Category: Specials

2010 a year of wait for FM radio

For the private FM radio broadcasters, 2010 was more of a wait for positive government policies that would fuel the sector’s growth that has been somewhat stunted.

But the year ended on a positive note that things would move in 2011 – at least as far as permitting news and launching Phase III of FM radio was concerned. And some steps were also taken towards taking a decision on increasing foreign direct investment in the radio sector.

Besides, some positive steps were taken towards revenue sharing on copyright of radio and other music, though this still needs to be ironed out with the music industry not too happy with the outcome so far.

With the Group of Ministers (GoM) on FM radio Phase III finalising the e-auction model, the radio sector is poised for an exponential growth in India. The e-auction will also pave the path for a transparent process much along the lines of the 3G auctions held last year.

There is a proposal for allowing 806 private FM Radio stations in Phase III in addition to the 245 channels at present. In addition, All India Radio (AIR) is getting ready to launch a total of 320 FM radio stations.

The GoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee decided against the conventional open auction model and instead chose the e-auction method.

A total of 216 cities and towns are to get private FM radio for the first time in Phase III, out of the 302 identified by the Government and split into four categories. Of the 86 cities and towns which have private FM radio channels, 67 are to get additional channels.

Among the four main metros (which fall in first category), Mumbai will get two more channels while Delhi and Chennai will get one each. Kolkata has filled its quota of nine private FM channels.

The GoM also extended the licence period for the radio stations to 15 years from the existing 10 years. Some decisions were also taken with regard to Prasar Bharati rentals and music royalty by the GoM.

The GoM accepted the Government proposal to permit relay of All India Radio news (unaltered) by private FM channels on terms and conditions worked out with Prasar Bharati, thus rejecting the view of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the industry-led Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The regulator had recommended that news should be allowed to be accessed from AIR, Doordarshan, Press Trust of India, United News of India, and any other authorised news agency or television news channel.

In the absence of a regulatory authority with a localised presence and absence of monitoring arrangements for private channels and in view of the sensitivities involved, the Government feels it is not possible to allow complete freedom to broadcast news even though the news may be sourced from authorised sources. There was a possibility of sensationalising news by the private channels in their presentation.

However, it is clear that the issue has not ended since some private FM operators are contemplating taking up the issue with the government.

However, no final decision has been taken so far on lifting the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap on the sector to 26 per cent from the current 20 per cent. Trai had initially proposed to raise the FDI limit to 49 per cent but cut it down to 26 per cent in its June recommendations last year. A meeting of the Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary had towards 2010-end decided the note prepared by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry should be referred to the Union Cabinet. The current foreign investment limit in FM radio stands at 20 per cent.

With FM Phase III expanding to smaller tier ‘D‘ cities, it is likely to provide greater freedom and multiple ownership, promotion of local content, talent and culture. Formats like talk shows, dramas, classic and folk music concerts, programming specifically for children, short stories and plays with a social message too are likely to be incorporated.

Currently, the radio sector generates annual revenues worth $49.5 million and is growing at around 20 per cent annually,

according to the joint report by KPMG and Ficci. The radio advertising industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 12.2 per cent over 2010-14, reaching $ 342.7 million in 2014 from the present $192.8 million in 2009, as per PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Meanwhile not too happy with the growth of community radio, the government is organising consultation workshops in different parts of the country to increase awareness of the advantages of local radio stations.

The country at present has a total of just over 100 community radio stations (71 with Educational Institutions, 24 with non-Governmental Organizations, and eight with Krishak Vigyan Kendras and agricultural

science universities though the scheme was announced in April 2005.

The Ministry says it encourages setting up of the Community Radio Stations as CRS promises to provide opportunities to the local communities to express themselves, and empower women. The main aim of starting the CRS in educational institutions is to provide different and useful information to the people in nearby villages.

Although community radios were allowed since April 2005, the Central Government in December 2006 had liberalised the Policy on Community Radio by bringing in the civil society and voluntary organisations, agricultural universities, ICAR institutions, Krishi Vigyan Kendras etc, under its ambit. The policy was liberalised to allow greater participation by the civil society on issues of development and social change. Earlier, only educational institutions were permitted to launch community radio channels. Under the new guidelines, limited advertising and announcements relating to local events, local businesses and services and employment opportunities has been allowed up to a maximum duration of five minutes per hour of broadcast.

A total of 48 Community Radio Stations are presently functioning in 16 states and union territories which included 42 from educational institutions and six from non-governmental organisations. Twenty letters of Intent have been issued in 2009, taking the total to 189 LoI so far.

A total of 584 applications, including 240 applications from educational institutions, have been received from various organisations for setting up CRSs. While 79 had been rejected, a total of 316 applications were under process.

Tamil Nadu has the largest number of CRS – 26 (up from ten at the end of 2009), followed by Uttar Pradesh with 13, Maharashtra with ten, Karnataka with nine, and Delhi with six. The number of stations in other states – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal – varied between one and five.
Clearly waiting for Phase III, no new FM channel has been launched in the country over the past 18 months. There are just over 245 private FM radio channels in the country, and the government earned revenue of Rs 1.33 billion between 2006 and September 2009 from private FM radio stations.

FM Radio broadcasting was first launched in the country in 1999.

Maharashtra has the largest number of private FM stations – 31 – followed by Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with 21 each and Rajasthan with 19.

Kerala has 17 stations, while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have 16 each. West Bengal has 15 channels, Karnataka has 14, Andhra Pradesh has 13, Punjab has 12 and Delhi has ten stations.

Permission given to 20 FM channels has been revoked by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for various reasons. Of the channels that were revoked, nine belonged to Century Communications, eight to Pan India Network Infravest, two to Kushal Global, and one to Singla Properties.

While the majority of these were refused because the channels were not operationalised within the prescribed time, the others commenced but after some time remained non-operational for a period of more than six months.

While the Government gave permission to 266 channels including the 20 revoked later, one could not be operationalized in Aizawl in Mizoram as the Common Transmission Infrastructure is not yet ready. Under the Grant of Permission Agreement, the channels are expected to commence operations within one year of such agreement.

Meanwhile, the Copyright Board sought to resolve the friction between the music companies and the FM radio, laying out a revenue share model for the industry that was earlier working on a fixed cost structure. FM radio companies will have to share two per cent of their net advertising revenues (total ad income minus agency commission and government taxes) with the music companies as royalty, according to the Copyright Board directive.

