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  • A Celebration of Inspiring Women

    A Celebration of Inspiring Women

    As we celebrate Women’s Day on Saturday, 8 March, Indiantelevision.com pays tribute to women who’ve broken the glass ceiling in Indian media even as they’ve managed to strike the right work-life balance.

    We recognise the achievements of these amazing, inspiring women from the world of media and entertainment in celebration of their invaluable contribution to the businesses they are in. 

    Anita Kaul Basu, Director, Big Synergy

    Anita Kaul Basu, the backbone of Big Synergy, has had a fairly different story compared to most of her contemporaries. She didn’t set her foot straight in the TV industry. She explored other areas like journalism before joining her quiz master husband’s TV production venture.

    However, she gave the company her own spin. As a director at Big Synergy, she is at the helm of taking all decisions along with hubby Siddhartha Basu. Her creative thought process helps her in coming up with great ideas. Combine that with her humble persona, wittiness, gutsy approach and you get a powerful woman who has been a gamechanger of sorts for the TV industry. Under her leadership, Big Synergy has scaled newer heights.

    Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India and South Asia

    The woman under whose leadership Havas Media Group (India) has grown six-fold in five years is Anita Nayyar. Armed with over 25 years of experience, she took charge of the agency in 2006 as CEO and made expanding the agency’s footprint in competitive emerging markets of the world her sole mandate. Since then, she has helped expand the agency’s offerings as an integrated communications hub. Arena was launched in India in 2013 under her guidance.

    She has a B.Sc in Microbiology (Honours), a post-graduate degree in Advertising and Marketing and a Masters in Management. She learnt the nuances of scientific media planning, management and marketing from none other than the first lady of advertising, Roda Mehta, at Ogilvy. That training during her formative years has helped her a great deal even as she scaled greater heights over the years.

    Nayyar is a seasoned player in the Indian media, having grown with it and become an integral part of its evolution. She has been voted and awarded numerous times and has remained among the top influential media persons. An inspiring, able, knowledgeable, supportive and responsive leader; she is viewed as dynamic, passionate, forthright and accessible by all in the fraternity.

    Annurradha Prasad, BAG films MD and CEO

    In 1993 when Ravi Shankar Prasad’s sister decided to venture into TV production, no one would have believed that a woman could achieve so much. But she was undaunted by the challenges when she started BAG (Bhagwaan Allah God).

    Balancing her personal and professional life, she has made sure that BAG Films & Media becomes has become a tour de force  in TV content production, TV broadcasting as well as film production.

    Nearly 15 years in the industry, she has received several awards including an Indian Telly Award and the FICCI Women’s Excellence Award.

    Her zeal and enthusiasm to make a difference and make a mark for herself is what established her rock solid career. 

    Anupama Mandloi, Head of Content, FremantleMedia India

    Her career spans a score years. And today Anumpama Mandloi is a name to reckon with even as the company – Fremantle Media India – she heads creatively churns out one successful reality show after another.  But the short haired Mandloi’s first tryst with TV was as a director and editorial coordinator with the Amit Khanna, Dilip Piramal, Mahesh Bhatt promoted Plus Channel in 1994.  And it has traversed channels such as  Sony Entertainment Television, Sab TV, and even the current entertainment space leader Star Plus.

    A large part of the success of Fremantle in India can be credited to her. The global production major had attempted to set up shop at least once in the previous decade but had to fold up when it could not get a buy-in from Indian broadcasters. However, under her leadership, FremantleMedia India has grown leaps and bounds in a little more  than four years, when it made another effort to break-in to India. Industry veterans swear by Mandloi’s attributes as a professional, her keen eye for detail, and the innovation that she brings to the table. 

    Arpita Menon – Executive Vice President & Head Media Planning & Buying at Star TV

    Arpita has more than 20 years of experience in the media and advertising world. She has worked across planning, media buying, research and client management.

    Arpita started her career with FCB Ulka as media supervisor. After spending four years with the agency, she joined Starcom in 1997 as media director. She also worked with 9:9 Media as VP and with ABP as head, business intelligence cell and strategic (group) sales for about a year.

    She had a successful stint with Lodestar Universal as VP for six years. Before joining Star, Arpita was managing partner at Quantemplate, a media analytics company.

    She is passionate about training and has conducted programs for various media organisations. She taught at MICA, NMIMS and XIC and has also authored a book ‘Media Planning & Buying’, which was published by Tata McGraw. She is a statistics graduate and has an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

    Barkha Dutt, NDTV group editor

    She is what most young, aspiring journalists aspire to be. Indeed, Barkha Dutt’s coverage of the Kargil war shot her to prominence and kept her high among the names of not just women but the entire journalist fraternity.

    Born to parents who were journalists, Dutt studied at Delhi’s Jamia Milia University and later, at Columbia University. A recipient of the Padma Shri Award, Dutt has also been a prominent name involved in the Nira Radia case that got her much criticism from the media as well as citizens.

    However, she continues to be one of the leading journalists of the country and a vociferous personality on TV. Her association with NDTV since the beginning of her career has made her a prominent face of the channel and one of the leading anchors as well.

    Deepika Warrier, Vice President (Po1 Marketing), PepsiCo India

    ‘Quieter than most marketing heads but very focused,’ is how the industry knows Deepika Warrier. An honours graduate from Lady Shri Ram College and a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Warrier has been with PepsiCo for 14 years.

    She joined the company in 2000 as marketing GM working on their brand ‘Lays’, after stints in Britannia, Gillette, and Ogilvy and Mather. In her years with the cola giant, she worked across divisions, which includes a stint in Mexico from 2005 to 2007 and as category marketing director for the youth/fun and snacks portfolio on brands like Doritos and Cheetos.

    With the maximum number of brands – 22 to be precise – under her leadership, Warrier’s task is a challenging one. Yet, the PepsiCo vice-president, beverages and foods, is always in control. She has driven successful equity, activation and innovation programmes to make PepsiCo’s beverage brands even stronger. For instance, the iconic ‘Change the Game’ campaign for brand Pepsi, acquiring sponsorship rights, and powerfully activating the ‘Pepsi IPL’ among others.

    Ekta Kapoor, Joint Managing Director and Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms

    She is legend for the TV industry.

    In the mid-90s, a dreamy 17-year-old embarked on a journey to make it big in the world of television which was still evolving. Though she came from a film family, Ekta Kapoor fought her own battles and charted her own success path. Her first stake: a comedy series titled Hum Paanch which was a humorous take on middle class life of the 90s.

    Ever since, there has been no looking back for the then teenager for whom the title “queen of soap operas” was coined within a few years as the famous ‘K-serials’ started becoming household names. With her banner, Balaji Telefilms, Kapoor made shows that kept the Indian women glued to their TV screens. The successful run of her serials year-after-year (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kasauti Zindagi Kay…) took Kapoor to newer heights. Her story is the stuff of dreams for many in the industry.

    Gayatri Yadav – EVP Marketing & Communications, Star India

    With more than 21 years of experience in marketing across consumer products and media, Yadav has proved to be a leader in her space. Yadav leads the channel marketing, media planning and buying, presentation, network brand strategy, consumer insights, affiliate marketing and events for Star.

     

    Gayatri joined the Star network in April 2011 and is responsible for steering the marketing and communication agenda for India’s most widespread media network touching 600 million viewers every week. She began her career as a brand manager with Procter and Gamble India for four years. Thereafter, she worked as a Marketing Director at General Mills for 14 long years where she was responsible for launching Pillsbury Atta and building and developing a portfolio of brands.

    She has a strong marketing functional experience across brand building, communication development, strategy planning, market research/consumer insight, new product development and launch support, and trade marketing/sales support.

