ITV

Category: Special Report

  • Cramped space, slow growth dog English movie channels

    There is no shake-up at the top in the English movie channel space but a grim battle is being waged at the lower level as the new entrants plot their growth path with stronger content and distribution.

    The segment leaders, Star Movies and HBO, have marginally lost their channel share in the midst of this competition, but they are way ahead to even feel challenged. Star Movies‘ share has dropped to 38 per cent for the first six months of the period ending June as against 42 per cent a year ago, while HBO has shed three per cent to stand at 31 per cent.

    Three-year-old Pix too has fallen 1 per cent to rest on a channel share of 11 per cent, according to Tam data (Tam data, c&s15+ SEC A,B) for the six-month period. However, Zee Studio, fourth in line, has trekked upwards from 7 per cent to 9 per cent.

    The only ranking change during this period has been the upsurge of WB, Turner and Warner‘s six-month-old channel in India, that has overtaken UTV World Cinema, which is also a new player in the field. While UTV World Cinema has a channel share of 4.8 per cent, WB is a hair‘s length ahead at 4.9 per cent.

    The first half of the year has seen the genre stickiness inch marginally up to 10 minutes, a one pointer climb from the year-ago period.

    According to industry experts, it‘s current films that gives English movie channels the ratings and pulls in advertisers. Tam data shows that for the six months while Star Movies and HBO had most of the top 10 titles, Pix‘s Slumdog Millionaire peaked at a rating of 0.33 TVR.

    So, as maintaining consistent brand loyalty becomes a challenge, top and long existing players are fine tuning their strategies to attract more audiences.

    Star Movies‘ focus this year has rested on enhancing its title choices for specific slots. It has also looked at giving viewers more opportunities to sample content that they can connect with. The aim is to make its flagship property, Friday Night Premiere, stronger.

    Says Star Movies VP programming Jyotsna Vriyalaya, “Having brand loyalty in a genre that is so title driven will be a very big challenge. Viewers often sample the top two to three channels before settling on their favourite movie.”

    HBO has concentrated on blockbusters and expansion of its theme variety such as the Hollywood Premier League, while continuing with original programming like True Blood. In an effort to go beyond just titles to build brand saliency, HBO is looking at new show formats.
    Says HBO South Asia country manager Shruti Bajpai, “The key to developing brand loyalty revolves around selection of titles, how well content is packaged, experimenting in terms of show formats, channel‘s on-air look and communication.”

    Pix business head Sunder Aaron notes that while the category is title driven, brand loyalty also develops among viewers of movie channels. “It‘s all about context. When a viewer identifies strongly with the movies shown on a particular channel, considering channel‘s presentation is comfortable and the promos and breaks unobtrusive, it provides a favourable viewing environment and eventually leads to a viewing habit.”

    Earlier, Pix was seen as a channel showcasing classic films. However, this year the channel has aggressively acquired titles from a number of distributors. The biggest was Slumdog Millionaire. With this acquisition, Aaron expects that there will be drastic change in how viewers perceive the channel over the next couple of years.

    Says Aaron, “Pix‘s marketing helps to feature these newer titles in a bigger and better way than in the past. While we are flattered that channels are emulating or copying some of our on air strategies, we will continue to evolve the look and feel of the channel as well. This should help us continue to make up ground on HBO and Star Movies.”

    Also, in a bid to introduce more variety, the channel airs soccer action from the FA Cup. “We‘ve introduced cinema-oriented series to India that have perfectly fitted into the Pix persona, with shows like Hollywood One on One, and Inside the Actors Studio,” adds Aaron.

    Zee Studio faces the same challenge as Pix in terms of getting premieres. But channel business head Sujay Kutty says that there are a number of independent distributors who have first-run gems in their packages. He also claims that he has 18 premieres lined up for the year.

    The channel has moved its primetime to 9 pm. April also saw the introduction of Sunday Noonatics, a slot for light entertaining flicks keeping the relaxed Sunday mood in mind.

    Blocks or no blocks?

    Well, apart from right title selection, placement and variety, the genre has also brought in the block-building strategy to attract target audiences. But with the introduction of blocks, the long-age debate also stands tall – do blocks work?

    Aaron says that while the channel holds festival bands, it does not pay off to have too many blocks. “When you commit to certain types of programming for a slot, you are essentially creating a programming ‘strait jacket‘ whose proposition is not always easy to meet with the films in your library,” he says.

    Lodestar Universal COO Nandini Dias notes that one can schedule content in a manner to appeal to different age groups without necessarily assigning labels. “Having blocks can get you sponsorship revenue, but you also risk alienating the rest of the audience if you are not careful.”

    Offering a counterpoint, Bajpai says that it entirely depends on how a particular channel identifies its audience and devises its strategy. “HBO seeks its audience across segments and hence, to connect at a base-level, we do TG-specific programming blocks where we offer something for everyone out of our whole gamut of shows. With a relatively larger base of audience, for HBO this sort of programming format has worked well.”

    For UTV World Movies business head Sameer Ganapathy, blocks ascertain that genre and star themes are presented to viewers in an approachable manner. “Having said that, we do not believe in too many programming blocks as that really limits the scheduling and hinders variety.”

    UTV World Movies also aims to be present in all verticals of the business with the channel being the driver. So it has started releasing films into cinemas, like Waltz With Bashir.

    “This brings a huge amount of saliency to the brand. We have the home video association with Shemaroo. We are currently the only channel in the genre that is truly 360° in nature,” Ganapathy avers.

    True, English movie channels are construing and establishing various strategies to come to the fore. But the one element that could still cause disharmony in crafting better reach and contact is lack of strategic ‘distribution‘.

    According to Turner International India VP, deputy GM Monica Tata, apart from content what also helped Warner cut through the heap is distribution.

    She says, “In just over a quarter, the channel is available in 13 million c&s homes, including digital and DTH platforms such as Dish TV, Sun Direct and Big TV.”

    Last year, MGM signed a deal with Star Den to get it distributed across cable and satellite and has also signed up over 500 cable systems.

    According to MGM Networks president Bruce Tuchman, “We also debuted on Bharti Airtel in DTH. We have built a very wide and growing subscription base, as well as increasing our DTH presence.”

    Tuchman feels that apart from creating reach, distribution will also facilitate attracting revenues in India. “What is being seen now in India is an inflection point where targeted, niche product that super-serves specific audiences will have an incredible opportunity to build fans, loyalty and subscription revenue. We‘ve seen this elsewhere around the world, and we believe this is the direction that India is headed in.”

    What will, however, intensify competition amongst players is digitisation.
    Dias opines, “At this moment, in an analogue era, some of the movie channels are at an advantage due to better placement. However, once digitisation spreads, all English movie channels will be one behind the other. A level playing field will therefore intensify competition. It will come down to who has the better titles at key timeslots.”

    Though the genre viewership is still skewed towards the metros, channels are also eyeing smaller towns to gain audiences. For example, Zee Studio has held on-ground initiatives in towns such as Pune and Ahmedabad.

    Lintas Media Group Planning Sciences director Atrayee Chakraborty notes that in the distant future, viewership would come from the smaller towns and cities. However, in the short run, the movie channels need to concentrate on the metros as much still remains untapped here.

    Revenue to slow down

    The size of the English movie channel genre is estimated to grow to Rs 2.2 billion this fiscal.

    Stung by economic slowdown, the industry expects the segment to see single digit growth in ad revenues this year. Says Chakraborty, “This genre would suffer relatively more as premium brands, durables and finance sectors, which largely advertise in these channels, have cut their advertising budgets.”

    Ratings and perception play a role in media-buying decisions for this genre. Offering further insight, Chakraborthy explains that while the TG is upmarket and skewed towards the metros, it also looks at channel affinity within specific segments in the TG for budget allocation. “HBO, for example, is more preferred by brands targeting younger, upmarket males. Star Movies, in contrast, attracts a wider audience base.”

    Bajpai is bullish on the genre‘s growth, “While there has been an air of caution in general across industries, it is also a fact that during a downturn advertisers tend to turn towards a strong product that is consistent, dependable and has a steady consumer base.”

  • Scripting a business for World Cinema

    A small group of 40-somethings is discussing Akira Kurosawa‘s film Seven Samurai in a roadside tea shop in Mumbai. The ravages of nature, the tension between good and evil and the painting-like visuals are heated points of discussion.

    It is this crowd that Shemaroo Entertainment is aiming to grow, as the home video major aims to grab a major slice of this premium segment in an otherwise cut-throat mass market driven by price wars.