The new revenue share model will work in favour of the FM radio broadcasters, while upsetting the music companies who are already weighing legal options as they see their earnings from the sector shrink.

The FM radio broadcasters coughed out Rs 1.2 billion, or 18 per cent of their net ad revenues, as music royalty in FY‘10, according to industry estimates. A two per cent share, as the Copyright Board has directed now, would mean the music companies would have taken away just Rs 140 million in FY‘10.

In May 2008, the Supreme Court authorised the Copyright Board to decide on the royalty rates for the industry. The Copyright Board had asked the radio and music companies to file evidence supporting their stand on the royalty issue earlier this year.

The year 2010 ended with the music industry serving notices to various hotels and pubs in many cities and towns to pay requisite music licence fee to play music, events at these venues to mark the end of the year. Following intervention by the Phonographic Performance Ltd. (PPL), legal notices were issued to venues that have not paid the requisite music licence fee to play music at their year-end events. PPL plans to initiate strict legal action against defaulters in case the licence fee does not get paid ahead of their planned events.

Under the statutory sanction of section 35 in the Indian Copyright Act, playing commercial music in public without paying the requisite licence fee is an offence liable to contempt of court. Section 35 grants exclusivity to PPL to issue licences to hotels/pubs for playing music during the events in their respective premises. The tariff is calculated on the basis of the number of hours the music is to be played and the number of people expected to attend the event. The penalty can be imprisonment for three years and a fine of up to Rs 200,000.

For the sector that is under severe revenue crunch, 2011 could be the turning point as the government opens up new geographies under Phase III.

January 15, 2011
The day the music died – Channel [V] GM Prem Kamath

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is why Channel [V] is abandoning music. It is probably a question that can be asked as equally of several other ‘music channels‘.

On the face of it, it‘s a pretty relevant question – in large measure because channels like ours have built their reputation on playing music and a large part of our fan base tuned in to hear it. So if the average viewer is often left perplexed by why a music channel would suddenly start beaming a host of reality shows, their befuddlement is entirely understandable.

A big part of the answer to that question lies in how music consumption itself has changed.

Firstly, TV is no longer the primary medium for consuming music. Gone are the days when one would eagerly wait for the next episode of BPL Oye or Timex Timepass (for those of you old enough to remember these) to check out the latest in music. Today the newest track is a torrent away and the newest video, a youtube click. When one has such options of video-on-demand and personalised playlists, little reason why the classical music channel should be relevant anymore.

Secondly, the dynamics on the Indian music industry are uniquely skewed against conventional music television. The Indian music scene is entirely dominated by Bollywood. This is at once a boon and a curse for the industry. On the plus side, Bollywood brings with it an almost unlimited demand for new music. All of it is pre-paid for and this minimises the risks for artists and musicians. However, on the flip side, it has become an 800-pound gorilla the might of whom few independent bands can stand up against. What this has led to is the commoditisation of content from a television perspective.

As any television executive will tell you, the greatest monetisation in television comes from differentiation. The biggest limitation of the music television model has been that there is no scope whatsoever in differentiating the content of one channel from another. Every channel has access to the same pool of music and, hence, very little differentiates one channel from another.

Finally, whether or not a channel restricts itself to music depends on what business they define themselves to be in. Channel [V] has always been iconic to the youth of this country. More than a music channel, we have always seen ourselves as a youth entertainment channel. Time was when music was the best way for a channel to connect with the youth of this country. That time has passed – probably for good.

Youth entertainment tastes go well beyond music today and content has to follow suit. Testament is borne to this by the astounding success we have met with post our re-launch. Channel [V] has increased its share five-fold in a span of 12 months and today leads the youth entertainment genre. Over 80 per cent of our content today is non-music and we are much the richer for it. Music continues to be a not entirely insignificant 20 per cent still and will remain so as long as we believe that it is an integral youth hot-button. As we have often said, we are faithful to the viewer and not the genre. If youth entertainment tastes shift in this country, our content will shift along with it.Of course, to keep up with youth trends and remain a relevant and sought-after youth channel is easier said than done.

Too much has been said about how India is a country of the young. Too little has been done about it.

Few categories in the country have seen as much of a sea change as television has. A young and nascent industry by any standards, changes that took 50 years in the West have been compressed into just over a decade here. From DD to DTH, the changes have come in the form of newer technology, global exposure and exploding choice. And the young consumers of this country have been at the very epicenter of this whirl-wind. Whereas most marketers, including the TV industry, have ironically been on the outside looking in.

The trouble with marketing to the young is that those doing the marketing are far from young. It‘s a problem that the gaming industry in the West recognised very early on – after all over 90 per cent of its sales were to people below 20 years of age. Their solution was to hire their prospective customers – as consultants, game-testers, designers and evangelists. They rightly believed that to create a game that truly captured the imagination of a 14-year-old, you need a 14-year-old to tell you how.

But unlike gaming, the challenge of programming television for the young goes beyond just understanding their needs. Youth Television‘s challenge is a lot more fundamental – it is to stay relevant to a generation of digital natives who are increasingly gratifying their entertainment needs from a variety of sources outside TV.

Television is no longer the young, sexy and alluring medium it once was. Sure, it‘s still the largest and most cost effective medium to reach out to any segment of the population including the young. And yes, in sheer numbers, the quantum of reach it offers is truly staggering. But it is in its role as an agent of change, as a definer of trends and as a lighthouse to the young that TV has been lagging of late.

From being the only window that beamed in those wonderfully hypnotizing images from all around the world, it is now so ubiquitous and so ingrained into our lives as to be often taken for granted and overlooked. For the young who have grown up with television, it holds hardly any charm as a lifestyle medium – after all they haven‘t known or seen a world without it.

Nor is TV the beacon of information it once was. That space has quickly and irrevocably been usurped by the Internet. Granted, the overall net penetration numbers in this country still remain abysmal. But among the young, the access rates are not only higher but also growing at a blistering pace. What‘s more, mobile phones are ensuring that the net is well and truly available to anyone who wishes to access it.

TV once was the sole repository of everything cool and glamorous – from fashion to lifestyle to relationships. An entire generation of people looked up to it to tell them what to wear, how to look, how to speak and where to hang out. That‘s a position it has vacated over a period of time to various media – to a resurgent movie industry with its new-found urban acceptance, to one-for-every whim lifestyle magazines and even to newspapers in their dolled up page 3 avtaars.