    Jagi Mangat Panda, co-founder and managing director, Ortel Communications

    The adage ‘Beauty with brains’ fits Jagi Mangat Panda, co-founder and managing director of Ortel Communications. Panda, with her more than 15 years of experience in the media and broadcasting industry, was awarded and recognised as ‘Young Global Leader’ at the World Economic Forum in 2008.

    A bachelor’s degree holder in Biology and Chemistry from Osmania University, Hyderabad, Panda also has a master’s degree in business administration from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

    Panda, the first Gladrags supermodel, always wanted to be independent and it was this need which turned her into an entrepreneur. While she started Ortel Communications with three people in the company, it has now grown for over 15 years and has a professional team that runs the company that’s growing at more than 30 per cent. Despite her varied and vibrant career graph, Panda has not yet stopped exploring. After completing a filmmaking course from the New York Film Academy, Panda is now exploring the opportunity of even directing a movie. 

    Juhi Ravindranath, Turner International South Asia VP ad sales

    Juhi Ravindranath is based in Mumbai and spearheads South Asia’s ad sales operations for Cartoon Network, Pogo, HBO and WB. In South Asia, she is responsible for driving ad revenues for existing brands and strategising and setting up ad sales for new launches in the market. This includes digital revenues from the channel sites as well. She has played a pivotal role in setting up Turner Media Solutions locally in 2011, a division responsible for delivering innovative ad sales solutions to Turner’s clients.

    Prior to joining Turner in 2010, Juhi was responsible for setting up and heading the ad sales division at NDTV Imagine since its launch in 2008. She then also took over the ancillary revenue division, including national and international content syndication. Juhi began her broadcast career with Star India, where she spent a crucial 10 years. Her last role there was heading ad sales for Star Plus and Star One.

    A post-graduate in Mass Communication, Juhi is married and has a 17-year-old son. She is a film buff and an avid consumer of English entertainment and music.

    Kavery Maran, Sun TV Network executive director

    In 2012, Fortune listed her as the country’s highest paid businesswoman. With Rs 57 crore as her annual pay package, Kavery Maran has handled the dominant Sun Empire’s business across TV, radio, publications, cable, airlines and mainly the Sun Foundation.

    Married to Kalanidhi Maran, Kavery is known to have a liking for cricket and is always seen at the stands when the Sunrisers Hyderabad (owned by the Sun group) team is playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), sporting the team jersey.

    Although not much is known about her, sources in the industry who have worked with her say that she is dedicated to work and is known to give a lift to young talent. While Maran is a visionary, Kavery is quite an inspiration to the people in the Sun Group.

    Meenakshi Menon, chairman, Spatial Access

    “Accelerating change was part of my DNA,” says Meenakshi Menon. Don’t get fooled by the demure, sari-clad persona; she can give any man a run for his money. From being a pioneer in private broadcasting (she was with Zee at the time of its launch), to setting up Carat – the first media independent in India, to setting up Spatial Audits – the first media audits and analytics company, Menon has not only embraced change but served as a catalyst in all the areas she has been involved in ranging from communication to environmental conservation.

    Her commitment goes beyond business to embrace the environment. She set up a NGO (www.vanashakti.in) in 2007 and in 2013, along with yet another powerful woman in media, Lynn De Souza, launched Social Access Communication, a full service agency that works with NGOs and corporate entities to drive social change.

    It is her endeavour to get marketers to invest marketing dollars and not just spend them. The change from expenditure to investment will cut wastage dramatically while increasing accountability to stakeholders.

    Besides being on the Board of Studies at St. Xavier’s college, Mumbai, and teaching at some premier post graduate colleges across the country, she is also a gourmet cook, an organic farmer and an experienced scuba diver. Her work may define her but her passion for scuba diving and the environment completes the picture.

    Mona Jain – EVP – cluster head, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited

    The soft-spoken Mona Jain is a leader in her field. After her stint as CEO of Vivaki Exchange for more than three years, it came as a pleasant surprise to many when she made her way out and joined Zee as EVP-cluster head. In total, Jain has spent over eight years at Vivaki.

    Jain, who has more than two decades of experience in marketing communication, began her career as a media trainee with Hindustan Thompson Associates (now JWT) in Delhi.  Jain proved her might when she took up her first big assignment – the launch of Pepsi in the country. Post that, she has been associated with Samsung and was also a part of the launch of Samsung in India in 1995.

    For Jain, it was a huge learning experience when she got an opportunity to set up the in-house media unit for Samsung under the umbrella of their creative agency, Cheil Communications. She also did a short stint ‘at the client’s end’ – as agency folk call it, with GSK, where she worked as general manager, media. Over the years, Jain has worked with agencies including Contract Advertising, Mudra Communications, ZenithOptimedia and Cheil. Brands that Jain has worked on through the course of her career include PepsiCo, Horlicks, McDonald’s, Whirlpool, Frito-Lay, Hyundai, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Nokia, Nestle and Samsung, among others.

    Monica Tata, HBO South Asia MD

    With over 23 years of experience behind her, Monica brings expertise in management of television networks operations in the media and entertainment industry.

    She has worked as part of the leadership team at Turner and has had a consistent record of increasing sales, effective negotiations, profit and loss analysis and strategic implementation of business operations. Her performance with Star India and Turner stand testimony to Monica’s path of excellence. 

    An ability to overcome obstacles and capture opportunities by closing exclusive deals and creating and implementing savvy marketing strategies has been her forte. Monica’s efforts have been validated in the past, when she was recognised as the ‘Next 30’ most powerful women to look out for in 2010; and adjudged as one of India’s hottest young executives of the media industry in 2009 by Business Today as also among the top 50 influential women in media, marketing and advertising by a leading industry magazine – IMPACT in 2012.

    Myleeta Aga Williams, SVP and General Manager India and Content Head for Asia, BBC Worldwide

    Myleeta Aga, BBC Worldwide’s SVP and General Manager India and Content Head for Asia, has a success story of her own. An international television executive with extensive experience in broadcasting, production and new media, the industry recognizes her as a highly creative and effective producer and a hardcore businesswoman. She is also known for being an excellent manager and mentor – creative and innovative at the same time.

    In her career spanning more than 21 years, Myleeta has worked with different organizations in different capacities leaving an indelible mark with almost all of them. She started as a vice-president production in 1993 with UTV and moved on to become the VP of UTV International.

    After a two-year stint, she joined Discovery Communications and later, Travel Channel, where she was the executive producer of Emmy Award winning series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Riding on her success, Myleeta also co-founded the channel What’s On India where she was involved with the start up of the channel and content side for India’s first EPG company.

    Nina Elavia Jaipuria, EVP and Business Head, Kids Cluster, Viacom 18

    Surviving in an industry where everyone is ready to bog down the other is not child’s play. But Nina Elavia Jaipuria makes it look like that.

    As the EVP and business head kids cluster Viacom 18, Jaipuria has been at the helm of planning and executing the content of all channels in the kids cluster in the last eight years with Viacom 18. According to her, the kids’ segment has huge potential to grow and that is why she has taken up risks for the segment to grow. She has always believed that it’s important to feel the pulse of the kids to develop the segment and thus, she, along with her team, has always tried to get content that Indian kids connect with.

    However, it is not just kids’ content that Jaipuria excels at. Prior to this, she had a three-year successful stint with Sony Entertainment Television, where she was involved in launching properties such as Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul and Fear Factor. Earlier, she has even worked with companies such as BPL Telecom, Colgate and Lintas.

    Punitha Arumugan, Director – Agency Business, Google India

    Punitha Arumugam is more than a known name in the industry.

    She has received several accolades and recognitions, least of which is being ranked among the top influential media persons many times over. Currently, vice president of Agency and Advertiser Relations at Google, Arumugam joined the search engine giant in 2012. The news did come as a shock to many when Arumugam decided to move out of Madison Media Group after working with the agency for 13 years.