    “While our main business will continue to be mainstream Bollywood, World Cinema will give us a niche, upscale market with pricing power,” says Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada.

    Shemaroo faces competition from Moser Baer which has assembled over 100 World Cinema titles, most of which are procured from Palador. The advantage Shemaroo has built over its home video rival is by striking an alliance with UTV. According to the pact, stitched in November, Shemaroo will have access to UTV‘s World Cinema titles for home video distribution.

    But it is not competition that is worrying Gada at this stage. “We will together have to grow the market. It is at a very nascent stage for us to fight for market share,” he says.

    Agrees Moser Baer COO G Dhananjayan, “World Cinema is a very small market at this stage. And to add salt to the injury, we have to fight against piracy. We have to expand the market.”

    Which is why Shemaroo has kick-started a four-day long Kurosawa film festival in Kolkata. The idea is to spread awareness and visibility for such genre of movies. Says Gada, “In India, the theatrical release of world cinema films is more of a promotional activity.”

    UTV, which aims to play in a bigger canvas, is also planning theatrical releases. The first to roll out on 29 July will be the Iraninan movie Waltz with Bashir. “We are getting producer Roman Paul here and the red carpet will be held at PVR. Our plan is to have one such big release every month,” says UTV Global Broadcasting executive director Shantanu Aditya.

    For UTV, the other avenue to tap audiences is through film festivals. Recently in March, UTV held a Russian Film Festival that was followed by the French Film Festival in June.

    “It is necessary to simultaneously create new audiences for world cinema, thereby increasing the overall consumption,” says Aditya.

    Keeping this in mind, UTV organises regular film shows and has its own film club that has 6.5 lakh members. “We have tie-ups with Alliance Francaise, NCPA and other attaches of different countries along with whom we hold a lot of events including film festivals. The attempt is to educate people about the quality and know the impact of World Cinema,” avers Aditya.

    For UTV, the bigger revenue pie is in broadcasting. UTV World Movies is trying to carve out a space for itself outside the two English movie channels – HBO and Star Movies. Avers Aditya, “Television is a mass medium compared to home video or theatre. We will first showcase the movie titles on our channel before we move it to the other revenue exploitation platforms like home video and theatrical release.”

    Having a similar business model is NDTV Lumiere with broadcasting as the pillar around which would revolve home video and theatrical releases. The joint venture company, with NDTV Imagine holding 51 per cent and Manmohan Shetty and Sunil Doshi having the balance 49 per cent, has already invested $10 million in the venture.

    “We plan to invest $7 million over the next 18 months for augmenting our reach and replenishing our catalogue,” says Doshi.

    NDTV Lumiere is currently available on digital cable and is in talks with DTH operators to widen the channel‘s presence. High carriage fee is not making it feasible for the channel to be on analogue cable at this stage.

    On the home video front, NDTV Lumiere has tied up with Excel Entertainment and has already released 15 DVDs.

    Sourcing content is an ardous task as the market is scattered across the world. “It needs special skills as one has to select the right content from several sources at a competitive price. Making the right buys, however, is possible if one has an expert eye,” says Doshi.

    Piling up content at low costs is what is attracting players and presenting a case for a viable business model down the road even as revenue opportunities are limited. Locking in long-term content means creating an entry barrier while building a nest for future exploitation as the market sizes up.

    NDTV Lumiere has invested around $7 million to build a library of approximately 400 titles, 75 per cent of which are contemporary-led. “We are looking at procuring 250-300 more films over the next 18 months,” says Doshi.

    UTV, which entered early in the market (except Palador), has invested close to $6 million for building a library of 700 titles.

    Piracy is hurting the home video market for World Cinema. With prices of DVDs being higher, pirates have a costing advantage. While Moser Baer has priced its content at Rs 399, Shemaroo has kept its DVD price at Rs 349.

    Says Gada, “In case of Hindi films, Moser Baer‘s mass pricing has acted as a deterrent against piracy. But that is not the case with World Cinema where the DVDs cost higher.”

    The challenge is to sell more DVDS at a brisker pace. “We have sold 5,000 copies in the last two months. We have already released 10 home video titles. The target this year is to have 50 releases and sell 60,000 units,” says Aditya.

    Agrees Doshi, “On the home video front, getting volumes is a long way off. As for the TV side of the business, the pay-TV environment needs to move towards digitalisation.”

    So what would sustain the World Cinema movement as a business proposition? “It has to have a multi-pronged revenue approach. But broadcasting has to be the main side of the business,” says Aditya.

    World Cinema players have a long road to cover before they can make their ventures profitable. But at least the script is being written now.

  • Kids channels gain viewership; Nick cracks HSM

    Surely the biggies of the Hindi general entertainment space have been channelising their efforts to attract the kids segment. If Colors has been trying to capture the small pops through its top-rated shows Balika Vadhu and Uttaran, Zee TV is gearing up to use this arsenal in its new property Aap Ki Antara.

    But has this effort anyhow eaten into the viewership pie of the discerning bunch of little champs, the kids‘ channels as a category? Not really!!! If 2008 saw the kids genre close at a 13.78 per cent share (period Jan-May 2008, All India C&S 4-14), the same period in 2009 (period Jan-May 2009, All India C&S 4-14) saw the genre grow by 1.08 per cent.

    Kids Genre Share % in 2009
    Month
    ALL INDIA 09
    Jan
    13.9
    Feb
    13.6
    Mar
    14.5
    Apr
    15.6
    May
    16.6
    Source: TAM, C&S 4-14, All India
     

    Within the category, again, there are a few transitions. While Cartoon Network still continues to hold the fort, the channel has seen a slight dip of 0.4 per cent in its market share for the period between January to May in 2009 as compared to the same period last year.

    Sibling channel Pogo too has surely managed to remain number two in the space. The channel has also seen a rise in its market share from 20 per cent in 2008 to 22.8 per cent in 2009.

    All India Market
    Channel
    Jan
    Feb
    Mar
    Apr
    May
    Cartoon Network
    29
    26
    27
    24
    23
    Pogo
    23
    24
    24
    22
    21
    Nick
    17
    16
    15
    21
    20
    Hungama
    14
    15
    17
    14
    18
    Jetix
    10
    11
    10
    9
    9
    Disney
    7
    7
    7
    9
    8
    Spacetoon Kids TV
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    Source: TAM, C&S 4-14, All India

     

     

    HSM Story

    Nevertheless, when it comes to slicing the market further to concentrate on the HSM space, the view is visibly different and new. While CN has seen a slight dip here too for the same period over last (Jan – May 2008), it has been ousted for the first time ever by new market leader Nick for the last two consecutive months. Nick has also seen a 4.4 per cent upward swing in its market share, compared to 2008.

    So what helped Nick emerge as the number one kids channel in the Hindi speaking market?

    “There are a couple of factors that helped us attain this position. First, the Nicktoons – characters that have helped Nick establish space and engagement with the kids leading to an increase in the stickiness of the channel,” says Nick India SVP and GM Nina Elavia Jaipuria.

    “Second, we have managed to take Nick beyond television, thus making it more tangible. And I think we did that very successfully with our experimental 360 degree marketing philosophy – we wanted to be in every place where children are,” she adds.

    In 2009, CN, however, continues to remain above Nick at 23.4 per cent (Jan – May 2009). Pogo hasm meanwhile, climbed 4.6 per cent up over last year to garner 22 per cent market share.

    HSM Market
    Channel
    Jan
    Feb
    Mar
    Apr
    May
    Nick
    22
    20
    18
    25
    25
    Hungama
    17
    19
    21
    17
    22
    Cartoon Network
    27
    25
    25
    21
    20
    Pogo
    22
    24
    24
    21
    19
    Disney
    8
    8
    8
    10
    10
    Jetix
    4
    4
    4
    5
    5
    Spacetoon Kids TV
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    Source: TAM, C&S 4-14, All India

    While there is definitely a Cartoon Network vs Nick tale here, there seems to be a new contender creeping up the ladder to challenge the old bee.

    Latest Tam data shows that Hungama TV, the kids channel for 4-14-year-olds which saw a 8.8 per cent fall in its market share over last, has relocated to the number two spot to push CN down the ladder for the month of May, 2009.

    Recently, as part of its revamping strategy, the channel had introduced three new bands during summer and infused new shows into the bands. And its quite evident that the channel shored up its ratings post the change.

    The channel had acquired two live action shows, Hatim from Star and Dharam Veer from NDTV Imagine to put them under the action band, Dum Powder. The Trouble Soda band features shows such as Doraemon and Ninjaboy Rantaro while Fun Gas showcases Shinchan and Asari Chan.

