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  • Best moment marketing trends of 2019

    Best moment marketing trends of 2019

    DELHI: Brands have always been serious about their marketing plans. They spend months strategising their campaigns, involve the best of the technicians and talents to aid the creative process, and try to come out with communications that build trust among their target consumers. But the changing times and technologies have transformed this completely. The new-age consumer has the attention span lesser than that of a gold fish, and often ends up skipping the ads that a marketer had spent a good few months of his life in curating.

    The consumer of today believes in living in the moment and brands have to catch them in that exact time span. And this has given rise to an influx of creativity on social media platforms, the second homes of the new-age customers, in the form of moment marketing. While earlier this was fixed for some particular occasions like festivals and elections, year 2019 saw brands leveraging every small and big moment that was breaking the internet. From the series finale of Game of Thrones to the expensive bananas that Rahul Bose had to eat, from Delhi smog to Indian men’s cricket team bowling the ‘pink ball’ for the first time in an international match, everything became a creative field for the brands and their creative agencies.

    On the first day of the year, here’s a look-back on the most interesting moment marketing trends and top brands’ take on it!

    Game of Thrones Finale

    Game of Thrones was probably the best television show of the decade and had became a rage in the meme-world too with its initial seasons. But this year the craze was in multitudes as the show was wrapping up its journey forever. Though the season left many fans and cast members disappointed, the brands came out with some interesting campaigns.

    Johnnie Walker

    Durex India

    Swiggy

    Mother Dairy

    Yuvraj Singh’s Retirement

    Yuvraj Singh is one of the most successful and loved Indian cricketers. The champion best remembered for his iconic six sixes in an over and his incredible performance in World Cup 2011 despite his ongoing battle with cancer announced his retirement from the international cricket in June this year and like his fans, some brands paid their tributes to the star in their own way.

    Zomato India

    Fevicol

    Indigo

    Pulse

    Rahul Bose’s rendezvous with two expensive bananas

    The most bizarre and hence most hilarious trend of the year was two expensive bananas served to actor Rahul Bose by JW Marriott in Chandigarh. As soon as Bose shared the photo of the bill amounting Rs 442.5 online, brands jumped the marketing bandwagon to cash on this momentous opportunity.

    Oyo

    Zomato India

    Amazon Prime Video India

    Arre

    Iphone 11’s triple camera feature

    The launch of every iPhone is a meme fest for the netizens. From selling kidney jokes to takes on no massive updates from older versions, the internet sees it all. But this time, the fodder of the online discussion was the triple camera, which fed the imagination of the brands in ways unimaginable.

    Durex India

    Manforce Condoms

    Shaadi.com

    Embed:

    Swiggy

    Delhi’s Pollution

    Delhi smog is one of the most trending events online for the past many years. The even-odd rule and increased sale of face masks are interesting talk points online. This time, the brands also came up with their creative best inputs to market themselves online in an unconventional manner.

    Manforce India

    Pee Safe

    Policy Bazaar

    Filter Copy

    Onion Prices

    The economic turmoil going on in the country concerned everyone this year. The repurcussions were many including the sky-high prices of one of the basic staples in Indian diet, onion. While it worried all, the brands had their own way of using the situation to their benefit.

    Orient Bell

    HDFC Bank

    Trident

  • How has 2019 been for youth and music category?

    How has 2019 been for youth and music category?

    In its 25 years of running, MTV has set many benchmarks in the youth entertainment genre cementing itself as the Universe of the Young. Undisputedly, India’s No 1 Youth Entertainment Brand, MTV reaches out to over 300 million homes today and witnessed a whopping 20 billion minutes of watch time on TV and VOOT in 2019.

    2019 was a defining year for MTV as it continued to be at the core of all things ‘unscripted’ creating definitive concepts and diverse formats of storytelling. We, at MTV continue to believe in the stupendous power of content that engages, entertains and is platform agnostic. We have not only grown on TV but our consumption on VOOT has grown 3-fold which indicates the exponential growth the brand has seen across TV and digital. As a brand, MTV saw a rise of 30% in watch time on VOOT moving from 6 Billion minutes in 2018 to 8 Billion minutes, this year.

    Our most iconic properties continued to garner eyeballs with Roadies fetching an increase of 37% in TSV (improved time spent) over last year and Ace of Space witnessing a 15% rise in TSV just in its second season. While Roadies had 15% more viewers over last year on VOOT, Ace of Space and Love School saw a jump of almost 100%. Riding on our refreshing concepts, we recorded a sizeable 16% growth in views moving from 627 Million in 2018 to 729 Million, this year. We also witnessed a 200% jump in engagement on social media (67 million to 190 million). With 91% jump in time spent over the last two years, MTV continues to dominate the youth genre.

    Our biggest launch in 2019 was the category innovator MTV Hustle that opened the doors to India’s underground talent and emerged as a torchbearer of music formats. We coupled it with a 360-degree marketing campaign to garner buzz including India’s first crowdsourced rap – MTV Swagtantra for Independence Day and engaging the local community – Dharavi Underground. We also activated Hustle Cypher- a 12 hour on ground + Digital contest across 5 colleges + 1 public location where commoners were judged by Hip Hop heads across 4 cities. MTV Hustle raked in cumulative views of 109 MN on television and VOOT. (68 MN TV viewers + 41MN views on VOOT). That’s a combined watch time of 434.6 MN mins of watch time on TV & digital.

    As for MTV Beats, the viewership share increased to 16% in FY’20 vs 14% in FY’19 with 30% rise in TSV (time spent) across India. Riding on our marquee shows like Baba Ki Chowki, Beats Top 20, we catered to close to 500 million lovers of Bollywood music and triggered the same through partnerships and clutter breaking content.

     MTV also consistently bolstered its efforts in marketing and consumer engagement initiatives and turned 2019 into a year of clutter breaking campaigns, each devised to tap into the young psyche on issues that matter. Our Biryani Emoticon campaign was an effort to unify all food lovers and secure a place in the millennial glossary through a petition. Another successful campaign was MTV Trash Talk, which was an initiative to turn negativity on social media into something meaningful on-ground.

    On World Music Day, MTV Beats along with Vh1 presented India’s first-of-its-kind 24-hour online music festival with 40+ distinguished artists that was very well received by audiences.

