segment—Star, Zee and Sony—have two mainstream Hindi GECs each: Star Plus and Star Bharat (whose repeat telecasts, as well as those of Star Bharat’s predecessor Life OK, are shown on Star Utsav); Zee TV and &TV (whose repeat telecasts are shown on Zee Anmol and Big Magic); and Sony TV and Sony Sab (the equivalent channel is Sony Pal).
Rishtey
2012–2016
2016–2019
Rishtey rebranded on 31 December 2016. This logo style was inspired by Colors’ new logo, which was unveiled on 10 April 2016. It is set in Museo Sans like the Colors logo.
Colors Rishtey
2019–present
Following the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s drastic changes in TV channel packaging and pricing in December 2018 and January 2019, several channels from four of the biggest Indian TV broadcasters (Star, Zee, Sony and Viacom18) that had been running free-to-air on DD Free Dish, the government-owned free-of-cost satellite TV platform, were converted to pay-TV channels in January 2019. These channels were removed from DD Free Dish on 1 March 2019. Accordingly, Viacom18 renamed Rishtey to Colors Rishtey, and Rishtey Cineplex and Cineplex HD to Colors Cineplex and Colors Cineplex HD (note that HD channels have never been available on DD Free Dish, so Rishtey and Rishtey Cineplex were the Viacom18 channels that were removed). Rishtey was also given a new branding package.
The channels from the other three broadcasters that were removed in a similar fashion are Hindi GECs Star Utsav, Zee Anmol and Sony Pal, and Hindi movie channels Star Utsav Movies, Zee Anmol Cinema and Sony Wah. All of these channels will continue to be available on pay-TV cable and satellite platforms.
| Parent: TV18 (Network18 Group) and Viacom
Indian television channels: Hindi: Entertainment: Colors (HD) and Colors Rishtey | Movies: Colors Cineplex (HD) | Youth entertainment: MTV (HD) | Music: MTV Beats (HD) English: Entertainment: Colors Infinity (HD) | Comedy Central (HD) | Music: VH1 (HD) | Kids: Nickelodeon (HD) | Sonic Nickelodeon | Nick Jr. Regional languages: Kannada: Colors Kannada (HD), Colors Super and Colors Kannada Cinema | Bangla: Colors Bangla (HD) and Colors Bangla Cinema | Marathi: Colors Marathi (HD) | Tamil: Colors Tamil (HD) | Odia: Colors Odia | Gujarati: Colors Gujarati and Colors Gujarati Cinema International channels: Video-on-demand: Voot  |