    Disney channel, meanwhile, has also exhibited an upward growth in its market share.

    Well, indications are on that while competition is really getting fierce, competitors are also putting their acts together to displace the winning feather from CN‘s hat.

    So, does CN foresee any collision ahead?

    Says Turner International India vice president and deputy general manager – entertainment networks, South Asia Monica Tata, “Cartoon Network and Pogo‘s relative shares in HSM have grown this January-May 2009 to 45 per cent from 41 per cent in the same period in 2008. These numbers are also a reflection of Turner‘s long term vision and strategy for India that has paid rich dividends making Cartoon Network and Pogo the most viewed and loved brands amongst kids in India. Not only kids, but parents too give the highest endorsement to these two networks as their choice for kids (per New Generations 2008).”

    “Besides, we also enjoy the lion‘s share of the advertising pie. Increased competition has not outstayed us from our leadership position in the last 13 years and that‘s a merit/result of our focus on the long-term rather than short-term measures and gains and a proof that we know and service our consumers best amongst all,” Tata adds.

    South Story

    Treading the Southern path, CN indisputably continues to rule the region exhibiting its leadership crown. Placing itself at the second spot, however, is not CN‘s sibling channel Pogo, the second in command in the All India market, but Disney‘s Jetix that is fed on action adventure content and targeted at only boys between the age-group of 6-10.

    “Of the two global channels (read Disney and Jetix), Jetix is a more defined channel. We have made it available in four languages – English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu,” said Walt Disney Television International (India) senior vice president and managing director Antoine Villeneuve earlier in an interview with Indiantelevision.com.

    South Market
    Channel
    Jan
    Feb
    Mar
    Apr
    May
    Cartoon Network
    36
    32
    35
    34
    32
    Jetix
    27
    32
    30
    26
    30
    Pogo
    26
    26
    25
    27
    26
    Nikelodeon
    3
    4
    4
    5
    5
    Disney
    4
    3
    4
    4
    3
    Hungama
    3
    3
    3
    3
    3
    Spacetoon Kidss TV
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    Source: TAM, C&S 4-14, All India

    Advertising and the kids‘ genre

    Advertising growth came under pressure amid recession and clients and advertisers became cautious about their ad spend. As a result kids channels were stressed to move to quarterly deals with big advertisers, slash their ad rates and see some brands do a walk out. Yet, in spite of all, the category saw its ad volume grow by 36.87 per cent for the period from January to May 2009 over the same period last year.

    Period
    Jan-May 08
    Jan-May 09
    AD Volumes (Secs ‘000s)
    7726
    10575
    Source: TAM

    So does this increase indicate that existing advertisers had increased their spots across the kids channels while channels were unable to attracting new advertisers during the recessionary period?

    “Not really. Television is the cheapest medium to reach out to the masses. For every other medium, there is an extra amount to be paid. Manufacturers understand this and they have also recognised our growth. And, thus, even during recession we have doubled our rates,” says Nick‘s Nina Elavia Jaipuria.

    While Nick claims that despite challenging times the channel quadrupled its sales revenue as advertisers found value in what they offered, Cartoon Network was on course to achieve its yearly targets.

    “We‘ve added more value for the advertisers with innovative and customised solutions. For example, ‘The Winning Secret‘ a contest specially created to build Boost‘s association as the energy partner for the Rajasthan Royals that received over 84000 entries! And, ‘Morning Shines‘, a customised pre-school programming block specially packaged for Johnsons Baby Top-to-Toe Wash,” says Tata.

    Apart from traditional advertisers, broadcasters state that a lot of non-traditional advertisers across sectors like FMCG, investment banks and durable products are also eyeing this space. The rationale behind this, they feel, are an increase in the co-viewing pattern and also the mere pester power of kids who have the ability today to influence parent‘s decisions.

    “In order to spend time with their kids, parents end up spending a lot of time on the kids channels. Also, animation as a category is today appealing to adults. Thus, a lot of co-viewing is taking place,” explains Jaipuria.

    Cartoon Network, meanwhile, claims that over 30 per cent of the channel‘s advertisers reach out to its secondary audience (that is 15+) such as Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate Palmolive, Hindustan Unilevers, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson, Marico, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, LG Electronics, Voltas, Whirlpool, Hitachi, Tata Tea and L‘Oreal, amongst others.

    Says Tata, “We have a robust portfolio of clients comprising both traditional and non-traditional kids‘ marketers with over 165 clients between Cartoon Network and Pogo. We are confident of further upping our non-traditional clientele, as 47 per cent of all viewership for the channels comes from CS 15+ audiences.”

    Broadcasters feel that the main factors that have led to the growth of the genre are localisation of content, co-viewing pattern, pester power of kids and taking the medium beyond the television space through licensing and merchandising, on-ground activities, constant promotions, polls, votes and contests.

    Local content adds a lot of local flavour to the content and therefore helps in increasing the channels‘ stickiness. CN believes that the 20 Indian animation shows/features playing on the channel have worked well for the channel. And its 2009 plan, therefore, is to expand on Indian animation content. For Pogo too the focal point will be to expand its original production.

    Similarly, while Disney has managed to establish its brand connect with audiences through its franchises, the ratings have been coming in from locally acquired live action content.

    “There has been an effect on ratings, but when it comes to a brand connect with the kids it is with our franchise properties. The best example of this is Hanna Montana. Our endeavour is to build a localised experience through Hanna Montana and our other properties,” says Villeneuve.

    All said and done, industry believes that even though the category‘s viewership continues to grow, even today it remains hugely under indexed. “As a result, in spite of contributing 7 per cent to the total television viewership, it commands only two per cent of the entire television ad revenue pie. This is because of the baggage that the space has been carrying over the years where advertisers are used to paying to the GECs,” avers Jaipuria.

  • Bollywood under stress as producers, plexes fight over revenue share

    The corporatisation of Bollywood helped clean ‘underworld‘ connections to a certain extent but it also created two new power centers – the producers and the multiplex owners.

    While both the moviegoer and the industry welcomed the advent of the multiplex, the euphoria didn‘t last for long. With the amount of business the multiplexes were doing, big-time producers wanted a raise in the revenue-share. The revenue-sharing topic has always been a matter of attention every time a Yash Raj banner film or one from a reputed banner came up for release.

    Till then multiplexes were passing on only 48 per cent to distributors when it should have been more, given the tax break. The Chopras, with some alleged arm-twisting, managed to get 2 per cent more even pre-Fanaa but this still left multiplex owners with a much higher profit margin than single-screen theatres.

    Recent revenue-sharing story

    The recent tiff between the producers and multiplexes started as early as February. While the producers were insisting on a 50 per cent revenue share for the first three weeks, the multiplexes were offering 50, 40 and 30 per cent revenue share for the same.

    After several failed discussions, the producers decided to go on strike and from 4 April they stopped giving release rights of new big-budget movies to multiplexes.

    After a month-long silence, both parties met on 5 May but nothing fruitful came out of the meeting.

    Not seeing any chance of the ice thawing, producers decided to release films in single-screens and independent multiplexes from 29 May. One of the films that were to be released was Vashu Bhagnani‘s Kal Kissne Dekha, the debut film of his son Jaccky.

    Later at a meeting held on 18 May, there was an underlying feeling that things would be sorted out at the meeting with the presence of multiplex owners like PVR‘s Ajay Bijli and Cinemax‘s Rashesh Kanakia along with Adlabs‘ Anil Arjun who have, prior to this, never attended any meeting besides Fame India‘s Shravan Shroff, Inox Leisure‘s Deepak Ashar and Fun Cinemas‘ Atul Goel. Representing the United Producers and Distributors Forum (UPDF) were Mukesh Bhatt, UTV‘s Ronnie Screwvala, Yash Raj Films‘ Sahdev Ghei, Eros International‘s Nandu Ahuja and Studio 18‘s Aman Gill.

    While the 50:50 revenue sharing terms for the first week were agreed upon, the bone of contention was the second and third week. The UPDF wanted terms which were a notch higher than the 42.5 and 32.5 per cent respectively. This meeting too didn‘t yield any result.

    On 23 May, the core committee of the UPDF met at the Yash Raj Studios where Yash Chopra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan met the rest of their fraternity to reach a consensus on the situation. The outcome was that they should not succumb to the multiplexes‘ demands, if any. The situation looks grim and to say the least has resulted in a deadlock. It was this day when Bhagnani backed out from releasing his film in single-screens fearing loss.

    On May 26 both parties met again. Just when they were getting closer to agreeing on the revenue-sharing terms, the issue of distribution strategy reared its head.