     MTV’s success is not limited to the realm of broadcasting anymore. As a creative powerhouse, the channel through its branded content arm MTV Brand Studios enabled brands to create their unique stories keeping audiences at the core. Some of our key properties this year included Lakme Academy presents Winged, MTV Pantaloons Style Superstars, Airbnb Live There and LinkedIn MTV Get A Job. MTV also introduced Esports on television through a partnership with Nodwin Gaming along with innovations in on-ground properties like India Music Summit, Social Nation and Bollywood Music Project.
    Going forward, we will continue to keep onto our ethos of offering engrossing and contemporary content to our audiences, focus on stories that are relevant and explore multiple avenues to get closer to the end consumers.

    (The author is head- youth, music and English entertainment, Viacom18. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • 2019 – A year of high action for the television news industry

    2019 – A year of high action for the television news industry

    Back in the day, a typical morning in an Indian household was incomplete without a cup of tea and a hefty printed newspaper. This might sound primitive to the current generation of digital natives but newspapers were, and, in fact, still are, a key source of news for many people.

    Over the last four decades, television and then the internet has changed the way we consume news. From one state-owned Doordarshan and a handful bulletins in the 70s, we have come a long way. While television is enjoying significant engagement, the mobile-first generation is consuming news through their smartphones.

    The fact that of the 880+ private channels in the country, 45 per cent are classified as news channels is a ringing endorsement of how television continues to be the preferred destination when people want to consume news that impacts their lives.

    News, especially television news is event-driven. 2019 proved to be a defining year for the television news industry as a whole. The year saw some of the biggest attention-grabbing events – General Elections, sports events such as ICC Cricket World Cup, terror strikes and counter-measures, passing away of popular political personalities, landmark rulings and parliamentary decisions etc. This year saw it all and had a large number of Indians watching the news. So much so, that not only English and Hindi news segment experienced high viewership, the entire news genre expanded its total viewership in the television universe.

    Elections clearly drive a strong spike in viewership of news channels. This year’s general elections was a huge event with a staggering 900 million prospective voters, resulting in the largest democratic exercise in the world. According to BARC India, counting day on 23 May brought an all-time high viewership for the English news channels. It alone led to an increase of 90 per cent versus the average of the previous four weeks with over 10 million people watching news in the last week of the elections.

    With the advent of technology, the consumption patterns have also evolved. It has proved to be a disrupting force across sectors and television is no exception. It has changed the way people interact with news while also enabling news channels to explore innovative solutions to engage with their viewers. At News18 Network, our technology platform has a comprehensive back-end catering to the entire content value chain from information collection to processing and presentation and further to distribution to all our news channels& digital/mobile platforms.

    During General Elections, we deployed systems for end-to-end data collection, processing, and dissemination that no other TV channel or media house did. Our massive strength of 1200 on-ground reporters spread across counting centres in the country led to fastest & authentic results. We also brought into play ELEX – A, a technological platform that captures all the relevant data pertaining to voting by the electorate, analyses it and applies algorithms to render a virtual display of a map with factual results. ELEX-A was used to provide viewers with a bird’s eye view of the exit polls and election results plotted over the map of India as AR graphics.

    On the counting day, we deployed ‘Magic Wall’, an analytical tool that uses artificial intelligence for election programming and result presentation. It was developed in association with CNN America. Powered by research done at the constituency level by the extensive News18 network, this innovative tool helped the breakdown of LIVE results based on parameters like demographics, industrial growth, farmer distress, millennial influence, impact of government schemes etc. These factors allowed our network to breakdown and explain the result and its impact on the viewers. This enabled us to present the results fast with impeccable clarity and accuracy.

    Today, integrated broadcast and digital newsroom operations generate a high level of synergy underneath, driving high-energy output for our shows. We have a very engaging line-up of shows and reporting from every corner of the nation. Social media has added another dimension to our reportage and engagement with live viewer interaction. Keeping viewers at the core of our content strategy, we also revamped our primetime line-up on CNN-News18 recently to make it more relevant for our viewers, increase their interaction through crisp news coupled with in-depth analysis.

    As viewers enjoy multiple choices in the news genre, driving loyalty is the key. However, events of national and regional importance and the resulting growth in viewership impact advertiser interest and revenues. The year 2019 has delivered high revenues in the news segment. That said, the effect also depends on the nature of the events. For instance, for general news category, the impact of Elections is far greater than the Union Budget, which is more of a business event.

    Elections are always a period of hyperactivity for the news channels. During this time, the pricing and the advertising fills both went up in the general news category. The counting day phenomenon alone delivered far more eyeballs than the IPL, one of the most-watched and televised events in the country.

    The news genre accounts for around 12.5 per cent of the total TV viewership and continues to be of interest for most categories. The segment not only attracts the male audience – considered the core target audience – but also female viewers who comprise almost 49 per cent viewers, as per BARC.

    News is consumed by influencers and decision-makers across sectors and industries. From CEOs and shareholders to trade audiences and regulators, everyone consumes news. As I said, during elections, viewership from across segments and regions goes up significantly and hence, the segment presents a lucrative opportunity to the advertisers and marketers. It reflects the dynamism and the constantly evolving nature of the television news and the consumers.

    Over 68 crore people i.e. almost eight out of 10 people tune-into News18 Network. Our clutter-breaking content draws viewers which helps brands achieve business and brand objectives. On the back of the scale and the reach, we have been able to provide the advertisers seamless brand integrations in the reportage.

    Moving forward we know that consumer attention will further become a scarce resource. We will ensure that our content delivery mirror’s changing consumption habits across screens – TV or mobile to create an enriching experience for our consumers. We will continue to undertake frequent consumer immersions to identify how they are consuming content so that we can always be part of their conversations.

    (The author is CNN-News18 English/Business cluster CEO. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • Higher investment in content & tech, innovative marketing strategy led OTT industry in 2019

    Higher investment in content & tech, innovative marketing strategy led OTT industry in 2019

    MUMBAI: The over-the-top (OTT) market in India turned more saturated in 2019. To make a dent in the cluttered space, the contenders have significantly upped their game with a greater amount of high-quality original content, incorporating new technologies and increasing marketing spend.

    As per EY and FIICI 2019 report – ‘A Billion Screens of Opportunity,’ the OTT sector in India grew by a whopping 59 per cent in FY2019, growing from Rs 13.5 billion in 2018 to Rs 17 billion in 2019. The sector is estimated to reach Rs 24 billion by 2021.