And finally to top it all, even in its most functional gratification, as a means for just killing time, the young are finding options that are newer, more alluring and certainly much cooler. Ask any teenager and he‘ll tell you how much more fun it is to while away at the mall than to be watching TV at home. Or how much cooler it is to be hanging out with friends at the local Barista than to be watching it on TV.

So is TV doomed to exist as a once cool has been medium with as much relevance to youngsters as the blocky black telephone that still sits in the corner of some living rooms? Or is there really a way that TV can reinvent itself to once again be a central part of every teenagers and young adult‘s life?

At Channel [V] we believe there is.

The only way to counter change is paradoxically through change.

When Apple decided to stray from its mainstay of computing and venture into the ultra competitive world of personal electronics, few gave them a chance against the might of giants like Sony. But the iPod has not only gone on to redefine the way people consume music, it has changed the very face of the music industry and its commerce for ever. It did so through some audacious imagination and some good, old-fashioned trend spotting.

Exactly what television needs if it has to fire the imagination of the young again.

The trends are all around us for anyone who cares to look.

Today‘s youth are characterised by their ambition and their impatience. It‘s really an ‘AND‘ generation not an ‘OR‘ generation. It‘s career and personal life; it‘s work and fun, it‘s this and that. TV cannot buck this trend. We cannot expect people to choose between TV and hanging at the mall. We‘ll have to make both possible. It‘ll have to be TV at the mall, TV on the Internet, TV on the mobile and TV while driving. Thankfully, we have the technology today that makes this possible. What we now need is the mindset to see it through.

This is also the ‘NOW‘ generation. When impatience is a virtue, attention spans can only be non-existent. Bollywood has recognised this and our movies are getting shorter. TV will need to reinvent its format too. Mobisodes have often been written about but not really been worked upon. If 30-minute episodes are the norm merely to aid commercial scheduling, I‘m afraid we‘ll get little sympathy from the viewer. We‘ll have to find ways of monetising formats that our consumer prefers rather than the other way round. Once again, streaming video on the net has been a step ahead of TV in this regard.

Other signs and trends abound. The rise of user generated content, the voracious appetite for reality, the extreme need for self-expression and individuality, unbounded ambition, the increasingly transactional nature of relationships, friends being the new family, urban atomization – the list goes on.

It is said that those in the midst of great change rarely recognise the momentous nature of it. India and its young are in the midst of exactly such a change. It is change that will leave very few things in its path untouched – including the way we buy, organise and consume our television. And there are untold spoils for those who recognise this and exploit it.

To remain relevant and preferred, Youth TV will have to constantly reinvent and recharge itself.

And oh, by the way, those who mourn the passing away of music channels would do well to not shed a tear. The music hasn‘t died. It has merely shifted screens.

January 13, 2011
Testing time for sports broadcasters

2010 was a year for sports where there was as much action off the field as on it. The two mega events, the Indian Premier League and the Commonwealth Games, were marred with controversies. And yet, like strong teams that recover fast, the genre raked in around Rs 15 billion of advertising income.

The IPL, battered by allegations of financial irregularities, match-fixing and the infamous exit of Lalit Modi, seems to have survived the storm. Starting on a promising note as Sahara and Rendezvous Group entered the IPL ring with winning bids of over $300 million, the valuations got progressively mauled amidst the controversies. Though the dust has still to settle, the encouraging fact is that the spectator interest is riding high.

Multi Screen Media, the official broadcaster of cricket‘s hottest property, is looking at an ad revenue of Rs 10 billion upwards from the fourth edition of the IPL that kicks off on 12 March 2011.

The franchises, on the other hand, will have to take the rough road. While revenue growth is under pressure, the break even period is getting stretched. Worse, equity deals will be hard to consummate.

That leads us to the second controversy of the year. The Commonwealth Games, assaulted by scams, disappointed terribly on the revenue front. Prasar Bharati, which had set itself a target of Rs 1 billion, ended up with a meagre Rs 581 million.

Apart from the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, the third event that did not do well on the ad revenue front was the Champions Twenty20 League. ESPN Star Sports (ESS) marketed the event and did improve on the past performance but the acquisition price still stays imbalanced with the revenue generation.

ESS did better for some of the other properties including the soccer World Cup. According to industry estimates, ESS collected Rs 1.2 billion from the World Cup.

Sports broadcasters are creating a family of channels that would help up their revenues. The most obvious formula is to have a dedicated cricket channel, the most popular sporting content in the country. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) launched Ten Cricket and rebranded Zee Sports as a soccer-focussed channel. Ten Sports is positioned as a multi-sports channel while a golf channel is on the anvil.

On the sports marketing front, IMG and Reliance Industries floated a joint venture to build alternate sports. The first to grab their attention is basketball as they entered into a 30-year deal with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). It is looking at creating a basketball league three to five years down the line.

The joint entity is also looking at developing football. The company bagged a 15-year sponsorship deal with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for Rs 7 billion.

The challenge for sports broadcasters in 2011 is to build profitable business models amid high acquisition costs.

January 12, 2011
2011 will be a challenging year for Indian sports biz -Broadreach Media director Peter Hutton

2010, the year of the tweet, comes to a close with Indian sport in much better shape for the New Year, with the Commonwealth Games leaving behind a legacy of completed stadia and some rather more cautious administrators. Add Delhi‘s new monuments to the vision, or something, of Suresh Kalmadi to the opening of the new Grand Prix track and the investments in cricket facilities across the country, and the overall picture for the infrastructure of Indian sport looks much more optimistic.

Though stadium builders have been busy, sporting performance has not been as consistent despite the abundance of talent available. The Indian cricket team has gone into a series of tournaments with one hand tied behind their back as the board continually “rotate” their tired squad. That rotation has lowered television ratings of the bilateral tours with advertisers understandably preferring to bet on the quality of the ICC events and the bigger series against Australia and South Africa rather than gamble on the questionable selections for tours to Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the rest. A tour without Sachin, Dhoni and Harbajan is not an easy sell.

The form on the pitch also affects the returns of the broadcasters, even if most tours are largely pre-sold. The three Indian cricketing high points for 2010 all came on Neo Sports, the home test series against Australia with its terrific finish in Mohali, the win in the Asia Cup and a home victory in January against South Africa.