    Multiplexes want the content for all their properties, thus increasing the burden of print cost on the producers and in turn hampering the success of smaller films. Producers are now on course to chalk out their own distribution strategy for films which is the norm worldwide.

    “Giving the multiplexes the right to distribute films will kill the distribution business. If multiplexes think they can do distribution, then they should pay minimum guarantees. Moreover a big budget movie and a small budget movie cannot have the same distribution strategy,” says producer Harry Baweja of the Producers and Distributors Forum.

    Overview

    The disagreement between the two parties is being skeptically looked upon by industry professionals in the chain.

    Says 24 Karat Multiplex CEO Padam Sacheti, ” The strike period is a bane for us. It is loss all the way. I suggest both parties should keep their egos aside and work towards resolving the issue.”

    Though producers do not face any immediate financial losses, the release dates for several big budget projects have been disrupted. These include UTV‘s Main aur Mrs Khanna and Kaminey, Kal Kissne Dekha, Boney Kapoor‘s Wanted, Eros International‘s Aladin and Sajid Nadiadwala‘s Kambakkth Ishq. Almost Rs 2.5 billion has been blocked due to the delay in the release of these films.

    Says UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, “Well I think films will release at some point or the other, hence for the producers there isn‘t really any loss technically. Delay doesn‘t hamper big films. It is only that the money gets blocked. The real time to worry would be when a lot of films will have to be released in rapid succession once the strike is lifted. Till that time there isn‘t any loss that the producers are incurring, I think the loss is primarily with the multiplexes, because every week that they lose, is a week lost in revenue.”

    The losses are indeed hurting multiplexes hard. “I would assume the loss to be to the tune of Rs 150,000 to Rs 200,000 a day per cinema,” says Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur. “Talking about the occupancies, if earlier we would do 35 to 40 per cent of the available capacity, we are currently doing about 15 per cent,” he adds.

    The upcoming T20 world cup is also likely to hamper new releases and even if the strike is called off, big films will release July onwards.

    “It has been our stand for some time now. If there is no resolution soon, UTV will start releasing its big and small films in single theatres and non-national multiplexes from July onwards. We are working on the dates of releases of these films and they would be announced shortly,” says Siddharth Roy Kapur.

    Multiplex owners are mum on their losses due to the content blackout. But according to Indiantelevision.com estimates, the losses are close to Rs 2 billion. It is difficult to put a figure to the losses incurred by film producers due to the deference of their releases, some of whom have borrowed at exorbitant rates. The industry has also to figure out a smooth release window after the row between the producers and plex owners end.

    “A fatigue element seems to be building up. Both the parties are under financial stress and an amicable settlement would ease some of this pain. But there are structural issues that have to be sorted out on a long-term basis so that the revenue pie grows for all the stakeholders,” says an analyst who has been tracking the sector.

     

  • Multiplexes take Rs 450 million hit

    Multiplexes have taken a Rs 450 million knock since the producers began to stop supply of their fresh slate of movies from 4 April.

    The pinch is particularly felt hard by the top six plex operators who account for three-fourth of the 850 screens across the country, according to information gathered by Indiantelevision.com.

    In this research article, Indiantelevision.com estimates the revenue loss to climb to Rs 850-900 million if the strike continues for a month.

    Analysis

    Let us examine the impact in revenue caused due to different occupancy rates due to the movie release embargo. The big six namely Big Cinemas, PVR, Inox, Cinemax, Fame Cinemas and Fun Cinemas themselves constitute about three- fourth of the total number of screens. While there are more than 11,000 single-screen cinemas across the country, the multiplexes contribute to well over 50 per cent of the revenue generated.

    The occupancy rates are expected to be significantly different in the multiplexes with major Hindi films not being released. According to Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, screens are currently operating at around 15 per cent occupancy.

    The table below shows the number of seats, revenue per-show and revenue per-day generated by all multiplex screens in the country at the given occupancy rates. The occupancy rates have been considered between 10 and 60 per cent across all screens in the country.

    Note that in the above table, the average number of seats per screen in a multiplex is taken to be 230 and the total number of screens has been taken at 850. The average price of a movie ticket has been considered to be a conservative Rs 125. Additional losses would include loss in sales in food and beverages at the counters which is estimated to be around Rs 35 per-seat. The total loss, thus, incurred per-seat per-show would amount to Rs 160.

    A 10 per cent occupancy rate causes a difference of around Rs 15 million per day across all the 850 screens in the country. During normal times, screens may operate between 15 to 50 per cent occupancy depending on the movies showing at the time, says marketing head of Inox Harshavardhan Gangurde.

    Thus if we take a figure of 35 per cent to represent the occupancy rates of multiplex screens at any time of the year, in the current scenario there could well be a difference of 20 per cent in average occupancy rates.

    As is evident from the table, the multiplexes earn Rs 30 million less per day from ticket sales and food counters. Per week, this amounts to a loss of Rs 210 million in revenue, taking all multiplex screens into account. This figure does not include additional sources of revenue from vehicle parking and other such ancillary sources. However, the IPL may well have tempered the losses as it has the potential to lower the occupancy rates in the multiplexes.

    The big six hit the most

    The top six multiplexes took the biggest hit in revenue losses, as is evident from the table below.

    IPL impact on movies

    Many believe that the IPL is one of the main reasons for bringing a halt to the release of Hindi movies. The IPL took the country by storm in 2008 and is believed to have eaten away significantly into box-office collections. Industry observers believe that this is the right time to hold movies from releasing in multiplexes as it would in any case lead to significant losses. Movies released during the IPL in 2008 (from 18 April to 1 June) include Sirf, Tashan, Anamika, Mr. White Mr. Black, Pranali, Jimmy, Bhootnath, Jannat, Don Muthuswami, Dhoom Dhadaka and Ghatothkach. Clearly, most movies released were not big-budget movies. The only significant movies released during this time were Tashan, Jannat and Bhootnath. Jannat was the only movie which did reasonably well while the others had nothing much to write about.

    This year, during the IPL season, producers have decided not to jump into the fray at all. The IPL has provided the perfect time and opportunity to broker a deal with multiplex owners.

     

    Conclusion

    There could be a 20 per cent loss in occupancy rates if the United Producers and Distributors Forum stays put in not releasing new movies till a settlement is reached. From our calculations, this difference in occupancy rates would amount to revenue losses of Rs 850-900 million per month in multiplexes. This figure is much lesser than Rs 1-1.5 billion per month as is being claimed by some industry sources.

    The IPL has provided the perfect time for producers and distributors to settle the issue with multiplex owners. This issue had been simmering for a while ever since the release of Fanaa by Yash Raj movies way back in 2006. A sensible resolution of this issue hopefully would be reached during this time which would serve the best interests of either party for a good period of time.

  • Campaigning against terror

    Indian news television channels have been lambasted by one and all for their over-the-top telecast of the terrorist strike late last month. While some of the caning has been well-deserved, one can‘t forget that the news crews and authorities probably lacked the experience to understand and implement the sensitivity required for the live coverage of such a high intensity event as the recent Mumbai terror attacks. And hence, as a consequence, both the parties have been taking steps to correct those flaws by announcing the formation of a code and a committee which will become active during the reportage of national crises.

     

    One month down the line from the terror attacks, indiantelevision.com decided to take a look at what else Indian news media have been doing post 26/11, more specifically in terms of campaigns to create awareness about terrorism and to find solutions to some of the key issues which could prevent India from facing a similar situation in future.

     

    * NDTV Profit launched a campaign to try and find answers to terror-based issues like security, intelligence, infrastructure, corporate activism and crisis management from the corporate world of India. As part of this campaign, the channel hosted a daily special called Ideas for change at 10:30 pm every day.

     

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com, NDTV Profit managing editor Shivnath Thukral said, “The threat to India is intensifying and the recent attack on Mumbai has shaken each and every citizen of the country. Nevertheless, this is the time for people to come together and find solutions to our problems. Through this campaign we wanted CEOs to use their experience in drafting a blueprint which will help us all to contain this terror. We required ideas from the corporates who till this time have helped in building the shares of their stakeholders and expanding the Indian industry; to provide solutions to issues that would help in safeguarding our country from terrorism.”

     

    NDTV Profit wishes to continue the campaign in the future in some form or another and address various other issues. Additionally, by the end of December, 2008 the channel will present the documented ideas to the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan.

     

    * Newspaper daily Daily News & Analysis (DNA) launched its own initiative called ‘Eyes & Ears – People Protection Group‘ with the catch phrase, ‘somebody needs to protect this city, let‘s start with you‘.