    She joined Madison in January 1999 as media services director and then served as Chief Operating Officer from 2001, leaving it as Chief Executive Officer in 2012. Arumugam has close to 25 years of experience in all facets of media – strategy, planning, buying, research and operations and has seen Madison Media grow from a two-client agency, when she joined in 2000, to around 50 clients.

    She began her career with O&M Media in Chennai in 1990. She has worked with agencies across markets like Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. Her experience spans a wide range of products including FMCGs, durables and financial services. She was voted the fourth most influential person in the Indian Media Industry in 2005.

    Ritu Dhawan, India TV MD and CEO

    She isn’t the most boisterous of media professionals but people who have worked with Ritu Dhawan surely attribute one quality to her- clarity of thought.

    The ten years in which India TV has positioned itself as one of the front-runners in the Hindi news channels have Dhawan’s perfectionist attitude to thank. Even the recent change in India TV’s image was helmed by Dhawan along with husband and India TV editor-in-chief, Rajat Sharma. Her co-professionals know her as someone who is very respectful towards others and approachable.

    In 2009, Dhawan assumed double responsibilities; that of being the CEO apart from the existing MD position. This only renewed her optimism at work. Although she had opined once that she would like to start an entertainment channel, going by her character, it would only be based on strong business logic. She has been awarded ‘Entrepreneur in the TV business’ by The Indian Television Academy Awards.

    Sagarika Ghose, CNN IBN Deputy Editor

    Think CNN-IBN and two names instantly come to mind – Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose. Having spent time in both print and broadcast journalism, Ghose has now made a mark as one of India’s staunch journalists on TV.

    After graduating from St Stephen’s College in New Delhi, she left for UK, armed with a scholarship. Working her way up through the Times of India, Indian Express and Outlook, she was also one of the anchors of the BBC World show ‘Question Time India’.

    Known for her colourful sarees as well as heated discussions, Ghose also made waves when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of her show on being questioned too much, making it a popular show in 2012. Ghose has also had her share of controversies and accusations of favouring the right wing. But it doesn’t stop her from being a name that will be remembered.

    Shereen Bhan, CNBC TV18 managing editor

    Business journalism is all about money and seriousness but when she appears on television screens she’s also beauty personified. Shereen Bhan started her career as a producer in UTV under Karan Thapar for shows such as the BBC’s ‘HardTalk India’ and ‘We the People for Star’.

    After 15 years as a journalist, she is now the managing editor of CNBC TV18.

    She’s interviewed some of the top personalities including Benazir Bhutto, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Narayana Murthy.

    Bhan has spent long hours in office, sacrificing her social life to achieve what she wanted. The icing on the cake was when in 2008, Vogue featured her as one of the 50 beautiful women in the world and then in 2009, the World Economic Forum named her as one of the young global leaders.

    Sneha Rajani, deputy president and head, Multi Screen Media Motion Pictures

    From starting as an accountant in the late 80s to becoming the deputy president and head at MSM Motion Pictures, Sneha Rajani, has come a long way.

    Having held senior management positions at various leading channels of the country, the lady has carved her own success path. Industry veterans praise her managerial and negotiation skills. Her in-depth knowledge about the TV business is another aspect that makes her a strong professional.

    With the MSM Network for almost 15 years, Rajani has had a successful stint with Star India and Asia Television Network (ATN). Some of her smaller stints, earlier on in her career include Chief Executive – Programming with Sri Adhikari Brothers and head of programming with TV Asia London, U.K.

    Sunita Uchil, Global Head, Syndication at Zee Entertainment Enterprises

    Known for her chirpy and pleasing personality, Sunita Uchil has been associated with the Zee group for more than eight years. She is currently the global head of syndication always looking out for better content to create a better bond between viewers and the network.

    Prior to joining Zee, she was National Sales Director at Adlabs Films Ltd – BIG FM for almost two years. Prior to joining Big FM, Sunita was with The Times of India. She has also worked with Hum FM, UAE, as director, sales.

    In her long association with the industry, Sunita has dabbled in languages such as Arabic, Hindi and Malayalam.

    Supriya Sahu, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

    Whatever ministry of information and broadcasting joint secretay Supriya Sahu chooses to do, she does with oodles of commitment and passion. Whether it is spreading the gospel of community radio – which is her pet subject – or the government mandated cable TV digitisation rollout, she puts her heart and soul into it. The 1991  Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer has earned kudos for her efforts.

    Prior to this she was  director – broadcasting in the MIB, and was directly involved with drawing up of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill and the Content Code for TV channels.

    The lady has a strong eco and social conscience. In her earlier posting as the collector, Nilgiris district, she was the force behind the ‘Say no to plastics’ campaign to protect the ecosystem of the hill town of Ooty. And her efforts to  implement Operation Blue Mountain in the Nilgiris helped cleanse the hilly area of the plastic menace. Before that, she was additional collector of Vellore district and project director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS).

     

    Tista Sen, NCD & senior vice president, JWT

    Ranked the 20th most creative person in Asia, Tista Sen, has come a long way since she started her career with Whitelight, where she learnt a whole lot about shooting advertising commercials and why film people hate agency types. After assisting on over 60 commercials, she served as a writer in Lowe Lintas, where she worked on Johnson and Johnson, Unilever, and then at Ogilvy, followed by a second innings at Lintas. Same clients, same brands, but different advertising… then a move to JWT.

    Currently, National Creative Director and senior VP, she has contributed to making the Mumbai office the most creative branch in the JWT network in Asia. For her, anything and everything that touches a human chord is insightful and relevant. From taking home numerous awards, she has been part of various juries at events across the globe.

    Sen is a student of English Literature and life. Her split personality includes creative director and harrowed mom. She enjoys creative challenges as much as helping with her kids’ homework. “If I didn’t love what I do, I’d be miserable and it would show in my work,” she says.

    Vandana Das, President, DDB Mudra Group Delhi

    After more than 17 years with Ogilvy, Vandana Das joined the DDB Mudra Group (Delhi) as president in 2012. She will soon complete two years with the group that boasts a clientele like Wrigley, Bata, Marico, Yamaha and Dabur, among others.

    Das now works closely with different units, but all was not well when she joined. The agency saw a lot of exits after it re-structured itself. However, the group’s and management’s faith in her capabilities helped the agency work like well-oiled machinery. For Das, the mantra is to follow the spirit of integration. She believes that the group offerings and its close functioning network of operations gives her a great opportunity to work jointly with so many bright people across units to fight challenges and work out solutions to problems.

    Her key challenge is to keep Delhi buzzing with the name DDB Mudra Group. And in her free time, the mother of one teaches poor children living around her area. She also loves cooking, watching movies and travelling.

    Vasudha Misra, sr. Creative Director, Draftfcb+Ulka Advertising

    Vasudha Misra started her career in social communication as a proud Welham-ite, armed with a degree in Mass Communication.

    However, realising that she was more suited to selling soap than starting a movement for popularising vasectomy as a population-control initiative, she switched over to the more capitalist branch of communication.

    In over a decade, she has created a lot of well-received work, a few iconic campaigns, and even an occasional turkey. Over the years, some of the brands she has worked on include Naukri.com, jeevansathi.com, 99acres, John Players and KFC. She is currently responsible for creating one of the most maverick telecom brands in the country, Tata DoCoMo.

    Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia

    “There is no fun in doing the doable,” is Vinita Bali’s motto. The managing director of Britannia is an economics graduate from Lady Shri Ram College and a MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, who joined the company in 2005 as the CEO.

    The petite executive opted to come back to India after an international stint with Coca Cola in Atlanta, USA.