The disappointments were spread between the broadcasters, Neo‘s home ODI series with Australia suffering from poor weather, while on Ten Sports India lost twice to the home side and failed to make the final of the triangular in Zimbabwe, then again lost a triangular in Sri Lanka (winning only 2 of 5 games) and the biggest disappointment of all, the struggles on Star Cricket in the ICC‘s T20 tournament when India lost to Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australia.

Away from national team cricket, ESPN Star Sports gambled on an expensive marketing campaign to breathe life into the Champions League and were rewarded with much improved ratings, though the initial billion dollar price tag still dominates the industry perception of the event as over-priced.

The IPL managed to squeeze in yet more commercial content with mid-over advertising breaks. It would be nice to think that those forced breaks will go the way of the televised post game parties come the new IPL season in April.

This year‘s tournament is going to be very keenly watched by the industry, potentially overshadowed by the World Cup that immediately precedes it and, of course, missing its chief cheerleader. IPL life without Lalit will never be the same, but the world’s most remarkable sporting story of the last decade is one that the BCCI tamper with at their peril.

The ratings game for 2011 will be an interesting battle with ESPN Star Sports having the upper hand in terms of year round events. They have the cricket World Cup through February and March, then India‘s prime time tour to England in the Summer, the Champions League in September as well as the mouthwatering prospect of India in Australia in December.

Ten Cricket has what should be an excellent ODI series of India in South Africa in January, then India in West Indies in May, while Neo has a long period away from the limelight before India‘s home series against England and the West Indies dominating October to December. Centre of attention for Neo will be the much awaited IPO rather than their cricket content in 2011.

There‘s plenty of interest off the pitch in the next year for the industry, with virtually all the cricket boards set to go to market for the next five years of television rights sales. Neo enters this negotiation period with the advantage of having the Indian home rights all secured already and ESPN Star Sports secure in their long term deals with the ICC and the Champions League.

As a result, the focus of attention will be the other nine national team boards. Some of the existing deals end in 2012, some in 2013, but the next 12 months will be key in determining where the bulk of cricket content will end up with some negotiations already underway.

Of the nine boards coming up for grabs, Ten currently holds five (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe), ESPN Star Sports two (England and Australia), Neo one (Bangladesh) and Sony one (New Zealand). For each broadcaster there is the challenge of judging the valuation trend of bilateral cricket as that trend underpins the price that they‘ll be prepared to pay.

Though competition between broadcasters will no doubt help keep the prices up for the various boards, the advertising money is suffering a “flight to quality” with a concentration on the prime time Indian tours, the ICC events, the IPL and the Champions League.

The ICC, Champions League and IPL events effectively have a secure “window” (even if the IPL‘s is not official) where no other cricket fights for viewers’ attention. As a result the remainder of the international cricket calendar is squeezed into an increasingly small number of months, which can only further damage the ratings for bilateral, non Indian cricket. In December, for example, Zee‘s ad sales team have had the considerable challenge of trying to raise money on Pakistan v South Africa and Sri Lanka v West Indies at a time when both clashed with India playing at home. These problems will only increase in the next five years as bilateral cricket competes for dates in shortened seasons.

Away from cricket, Hero Honda‘s investment in the Hockey World Cup paid off with great national attention and showed the advantage of investing in non cricket events. Big time hockey returned in December with the Champions Trophy held in India.

The sale of those broadcast rights will be the first of the content battles this year and will give an indication of the funds available to the major buyers. Meanwhile, Indian hockey has overcome the criticism of having a lack of organisation, by now having two seperate organisations. Hopefully one of them will create a domestic format and a national team calendar that creates year round interest, with the Nimbus franchise based initiative an imaginative development.

In football, the headhunting of Kushal Das as the new CEO of the Indian federation was a very welcome symbol of the gradual transformation of the national body into a more organised, professional and accountable organisation. The very fact that the national league fixtures were for the first time issued for the whole year before the start of the season is a very positive indication that Indian football is finally beginning to enter the modern age. However, the “stars” of the national team are not part of this season‘s national league, with Bob Houghton‘s personal influence in the Indian game shown by his ability to take the team into a long camp for the Asia Cup event, where India enter with little hope but plenty of good wishes.

The IMG-Reliance deal to support the next decade of Indian football could be exactly what is needed, a long term investment that will hopefully deal with infrastructure challenges and create the vehicle to bring new money and excitement into the Indian version of the sport. The excellent development stories in the last year behind the professional clubs in Pune and Shillong show the potential for sensible footballing investments.

However, a primary challenge of the new agency will be to create a strong enough format that will overcome historical credibility issues and find suitable broadcaster support; it‘s easy to forget that the IPL revolution wouldn‘t have happened without Kunal Das Gupta‘s decision to invest so heavily for Sony despite the industry cynics. A similar long term broadcasting vision is needed to support the long term development of Indian football and hockey.

In international football, the big sale for the Indian territory will be the European Championships rights for 2012. Last time round the event was a huge success for ESPN Star Sports and reinforced their aggressive position on the World Cup. There is plenty of noise around the Premier Leauge and Champions League, but it‘s only the World Cup and European Championships that seriously affect the ratings and advertising markets in India.

In terms of sporting content being made available to viewers, one of the most welcome signs from 2010 was the success of the Total Sports Asia sale of the Spanish national football team TV rights to a Bangla language channel and Procam‘s work with Times Now to develop horse racing content. The imagination shown by these agencies makes the point that although the majority of international content will always head to conventional locations, “sports” content does not always need to be on the big sports channels.

Champions League cricket on Disney worked very well and experiments of this nature help grow a sporting audience as well as keeping everyone in the industry on their toes. Despite the increasing relevance (and audience share) of Neo Sports, and the growth in Ten‘s portfolio of channels (golf is still promised to follow), there are still plenty of sports events not available to an Indian audience. American football, a lot of the NBA, many of the Premier League games, NHL ice hockey, Manchester United TV and international athletics content are all not available live on India‘s hundreds of channels unlike neighbouring markets such as the Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong.

This will be a very challenging year for the Indian sports business, with broadcasters and DTH platforms needing a clearer focus on a HD and 3D strategy as well as taking on the challenge of providing increasing content on broadband and mobile in India. The cricket World Cup may take a large amount of advertising money out of the market, but there are plenty of other options to claim attention in a busy year.

2010 has been a relatively low spending year for all the broadcasters; it‘s unlikely they will have that choice in 2011.