     

    “We plan to continue this campaign forever and for that DNA has also launched the website, eyesandears.in. The idea behind the campaign is to encourage people to report anything suspicious in their surroundings to DNA. To follow up on a complaint, DNA will interact with the concerned security authorities for further investigation. Generally people are scared to approach the police. Therefore, through this campaign we are trying to provide a channel through which the common people can communicate easily without any fear or difficulty,” elaborated DNA CEO K.U. Rao.

     

    * Network18‘s English news channel CNN-IBN in association with Hindustan Times group launched their own agenda against terrorism called, ‘Citizens against terror’.

     

    CNN-IBN executive editor Vinay Tewari noted, “Through this campaign with Hindustan Times, CNN-IBN is looking at addressing the burning issue the country faces after the terror attack in Mumbai. The campaign is an attempt to mobilise and help the people with various steps and initiatives they can take to contribute to this fight. We are inviting people to provide solutions to key issues via emails, blogs, messages etc. We then plan to create a handbook after selecting some of the best ideas which we will present to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on 26 December, exactly a month after the attacks. In order to choose the best of the ideas we have set up an expert panel.”

     

    While both CNN-IBN and IBN7 are hosting shows on the terror attack on weekends, daily newspapers of HT Media- Hindustan Times and Hindustan- are carrying stories of people who have suffered during the attack.

     

    * Aajtak, the Hindi news channel, has also launched ‘Declare War on Terror‘. The mission of this movement is to bring all Indians together to fight and counter terrorism in all forms. The movement will develop programmes and will partner in areas such as empowering public opinion against all forms of terrorism. It will influence decision makers at the highest level – fighting against those who kill innocents, support measures that ensure safety, expose corruption and incompetence that endangered safety and security, defeat the enemy by having zero tolerance of terror, eliminate forces that propagate hate and promote unity among the people of India.

     

    * Mumbai-based daily tabloid Mid-Day not only used print but has further extended its campaign against terrorism on its radio station, Radio One 94.3 FM.

     

    Mid-Day group editorial director Shishir Joshi elucidates, “We launched our campaign ‘Enough‘ across our platforms which include daily papers like Mid-Day, Gujarati Mid-Day and Inquilab, radio station Radio One, Mid-day.com and also through the mobile short code 53650. Through our campaign we asked four basic questions to the government – ‘Did we have prior information about the attack?’, ‘What did we do after we had the information?’, ‘what could have been a better way of handling the situation then?’ and ‘what are the measures that should be adopted now to improve the situation?’. We took the answers from the representative of the government to the common people and then took their feedback on these answers to the government once again.”

     

    * The radio stations in Mumbai went an extra mile in serving as an interactive platform for listeners to express their anguish about 26/11. Red FM launched its campaign ‘Enough is enough‘ in which the airwaves were thrown open to Mumbaikars and the music on-air was reduced to accommodate the flood of calls from people. The callers included victims, families of victims, eye witnesses, staff members of the hotels and everybody else who wanted to speak about their experiences, send out a plea, express anger or demand answers for their unanswered questions.

    Mumbai station of ADAG owned Big 92.7 FM undertook a special drive to urge each and every Mumbaikar to join them and speak up against Terrorism. ‘Mumbai Halla Bol- Ab Chup Rehene ka Waqt Nahi‘ saw people from all walks of life including celebrities like Rahul Mahajan, Ad Film maker Prahlad Kakar, Singers Shaan and Ismail Darbar, Tops Security chief director Ramesh Iyer, Dr Mangeshkar who was one of the hostages at the Taj Hotel, professionals from various companies, College students, and the NGO Dreamz Home joining the initiative.

     

    Commenting on Big FM‘s role on the issue, station head Neerja Dhillon said, “Radio as a medium today can not only inform people, but it can activate a complete movement in the city by not only creating awareness, but by creating a feeling of responsibility. Hence, Big 92.7 FM took up this drive to bring together people from various backgrounds.”

     

    Additionally, ENIL‘s Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM initiated a 15 day campaign ‘Be alert but don‘t be prejudiced.‘ The campaign was an appeal to all to practice communal peace and tolerance rather than blindly blaming a particular caste or religion for the cause. The campaign also aired opinions and views of Muslims who lead normal, regular lives.

  • Olympics third least viewed in India

    While the Olympics recorded strong viewership in a lot of countries, India remained among the bottom three markets in terms of television viewership for the Olympics. New Zealand tops the list in viewing the biggest sport extravaganza of the year.

    According to Lintas Media Group report on the viewership patterns of the Olympics 2008 on TV across the globe received this week, the top 10 Olympics events in India together delivered a 1 TVR while the top viewing market New Zealand garnered a TVR as high as 22.6 for the top 10 events.

    Source : Lintas Media Group report

    The report has been compiled based on information and analysis of Olympic games TV viewing across 42 markets around the world. These markets include the US, UK, India, France, China, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Netherlands among others.

    The report states that the opening and closing ceremonies attracted 87 and 73.2 million of people in 35 countries respectively. Traditionally, the opening and closing ceremonies are among most watched Olympic events.

    Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn de Souza says, “India is not yet an Olympic nation. We make heroes of those who do manage a medal, but the medals are so few and far between, and most of the events do not have fan following among the masses. It‘s not surprising that viewership was low.”

    Source : Lintas Media Group report

    Tam data meanwhile shows that 74 million Indians tuned into the biggest sporting event of the year the Olympics which aired on DD Sports last month from 9-24 August. Tam data also shows that while the opening ceremony drew 28 million viewers, the Closing Ceremony only had 15 million. In the metros where the event fared the best it managed a total of 89.9 GRPs from 9-24 August.

    The highest GRPs recorded were 8.2 on 20 August driven by athletics. On 16 August, the GRPs were 7.7, driven no doubt by a surge in interest following Abhinav Bindra‘s Gold in shooting.

    The GRPs managed on the last day were five. The GRPs on the opening day were not far behind at 4.6 which is impressive given that there was only the opening ceremony. On the other hand, on the last day besides the closing ceremony you also had the finals of some boxing events as well as the men‘s basketball final among other things.

    Boxing, athletics and swimming were some of the sports that drove viewership. In the non-metros, the event managed to garner 60.2 GRPs. At an all-India level the figure is 70.4 showing that sport is more a metro-viewing phenomenon. The fact that sport is a male dominated viewing activity is borne out by the fact that 65 per cent of the audience was men. Sec and Sec B took a little over half of the viewership.

    In 2004, 67 million viewers tuned in to the extravaganza. Then also the Opening Ceremony did better with 8 mn viewers than the Closing Ceremony with five million viewers. Of course one has to keep in mind the fact that the Tam panel was expanded in 2006.

    Source : Lintas Media Group report

    Athletics, boxing, basketball, gymnastics and swimming were the most popular sports in the Olympics 2008. The top 10 Olympics events put together garnered an average of 8.4 TVR across the markets.

    Apart from New Zealand, Netherlands, Denmark, Lithuania and Thailand watched the Olympics the most. This is despite the fact that they are not leading countries in getting medals apart from the Netherlands which got 16 medals. China watched the Olympics on an average global level while Russia was much below the average global TVR.

    Apart from India, the other markets that watched the Olympics the least were Lebanon, Indonesia, Ukraine and Philippines.

    NBC hits the jackpot

    All these figures though pale in comparison with what US broadcaster NBC achieved. The broadcaster managed to get 214 million viewers across the event. NBC had pushed the Olympics across different properties. For example, the Today show benefitted as did Nightly News. The cable networks airing Olympics coverage also benefitted, drawing a total of 88 million viewers. CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Oxygen all delivered audience increases across key demos. Online at NBCOlympics.com, meanwhile, there were 75.5 million video streams, 51.9 million unique users, 1.24 billion page videos and a total of 9.9 million hours of video consumed.

    The Global Scene

    Nielsen Media Research estimated that 4.7 billion viewers watched some part of the Olympics. About 70 per cent of Earth‘s population was engaged making the Beijing Games the most-viewed event in TV history. The figure surpassed the 3.9 billion who watched some part of the Athens Games in 2004. Four years earlier, the Sydney Games garnered some 3.6 billion. 94 per cent of China‘s TV homes watched some part of the games.

    South Korea matched China‘s 94 per cent share, albeit gauged against a smaller population base, while 93 per cent of Mexican residents saw some part of the Games.

    The Ad scenario

    While Doordarshan had failed to get big sponsors this year for Beijing Olympics it looks like it‘s the news channels that have raked in the actual moolah.