    How OTT platforms significantly upped investment in content and technology

    While ZEE5 has been bullish on producing original content since the beginning among the domestic OTT platforms, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) CEO Punit Goenka said that the financial year FY 2019-20 will be the year of peak investment for its video on demand (VoD) platform. Throughout the year, ZEE5 launched over 80 originals across languages in the calendar year 2019. In this over-competitive market, ZEE5 stands ahead of SonyLIV by 1.7x, approximately 5-6 times ahead of each the platforms – MX Player, Amazon Prime Video, VOOT and 14x of Hotstar.

    Along with launching a number of Bollywood-starring web-series, bringing back popular franchises in Hindi, the platform had at least one original web series come out in six different languages each month on an average in regional languages including Marathi, Bengali, Telugu and Tamil. As Indian audiences have always been an avid follower of movies, the platform strengthened the movie library as well. While the platform already boasts of over 20 original direct to digital films, it also made Bollywood hits like URI: The Surgical Strike, Dream Girl, Simmba, Sonchiriya, Kedarnath, PADMAN, Veere Di Wedding, Mulk, Parmanu, The Tashkent Files, The Accidental Prime Minister, Judgemental Hai Kya available for its users.

    After banking on catch-up and sports content for a long time, the leader in the Indian OTT pack, Star India’s Hotstar also decided to invest in premium original content. Reportedly, Hotstar jumped onto the bandwagon with a Rs 120 crore investment plan. The primary reason to launch originals is to convert users into paid subscribers in the face of increasing competition. Hitherto, adapting successful foreign shows by infusing local flavours had been an important aspect of Hotstar’s strategy but it is certain that the platform is not going to limit itself to adaptations.

    The traditional player Shemaroo also entered the OTT market in 2019 with its new platform ShemarooMe. The platform launched a host of new and exciting properties to keep the audiences entertained throughout the year including Shemaroo Bollywood Premiere, Shemaroo Comedy Studio, Shemaroo Bhakti Studio, Komal Nahta…aur ek Kahani, Mantlya Manat, etc.

    Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd COO Kranti Gada said that ShemarooMe’s Bollywood Premiere, the offering that showcases World Digital Premiere of critically acclaimed movies every Friday, was launched in September 2019 and has received positive response from not only the audiences but also the actors and the teams involved in the making of the films.

    “Shemaroo has seen a loyal base of audience as well as manifold growth with the increase of more varied content. Content is the only factor that lures viewers to any OTT platform or deters them,” Gada added.

    Times Internet’s MX Player, which entered the market in February 2019 after re-invention, also created a buzz with originals like Hello Mini, Immature, CheeseCake, Thinkistaa and Queen. International streaming giants are also looking at rich local content library to make their games stronger in India. Reportedly, Amazon Prime Video is looking to double its original content offering for India.

    At the same time, Netflix chairman and CEO Reed Hastings recently said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that the company is looking to invest Rs 3,000 crore for original content in India this year and the next. He also added the top-performing Netflix shows from India include Sacred Games, Little Things, and Delhi Crime. He highlighted Mighty Little Bheem, since its release in 2019, has been watched by 27 million households around the world, including in Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Since launching here four years ago, Netflix has licensed hundreds of Indian films and shows, and invested in over 40 originals.

    According to a MediaPartnersAsia report in July 2019, ZEE5 holds 44 per cent, Amazon Prime Video holds 17 per cent, Netflix holds 11 per cent, SonyLIV holds 10 per cent, VOOT and Hotstar hold 9 per cent each of the cumulative original content hours for OTT in India.

    To retain users and advertisers on the platforms, all the major platforms highly emphasised on better user experience. The way ZEE5 made its content strategy stronger, it made significant investment in technology too. The platform launched a one-of-its-kind industry-defining ad-suite, the ad:tech solutions for advertisers. The offering hosts tools likeAmpli5, Ad-vault, Infonomix, PLAY5, Wishbox.

    ShemarooMe entered into an in-app travel partnership with ixigo, app in app partnership with Dainik Bhaskar, and made the platform available on Roku. According to Gada, the availability of the channel on Roku devices further strengthened ShemarooMe’s presence in the US market by offering its vast library of Bollywood and regional language content to the Indian diaspora residing in the US while it did a global launch after seven months of its domestic launch.

    “2019 for the digital streaming industry was a revolution with multiple shows being launched, and many platforms experimenting with new technologies and new business models. 2019 also saw the rise of gamification for the non – fiction shows that were tried as a successful experiment with at least two other platforms. However, they have been for network-related apps with shows being broadcast simultaneously on television. The crux lies in independent apps adopting this to engage audiences with their Original content as a scalable model. It also saw the OTT platforms experimenting with influencer marketing, AI and VR filters, microbloggers, VR innovations, extensive usage of UGC apps etc,”  ALTBalaji senior VP and head marketing  Divya Dixit said.

    In a recent interview withIndiantelevision.com, MX Player CEO Karan Bedi said that the platform has invested a lot of money on video compression which means that the amount of video the platform can deliver in 1GB data is much more than others. Bedi added that buffering or latency is much lower on the platform which translates into lower cost for the user and the platform. He also added that the platform has also been investing a lot in recommendation systems.

    PwC, in its 2019 annual report – ‘Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023,’ estimated that the Indian OTT market will grow to Rs 11,976 crore by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 21.8 per cent. During that period, India is also slated to be the eight biggest OTT market overtaking South Korea.

    How streamers innovated the marketing strategy

    “All the OTTs in India are suffering from a similar issue which is to get the audience to pay wholeheartedly for content. On top of that, very few OTTs have been able to create attractive content. People have also followed the GEC mantra in OTT advertising. Basically, you know like take a show and cluster it across. The most remarkable thing is the absence of remarkability,” McCann Worldgroup vice chairman and managing director Partha Sinha said.

    ZEE5 India SVOD marketing head Reilly Rebello said OTT platforms made communication a lot more contextual while talking about marketing trends in 2019. He added that even radio and outdoor were very contextual to location and geography this year. Moreover, OTT platforms are going on new social media platforms like TikTok, ShareChat, Helo.