    Bali, like many of her friends, had always wanted to join the foreign services after graduating but destiny had other plans. And so, she started her career with Voltas, a Tata Group company, focusing on consumer products, where she launched the then extremely popular Rasna soft drink concentrate. In 1980, Bali joined Cadbury India, where she had a successful run with roles of increasing responsibility, not just in India, but also in the UK, Nigeria and South Africa. She served on the Cadbury boards in Nigeria and South Africa.

    Under Bali’s nine-year watch, Britannia strived to live up to its corporate slogan, “Eat Healthy. Think Better” while the revenue tripled. In 2009, she founded the Britannia Nutrition Foundation, which combats malnutrition by distribution of fortified biscuits to kids in Indian schools. Bali was awarded ‘Business Woman of the Year’ at the 2009 Economic Times Awards. She won a Corporate Social Responsibility Award for her work with the foundation. In 2011, she was named on Forbes’ list of ‘Asia’s 50 Power(ful) Businesswomen’. 

  • 14 years of Indiantelevision: What industry has to say

    14 years of Indiantelevision: What industry has to say

    MUMBAI: This day fourteen years ago, the idea of Indiantelevision.com was born. It became the one-stop information resource for the blossoming television industry and also for its surrounding ecosystem.

    Indiantelevision.com has witnessed the evolution of the television entertainment business in India and it growing into a Rs 17,000 crore industry today.

    Indiantelevison.com chronicled the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s Star in 2000 with the grand success of Amitabh Bachchan-hosted ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ and the emergence of dominance of Ekta Kapoor shows in 2003, to the game-changing events of 2013 – digitisation in the top 42 cities, 12-minute per hour cap on advertisements, and the setting up of Broadcast Audience Research Council, a joint initiative of all the stakeholders for their own television ratings service.

    Before we entered our fourteenth year, the Indiantelevision.com website was re-launched, giving it a new look to be in tune with the prevailing times.

    Innovation has been the only constant at Indiantelevision.com and it will continue to be.

    On our 14th anniversary, this is what the industry leaders have to say about the journey of Indiantelevision.com so far…

    Life OK, general manager, Ajit Thakur 

    It has been an incredible 14 years for the television industry. Indiantelevision.com is a great place for people like us to stay up-to-date on what is happening. A few things that come to my mind when it comes to Indiantelevision.com are that it is driven by Mr. Anil Wanvari who is one of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the industry on television. Also, the website stays abreast with any news in the industry and you can rely on Indiantelevision.com to report it. Most importantly, the journalists are very insightful and they know what is happening 24*7. 

    Everest Brand Solutions, president, Dhunji S Wadia

    Indiantelevision.com is the most comprehensive and speedy information site, especially the MAM section which is most relevant for our industry.  No other site covers the all aspects in this detail.

     

    Hathway Cable & Datacom, chief executive officer, Jagdish Kumar

    Indian Television Dot Com is an integral part of the television growth story in India. The first thing that every professional in this sector does is log on to the Indiantelevision.com’s website to get the update on what is happening in the industry. I wish that the website continues with the good work.

    Indian Film and Television Producers Council, co-chairman JD Majethia

    Indiantelevision.com is a pioneer. I wish great success to the entire team. It’s a good source, where people can get day-to-day updates and we are incomplete without Indiantelevision.com. The team working there is doing a fabulous job.

    NBA president and NDTV executive vice chairperson K V L Narayan Rao

    Indiantelevision.com is a very good site. It has grown at the same pace as the industry has. It has done a great service to keep the industry updated and has been a reasonably important voice from the point of view of influencing people.

    BARC, chief executive officer, Partho Dasgupta

    Congratulations to Anil and the whole team for this landmark achievement. I enjoy the level of detail that goes into every story. There is aggression in the team to get the stories. The website has been really helpful for the entire ecosystem.

    Provocateur Advisory, principal, Paritosh Joshi

    For a lot of communications industry professionals, Indiantelevision.com has been a daily port of call for as long they can remember. Whether it is staying abreast with the latest news particularly that which impinges on the sector or understanding the views of well-regarded opinion leaders, the site provides a quick digest of critical information. Novices to the industry find an endless mine of learning while thoroughbreds too take away fresh inspiration. Indiantelevision.com has led innovation in trade journalism focused on the communications industry and spawned several copycats too. But then imitation is flattery so that can’t be bad!

    Dish TV, CEO, R C Venkateish

    Indiantelevision was the first such portal that gave information on major industry developments. Over the years it has evolved to be a definite destination for people who want to keep up with all the goings on in the industry and also a valuable source of information and opinion on a lot of things. It is fast off the block in terms of being able to provide latest and quick developments. Wish you all the best for years to come.

    Colors, CEO, Raj Nayak

    Indiantelevision.com started in front of me. I remember the days when Anil used to report and write the copies himself. He has come a long way from where he started. It is a story to be told.

    IBF, secretary general, Shailesh Shah

    I have dealt with Anil Wanvari and five other journalists working at indiantelevision.com.  Their enthusiasm and energy are invigorating.  Their youthful brazenness gives the team the right to call themselves a “free-speech-user” of the fourth estate.  I think the time has come to become a mature participant in the industry, showing responsibility without losing the enthusiasm, energy and youthful brazenness.

    Madison World, chairman and MD, Sam Balsara

    Over the years Indiantelevision.com has played a very useful role in the lives of advertising and marketing community. I wish the team all the very best for the next 140 years!

    DEN Networks CEO, SN Sharma

    I congratulate indiantelevision.com family on successful completion of 14 years of service. Indiantelevision.com has been one of the oldest and a one of a kind source for disseminating information and promoting the cause of the media and broadcasting industry. I am sure that you will carry on with the good work and wish you all the best for your future endeavors.

    AXN Networks India, business head, Sunil Punjabi

     

    Indiantelevision is my everyday destination for the most precise, relevant and trustworthy media and entertainment news. My best wishes to them for celebrating success and credibility for the last 14 years and many more to come.

    Sony Pix, EVP and business head Saurabh Yagnik

     

    Congratulations to Indiantelevision on completing 14 years of impactful reporting. The team believes in delivering resonating stories which aptly represents the television industry. Each story dwells on the topic long enough to provide wholesome and holistic information on that particular topic. I wish them the very best and hope they continue with the wonderful work they are doing. Indiantelevision.com gives a good insight in to the Indian TV industry. Also, the way the company explored in other areas is also a very commendable thing. Wish you guys all the best. May you scale greater heights…

     

    (There is no harm in self-flattering, once in a while, Thank you for the support)

  • FICCI FRAMES 2014’s theme is “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives”

    FICCI FRAMES 2014’s theme is “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives”

    MUMBAI: FICCI FRAMES 2014 (March 12 -14, 2014, Mumbai) will be a landmark event marking the 15th chapter of the convention which has always been an unparalleled platform for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between individuals, countries, conglomerates.

    As in previous years, the world’s media & entertainment industry will be in full attendance at FRAMES 2014 with nearly 2000 Indian and 600 foreign delegates, encompassing the entire sector. FRAMES 2014 will have plenary and parallel sessions on a broad spectrum of issues covering the entire gamut of media & entertainment like Films, Broadcast (TV & Radio), Digital Entertainment, Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, etc. over a period of three days.

    The theme of FRAMES 2014 will be “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives” with the aim being highlighting the role of media and entertainment as a vehicle for social change.

    The convention will discuss reforms and regulatory endeavours along with working on ideas on socially meaningful and quality content. The inaugural keynote will be by FCC Commissioner, Mr Ajit Pai who will touch upon content in the regulatory landscape in the US. Mr Raghav Bahl, Controlling Shareholder and Managing Director of the TV 18 Group will make the theme keynote address on Media and Entertainment as  a Vehicle for Social and Economic Change. Mr. Aroon Purie , Chairman India Today Group,  to give a Keynote on The Print Industry: Surviving All Odds in the digital era . Justin Osofsky, VP – Media Partnerships, Facebook will talk on Establishing Social Networks as the Primary Online Forum for Public Conversations .