    Doordarshan deputy DG sports Ashok Jailkhani says, “At the time of the Athens Olympics, DD had earned Rs 50 million of revenue and this time we have been able garner around Rs 80 million of revenue.” DD is believed to have spent around Rs. 170 million on the games.

    However, this year the absence of major advertisers were felt. The list of advertisers for this year‘s Olympics included Samsung, BSNL, LIC and the ministry of rural development apart from Maruti, ITC, Amul, Lenovo and some government departments.

    Says Prasar Bharati CEO B S Lali, “Last time, during Athens Olympics, DD had big sponsors like IOC who had invested Rs 20 million and Hero Honda had invested Rs 10 million. This time, that kind of large sponsors were missing yet the number of advertisers that had come to DD was much more as compared to the last time.”

    Mindshare‘s Amin Lakhani notes that news channels created hype around the event especially when India won three medals. “There was a lot of analysis. Each day one could catch highlights. This meant that viewers tuned in to them to catch the action. Advertisers naturally followed suit and many of them preferred news channels to DD. Also DD did not do any marketing but that was to be expected. When does DD ever market an event?”

    NBC made over a billion dollars from the Olympics. Hot day parts included swimming and gymnastics particularly with Michael Phelps breaking Mark Spitz‘s record for most gold medals in a single Olympics. Oxygen‘s gymnastics coverage gained interest from advertisers who were looking for female demos, and CNBC‘s coverage of boxing got money from advertisers looking for heavily male-skewed demographics.

    Need for Introspection

    DD had despatched teams of 11 cameras with crew to cover the event but DD‘s coverage of the event drew flake and the public broadcaster was forced to remodel its programming after an emergency meeting.

    Lali concedes that there is always scope of improvement. “In case of the Beijing Olympics, the DD crew reached the venue quite late. And, yes, the overage was criticised however an instant action was taken by the DD crew to provide better coverage at their end.”

    While the Beijing Olympics have ended for now, the public broadcaster will be holding a review meeting where it will take a close look at what went wrong so that it prepares itself for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

    “We will hold a review meeting and draw a list of lessons that we have learnt from this year‘s Olympics. There have been some issues like the packaging of programmes, selection of commentators, the style of covering the event, etc; which requires thought,” noted Lali.

    News channels made hay as India shone with single Gold

    As the medal tally of India shone with a single Gold and two Bronze, news channels made hay. In the 17-days sports extravaganza news channel both Hindi and English diverted the spotlight to Olympics coverage.

    As per Tam data, HSM, 15+ , C & S, Hindi news channels devoted 5036 minutes (8 to 24 Aug) from a marginal 382 minutes (22 July to 7 Aug) in covering sports.

    The English news channels increased its coverage of sports exponentially. From 1705 minutes (All India, 15+, C &S), coverage of sports by English news channels surged to 7060 minutes during the 17-days of Olympics.

    Sports coverage by Hindi news channels increased to 3 per cent, while it has expanded to 4 per cent from 1 per cent in the English news channel space.

    Naturally, the sports genre in Hindi news channels increased to 4 per cent (8 to 24 Aug) from 0.8 per cent (22 Jul to 7 Aug). During the period, in the English news channels space the genre expanded to 7.5 per cent (All India) from 1.8 per cent.

    As per the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), NDTV 24X7 did 112 stories, 13 special shows and as a whole devoted 738 minutes on Olympics coverage. On the contrast, DD News had 1133 minutes of Olympics stories of which 24 were special stories. CNN-IBN devoted 914 minutes (24 special stories) of Olympics coverage, NDTV 24X7 738 minutes (13 stories), Aaj Tak 627 minutes (24 special stories), Zee News 607 minutes (17 special stories), while Star News had only 507 minutes (14 special stories).

     

     

    Conclusion

    Doordarshan would have done far better had there been more planning. To say that the airing was ad hoc and haphazard was to put it mildly. Take, for instance, the swimming. Michael Phelps going for eight Gold medals and successfully doing it is something that might not be repeated for quite a while. Broadcasters including NBC in the US used this as their tentpole event everyday while the swimming was on. That created huge appointment viewing. Not DD though. Sometimes he was shown, sometimes he wasn‘t.

    Sometimes instead of this marquee event, a preliminary hockey match was shown. On another occasion, a gripping and close men‘s tennis semi-final match between Nadal and DJokovic was cut short as the broadcaster felt it fit to showcase India‘s performance at Beijing for that day. Surely this could have waited or aired on DD National.

    What was also infuriating was the inane discussions that went on in the studio while medals were being decided upon. In fact ESS who has the rights for the 2012 London Olympics should study what DD did as a lesson on how not to cover the event.

    Expecting any other sports event other than cricket to find more TV viewership loyalty is a futile exercise. However, still hoping for a bite in the ad and viewership pie of the Commonwealth Youth Games and Commonwealth games, Prasar Bharati and the Press Information Bureau are investing Rs 4.63 billion for its coverage.

    The Youth Games are commencing in Pune on 12 October and will continue till 18 October while the XIX Commonwealth Games are to be held at New Delhi from 3 to 14 October 2010.

    Prasar Bharati through Doordarshan and All India Radio is the host broadcaster of both the Games.

    Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved the release of additional funds of Rs 435 million to the Organising Committee for the conduct of the Commonwealth Youth Games, thus raising the total to Rs 1.10 billion. This is in addition to the funds made available by Government of India for City and Sports infrastructure to the funds given by the Maharashtra Government for Pune for the Commonwealth Youth Games.

    The Government had earlier approved an expenditure budget of Rs 7.67 billion as a loan to the Committee of Commonwealth Games for conduct of Commonwealth Games 2010 and Commonwealth Youth Games, out of which a budget of Rs 665 million was for the conduct of Commonwealth Youth Games.

  • Beep, Beep… Warning Signals

    Around the world, the pure form of TV news is vanishing. The ‘flag-waving‘ style of coverage by Fox News Channel in
    Iraq and Afghanistan may be an extreme case, but it goes to prove that the old format is dying in more ways than one.

    In India, Hindi news channels have shown how they can expand mass viewership with soap opera style of coverage.

    They have also taken advantage of the lack of a tabloid in the print media to tap the Hindi mass with crime, sleaze and entertainment content.

    News channels, be it Hindi or English, have eaten away audiences from general entertainment channels (GECs). The news genre has grown from a 5.3 per cent share in 2004 to 8.4 per cent in 2007, according to TV ratings agency Tam in All-India markets.

    Hindi news channels, in particular, have climbed from 5.5 per cent in 2004 to 7.4 per cent in 2007 (in HSM) while Hindi GECs have dropped from a share of 36 per cent to 33.1 per cent during this period.

    “As Hindi GECs have provided no alternative for male and young viewers, there has been some audience migration to news channels,” says BAG Films and Media Ltd managing director Anurradha Prasad.

    The TV news business, however, is getting tougher. The market is being seized by a rise in operational costs, the threat of a deepening economic slowdown, and the entry of too many players.

    The Hindi news TV space, pegged at Rs 6 billion, is getting too cluttered and would need capital to support sustaining power. The deal for 51 per cent acquisition of Hindi news channel Live India by property developer HDIL group reflects the troubled times roiling the genre.

    Hindi news channels at the bottom of the ratings heap will find it difficult to steer out of trouble as the space is more or
    less getting defined with the top six players. What could be additionally painful is the fact that the genre has seen a fall from a share of 7.4 per cent in 2007 to 7 per cent in the first half of 2008 (Tam data in HSM), despite new channel launches.

    The biggies can take comfort from the fact that personnel costs, which were continuously climbing over the last couple of years, could now be stabilising. But bringing short-term misery will be the surge in distribution costs, estimated at Rs 5 billion, as news channels jostle for space on choked analogue cable networks. The price tag for presence in prime locations could go as high as Rs 450-500 million, about 40 per cent higher than last year as newly-launched Hindi GECs are willing to pay more.

    “Personnel costs are well on track within our overall revenues,” says NDTV Group CEO Narayan Rao. “As for distribution expense, it is a pressure point for the industry as a whole.”

    Agrees Prasad: “Distribution costs are going haywire. Even DTH operators have started asking for carriage money. For
    single news channels, the game will become very difficult. The Hindi space is headed for consolidation, but we haven‘t yet reached the buyout stage.”

    The English general news channel space hasn‘t seen a flurry of new launches and is restricted to four players who are part of a bigger chain. INX Media has recently launched NewsX, targeting upscale audiences.

    The genre enjoys a share of just 0.6 per cent, according to Tam data in All-India markets. Yet, Bennett, Coleman & Co is readying to launch an English business news channel to add to its existing bouquet of Times Now and Zoom.