January 8, 2011
Be ready for more franchise properties – Zeel sports business CEO Atul Pande

Like most of the media industry, 2010 was a significant year for sports and sports broadcasting. Jury is still out on whether things got better or far worse, but clearly there are trends and issues which continue to emerge which the industry will have to deal with going forward.

Given the continuing increase in high impact live sporting events being broadcast, the sports channel shares moved up to 6 per cent of total viewing in the industry. In March and April, driven by the show case event of the year – the IPL – the business share went upwards of 10 per cent.

World Cup Football, which was the summer event, did not deliver cricketsque ratings despite the hype. Live cricket continued to drive the viewership numbers of the business.

After the slump of 2008, and marginal improvement in 2009, 2010 definitely delivered a marked improvement in advertising revenues. The rates improved and settled back to superior levels, and in some T20 matches commanded very high premiums.

The industry is estimated to end the year at close to Rs 16 billion, which is a 25 per cent growth over last year. Cricket continues to be 80 per cent of the ad revenue by share, and over 70 brands committed to the category consistently this year.

While numbers in other sports continued to be relatively small, the growth rates there are higher and sponsorship interest is more evident. Soccer continues to be the second largest sport in terms of advertiser interest. World Cup Hockey, which was marketed aggressively, indicated that hockey could generate revenues and viewer interest again if the Indian team started doing well.

If one looked at various viewership trends emerging within the industry, it appears that ODIs and Tests are holding their ratings, while T20s continue to drive viewership growth. IPL numbers continue to demonstrate the fact that the there is a clear shift from GEC to this category in those months – especially when the more popular and successful teams play.

However, T20 performance in Champions League also indicates that team affiliation as well as team performance is driving viewership, which clearly comes through in Indian Cricket team ratings across various events. This year also demonstrated through the Hockey World Cup that this product can be built strongly, and viewers will come back; as is soccer which through EPL, UEFA Champions League and other European leagues, is building a fair degree of traction in viewership across the board.

Golf is another fast growing sport which now boasts of a critical mass of dedicated viewers, as is Motor Sports which have their enthusiastic fan base. Indian football continued to trundle along, and while the ratings are comparable to EPL, does not garner advertiser support. Also, the support for this category is very geography specific and does not lead to advertising efficiencies.

Tennis gets a lot of airtime because of ATP events but the real penetration comes only in the Grand Slams. US specific leagues, while delivering high quality sporting action, suffer because of poor telecast times, but still have enough following to demand time slots.

Fighting sports continued to stay strong, and rather surprisingly demonstrated good growth in the hinterland. CWG and Asiad, in spite of their tremendous build ups, languished in terms of ratings, and continued to confound the sports channels and analysts.

The other big shift which came through this year was the impact of DTH revenues on the affiliate model. This is an addressable opportunity, and is already demonstrating that it could overtake analogue cable revenues, perhaps as early as 2012. Already, with most sports broadcasting businesses‘, revenues from DTH being in the range of 40-45 per cent of total affiliate revenues, they are demonstrating very high double digit ( and in the case of some operators – triple digit ) growth rates.

Also, this platform is expanding the scope of its services by providing differentiated viewership such as pay-per-view options, High Definition and 3D. This platform could be a game changer for the sports broadcasting business and start delivering subscription revenues of the kind which the industry deserves and has been counting on for its survival.

Cable analogue continues to perplex, and is not able to deliver any significant growth to the sports channels. While digital services on the ground are expanding, the service delivery and the service orientation still lags behind what is required by this industry.

From an overall perspective, though, affiliate revenues continued to be the big dampener this year. Worldwide, sports broadcasting industry is driven by subscription revenues, and the same model has to now transcend into India. Sports is premium and specific content, supported by viewers who are driven by loyalty to franchises and teams; they will pay top dollar for this quality content. Our underdeclared affiliate system and the pricing regime continues to put the revenue model of the industry under grave threat.

Cricket, which drives the revenue side of the sport, continues to be a financial challenge for all broadcasters. The exorbitantly priced Champions League aside, the rights fees of other cricket events and national board‘s rights continue to hurt the industry as the revenue model in our country (especially affiliate) is not supporting this business.

The 2009 Nimbus deal with BCCI was an indicator of things to come, and the next round of rights biddings will demonstrate the appetite which various broadcasters will have around these properties. In my opinion, these exorbitant prices, unless they reach a win-win ‘Broadcaster-Board‘ equilibrium, will by itself drive more franchise cricket; various national boards will use this opportunity with broadcaster support to build their own leagues consisting of international players. This space will be an interesting one to watch as it will put competing variables at play which the ICC and the member boards will have to grapple with. This is probably the most significant content issue in the industry and will be interesting to watch how it unfolds.

Speaking of Franchises, I think that it is the way most of the sport will move in our country. With the exception of IPL, the other sports viewing in India is mostly around the national teams, and there are just not enough broadcast opportunities to drive viewer commitment and interest.

Also, the overwhelming financial impact of one product will necessitate movement in this direction. I forecast 2011 as the year when we may see two to three big ticket launches of alternate sports franchise driven platforms in India. In the long term, this will be a game changer for the business and will drive our sporting landscape towards a US-based multi-sport franchise system.

The story is not written completely yet, but 2010 demonstrated that the winds of change have started blowing in the business. The actions of local federations, broadcasters and International Governing Bodies in 2011 will determine the way our industry will move forward. Expect big structural changes beginning to happen for the good for the sport and the viewers. The road to that destination is long and winding but the view en route should be exciting.

So sit back and enjoy and watch the action!

January 6, 2011
TV ad revenue poised for healthy growth – MSM president network sales, licensing & telephony Rohit Gupta

2010 has certainly brought the smiles back to the television networks as it has been the best year the industry has seen in the last decade. Ad sales growth rates are expected to be close to 20 per cent, up from the original estimates of 15 per cent made after the first quarter.

The irony is that as an industry, we need to thank the recent economic slowdown since it changed the way clients looked at their overall media spends. They made huge reductions in budgets and the scenario looked bleak for us all, with no quick recovery in sight.

But for me, the big story of 2010 was the rise of non-fiction. Amidst scepticism, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) returned on the small screen – with the original host (Amitabh Bachchan), a revamped format, and a new channel. The programme‘s consistent deliveries on tough weekdays at the 9 pm slot surprised many cynics who thought Sony was flogging a dead horse.