    Apart from the core theme, FRAMES 2014 will focus on the key avenues for monetising the sector such as Talking Numbers: Hard Facts about M &E’s Economic Contribution; TV 3.1: Content, Strategies and the Future of Broadcast; De-bottlenecking the Regulatory Hurdles, The Changing Dynamics of the Film Exhibition Landscape.

     Stakeholders and thought leaders such as Uday Shankar , CEO , Star India Pvt. Ltd & Chairman FICCI Entertainment committee , Mr. Karan Johar , Chairman , FICCI FRAMES , Mr. Punit Goenka , MD& CEO , Zee entertainment Enterprises Ltd. , Mr. Sudhanshu Vats , Group CEO Viacom 18 Pvt. Ltd. , Mathieu Bejot Executive Director , TV France International , Roger Fisk, Presidential PR Guru from President Obama’s electoral campaign; Jim Egan, CEO, BBC Global News, Andrew Lack, Chairman, the Bloomberg Group; Bill Livek , CEO Rentrak ,  Kim Dalton, Chairman, Asian Animation Summit; Hiromichi Masuda, Vice Chairman Business Committee, The Association of Japanese Animations,Todd Miller, the CEO of Celestial Tiger Entertainment (A Lionsgate joint venture) and former head of Sony Pictures Television, are slated to speak at FRAMES 2014.

    FRAMES  2014 has been planned with a some off-the-cuff sessions to broaden the conventional boundaries of the summit. Sessions such as “Internet & Democracy: Interloper or Catalyst? ” ., “The Film that Changed My Life”; The Indian Electronic News Media: On Fine Balance?” promise to be intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking.

    A discussion specific to attracting the influx of private equity for the sector has been planned and film funding is a subject which will be deliberated upon. A Producers’ Masterclass wherein acclaimed producers like Andy Paterson and Guneet Monga will discuss the overarching role of a producer in taking a film from start to finish. Masterclasses with acclaimed Hollywood VFX supervisors such as George Murphy , Oscar winner and Chief Creative Officer, Reliance Media works , Jon Cowley and Ben Murray  of Prime focus world are also in the offing. The cinema exhibition sector will be dealt with at a very interesting session Cinema Advertising & Alternative Models: The Changing Dynamics of the Film Exhibition Landscape. Creative sessions on “The Past Present and Future of Good Cinema: Film-making for a Cause” and “Cuts so Deep: Are we Sacrificing Creativity at the Altar of Morality” will focus on meaningful cinematic content.

    Australia to be the partner country and Karnataka is the “Partner State” at FICCI FRAMES 2014 . Mr. Srivatsa Krishna , Secretary Deptartment of IT , BT & S and T , Govt. Of Karnataka will touch upon how Karnataka has been doing much to promote growth and development of its M&E industry

    An innovative feature of FRAMES 2014 will be the FICCI-INK Salon, an exclusive by-invite only daily hour-long session with speakers from the Indian part of TED talks. The BAF award show and networking evenings will as usual be the hallmarks of the after-hours.

    Media and entertainment’s role in public consciousness as an umbrella which shapes and sustains opinion and juxtaposes fact with utopia is an objective which FRAMES 2014 intends to reinforce.

  • Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    BENGALURU: Today is the turn of India’s garden city Bengaluru (Bangalore)  to get insights on  how its animation, gaming, TV channel and production and film executives can take audiovisual content from Karnataka global through markets such as MipTV and MipCom which have been organised in Cannes for decades now.

     

    An intimate audience in Chennai  (having a similar profile) engaged with Reed Midem representatives Ted Baracos, Paul Barbaro and India representative Anil Wanvari on 20 January.

     

    “Bengaluru has built up its reputation as India’s Silicon Valley,” says Baracos. “We, at Reed Midem, would love to see it known for its prowess in the media and entertainment space too. MipTV and MipCom offer the biggest gatherings of buying and selling executives from TV and digital from all over the world, and can work well to catapult Bengaluru in front of these folks. It could well serve as a good starting point to start the Karnataka content export engine to new markets.”

     

    “For that to successfully happen, Karnataka’s industry will have to take a bold step in wanting to be a part of a content export  economy which runs into billions of dollars each year,” adds Barbaro. “In recent times, Korea, Russia, Turkey and even provinces in China have been step by step increasing their initiatives in this direction. There is a huge pie out there in the 100 or so countries that participate in MipCom and MipTV respectively.”

     

    To reach out to the community in Bengaluru, a partnership was struck by Reed Midem  with the Association of Bangalore’s Animation Industry (ABAI) a couple of years ago. And today’s get together will see that relationship bearing fruit as ABAI is sending scores of its representatives to attend the seminar entitled “Content without boundaries.”

     

    “MipTV offers scores of opportunities: right from simple syndication to co-production to licensing to co-creation,” says Wanvari. “The neighouring state of Andhra Pradesh has already taken strides in that direction and its government has been encouraging producers and creators to go global. I believe Karnataka’s content production industry can use these opportunities to gradually get their revenues moving northward.”

     

    The industry get together will take place this evening at the Hotel Aloft in the swanky IT district – the Whitefield area – from 7:00 pm onwards. 

     

    The road show will next move to Mumbai where a seminar is planned for 24 January.

  • MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MUMBAI: Paris-based Reed Midem, which produces the world’s biggest and most successful content markets MipTV and MipCom in the French Riviera seaside town of Cannes, is all set to begin a series of road shows in India which will feature seminars and interactions in three cities  – Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai – explaining how India’s content community can build its international sales and presence.

     

    The first of these will be hitting Chennai on 20 Januray 2014. To be held at the Hotel Benzz Park in the T. Nagar business area,  it is slated to be attended by a select group of invited professionals  from the southern India city’s animation, TV, film distribution and value-added services sectors.

     

    The theme of this year’s roadshows is “Content without boundaries.”

     

    Down for the second time in about six months from the Paris headquarters  of Reed Midem are director of new market development Ted Baracos and Asia sales head Paul Barbaro. Accompanying them is Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO Anil Wanvari, who is MipTV, MipCom and Midem India representative.

     

    Says Baracos: “We were quite delighted with the response from  India’s talented content creators when we had road shows in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai last year.  Our theme then was: Can Indian content leave its stamp on the world? And India responded with a big yes. Attendance from the country was up almost 20 per cent as Indian companies came to MipCom in October 2013 to strike deals and pursue international market opportunties. So we decided to come back once again to connect with the community here.”

     

    Adds Barbaro: “Several Indian companies such as Shemaroo, Green Gold, Viacom18, Zee TV, DQ Entertainment, AVCGI have understood the power of MipCom and MipTV and have  successfully been using the platforms we provide to expand their content syndication, production and co-production businesses. We would like India’s  new content creators to understand, be a part and exploit the new entertainment economy in which content is likely to cease having borders, it will travel everywhere. Hence we  are here continuing our conversation with them through these road shows.”

     

    “I have been attending Mipcom and MipTV for more than 14 years and have seen Indian broadcasters, animation studios, service providers simply grow thanks to the contacts and deals they strike there,” says Wanvari. “The entrepreneurialism and hunger to conquer new markets can only see India’s content being consumed and even co-produced in markets never thought about before. It is important that more and more Indian firms understand and exploit this opportunity. It can bring home hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed forex into the Indian economy and probably grow the next Endemol or Fremantle out of India.”

     

    From Chennai, the team will then move to Bengaluru on 22 January and to Mumbai on 24 January. The entire road show has been put together and organised by Indiantelevision.com’s ITV 2.0 Productions division.

  • When ads are better than soaps!

    When ads are better than soaps!