    “The third one was that we saw a lot of OTT players going in the outdoor space. We did a lot of outdoor advertising in the first half of the year and it became noticeably larger in the second half of the year. We saw a lot of video advertising happening which was quite a move away from static poster-driven advertising. We emphasised on video and it was not only TV but also social media, YouTube and other OTT platforms,” Rebello added.

    “With each show the challenge is to break the mould and do something new appealing to the audience, Maybe that’s why the skyline of cities is dominated by OTT platforms. Billboards are prima facie an ‘announcement medium’ providing prominence across prime locations in target markets. It helps the vast audience pool notice and register a particular campaign, thereby increasing recall. However, from a show perspective, there are always several factors involved, largely the celeb value, the genre of the show etc. Marketing the show has science in its core element, in a never-seen-before manner. It lies perfectly in sync with adopting new-age technology that appeals to our target audience. If it’s an innovation hoarding, then it doesn’t just grab eyeballs, but registers in the minds of the audience owing to its novel concept,” ALTBalaji’s Dixit added.

    Shemaroo’s Gada commented that with bite-sized video content and emergence of regional social media apps gaining popularity, the industry eventually saw influencers and celebrities joining the bandwagon thereby driving adverting dollars to these new-age platforms.

    Rebello noted that ZEE5 changed the whole advertising game to be more video-focused as people are watching a lot more video. He also added that the measure has given a huge upside in terms of subscription and brand association.

    “We tried making things a lot more contextual. For example in our outdoor hoardings for Rangbaaz every line which has been there was made contextual to the location of the city. We got a lot of good feedback taking this approach. The dialogues are getting more popular. We also started our TikTok presence,” he added on ZEE5’s marketing initiatives.

    Talking about marketing mix, Rebello said that TV and digital hold equal importance as TV still gives most reach. Followed by TV and digital, outdoor and radio gets importance as those two mediums help in branding. He also emphasised on the importance of social media for the overall marketing strategy.

    “We saw many interesting campaigns by McDonalds and Burger King taking on each other through advertisements. Interestingly,  we also saw another form of this back home in India  when Shemaroo seized the opportunity of an ongoing “Masala Nahi Toh Mazaa Nahi’ campaign of Society Tea and placed their OOH hoarding right below the Society Tea hoarding with a continued conversation to say, ‘Toh Masala Chai ke Saath Ek Masala Movie ho Jaye? A unique way to complement each brand’s strength to woo audiences and strike a relevant connection seems natural and organic,” Gada added.

  • OTT India 2019 – key trends and crystal ball gazing for 2020

    OTT India 2019 – key trends and crystal ball gazing for 2020

    While  creating this write up on something that’s as wide and far as India OTT we decided to be as objective as possible and use data to establish and talk about some key trends that we see both unique as well as interesting on how the sector is evolving.

    App Annie is a third-party app analytics tool that provides the starting point to map the market within the limitation of the methodology that they use. While it cannot be a gospel of truth, its a good indication of trends. Hope you find this useful high-level dynamics.

    Some caveats and assumptions that we have made:

    • Data is App Annie for Jan-Dec 2018 and Jan-Oct 2019 extrapolated for Jan-Dec 2019

    • SVOD classification: including Telco, International and few independent apps

    • AVOD/Freemium classification: including Broadcast and other independent apps

    1. How does the India OTT market compare with some of the countries emerging OTT markets?

    • In terms of the # of OTT players India continues to be the most competitive in the world.

    • In India, while a few players seem to have stopped reported by App Annie they have been replaced by another set of new players keeping the total number of players to 33 as reported the same vis-a-vis 2018

    • The India market continues to be represented uniquely by all 4 segments of players – Broadcasters who have risen well to the challenge, International players with deep pockets like Netfilx, APV and Apple TV, the telcos and finally a large number of independents like VIU, Balaji Alt, Eros Now, HoiChoi.

    • Other territories are less competitive (or benign?) vs India OTT with the International players dominating in most markets. With exception of the MENA region, hardly any broadcasters participating as vigorously as in India

    • Crystal Ball Gazing: It will be interesting to see how much consolidation accelerates in 2020 with Disney Plus and more activity from the defenders?

    2. How has the India OTT market progressed vs 2018 on downloads and on consumption?

    • The number of downloads has remained flat vs 2018 but the Minutes Consumed increased by 64%. Is there some sign of maturity and loyalty setting into the behaviour of the consumer now?

    • Indians are consuming on an average 118 billion minutes per month consuming on OTT apps in the country. Clearly that’s coming at the cost of more traditional video sources.

    • We don’t think OTT will kill TV but the challenge is now very real and visible. Is potential finally turning to reality?

    3. The most polarising part of the OTT business. What is the interplay between the SVOD and the AVOD services?

    • Downloads growth is flat between the two segments. On Minutes growth, the SVOD services seem to have made gains although they still lag the AVOD / Freemium in terms of absolutes.

    • Clearly the paying or free trial customer is making full use of the SVOD access. Depth of content, highly visible shows in terms of promotions by the SVOD players like Netflix and APV seem to be winning customers.

    App Annie data also indicates how skewed the market is towards the top cluster. In terms of minutes share, 90% of the total minutes is contributed by 6 apps with the remaining 27 players giving 10% of minutes share. These top OTT apps by minutes share are:

    While 2018 was a year of making a splash with never before seen production mounting on the OTT space, heavy marketing spends to support these launches 2019 did come across to be a year of and consolidating. Focus on revenue and recovery of investments (real profitability is still some time away) was high.

    Some bets on 2020:

    • Original content launches will be the flavour of the season with all the effort and our suspicion is that the hours of content here will rival that of a GEC channel producing and releasing first run content.

    • Regional will continue to grow. More regional OTT launches – be it from broadcasters or from International players will be seen and there will also be a few independents like in the case of Telugu launching services.

    • The “for whom” will assume a stronger accent on content productions. More TG focused web originals will emerge instead of GEC style of content catering to a wider base

    • Technology driven by personalization, AI powered discoverability to unearth content specific to viewers will take on a deeper play.

    • SVOD players will innovate on pricing or payment mechanisms to deepen penetration, AVOD players will push for innovation on monetization beyond inventory to realise their reach potential

    2020 promises to be a tough year for the players but an exciting one for consumers who will continue to be spoilt for choice.