Bigg Boss too reached its best-ever performance, across four seasons. But what caught most by surprise was the incredible opening ratings of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Sony. Truly, the fiction vs. non-fiction divide is not the way we have known it till 2009. It is far more balanced today.

In a highly cluttered environment characterised by ever-decreasing loyalty levels, the role of marketing became ever so important. If a new non-fiction show did not generate enough buzz when it launched, it stood very little chance of resurgence. However, for fiction the resurgence could come over weeks, as content evolved. Many fiction shows opened to good numbers but struggled to hold on, while many others showed consistent growth on the back of powerful content.

Clients wanted more accountability – they needed maximum impact for every rupee spent and television was the only medium which gave them those efficiencies and better ROI as it delivered by far the lowest cost per contact across various media platforms.
There was accountability for every spot that got aired and suddenly marketing heads and agencies started seeing television in a more positive light. Discussions shifted from a 10-second rate to more value creation. Big money shifts started to happen from other media like print, outdoor and below the line marketing budgets to television as all other media showed negative growth. Television was the only medium with a positive growth during this period. I say this with a lot of conviction as during this period I was in close contact with all the large advertisers. The fact that we close to doubled our IPL revenues in the worst economic scenario goes to show the power of television.

The continuous growth, the C&S households and the very positive trends in the DTH business will continue to fuel this very aggressive growth in our business and help the profitability of broadcasters, in line with other industry trends. Acquiring content, whether it is sports‘ rights, movie rights, reality shows and even the basic daily fodder of soaps has seen costs reaching alarming levels. This increased profitability will eventually lead to better quality of content reaching out to the millions of viewers.

Also, the overall increase in households every year will continue to help the industry grow at a dynamic pace for many more years, like it did for us in 2010. What was heartening to see was that overall trading levels across all genres went up substantially during the year with the exception of news.

We are currently seeing an overall increase in the size of our market, with the Indian economy at its best and GDP growing close to 9 per cent. This has prompted large segments like the FMCG to increase their marketing spends substantially. Increased competition in the telecom industry has spurred a growth of overall spends and has also opened up a huge new category for us in the handset business.

Other categories like consumer durables and automobiles no longer spend only at festival time, but advertise across the year. One more interesting fact is that despite the large number of channels within each genre, there is still room for growth for everyone. Next year, despite two large sports properties back-to-back (the World Cup and IPL) pulling away over Rs.15 billion from the market, other genres will continue to grow at a healthy rate. This would not have been possible a few years ago.

A key look at some of the main genres:

Hindi GECs – This genre will continue to grow and be the main revenue driver for broadcasters. Like last year, we expect trading levels to grow continuously based on the reach it delivers to media. There will be further consolidation here as this is an expensive business and only the fittest companies or those with deep pockets will survive.

Impact properties will continue to propel the growth in this genre and the industry expects new benchmark rates to be set. We saw this happening on KBC this year and for our network we now have two channels – Sony and Sab- figuring in the top 5 in this genre.

Sports – Previously major growth in this genre would only be seen when a cricket World Cup happened. This is not the case any longer and it has now become a huge genre with the coming of IPL, four to five India series and some ICC tournaments taking place every year.

In this segment also rates will continue to grow as cricket continues to deliver on media plans. We are also seeing more brands now using Cricket as their core medium for communications. IPL has expanded the overall advertiser base for cricket as large FMCGs are now taking big positions on the league and are no longer restricted to only brands with a male TG skew.

Hindi Movies – This has been a rock steady genre for a long time and revenues have been growing at a consistent pace over many years. In 2010, despite a minor drop in overall viewership, the revenues were not impacted. Over 80 per cent of the revenues are still controlled by the top three players -Max, Zee Cinema and Star Gold, despite some new players entering in the last couple of years. Trading levels in this genre have been traditionally low but that has changed and the genre now operates at the same levels as the GECs.

Regional Channels – This genre has significantly consolidated its position over the last few years and now contributes close to 30 per cent of the overall revenues. Apart from the southern states which were the mainstay for this genre, Bengali and Marathi saw substantially high growth rates last year. In the south, Tamil continues to dominate, with Kannada doing extremely well last year.

English Language Genre – This genre across the Movie, Entertainment and Infotainment segments has seen a massive growth this year which will not only continue well into the future but also be a key genre to reap the benefits of digitization. An increase in the number of homes with a 2nd television set and greater penetration of DTH in the metro markets will benefit all channels, as there is a substantial growth in the SEC A & B segments of viewers, that most large brands are now targeting. An increased affluent middle class population is a key consumer of this genre. Another big consumer of this segment in the metros is the youth which is also a key segment for most brands.

Kids‘ Genre : This segment has not witnessed the dynamic growth seen in other segments. The leading players have been losing their audiences to GECs. This has impacted their overall revenues which have only seen a marginal increase this year. The kids‘ channels need to develop compelling content to win back their audiences in order to achieve the high growth rate they have had in the past. Herein lies a great opportunity for them to increase their stake in the pie.

News Genre : From the quarterly financial results as well as from my personal discussions with media agency heads, it is evident that the news channels have hit troubled waters. I am sure the senior management of these channels must have had numerous brainstorming sessions over the drop in revenues. English news channels seem to be particularly badly hit and are probably heading toward negative growth. However, there is a slight possibility of the Hindi news channels posting a minor positive growth. Personally, as a keen follower of the news, I feel that the channels need to bring back quality news to Indian television and leave the entertainment to the GECs.

Although 2010 has proved to be a great year for Indian television, one question still remains unanswered: Is television still an undervalued medium? My honest answer to this would be: Yes. Approximately 10 million new households are added each year in India, translating into 45 million new eyeballs. Yet, the cost per contact of television remains lower than other key media.

Out of the overall 134 million TV homes, 103 million are C&S homes, of which we only get data for a mere 39 million homes. The balance data from 64 million homes remains unaccounted for. This is representative of the huge opportunity cost that we bear and it needs to be addressed immediately, so that television can get its fair due.

Another cause for concern is the narrow vision of the channels. We tend to concentrate only on our individual businesses, and thus miss the larger picture. The immense potential of this industry continues to go unnoticed

January 5, 2011
“What‘s On” in 2011 . . . And What‘s Not -By Zeel chief revenue officer & head niche channels Joy Chakraborthy

With macro-economic indicators – like a high growth GDP rate and a steady increase in consumer spending – expected to propel media into a 20 per cent plus growth trajectory in 2011, the television advertising industry couldn‘t have asked for a more conducive environment as it embarks on its last leg to become the largest media. As such, 2011 promises to be a defining year, with television expected to grow at above 20 per cent and thereby significantly narrowing the gap with print.