    By Ramanujam Sridhar

    It’s that time of year when we reflect on the old year, As an avid television viewer (and may my tribe flourish), I continue to find TV commercials often more entertaining than the soaps and serials my wife seems glued to. The advertising industry realizes that the remote control is an even more potent destroyer of poor advertising than clients and is hence pushing the envelope more and more to ensure that we don’t switch channels. Social issues have been sensitively portrayed and subtle brand messages conveyed. What better tribute to creativity than the Tanishq remarriage ad. Beautifully shot, it shows a woman doing the saat phere with her husband even as a child keeps calling her and trying to join the holy walk. We realize that it is the woman’s daughter from her first marriage perhaps, and the husband cheerfully asks the child to join in. Commercials like these need a lot of courage to create and more importantly, run, and I doff my hat to my friends in advertising and marketing who have the guts to push the envelope in more ways than one. The Google ad for Tanjore paintings is another one that created ripples as did some of the commercials for Idea Cellular and the latest Vodafone video streaming ad is as cute as advertising can get.

    Advertising which sucks

    And yet, I find a lot of advertising quite convoluted, where the idea seems to be stretched needlessly like some of the TV soaps that have long outlived their sell by date. The new campaigns for Fevikwik – a brand that had great advertising for years – seem to be that of an agency and a creative team which is too full of itself. Equally annoying are the new five star commercials. Some of the big budget ones like Pepsi’s much touted ‘Yes Abhi’ too hardly set the Indian pulse racing. While celebrity endorsements keep multiplying, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount paid to the celebrity by way of fees and the creativity of the commercials that they are involved in. Why are advertising agencies giving up so easily on celebrity scripts and coming up with such inane stuff?

    What’s with the programming?

    I am not a great follower of TV programming so I really should be the last person to complain, but our big anchors are becoming quite insufferable as they play God, passing judgments on people and events with impunity. They also seem to flit from topic to topic with the attention span of a few days and issues are just buried as they worry least about sensitivities and only about TRPs. Soaps are extended mindlessly for ages on end, timings are changed, characters dumped, and just about every possible character mayhem is managed with ease. The sports programming that I watch a lot is really cloying as India is shown to be the greatest superpower of all time based on a few home series wins and it seems really weird given the poor performances abroad.

    To hell with editorial responsibility

    The old issues of ‘paid editorials’ and ‘irresponsible journalism’ continue to haunt poor viewers like me. Unfortunately, the TV channels don’t seem to care as they keep outwitting each other in their quest for TRPs and viewer eyeballs. Self regulation will never work and I guess, the time is right for viewers to be more discerning, more militant even, and when their sensitivities are not respected, we must exercise our rights and instead of switching channels, maybe the channels will learn only if we switch off the TV set entirely!

    May that never come to pass however! Here’s wishing you all a wonderful year of TV viewing!

    (Ramanujam Sridhar is the founder CEO of brand-comm and director of Custommerce. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • Consolidation & cooperation, the way forward

    Consolidation & cooperation, the way forward

    India’s cable TV industry is about to enter into a pivotal year, probably the most important in its 20-year old year history. As it does so, it needs to take a leaf out of the US cable industry playbook, a 60-year old franchise that’s been through rate regulation, digitalization, broadband and now, as it stares down the barrel at Netflix and Google, comes together to embrace consolidation and co-operation.

    At a recent investor day, industry godfather and arch value creator, John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, urged cable MSOs to unite and create a national internet streaming platform as well as cooperate to drive technical moves, new content plays and more homogeneity in product innovation. 

    “The history of the cable business is replete with the industry solving its balkanization and scale problem through joint efforts,” said Malone.  “That can be done again. I see no reason why a vehicle, whether it’s Xfinity [from Comcast] or the equivalent, can’t be syndicated. Whether Hulu could be bought and syndicated. Or whether you’ve got some entrepreneur who’s going to come in and start something that the industry at large could get behind and give it the ability to purchase content on a ubiquitous basis.”

     

    It’s a critical movement for cable operators in particular. High levels of receivables and low levels of liquidity amongst MSOs is not encouraging for investors and promoters and sends out poor signals for Phase III and IV of digitalization

    Taking a leaf out of Dr Malone’s book and in the spirit of consolidation and co-operation, here are the key moves India’s cable TV operators must drive across the value chain in 2014 and beyond:

    Billing and monetization

    MSOs are coming together and slowly working with LCOs to implement gross billing but it needs to be accelerated in Q1 2014. While close to 21 million households in Phase I and Phase II have been seeded with cable STBs, monetization and ROI has been painfully slow, making the Rs 50 billion plus invested in capital expenditure appear to be an extremely expensive cost of capital. Without the comfort of carriage and placement fees, MSOs need at least Rs 100 per sub per month to breakeven on the digital cable business line – in general, the industry is well short of that at present.

    Den, Hathway and SitiCable appear to be making the right moves but each of the national MSOs need to join together with LCOs to drive billing to consumers and ensure pass through of revenues across the value chain. It’s a critical movement for cable operators in particular. High levels of receivables and low levels of liquidity amongst MSOs is not encouraging for investors and promoters and sends out poor signals for Phase III and IV of digitalization.

    Product, technology and the B2C ecosystem

    More MSOs must come together to ensure that there is homogeneity and innovation across product and technology. Scale through alliances ensures better economies to invest in STBs, CAS, middleware and more advanced functionality. Hathway and DEN appear to be the best positioned to do this with a combined base of 13 million gross digital subs. This is a good start but to seriously challenge DTH and lower capital costs and drive improved product functionality, more MSOs need to come to the table.

    Negotiating capital costs and driving a product roadmap for the next 30 million households will start becoming easier with consolidation. Phase I and Phase II did not require much consolidation and as a result, 90 per cent of STBs seeded came from the top five MSOs. However, Phase III and IV require alliances, consolidation and cooperation as the markets are fragmented and sub scale. 

    It’s also important to note that the first big chunks of cable digitalization in the US, Taiwan and Korea occurred as cable operators banded together to drive down costs, improve functionality and better the consumer experience. To be sure, multiple vendors were used for STBs but across CAS, middleware, compression and billing, often technology solutions were sourced from single vendors.

    Furthermore, the main cable TV players in India must band together to offer an innovative, simple, and functional product set with consistent, strong user interfaces. Digitalization means that all operators will reclaim analogue bandwidth and with superior capacity, this should just mean more channels but more HD channels and broadband.

    Billing systems and the creation of a robust B2C cable TV ecosystem is also important but doing this together rather than apart is important for large and small cable TV MSOs across India. The situation that the US finds itself in today – “Snow white and the seven dwarfs” (Malone’s acerbic reference to the product evolution and functionality at Comcast and its fellow cable MSOs) – is where India is heading at present with only a few MSOs driving digitalization and B2C decision making.

    Broadband and network evolution

    Cable TV broadband remains in its infancy. In spite of the spectre / threat of 4G broadband after 2014-15, cable still has headroom to grow through DOCSIS 2.0 and 3.0 technologies. Hathway has recently deployed DOCSIS 3.0 across selected markets; a strong broadband product with or without a bundle is critical for cable operators’ value creation story as it helps generate margins. New license fees are a concern but broadband with scale still offers plenty of returns.

    Longer-term, larger cable TV operators also need to start transitioning networks to (internet Protocol) IP and ensure cloud-based delivery of services and content to all devices. This will help drive TVE (TV everywhere)-type offerings in the future and ensure cable has a competitive advantage over DTH – the same issue is playing out in the US.

    Content

    Locality is always the cable operators’ last preserve and locality anchored to local content is a strong competitive advantage. While some regional MSOs have developed local content,the national ones have yet to get into the game though both Hathway and Den may have plans to do so in the future, in what may become an important differentiator over time.