    TV news organisations are stepping up their expansion plans to create a full boutique. The race is on to fill up the regional pockets ahead of others. For Zee News Ltd, which will soon launch a Telugu news channel, the strategy is to launch a language GEC, wait for it to operationally break even, and then club it with a news channel. IBN18 Broadcast Ltd (earlier Global Broadcast News) has forayed into the regional space with the help of a print joint venture partner – Lokmat – for the Marathi market.

    “The capex of launching a regional language news channel would be around Rs 200 million. The operational cost would be around Rs 150 million. Typically, it would take 2-3 years to break even,” says the financial head of a leading news broadcaster.

    It is clearly a land grab situation. News broadcasters have also worked on add-on channels to amortise their costs and keep the revenues up. TV Today Network Ltd has successfully added low-cost, targeted channels like Tez to keep their profitability high. Says TV Today chief executive officer G Krishnan, “The add-on channels have helped us not only meet our bottomline target but improve our ad rates.”

    Zee News is starting a franchising model to enter into new markets, the first of which will roll out in Chattisgarh with
    local partner SB Multimedia. “We are in talks with several regional upcoming news channels to see if we can work out similar arrangements,” says Zee News chief executive officer Barun Das.

    When the market was buoyant, companies like Network18 Group and NDTV raised money to fund their expansions. BAG Films restructured at the right time to raise Rs 2.6 billion from three separate investors – Indiabulls promoter Sameer Gehlaut, Kolkata-based High Growth Distributors (P) Ltd and Fidelity.

    The market, however, is entering troubled times. Several media companies have seen their market caps cropped off in a year‘s time. TV18‘s market cap has slumped from Rs 47.84 billion on 31 July 2007 to Rs 25.62 billion on 30 July 2008, TV Today from 9.20 billion to Rs 6.20 billion, and Zee News Ltd (which houses regional GECs as well) from Rs 16.32 billion to Rs 10.70 billion. NDTV has stayed steady with a market cap of Rs 24.58 billion on 30 July 2008, up from Rs 24.57 billion a year ago.

     

    With the market toughening and the cost of money going up, news broadcasters may put on hold their growth plans.

    “Media companies will have to find alternate sources of funding including debt, rights issue and convertible instruments rather than just depend on equity. There may be some slowdown but these companies have chalked out their expansion plans to scale up their businesses,” says ICICI Securities senior vice president Ravi Sardana.

    So where is the TV news business headed? If the tabloid form of Hindi news grows, we could see a situation where news broadcasters find it economically viable to segment audiences with separate channels. A new wave of growth can also come from news channels which wear political stripes like the Shiv Sena. And why not when the print has done it successfully.

    The story first appeared in Indiantelevision.com‘s The NT Magazine. The PDF of the magazine can be accessed at http://www.ntawards.tv/y2k8/nt_mag.pdf.

     

  • Regionalism Rules

    There‘s no business like news business. Or at least that’s what it appears given the way new players are surfacing with amazing regularity. The national news market is already packed with players besides new entrants still waiting in the wings. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that regional news channels too are hopping on to the bandwagon.

    The growth in the regional news markets – specifically Maharashtra, West Bengal and the Southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh – is remarkable.

    This is why even national news broadcasters are eyeing the regional spaces. Star and Zee already have a presence in West Bengal and Maharashtra. Network18 has just joined the party in Maharashtra with IBN Lokmat.

    The regional news market, year-on-year basis, has grown 13.3 per cent in 2006 and 41.2 per cent in 2007. The first six months of 2008 have seen growth being pegged at 16.7 per cent, leading to the regional news audience share touching 2.8 – which is a doubling from 1.4 per cent in 2004.

    Moreover, ad volume is also seeing exponential growth, according to Tam Adex. It says that ad volume on regional news channels (combined Marathi, Bengali, Southern) in 2006 was 17,682 seconds.The amount virtually doubled in 2007 to touch 31,167 seconds. Even in the first five months of 2008, the ad volume was 18,843 seconds.

     

    South Rules!

    The southern broadcast news market is the most lucrative amongst Indian regional plays. Apart from the subcontinent, the channels have viewership in Sri Lanka, China, the Middle East, UK, Canada, Europe, Australia and parts of South Africa and the United States.

    Recently, the southern market has seen much activity: launches, announcements of launches, changes in political equations and an increased intensity of competition in almost every language segment –Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada or Telugu.

    The Tamil news segment for instance is just opening up following the public parting of ways between Kalanidhi Maran‘s Sun Network and his grand-uncle and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.

    As of now, Tamil Nadu has three major players: Sun News from Sun Network, Jaya Plus from the AIADMK backed Jaya TV and
    Raj News from Raj TV. The DMK backed Kalaignar TV also runs its own news bulletins. The free-to-air Mega TV, a 24-Tamil news, current affairs and entertainment channel, promoted by State Congress MP KV Thangabalu, completes the Tamil news pack.

    An interesting point to note is that the market is nascent and players are taking it easy: Raj News, for instance, has invested Rs 300 million, but has yet to start generating revenues. “Our investment is about Rs 300 million, and break even will be in three years. From next year we will start billing,” says Raj TV Network promoter Rajendran.

    The other large southern language news segment is Telugu with competition intense in Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu news leader TV9 (backed by Associated Broadcasting Corporation) appears to have ambitions to launch news channels in almost every language segment. It is followed by ETV2 – the news channel from ETV. The other big players are NTV News, TV5 News and Sun’s Gemini News.

    Even Zee News Limited is planning its own Telugu offering Zee 24-Ghantalu, following its Bangla and Marathi launches.

    TV9, meanwhile, has shown incredible growth in Karnataka, where it is much ahead of Sun’s Udaya Varthegalu and Suvarna News.

    In Kerala, Manorama News is leading the comparatively smaller market. Among other players are Asianet News, People TV and India Vision. Even the state unit of the Congress recently launched Jai Hind TV with much fanfare.

     

    Jai Maharashtra

    The Marathi news market is a little less than Rs 80 million in ad revenues with three 24-hour news channels, Star Majha, Zee 24-Taas and IBN Lokmat. ETV Marathi, Mi Marathi, and state broadcaster DD Sahyadri also produce news but they are part of what are essentially Marathi entertainment channels.

    Industry observers say that the Marathi news segment is still in the teething stage as it accounts for a measely 5 per cent of the entire Marathi advertising market (including entertainment television) estimnated at Rs 2 billion. “It is yet to get over its initial hiccups and grow to achieve its true potential,” says an observer.

    With the launch of more Marathi news channels, the category will possibly have better representation and may lead to more moolah.

    “I see a huge growth potential in the Marathi news segment,” says Zee News CEO Barun Das. “Marathi 24-hour news channels are now gaining acceptance among viewers as well as advertisers. The future of this market seems far better than what it is now.”

    Tam data suggests that Star Majha was the Marathi news leader (in terms of relative share) before the launch of Global Broadcast News’ IBN Lokmat.

    Within three months of its launch, IBN Lokmat has captured a significant market share. Star Majha and Zee 24-Taas are running neck-and-neck with IBN Lokmat not lagging far behind.

    Marathi news channels agree that content-wise the needs of local viewers are different.They cannot be fobbed off with infotainment; what they look for is hardcore news – be it regional, national or international. For informative entertainment, they have the option of tuning in to other Marathi and Hindi GECs.

    A major chunk of the news, around 70 per cent comes from the region or state, while national news share is 20 per cent. The balance 10-odd per cent is from international developments.

    Aamar Shonaar Bangla

    The Bangla news market is much bigger than its Marathi counterpart with media analysts pegging it at more than Rs 600 million. The reason lies in the common belief that the Bengali channels targeting West Bengal are also watched in neighbouring Bangladesh, making it lucrative for broadcasters.

    “The Bengalis’ appetite for news in the mother tongue is higher than that in Maharashtra. Also, Kolkata is less cosmopolitan as compared to Mumbai,” points out Das.

    Interestingly, Bengalis tend to have a penchant for news rather than general entertainment. That’s why Tara Bangla split itself into two channels – Tara Newz and Tara Muzik (a music entertainment channel).

    The other players in the arena are Star Ananda, Zee 24-Ghanta, Kolkata TV and the recently launched NE News. Star Ananda clearly is leading the pack in this market.

    Even ETV, for instance, has dedicated 20 per cent of its programming to news on the Bengali channel.

    Apart from that, state broadcaster DD7, or DD Bangla channel delivers news.

    Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS), the company that runs Star Ananda, is bullish about the future. And what about the space getting crowed?