    (Vishal Maheshwari is country manager, and DS Ramakant Raju is associate director, growth marketing at Viu India. The views expressed are their own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

     

  • Despite maximum internet shutdowns, digital advertising enjoyed heyday throughout 2019

    Despite maximum internet shutdowns, digital advertising enjoyed heyday throughout 2019

    DELHI: Year 2019 was a tough slide for the advertising industry in India. The traditional model suffered because of the ambiguity over new tariff orders and the sector jumped into a reeling spiral because of the economic crunch. But there were not many hurdles to stop the magnificent growth of digital advertising. Despite 95 internet shutdowns, digital advertising in India reportedly grew 30 per cent during the year. Elections and World Cup were added bonuses. Obviously, digital marketers have their year closing on brighter notes.

    “2019 has been an interesting year for digital marketers. From the rise of augmented reality and video content to voice search and influencer marketing, this year the trajectory of digital industry has only gone up,” says White Rivers Media CEO and Co-founder Shrenik Gandhi.

    Madison Digital chief digital officer Vishal Chinchankar is pompous as he announces the fantastic year his firm had, “If I look back, Madison Digital had a fantastic year. We grew more than the industry average. After winning more than 10 digital businesses, we launched “DATASK”, our propriety consumer-based targeted marketing and insights platform, designed to identity and define personalised experiences at scale. Along with this, we also launched a suite of performance marketing tools based on algorithmic machine learning. TV Plus planning process was successfully implemented with many clients. We also saw muted spends from categories like BFSI & Auto. It’s been a year of product launches leading to more wins!”

    Logicserve Digital founder and CEO Prasad Shejale tells us that the year was all about positive transformation for his business as they unveiled a new identity for themselves. He adds, “We defined and integrated our core capability areas. This was also the year when we started experimenting much more on integrating data, media, creative, tools & technologies, etc. to provide a holistic approach to our clients’ digital strategy. There was a good addition of leadership talent in our team and we have been focusing on the consulting business as well.”

    However, Mirum India general manager – sales Srikant Subramanian feels that there were some brands who faced some hiccups in taking off, despite the stellar opportunities that digital ecosystem had to offer. He quips, “It seemed like a year where there were several companies who wanted to take the leap and do something different and challenging in a cluttered world, and others who decided to play it safe and stick to the devil they knew.”

    From the perspective of trends and technology, the year saw lots of experimentation. Social commerce gained a lot of popularity. Facebook announced newer algorithms and also came up with a new 10-second ad format called Thumbstoppers, Instagram was equipped with its own business tool , Whatsapp ads were announced, TikTok garnered massive attention with its reach multiplying in the Indian heartland, and regional content took centre-stage. E-tailers like Myntra, Flipkart, and Zomato forayed into the world of video hosting to achieve their targets of becoming integrated experience portals.

    Shejale notes that all of this eventually helped businesses get more gains out of their marketing efforts while also being able to tap the right audiences, through the right channels with the right approach of platform-specific formats.

    Commenting on these trends, Subramanian says, “Instagram for business has had an impact on small digital-first businesses in India and has helped them a lot. In many of our clients that we work with it hasn’t had too much impact. 10-sec ads of course have had a positive impact on spending on FB as they now compete with YouTube and offer the marketer a new option to play with aside from the 3-sec option from earlier.”

    He mentions another interesting trend that gained popularity within the year, which is of marketers looking at behind the scenes tools for data modelling and checking behaviour of their audiences before they launch campaigns.

    Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal sharing her thoughts on the popularity of influencer marketing elaborates, “Influencer marketing became an indispensable part of the marketing plan for every brand. It was one of the most visible easily paid word-of-mouth and a tool to create new content every year. The biggest trend this year was the selection of influencers via various influencers' tools based on Engagement Rate and a mere follower base. The second was the movement from Instagram to Tiktok; a lot of brands saw a shift in their choice of influencer strategy. Tiktok is going to be the biggest social platform in 2020 too. With the rise of TikTok, brands found the way to interact with the next million internet users and NCCS B, C, and D.”

    The industry is well-positioned for an even better 2020. With Gen-Z taking centre-stage in most industries, digital consumption is expected to multiply and thus there is huge scope for digital agencies to perform.

    Gandhi is positive that 2020 is going to be a game changer for digital marketers. “With a plethora of new trends and challenges on the way, the coming year will help businesses in gaining a competitive edge, generate leads and improve the relationship with their existing customers,” he says.

    Subramanian believes that restricted budgets and a mixed economy feeling will lead clients to focus on business outcomes on digital. He adds, “We will see more integration between traditional mediums and the use of geo-targeting for those campaigns to deliver maximum impact.”

    Zirca CEO & director Neena Dasgupta quips, “Digital advertising, in the coming decade, is going to be filled with challenges as well as opportunities. For instance, the last few years have seen video consumption grown tremendously. But with shorter ad formats in the video space, brands have been challenged creatively requiring them to be very dynamic while showcasing their creative brilliance. I also see AI playing a greater role. Whoever manages to balance the aspects of efficiency with creativity will rule the roost.”

    Shejale mentions, “Looking forward to seeing increased spends on digital marketing. Focus on data-backed and insight-led solutions that are more likely to perform well and provide improved results. Amplification of technologies like AR, VR, Voice, etc and integration of these for offering unique experiences to consumers.”

    Chichankar adds that the internet population is expected to cross 750 million mark in 2020. Speaking about trends, he says, “Video, voice should continue the growth story. I am personally very bullish about the content consumption and share of advertising growth on OTTs. While Madison has already put the protocols to mitigate ad frauds and viewability, the industry needs to be more cognizant about it.”

  • 2019: Media and entertainment deals that did not happen

    2019: Media and entertainment deals that did not happen

    MUMBAI: Can the mainstream media get it right?

    That’s a question we, at indiantelevision.com, asked through the year. 

    Canards, canards, canards, and more canards are what we read in the mainline dailies.

    Of course, it cut across politics, business, lifestyle, and what have you. But the business press got it so wrong time and again through the year.

    Journalists wanting to scoop each other came out first with a piece of news about a development, which was still to be born.  They were doing their jobs, and hence it made for interesting updates and information. But mostly it made for great merriment, gossip and entertainment. And of course, it impacted the price of the stock on the exchanges.