    Depth over width

    The cable TV story has thus far been mostly about width and will remain so for some time as operators focus on digitalizing their entire footprint before acquiring more of the last mile. However, the long-term game has to be about acquiring and consolidating the last mile where feasible and at the right valuation as well as potential consolidation and M&A amongst other national MSOs. 

    This provides a level playing field and competitive advantage to programming and technological discussions and allows cable operators to start inheriting some telecom-type muscle and work on ramping up real talent into its ecosystem.

    Note that there is limited value creation across aggregators over the long–term in the history of global media; most of are usually displaced and made obsolete over time due to changes in consumption, delivery and technology. Ownership of assets, especially in the cable TV business, is crucial and in cable TV, the last mile and network remains everything along with consolidation and scale.

    Just ask Dr Malone.  

    (Vivek Couto is Media PartnersAsia executive director and co-founder. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • The year of big movie acquisitions

    The year of big movie acquisitions

    By Neeraj Vyas

    If we were to reflect on the landmark moments of 2013, we could proudly say that it has been an impactful year with many highs. To start off, Indian Cinema celebrated 100 years of diverse and distinctive movies. It is a momentous occasion for the world’s largest producer of feature films with over 1200 releases a year in more than 25 languages. The casts got bigger, the designing of the film got more glamorous, the locations more exotic and the technical values are at par with anywhere else in the world.  

    On the flip side, most of this additional cost was passed on the broadcaster and acquisitions became hugely expensive. Surprisingly, these high costs have not deterred many broadcasters from acquiring big banner films at pre-production stage even though it is almost impossible to gauge how well the film will be received by television audiences. In future, movie deals will probably be governed by the revenue generated at the box office.

    On the digital front too, the channel focused on building its brand equity and connect, apart from trying to keep strengthening the positioning of the brand.With competition within channels heating up to garner maximum viewership, the stakes attached to such upmarket films has evolved to be much more complicated than it has been in previous years. Marketing budgets for the television premiers of these films is something which has seen a huge increase with each channel upping the level of spends and trying to be distinctively innovative with each premier. For Aashiqui 2, the biggest romantic musical of the year, at MAX, we raised the bar for marketing innovations across all mediums of communication. The channel engaged with its viewers across all platforms – print, online and outdoors raising to a crescendo with the stars of the movie engaging with some lucky viewers thereby creating a much required stickiness for the brand. The main aim was to attract fresh viewers and entice older ones to watch the film again.

    The digital space is constantly evolving and our endeavour is to customise everything we do on the digital platform. Some of the innovations on the social platform were the IPL Jhumping Jhapak app. Also, MAX was the first Hindi movie channel to integrate live tweets on Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

    From an overall industry perspective, I feel the highpoint was the rollout of digitisation across the country in phases. Although much delayed and slower than anticipated, it opened out a whole new opportunity for channels to increase shelf space. The proposed ad cap pushed many networks to launch new channels to adequately maximise their inventory supply. At MAX, our focus was to consciously deliver better films and energise the brand to engage with our loyal viewers.  

    Looking forward, the film channels will also need to re-evaluate the way advertising is sold so that the true value is gained in return for the delivery of this product to large chunks of audiences.

    (Neeraj Vyas is senior VP and business head, Sony Max. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • The year of the great tossing

    The year of the great tossing

    The year Indian news television channels got a sneak peek at what Pi Patel must have experienced while battling the raging storm in mid-seas in Ang Lee’s Life award winning Life Of Pi. Like Pi, news channels were tossed around, heaved up and down, had spear sharp rain and high waves buffeting them, got scalded by the hot sun, went through bouts of starvation and dying thirst – and they lived – at least most of them did – to tell the tale. It was a tough, tough year for them no doubt.

    Rising inflation, a tough economic environment which saw advertising spends being slashed, rising costs for carriage on cable TV and DTH, further fragmentation and evaporation of viewership – all led to their top lines and even bottomlines being beaten black and blue. Net result: layoffs, restructuring, reorganisation, was the name of the game. To top it all, the regulators – the Information & Broadcast (I&B) ministry and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) – too got into the act. The I&B pushed ahead with its digitisation drive even as it cracked down on them for paid content, and the TRAI ordered a reduction in advertising time permitted on air on channels.

    The news television industry has always had problems of plenty. More than 100 TV channels battle for a piffling Rs 2000 crore in ad spends. And more jumped onto the bandwagon during 2013 -an estimate is that around 25 new news channels made their debut. As though there wasn’t enough competition for the small morsels of advertising available in the various states and languages all over the country. But what kept the whole industry gloomy was the heartbeat aka advertising revenue which stayed flat for the whole year; and for some it even dipped. The big players were the ones who got to taste a little blood while the others struggled to make money out of inventory.

    The alarm bells started ringing out earlier in the year when TAM Media the viewership ratings agency did a rejig with its panels and started reporting on LC1 towns and also a new set of data reflecting the digitisation that was spreading across phase 1 towns. As an outcome, some of the channels ended up showing near zero viewership. TAM said this was because real viewership patterns were cropping up with deeper penetration of people meters.

    NDTV India, one of the older news broadcast networks, tried in vain to prosecute TAM’s parent AC Nielsen in the US on charges of fraud, but the NY court shooed it away, saying it should fight the legal battle on Indian turf. Allegations of TAM being rigged started rising to a cacophony and unanimously several channels decided to unsubscribe from TAM including NDTV, Times, CNN and Zee. A fierce battle issued between channels, advertisers and TAM that also saw support grow for the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).Angry advertisers threatened to pull out advertisements from channels that had unsubscribed from TAM- including the seven big networks. After weeks of an impasse, resolution finally came about with rolling ratings of four weeks and silver, gold and platinum packs for clients. The major change coming about was the conversion of TRPs to TVTs. Satisfied channels finally went back to TAM but are still clinging on to the new lifeline-BARC.

    It was in the second quarter of the year that a bunch of channels in Kolkata under the Saradha group went belly up with the financial and real estate group going bust. Questions were raised about the MIB’s laxity in issuing broadcasting licences. In a bid to tighten its procedures, it wrote to all channels, asking them to provide them with details about their operations and to see if they were still complying with the licence terms. Some 67 channels did not; and had their licences revoked. The MIB also became stricter about norms relating to directorial appointments on news channels’ boards.

    But the big big fight of the year was the one that blew up when the TRAI introduced a quality of service regulation that restricted advertising air time to just 12 minutes per hour. Broadcasters who were accustomed to showing 20 to 25 minutes of ads experienced a jolt when this came out. They all collectively revolted, specially the news channels claiming that their revenue would be affected in an industry that is already suffering much losses. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) also met the I&B ministry to ask TRAI to go easy on this regulation.The industry seems to have pacified the ministry on the content front at least, with the NBA, the Broadcast Editors Association, and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF)’s Broadcast Complaints Content Council (BCCC) in place. This despite, 2013 saw paid news being discussed very aggressively. Suggestions to set up a body to monitor broadcast – just like how the Press Council of India (PCI) does for the print media – were made. But the NBA opposed this strongly, saying that the self-regulatory mechanisms that are in place are enough to ensure that the news channels stay in line.

    The news channels yelped that they feared a shut down if the ad cap were to be implemented right away. They suggested that the ad cap, if necessary to be implemented, should be concurrent with the completion of digitisation in the country as then there would be more revenue flowing in. I&B minister Manish Tewari seemed to concur and even came out in their support on this approach.