So, what are key trends that will fuel this growth:

•The Hindi GEC genre will continue to be the primary source of audience engagement & entertainment. The reasons behind its popularity have been innovative programming, differentiated content and well thought-out distribution processes. These strategies synchronized well with the unarticulated desires of the viewers who were looking for fresh contents instead of the tedious “saas bahu” sagas.

•Nonetheless, soaps – which have been the mainstay of television advertising – have experimented with certain innovations in the content area and which have yielded positive results. The good news is that content based around social issues are expected to take the viewers engagement quotient to a much higher level. Also, the PLC of soaps has drastically reduced from being an unending saga extending into 5 years plus into a much crisper & shorter version (not lasting beyond 18 months to maximum of 2 years). All these continuous re-inventions will help enhance the interest level of the audience.

•Moreover, to complement regular soaps, celebrity-based reality content is emerging as a tried and tested content formula to develop “impact properties” that engender high audience involvement with regular appointment viewership and also result much higher ad yields. Also, constant experimentations on the various types of “reality” have drastically expanded the width of such content, which – over a period of time – will emerge as an independent genre itself.

•Another form of “impact properties” is the airing of movies by GECs which, by attracting large scale viewership, has emerged as an absolutely high value advertising proposition for clients as well as the GECs. As such, channels are racing towards blocking new releases that have the potential to be monetized.
With all the Hindi GECs now being available across the globe, a new source of international revenue will emerge as a focus area for most multinational clients.

•Regional GECs are neck-to-neck with Hindi GECs, when it comes to viewership share. With the number of regional channels having increased to 150+, ad revenue growth across regionals will gallop at 30 per cent plus, which is well above that of other genres.

•The English niche genre is set to expand with a proliferation of new channels creating a high demand for differentiated content, which will not only boost the television industry into a propitious phase of rapid growth, but also result in an exponential increase in ad rates.

•2011 will be a mega year for sports with the World Cup and IPL being one-after-the-other. With the ad spends being swerved towards cricket – during this period – what remains to be seen is the impact that it will have on the fortune of other genres.

•The music genre – a crowded, highly fragmented and low viewership genre – is all set to expand on the back of rising music acquisition cost which will help create differentiation in content, thereby resulting in channel preference. Nonetheless, as it goes through this process of developing individual channel preferences, the going will be tough for pure music channels as we are likely to see a lot of shuffling in the content and programming to attract the audience.

•Pay TV household is expanding at a faster pace (led by DTH). The greatest opportunities naturally lie in the development of digital distribution platforms for TV such as DTH, digital music, digital media advertising (internet, mobile, digital signage) & global cinema content. Rapid growth in the digital addressable platforms, leading to targeted viewing, will fuel ad revenues to grow at a fast pace.

•With the imminent launch of 3G, content distribution will take a huge leap through a series of co-opetitive advertising initiatives, all of which will create new sources of revenues.

•Sectorally speaking, on the back of a stable economic growth, lifestyle products (like high-end cosmetics, auto consumer durables, etc.) along with financial are expected to be the high growth drivers for the next year.
Not only do the above represent a huge scope of growth but, more importantly, given the ability of the industry to not only leverage emerging opportunities but also to ride series of disruptions (be it technological or economical) – that it may face in the coming year – there surely is no stopping on its march to media dominance.

January 4, 2011

GEC 2011 – Facts beyond Fiction-Ormax Media co-founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor

Over the last two years, since the launch of Colors in 2008, we have come to expect a very dynamic and unpredictable Hindi GEC environment. The year 2010 was no different. Star Plus showed a resurgence in the first half of the year, backed by two successful new launches – Pratigya and Sasural Genda Phool. In the last quarter, Sony‘s rise to the no. 3 position was the big story. KBC, followed by Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, helped Sony inch ahead of Zee TV in what continues to be a see-saw battle. Also helping Sony‘s cause have been its new fiction properties – Saas Bina Sasural and Krishnaben Khakhrawala – and the fact that most of Zee TV‘s fiction launches in 2010 were non-starters, given the expectations set by the channel‘s strong pedigree in fiction content over the last few years.

But for me, the big story of 2010 was the rise of non-fiction. Amidst scepticism, KBC returned on the small screen, with a revamped format, the original host, and a new channel. The program‘s consistent deliveries in a tough weekdays 9pm slot surprised many cynics who thought Sony was flogging a dead horse. Bigg Boss too reached its best-ever performance, across four seasons. But what caught most by surprise was the incredible opening ratings of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Sony. Truly, the fiction vs. non-fiction divide is not the way we have known it till 2009. It is far more balanced today. The table below illustrates this point using data from our product Characters India Loves (CIL). The percentage of respondents choosing non-fiction characters over fiction characters has improved consistently in the last year and a half.

Month	Fiction Share %	Non-Fiction Share %
Sep 2009	80	20
Dec 2009	74	26
March 2010	75	25
June 2010	64	36
Sep 2010	64	36
Dec 2010	62	38
Each CIL study covers 2400+ respondents across six cities in 15-44 yrs. SEC ABC (70% females, 30% males)

In a highly cluttered environment characterized by ever-decreasing loyalty levels, the role of marketing became ever so important. If a new non-fiction show did not generate enough buzz when it launched, it stood very little chance of resurgence. However, for fiction, the resurgence could come over weeks, as content evolved. Many fiction shows opened to good numbers but struggled to hold on, while many others showed consistent growth on the back of powerful content.

The table below lists the top 10 non-fiction and fiction launch marketing performances in 2010, as measured by Showbuzz, which tracks the UA (Unaided Awareness) and TA (Total Awareness) of new shows on television.