    We waited expectantly for the development to become a reality, but after promising time and again, it did not. It was a guessing game through the year: “It’s happening; it’s not. It’s happening, no, it’s not.”

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) was in the spotlight for much of the year . Talks were on between various interested suitors as the Zee promoters worked hard, looked high and low to get out of the tight spot they found themselves in. Their stake in Zeel had been pledged with institutions for funding to diversify and invest in infrastructure and grow as a group. The investment went sour as the infrastructure sector fell into a downward spiral.  And lenders wanted the money back or they would sell the pledged shares, was the fear. The Zeel promoters had a specific time to find alternative partners to bail them out, and  the amount was a hefty Rs 12,000 crore.

    Reports appeared that the Zee had cut a deal with Comcast; it was done or would be done soon, went the press.

    Then news reportedly surfaced that Sony Pictures Networks too had thrown its hat into the ring. A binding offer being received by Zeel from Comcast- Altairos-Lupa Systems was another story that broke; Zee spokespersons denied this was true in the same report.

    Following that with no deal falling in place the newspapers positioned the family as helpless and lost, with investors getting impatient and possibly offloading their equity. Finally, the biz press also said that the Subash Chandra family would be evicted as they would be left with a minority position in the company as investors were not happy at all with the tardiness of the family’s search for money from potential partners. One report said Chandra had left the country – a laughable proposition, knowing the man. Chandra is known to face the bullets and pay the price, no matter what and how much.

    Fast forward to the end of 2019  and none of the predictions came to pass.  

    Instead what happened was that the existing investors in Zeel stepped in to lend the family cash so that they could pay off their creditors and free themselves to focus on the business. The Zeel board then re-elected Punit Goenka as CEO for the next five years. Yes, some independent directors did resign, as did Subhash Chandra as chairman. The latter action was one of the more graceful ones we have seen in corporate India where promoters have stayed stuck to their seats after running their banks and firms to the ground, refusing to go, no matter what the opposition from the board or lenders of institutions. Here, Chandra’s act was voluntary, hence it is worthy of praise.

    But the investors showed faith and confidence in the family by putting down cash on the table and re-electing Punit. Sources, of course, indicate that Chandra though not holding the title of chairperson is still helping in giving direction to the top management at the company from the outside.

    For patriots who want businesses to be controlled by Indians, it was a happy turn of events. It meant that there is a great chance of the family fighting back and possibly over time getting back majority control.  

    Development No 2:

    Airtel is buying Dish TV India to create the world’s largest satellite company with about 39 million subscribers. These headlines ran in the biz press on more than two occasions.  On the first occasion, it said that talks died down because the Goyal family was not happy with the valuation that was being talked about: Rs 30-Rs 35 a share as against the expected Rs 45 or so the reports said.

    Earlier the same media had praised the acquisition of Videocond2h by Dish TV and soon after they were lambasting the deal.  Nonetheless, the M&A  buzz started again soon  Zeel promoters made their announcement that existing investors were helping the company in their times of difficulty.

    Of course, nothing of that sort developed even as Christmas was ending. Jawahar Goel the big boss of Dish TV India got re-elected as chairperson of Dish TV.

    Both Airtel and Dish TV had to issue notices to the exchanges that both companies continue to explore options for their business without confirming or denying whether a deal had been structured or was in the works.

    Observers believe it may never materialise. But we don’t want to add to the speculation that we are accusing the mainstream media of.

    Development No 3:

    Sony is merging its India entertainment operations with Mukesh Ambani’s TV18 ran the masthead in some publications to create a new entity.  They even detailed the deal structure: sony would keep 51 per cent of the new entity, Viacom 24 per cent and the Reliance group 25 per cent. It would be an all-stock deal, said the articles.  And the deal would be announced by 9 December when the senior management was scheduled to visit Mumbai’s famed Antilla home of Mukesh Ambani. It almost seemed like the deal was a certainty. 9 December has come and gone. No announcement has come. We are not saying it may not be realised, but we have to understand that deal-making is not just a shoo-in. That two parties – in this case, three – will agree to terms by just a snap of their fingers. Deal-making takes presentation, search for partners,  negotiation and agreement and then closure.  All through the process, one has to keep a cast-iron stomach, a stony face; squeamishness can be a deal-breaker.

    Who knows? 2020 may see the parleys between the three bearing fruit

    But until the organisations come out clean and make an official announcement: the Sony Pictures and TV18 will be in the realm of fictional imagination.

    Of course there were many other speculative stories that struck the media world wherein the hacks got it wrong. But these were some of the top highlight-able ones. Hope you had a good time reading them.

  • Indian animation 2019 – the year of highs

    Indian animation 2019 – the year of highs

    2019 was a great year for the Indian animation industry. What a wonderful culmination of a decade which saw the complete transformation of the industry. Today we are at the cusp of a creative revolution. There has been a proliferation of media platforms and content consumers are spoilt for choice. The resulting increase in supply has peculiarly resulted in increased demand and consumption, thereby giving rise to more such platforms and more opportunities all round. A recent report by KPMG pegs that the Indian animation and VFX industry, which now stands at $1.23 billion, will more than double in size to $2.6 billion in the next 5 years.

    2019 was a year of highs for the industry. After being declared the most popular Indian television show in the world by Google, Motu Patlu, Cosmos-Maya’s flagship IP, was immortalized in wax at the Madame Tussauds museum. The year also saw the launch of Cosmos-Maya’s Bapu, the first-ever IP in this space based on Mahatma Gandhi, commemorating his 150th birth anniversary. Green Gold Animation’s Mighty Little Bheem became the second most-watched original series globally on Netflix in the Kids’ category. When a homegrown franchise which is with a pay-TV broadcaster like Turner takes the original route with Netflix, you know that winds of change are blowing.

    In addition to the above, there were giant leaps in terms of the evolution of storytelling, where major franchises are being planned. Cosmos-Maya’s Motu Patlu spinoffs, Inspector Chingum and Guddu were launched on Disney and Amazon Prime Video respectively. Both these IPs followed a ‘Digital First’ approach where it was envisaged that these first air on a major OTT to propagate the IP, and then on Pay TV to increase eyeballs manifold. Also, in the normal run of things, where OTTs spend big to get original and exclusive content on board, they are now preferring to air content which is already running on a different platform, thereby leveraging the placement of an IP.