    The interim order got smiles on some of their phases. The year 2013 was choppy to say the least for most of the news industry. High carriage fees, a slowdown in advertising growth, and extremely thin subscription revenues had forced even the older and long established news networks to look for solutions to keep their businesses viable. Almost all of them reorganized, consolidated their news operations which led to lopping off of bloated employee payrolls. The big buzzword during the year was the integrated newsroom – wherein a centralized bureau of journos and news crew helps service web, TV, and other online properties for a news network having several news channels.Finally the regulator decided to give the news channels some more time. A new advertising limit per hour was set. 20 minutes of ad time for news channels and 16 minutes for GECs till 30 September and after that everyone would have to together switch to 12 minutes and would have to submit compliance reports. But this formula did not go down well with the NBA even as the TRAI announced that it would rap violators on their knuckles. Some NBA members– along with some other niche channels – decided to take steps to protect themselves. They challenged TRAI’s mandate in the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) which heard arguments from all the affected parties for nearly 20 days. The NBA’s appeal to the tribunal got them an interim order preventing the regulator from taking any action against erring channels, allowing them to heave a collective sigh of relief. Even as the TDSAT was about to deliver its judgment, a coincidental verdict was given by the Supreme Court which stated that the tribunal had no power to hear or adjudicate on challenges to TRAI regulations. Swiftly, the TDSAT dismissed the case and the NBA immediately moved the Delhi Court to hear its plea. The Delhi High Court after listening to the initial appeal decided to get into its details later, giving the next hearing date as 13 March 2014. It however gave an interim order disallowing the TRAI from taking any coercive actions against channels not following the 12 minute ad cap.

    At the time of writing, Zee Media Corp was slated to take the same route following the announcement of the merger of DMCL – the company that produces the Times of India-challenger newspaper DNA – with it. It had prepared for the merger by donning a new moniker, dropping Zee News and naming itself as Zee Media Corp. The year saw it running a skeleton Telugu news channel, even as it launched Zee Rajasthan Plus.Network18, NDTV, UTV Bloomberg, BAG Network, among many others shed staff. Network 18 bid adieu to nearly 350 people, NDTV shut down its Mumbai bureau itself and Bloomberg handed over the much dreaded pink slip to 30 staffers. Roles of those retained were redefined and they were given additional responsibilities.

    Several other new offerings are lined up for 2014 including an English news channel, English business channel and two regional channels for Odisha and Bihar-Jharkhand . The company also repackaged itself and came up with a new positioning which seeks to attract India’s youth to watch its news channels.

    The year 2014 looks set to be an exciting one with national elections on the anvil. Even international channels have taken note of this with Al Jazeera, France 24 and BBC World News sprucing up their presence in the country. But there are challenges that the broadcast news sector will have to face: the ad cap situation needs resolution, carriage fees need further reduction, and the struggle to make money continues. But what’s keeping the sector hopeful is the scheduled completion of digitisation by end 2014. The hope is that the dark clouds will part to reveal a silver lining. And then clear skies.With controversy surrounding the Sahara group and its consistent clashes with the Securities Exchange Board of India, it decided to drop the Sahara name from all the channels, retaining the Samay as a brand. India TV too changed its complete look while it has also brought on board several news professionals including veteran Q W Naqvi. Bag Films hired former Star group president Ravina Raj Kohli on its advisory board while IBN7 CEO Dilip Venkatraman left the organisation after giving it a new look. The ABP group announced that it would launch new services but was stalled on account of the MIB’s tough stance on licensing norms and procedures. Even then a rumour that persisted through the year was the rumour that its former partner Star India would re-enter the news channel business.

    The year 2014 looks set to be an exciting one with national elections on the anvil. Even international channels have taken note of this with Al Jazeera, France 24 and BBC World News sprucing up their presence in the country. But there are challenges that the broadcast news sector will have to face: the ad cap situation needs resolution, carriage fees need further reduction, and the struggle to make money continues. But what’s keeping the sector hopeful is the scheduled completion of digitisation by end 2014. The hope is that the dark clouds will part to reveal a silver lining. And then clear skies.

  • India-A hotbed for news channels

    India-A hotbed for news channels

    “To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.” This quote from Winston Churchill is in my opinion the best way to describe 2013 for the Indian television market scenario and BBC Global News, the parent company of BBC World News and bbc.com.

    Let’s first take a broad look at the changes in the Indian market.  While regulation forced the industry to adopt digitisation, it is commendable that the industry responded and today MSOs have had around 70 to 80 per cent success in seeding STBs in phase I and phase II. Digitisation has happened and is progressing – but at the moment that is only the technical side. Addressability remains a concern. But large changes such as this in markets as humongous and diverse as India are bound to take time. Our outlook is positive and we are hoping that once business models start to take shape, this change will be positive for all stakeholders. But there is no doubt that traditional models are being disrupted. The cable industry will have to look at differentiation, quality of service and value added services to drive revenue growth. The capacity constraint that drove carriage revenues is likely to moderate with digitization. There is demand for niche content. New launches are happening in the super-niche format. The demand for Pay-TV is growing with increase in the availability of premium content. Consumers are willing to pay for HD content. Cable operators have also started offering HD-enabled STBs.

    The other major change is the pattern of consumption of content. Viewing has become personal with the consumer demanding and expecting flexibility in terms of timing, volume of content consumed and place of consumption. Increasing mobile & broadband penetrations and affordability of smarter devices are offering alternative digital distribution platforms. Consumption of live TV on-the-go and catch up TV is on the rise.  All these are very positive changes that signal well for the robust growth of the industry.

    It has also been a year of evolution for BBC Global News. We moved into state of the art brand new studios in the heart of Central London in what is easily the world’s largest and most advanced newsroom. Both in anticipation and in response to audience trends, we have successfully converged our news operations to deliver the best multimedia, multi platform international news. Our improved look on TV, our website, our apps – all these make for a greatly enhanced experience for the consumer. Our new brand campaign ‘Live the Story’ is not just an advertising tool, it is an ethos for the way we approach content and we want to reinforce that message in the market. It is in recognition of this ethos that World News America received an Emmy award for “Best continuing coverage of a news story” for Ian Pannell and Paul Wood’s reports from Syria. And among our many editorial highlights was the 100 women season with Mishal Husain’s exclusive interview with Malala featuring not just on BBC World News but across all BBC platforms domestic and international. Indeed one of the catalysts for 100 Women was the Delhi gang rape attack in December last year.

    It is great to see the audience responding to us. In India, BBC World News has maintained its status as the leading international English news channel among the country’s affluent, influential opinion leaders, business decision makers and frequent international travellers, according to the latest Ipsos PAX survey. BBC World News also beats India’s domestic news channels to take the number one spot amongst the highly desirable, upscale audience.  BBC Global News, including BBC World News and bbc.com is the only news brand across TV, online and mobile to show quarter on quarter growth. Social media is equally important for us to improve our engagement and we continue to achieve important audience milestones on Twitter. @bbcworld now has more than 5 million followers and @bbcbreaking has passed the 8 million follower mark.

    As economics and politics in India become even more interesting with the country entering election mode, we have just announced a season of programmes focusing on India to air in February 2014. India Direct will delve behind the headlines to bring audiences insight on our country as we strive to be significant player on the global stage. The India Direct season will give BBC audiences around the world the opportunity to see everyday life in India. Through programmes like Fast Track, One Square Mile and Working Lives, the BBC’s unrivalled network of journalists explore the issues faced by people here – from the economic opportunities and challenges to living life at every level of society; from its traditions and history to future plans and innovations.  We are looking forward to what promises to be a really insightful coverage of India. We also hope to bring an international perspective to the coverage of the elections. As the world focuses on India, our journalists will also showcase India to the rest of the world with our global coverage.

    The world of media and journalism is very dynamic and India is a vibrant market. We believe that the changes in the media landscape are all positive; we ourselves are steadily progressing in tandem with global trends and certainly have a very positive outlook for India. We believe that the market respects and appreciates our content and that our ability to provide superior international news content on multiple platforms will differentiate us and keep us growing.

    (Preet Dhupar is BBC Global News COO for India. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)