Top 10 Non-fiction and Fiction Launches in 2010 (Showbuzz)
Non-Fiction			Fiction
Show	UA	TA	Show	UA	TA
Bigg Boss 4	63	96	Gulaal	38	76
KBC	50	98	Tere Liye	35	87
Khatron Ke Khiladi 3	42	98	Ganga	34	89
DID Li‘l Masters	33	90	Kaali	30	75
Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa	31	92	Behenein	27	92
Indian Idol	30	94	Kaashi	24	71
Rahul Dulhania Le Jayega	25	92	Jamuniya	24	61
Masterchef India	19	75	Rishton Se Badi Pratha	21	79
National Bingo Night	18	78	Sasural Genda Phool	21	74
Zara Nachke Dikha	17	78	Chaand Chhupa Badal Mein	21	73

A lot rides on the first month and a half of 2011. Before the ICC World Cup and the IPL kicks in, Colors will look at making an impact within fiction in 9-10pm. If the channel has to give Star Plus a close fight for the top spot, Phulwa and Mukti Bandhan will have to necessarily deliver good numbers.

Sony has managed a steadily growing year, especially in the last four months. The channel seems set to become a consistent no. 3 in 2011, if its fiction content continues to get stronger, like it has in recent times.

But in all this, don‘t rule out the biggest story of 2010-11 – SAB TV. Breaking every notion of the GEC viewing, the family-inclusive de-stress channel has reached never-before numbers, within striking distance of Sony and Zee TV at times. The way the mood of the country is moving, it will be no surprise if SAB manages to grow further. Comedy, along with reality television, is where the next level of growth lies.

(Shailesh Kapoor is the Co-founder and CEO of Ormax Media, a company specializing in consumer research in the media and entertainment industry.)

December 31, 2010

Indian ad industry to grow at 14% CAGR to Rs 426.9 billion by 2014

MUMBAI: The Indian advertising industry is set to grow at a CAGR of 14.1 per cent to touch Rs 426.9 billion in 2014, says a recently released Ficci-KPMG report.

The report notes that amidst an uncertain economic environment and low industry sentiment that prevailed in 2009, the Indian advertising industry managed to almost sustain its media spend levels of 2008, falling marginally by 0.4 per cent to stay at Rs 220.3 billion (Rs 221.2 billion in 2008) for the calendar year.

With the market picking up in the second half of 2009, the advertising industry is expected to grow by 12 per cent in 2010 to reach Rs 246.9 billion.

“While the worldwide advertising forecast for 2009 was estimated to fall by 5.5 per cent, Indian advertising revenues were not subjected to similar reductions. The marginal fall of 0.4 per cent was not pervasive across media platforms,” the report notes.

Television and Internet advertising managed a growth of 7 per cent and 25 per cent respectively, whereas other platforms registered a de-growth of over 5 per cent.

The year 2009 brought in focus on the bottom line margins and greater consciousness on discretionary spend amongst advertisers.

In segment wise distribution, television is expected to garner a greater percentage of the total advertising revenues and constitute the largest share of the overall media spend eventually.

While print continued to dominate advertising spend in 2009, it lost a fraction of its overall market share to other mediums. Despite a 4.6 per cent fall in advertising revenues, agencies continue to be bullish on print advertising in 2010 and 2011, the report states.

In 2009, with declining spot rates and an increased focus on market expansion, the total number of advertisers increased by 7 per cent on print and 11 per cent on television. Compared to 2008, both regional print and television gained a larger share of advertising volumes while national players marginally lost their hold.
Some interesting points in the report are that the advertising spends by Real Estate, InfoTech, Financial Services, Retail and Apparel sectors fell significantly in 2009 while that by FMCG, Telecom and Education are believed to have increased over 2008. However, the distribution of advertising spends across categories saw some shift. Several FMCG brands including Coke and Pepsi joined the online advertising platform.

Also, IT and Telecom players continued their digital spend while the share of BFSI sector in online advertising volumes declined. Education, which largely dominates advertising on print media, found coverage on national television and radio. The luxury segment which had until recently restricted advertisements to English newspapers and magazines, saw television and OOH campaigns for niche brands such as Mont Blanc.

For other Asian markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Philippines, advertising spend over the last few years has accounted for approximately 1.2 to 3.5 per cent of the GDP. However the share of advertising spends in India remained in the low range of 0.4 to 0.47 per cent. So, with India’s GDP expected to grow at nearly 7 to 8 per cent in 2010, the outlook for the year looks to be more promising with advertising growth returning to double-digit levels.

March 20, 2010
New delivery platforms change dynamics of TV biz

MUMBAI: There is a worldwide shift towards broadcasting on advanced, addressable and interactive platforms. While the session Transforming Television: from HDTV, Interactive TV, PVRS, VOD and Beyond brought points and counterpoints on to the table, there was clearly one theme emerging: that adoption of technology, particularly digitalisation in the Indian context, was beneficial for all.

The panel consisted of Bharti Telemedia Director and CEO Ajai Puri, South Asia Turner International India VP and Deputy GM (Distribution and Business operations) Siddharth Jain, NDS VP and Chief Marketing Officer Nigel Smith, Bridge Consulting founder and CEO Aline Rutily, Quantel director of sales (Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, South Africa and India) Richard Craig, Dolby Laboratories country head Pankaj Kedia and Intel Corporation global media and standards strategist Ravi Velhal.

Smith started off the session with a presentation touching on how new platforms like High Definition (HD) and Digital Video Recording (DVR) had changed dynamics of the business particularly in the US and UK. According to him, a major push is expected in DVR penetration to the tune of 100 per cent of US households and 70 per cent of UK/European households.

Smith remarked, ”Companies that adopted HD in the US grew, while those who delayed in doing so were left behind in the growth path”, proving his point with figures, particularly citing the example of Comcast that lost 575,000 subscribers in one year due to delay in introducing HD TV. In the Indian context, he said, ”DTH will change advertising in India”.

Commenting on future market changes, Smith named addressable advertising (sending adverts targeted to the viewer group), advanced user interfaces and interactivity as game changers.

Demonstrating how technological advances may change TV watching and online interaction, Velhal quipped, “Computing, communication and content are converging”.
Rutily provided the French example, saying that IPTV had caught on quickly in France and that presently one out of four households in France have IPTV after its launch on 2002.

The Indian digitalisation push found a strong voice in Ajai Puri. According to him, ”Digitalization is the buzzword for India. DTH will make people buy TVs”.

Puri said that the main hurdles currently were high tax and high cost of content. He pointed out the benefits of DTH saying that the medium gives “over 50 per cent revenue to broadcasters even though it (DTH) covers only 15 per cent of the households. If the system becomes addressable, broadcasters will make a lot more money.”

A fine balance was introduced into the discussion by Jain. He pointed out that broadcasters needed to spend significantly to bring forth the technological changes, christening the latest mediums “beyond television”.

March 19, 2010