    The current digital scenario is very promising. WowKidz, Cosmos-Maya’s YouTube network, has been a big benefactor of this digital growth. WowKidz today has more than 35 million subscribers and 16 billion views. An average of 75,000 new subscribers are added daily to the mix. The reason is simple. Close to 650 million Indians have access to internet services today. Smartphone penetration has reached the 500 million mark. When we look at the breakup of India’s animation production pie, 53.5 per cent is digital’s share. This is driven by content viewing on mobile phones in a country which has mostly single TV households. TV has 30 per cent share in India’s animation production pie but still has the maximum reach.

    For content creators like Cosmos-Maya, both platforms are equally lucrative. If the brand is big, Digital and Pay TV can end up being similar partners. A situation very unique to India, today TV and OTT are both growing in the country and there is a beautiful co-existence of both. Animation is transcending boundaries in this regard.

    Speaking of transcending boundaries, 2019 also heralded a new trend. Cosmos-Maya’s ‘Selfie With Bajrangi’, one of the highest-rated and most popular shows has made its way into a general entertainment channel through Star Plus, which from an industry perspective is a welcome change because animation has always been an under-indexed category with low ad rates, in spite of its GRP contribution being in line with some of the most popular categories. The year also marked the ‘Bring in Bollywood!’ era. IP’s like Golmaal Jr with Nickelodeon Sonic, Fukrey Boyzzz with Discovery Kids capitalized on the popularity of the Golmaal and Fukrey franchises.

    Another important trend which Sony Yay! started off is the airing of their content in 7 regional languages. Speaking here from a more holistic perspective, though OTT players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hotstar, Zee5, Alt Balaji among others, are producing more and more regional content to tap on as many users as possible in the country, TV still dominates here. To add more perspective, OTT is yet to penetrate rural India, which has always been a big traditional media market. TV is a god-sent for rural folk who make up around 70 per cent of Indian population.
    On the global front, Indian animation content reached almost all corners of the world. To quote an example, our non-dialogue show Eena Meena Deeka is aired in more than 50 countries today.

    International co-productions are becoming big and we have captured newer frontiers in this regard as an industry. There were times when only a bunch of people who would attend international markets from India to discuss co-production possibilities. Today, dedicated Indian delegations attend these markets. Hence, the scope has increased exponentially. 4 of Cosmos-Maya’s co-produced international IPs have been ‘glocalised’ and will air in Hindi on a major broadcaster. To quote an example, Berry Bees, one of our biggest co-productions, an all-girl IP, with Atlantyca, SRL and Telegael will air as The Dabangg Girls in India, thereby giving it an Indian soul and yet retaining its original charm.

    2019 also saw the $ 2 billion giant in the form of the Indian ed-tech industry being given a push by animation. A major need gap exists between the education and entertainment industries and we identified it. Cosmos-Maya has the animation mandate of the ed-tech unicorn BYJU’s, which has also tied up with Disney. Entertainment to empowerment, through the power of education, is a mass phenomenon.

    While this decade for Indian animation belonged to Entertainment, the next ten years will belong to education.

    (The author is CEO, Cosmos Maya. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • A view of the trends in Hindi mainstream cinema in 2019

    A view of the trends in Hindi mainstream cinema in 2019

    2019 was a great year for Hindi mainstream cinema starting with Vicky Kaushal’s Uri: The Surgical Strike, based on the Uri attack of 2016, which did over Rs250 crore net box office.

    And somewhere it is ending with Dabangg 3 , which has underperformed and opened at 5th position this year, behind Ayushman Khurana’s Bala .

    What’s happening here since the last 3 years in Hindi cinema is a renaissance of a certain kind.

    To me it’s the classic buffet v/s a-la-carte menu- earlier a meal out was always to a buffet place- value for money meant getting a variety, didn’t matter if the menu repeated itself – butter chicken, dal tadka, palak paneer , papad pickle .. but now the audience prefers an a-la-carte, curated menu. ( It can still be the butter chicken and dal tadka, with a twist and served with the most authentic kulcha that does not come from a cookie cutter.

    2019 has further proven that formulas don’t work. What’s clearly working is unconventional storylines coupled with a few more important aspects of storytelling.
    The audience really wants authenticity coupled with entertainment. Indian audiences are reacting positively to the shift to show more local content that represents them and provides wholesome entertainment. 
    The audience is not relating to films on just who the star is- they don’t care if it is big or small as long as the films represent what they have set out to tell , with honesty, quirkiness, and relatability.

    Success is being witnessed with biopics, patriotic and multiple small star films in 2019 and ones that show unseen flawed characters played by lead actors..

    Rajkummar Rao has played the lovable, desi, non sophisticated , wearing- his- emotions- on- his- sleeve- hero to great effect. No six packs abs, no conventional hero looks- just sheer acting prowess bringing hours of joy to the audience. “Vicky Pleeej” has charmed the hearts of the staunchest propah English speaking audience. 

    2019 further brought dialogue delight . We started the year with 'How's the Josh?' which was quickly followed by 'Apna Time Aayega.' These dialogues connected with the audiences and will stay on even after the year ends. 
    Localised dialects are also becoming more of a norm with authenticity being key to how audience member responds to a film. Be it the Mumbai slang we see in Gully Boy, or the accents that show us the universe of Dreamgirl, the more specific the dialogues are, the wider its mass appeal. 

    Kabir Singha, the Telugu remake of Arjun Reddy became a blockbuster. Personally I have an issue with the subject, but the film also worked because it was authentic in terms of its characters. The flawed titular character in the film, who even though is scary with his violent streak, struck a chord with the masses.

    At the same time, stories that come from a real, personal space like Chhichhore, did well- backed again by authentic characters , with its soul in the right place and a story that resonated and entertained 

    Besides authenticity and entertainment, the emotional foundation in a film should be strong and relatable and this renaissance we are witnessing shows us that films withrealistic emotional depth work brilliantly – Article 15, Gully Boy also proves that. 

    Akshay Kumar, the only actor besides Ayushman Khurana who has had a long run of hits , set a new trend for himself and Hindi cinema by doing unconventional storylines.
    Khiladi Kumar had an unforgettable 2019 with three consecutive hits so far, each of which was a different genre film. He started the year with the historical film Kesari, which garnered him rave reviews and great collection at the box office. This was followed by the real-life Mars' mission-inspired Mission Mangal, which had an ensemble cast primarily dominated by female actors. The movie won the masses again with a timely release over the Independence Day weekend. His last film Housefull 4, the fourth instalment of the comedy franchise, quickly became a super hit partly because of the uniqueness of the story itself. The actor's last film of the year would be the family entertainer Good Newwz, which is also being touted to win hearts with its uniqueness and humour. 