    “In fact, I see competition helping the market to expand even further,” says MCCS CEO Ashok Venkataramani. That perhaps is the dictum across all the channel segments.

    The story first appeared in Indiantelevision.com‘s The NT Magazine. The PDF of the magazine can be accessed at http://www.ntawards.tv/y2k8/nt_mag.pdf.

  • Stress 24×7?

    On a typical day, you could see Sujay Gupta juggling three phones, hurriedly taking notes and issuing advisories to his team of reporters. The chief of Mumbai bureau’s job in a premier news channel like NDTV 24×7 is much sought after but not so for 38-year-old Gupta. One day, on a drive back home, he took a considered view and gave it all up. He ended the lease of his cosy apartment in Bandra, and took the first flight to Goa.

     

    “The nature of the news television market in India is such that there is very little scope of decreasing stress levels,” rues Gupta. “Pressures to perform are a part of newsrooms across the globe, but in India it’s different given the number of channels we have. The demand is no more on doing big or better researched stories; it’s all about breaking stories.”

     

    It is indeed

    There was a time when viewers were left with no choice but to watch national channel Doordarshan. But with Indian television going through a revolution and given the arrival of as many as 80 news channels it’s a very different story now.

     

    While there are no specific recruitment forecasts available for the sector, global staffing services firm Manpower says the media and entertainment industry has the highest employment potential in the country, with 58 per cent employers intending to hire more people in the third quarter this year.

     

    So while viewers are flooded with a variety of options when it comes to watching news on the small screen, the rise of so many channels has also given birth to greater stress in the newsrooms.

     

    Every channel is under pressure to deliver something new, that little extra which is more relevant to its viewers… a story that is perhaps the first of its kind!

     

    Says Gupta, “We have more news channels than whole of Europe put together. The trouble is that the competition is not just between offerings of the same genre. National channels compete with even regional news channels. For instance, in Mumbai, NDTV not only locks horns with CNN-IBN but also with a Marathi channel like Star Majha.”

     

    Evidently, the concept of a straightforward story doesn’t exist any more. The objective is to look at every conceivable angle and generate at least three stories from what would be just one. Plus, the pressure to break news.

     

    Veteran journalist and media educator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta puts the blame on media owners. “These days, proprietors do not want to invest in human resources. Consequently, a person is forced to multitask. The technology too ensures that a person can easily do the tasks that two or three people would do earlier. So with media owners not investing enough in experienced manpower, even though the younger lot of people are intelligent, hardworking and very talented, they do not necessarily have a good judgment of the important news. This leads to an increase in stress levels.”

     

    Some media professionals who are currently sailing in the same boat too corroborate the view that young journalists are impatient and this attitude also often leads to stress.

     

    Says CNN-IBN deputy foreign editor Suhasini Haider, “There is no single reason behind the rise in stress levels. One of the major factors is a huge increase in competition. Apart from this, people today have no personal opinion about a particular subject or topic. There are no niches. So journalists are made to do stories on a wide range of issues. Also, newsrooms these days are younger than ever. Young journalists do not prepare themselves mentally before joining. They just want to report as soon as they join.”

     

    IBN7 executive editor Sanjeev Paliwal believes that the stress is caused by the demands of the job. “We are living in a very competitive and challenging environment and the entire country relies on us to bring news to them in an accurate and timely manner. With expectations soaring, it is obvious that pressure in a newsroom is bound to be high. New channels ask for newer ways of gathering market intelligence being devised. This is good for the industry but is also leading to a lot of extra pressure.”

     

    What’s more, this greater stress has also at times directed to loss of life. Senior journalists Appan Menon and S P Singh, who were stars in the early days of non-Doordarshan-run news programming, lost their lives at an early age. And one of the reasons cited was mounting newsroom pressure.

     

    Thakurta, 52, feels that though stress is escalating it also depends on individuals and their way of dealing with stress. “Late S P Singh and Appan Menon were brilliant journalists. Yes, it is true that they died at a young age. Both of them worked at a time when Indian news television industry was at a nascent stage and I presume that both of them faced stress. I too suffered a heart attack last year. Having said this I would like to emphasise that though stress is prevalent in this industry, it’s also a state of mind. And it depends on individuals on how they cope with stress.”

     

    But there are many in the profession who feel that media is all about stress, and those who do not have the capacity to endure the pressure, should not enter the profession. “I do not agree that stress is increasing,” says Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. “In fact it is wrong to use the word stress,’’ he adds. Television newsrooms, says Goswami, are now “buzzing with excitement”. “A newsroom does not operate like a bank… it’s more animated. There is more action, a zeal to do something exciting. Therefore, people who cannot face the heat should not enter the kitchen.”

     

    According to NewsX newsroom head Arup Ghosh, stress is not a new entrant to the newsroom, “I don’t think that stress is something new for journalists; it was always there. The longer hours of work also impacts personal life. One reason for this is increase in competition because of presence of so many channels. Another fact leading to rise is stress is dearth of talent. The established and the experienced management is under pressure to nurture fresh talent; at the same time retaining talent is also stressful because the moment the young talent pool that comes in learns the technique, the tendency to switch jobs increases.”

     

    Just chill!

    Some medical practitioners feel that its about time that news channels take the responsibility towards providing an opportunity to destress. Dr Sanjay Pattanayak, a psychiatrist at Delhi’s Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Vimhans), says work and peer pressure are the two basic reasons for stress levels going north. “Journalists now have less time to relax. Thus, it is important for them to have a good social support, good diet and exercise regularly to unwind.”

     

    Leading psychiatrist Dr Sanjay Chug explains, “These days’ news channels give greater focus on TRPs than the actual job. Also this has led to much competition which in turn has erased the concept of fixed working hours. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that, the nature of the work in journalism is stressful enough and all these factors have added to increase in stress.”

     

    And what is the solution to beat stress? Says Dr Chug, “Ideally, there’s need for a change in the work culture of our channels, but since that is a long-term task, there are smaller steps that can be taken to cut down pressures and prevent breakdowns.”

     

    He advises the mandatory and routine drug tests for all, mandatory and routine psychological assessments covering anxiety like depression levels, suicide risk assessment, adjustment problems. “It would also help if a counseling cell is provided to employees. Also, news channels can have 10 minutes of destressing every few hours which can be applicable uniformly to the entire workforce wherein people can do on-desk exercises, power naps, guided relaxations etc.”

     

    Even as there are conflicting views from practitioners on stress levels in the profession, many newsroom HR heads seem to be aware of the problems on hand. Says India Today group corporate head – human resource Geetanjali Pandit Gupta, “In this business, the performance is reviewed daily. Hence it increases stress levels. Destressing has to begin with correct manning and solving the external factors.”

     

    At some organisations, the first step has already been taken towards ensuring employees have few reasons to complain.

     

    Network 18 Group head – HR Rajneesh Singh elucidates, “At Network18, we understand the pressures. So at the basic level, we provide our employees with facilities like cr?che, shuttle service, cabs and 24-hour availability of food, water and security. At the next level, we have a gym and offer facilities for games so that employees can unwind. We also organise workshops, celebrate birthdays, have monthly parties and off-sites that gives everyone a chance to enjoy together, have fun and relax.”

     

    But INX media head – human resources Dhruva Sen believes that parties or get togethers need not be the right prescription for bringing down stress levels. “They only divert attention for a bit.” So what’s his solution? “Possibly establish a recreation room where people can enter and read or sit simply loosen up.”

     

    The onus of destressing employees, India Today’s Gupta hastens to add, should not fall only on the HR of a company as employees are aware of what they are getting into. “There is only one way of getting rid of stress. And that is to provide employees enough resources to do their work,” she says.

     

    Thakurta says tensions are an inherent part of any news channel as one can never know what is going to happen next. Also the fact that media owners do not wish to invest in experienced people leads to increase in stress as young people might be intelligent, hardworking and talented but they are not better judge of importance of news. Experienced people know which piece of news is more important to cover. This has further lead to dilution of standards including ethical standards.”

     

    And while some in this profession have learnt to cope with stress, there are others like Gupta who have succumbed to the mounting pressure and have either left or are continuing with much difficulty. Gupta chose to opt out, and is chronicling the Scarlett Keeling saga for a leading London daily, advising a corporate group on starting a local channel and an assorted number of things to achieve nirvana. “It’s important to enjoy what you are doing,” he says while revealing plans to promote the Goan feni. Nirvana, surely.

    The story first appeared in Indiantelevision.com‘s The NT Magazine. The PDF of the magazine can be accessed at http://www.ntawards.tv/y2k8/nt_mag.pdf.