    A huge trend that will continue to work is heartland heartland heartland- this has proven to be the cash cow, as audiences are charmed by the language the setting the humour and the stories themselves.

    Ayushmann Khurrana, has created a huge die hard audience base by bravely playing flawed, insecure men with confidence issues much to the delight of writers, directors and producers who can now look at the so-called hatke films with dollars in their eyes.

    If 2018 showed Khurrana’s range as an actor, 2019 showed his talent at drawing numbers at the box office with each of his three films – Article 15, Dreamgirl, and Bala. With every film being as different as it can get, Khurrana managed to pull a coup with his idiosyncratic characters. Each of Khurrana’s films delved into a socially relevant and yet unique idea which given the numbers, audiences strongly related with. He even managed to draw crowds in the Chinese multiplexes with his 2018 release Andhadhun, which released in China this year and minted $45 million at the box office.

    This takes me to what Vijay Sethupathy has done for Tamil cinema, similar to Khurana – playing comical, vulnerable and flawed characters.

    The underdog that is unapologetically exposed, is worth every rupee.

    War is not part of this trend, but then War’s trailer kept its promise- bromance, high class sophisticated action, sex on toast, bronzed Hrithik and Tiger—and a film that held it all together. The audience got its bang for their buck… at an average Rs 300 it was truly worth spending 3 hours in the cinema hall.

    There is also the learnings from what didn’t work- Kalank, Student of the Year 2, amongst many others. The learning were- top stars, great opulent sets, fantastic songs and choreography cannot ensure box office success. The film needs to touch hearts , make people laugh, be genuine and written really well. And no amount of marketing can take the place of the powerful word of mouth. 

    The Indian audience is smart, sassy and knows value for money. 

    In terms of the business side of things, 2018 saw steller performance in the box office revenues which grew by 12.2% to reach an annual revenue of Rs 174.5 billion. Of this amount, the domestic film revenues crossed Rs 100 billion with net box office collections for Hindi films at Rs 32.5 billion – the highest ever.
    Thirteen Hindi films reached the Rs 100 crore mark in 2018, the highest number the industry has ever seen. Multiplexes added to the total screen count to reach 9,601.
    A major reason for this exponential growth is digitisation and the infusion of over-the-top (OTT) platforms.
    Specifically, the digital revolution has created a tectonic shift in content consumption in India. In keeping with the global digitisation trend, OTT platforms invested heavily in acquiring exclusive rights to cinematographic films.
    2019 will also be a growth year- growth coming from the unconventional and from Khurrana.  But to me finally, any film, that makes the popcorn taste better, is the one to watch. 

    (The author is senior VP, creative and production at Kross Pictures. The views expressed are her own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)
     

  • Peak TV and the year of the sheroes

    Peak TV and the year of the sheroes

    A barrage of shows from across the globe has left a thin line between pampering and spoiling our consumers for choice. It, infact, nudged the coining of the term, Peak TV.When John Landgraf, the King of FX, at an industry event for TV critics uttered the phrase “Peak TV”, he was trying to address a problem, a problem all of us face in our lives these days … WHAT TO WATCH? He was only trying to get our attention to the fact that with the volume going up, audiences will find it difficult to find good shows they can enjoy. There is so much of good television around, that at times it is exhausting catching up to these shows.

    New streaming services will add to the existing list of services already present in the country from the ever-popular Hotstar to international services like Amazon Prime and Netflix. 20+ OTT players, pivoting business models, regional explosion, self-censorship, and the classic AVod vs SVod debate will continue for the time to come. In the West, Christmas came early to content lovers with the arrival of 2 more platforms Apple TV and Disney Plus. In this battle of the giants, we will see a few smaller platforms perish and the strain on niche English TV channels will only continue to grow in India. But I am not going to jump onto numbers of platforms and who stands where and who caters to what. As famously said, people watch shows not channels and so I am going to stick to what shows made news this year. But is a burnout in the horizon and will the hyper competition see fewer active players in 2020?

    “Sheroes in Spotlight”

    It’s been the year of the “Writer” along with the Year of the “Female hero”. From Phoebe Waller-Bridge picking up outstanding lead actress to outstanding writing for a comedy series to writing the new Bond Franchise  and Susannah Grant’s “Unbelievable, it’s been a definite year of the Female Hero, whether she has been in front of the camera or behind.These women have been behind some of the biggest hits of the year. Big Little Lies, Watchmen, Dead to Me and Glow Russian Doll were all shows led by female stars. But,also do imagine a year forcontent, where one forgets to actually talk about the last season of Game of Thrones or the last year of the 3 Masterchef Judges.

    If in 2018 Wild Wild Country was the standout documentary series, 2019 was the year of the Fyre Festival and Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood-testing technology company Theranos, who went from the tech industry's darling to a pariah in just a matter of years. The streaming giants have exposed us to series of documentaries in 2019 from the ever popular All or Nothing to Drive to Survive or the much awaited docu-series on the Australian Cricket Team. Hopefully, these shows will continue to pave the wave for more docu-series, a genre which is under serviced in nature. It couldn’t reinforce Peak TV any better, not only is there an explosion of scripted content but also genres like documentary series which have added to the ever-expanding wish list.

    The 200 million TV homes market

    If anyone remotely thought the streaming hype and the world of OTT will dent the ‘bhagya’ of the popular soaps, they were mistaken. Even in 2019, we have an ‘Icchadari Naagin’ that continues to garner attention on primetime television sharing space with Yeh Rishta and Kumkum Bhagya. India will continue to remain a single screen market for the time to come and nothing will take away Indians from their staple diet of daily mother in law and daughter in law drama. This drama will continue to fold in front and behind the TV for the years to come. The mobile screen is going to compliment the TV screen, but not replace it in the next few years.Along with mainstream television, regional television is flourishing whether it is the nth year of the popular Marathi Show Chala Hawa Yeu Dya or the popular Tamil daily shows. The staple diet for most viewers is their daily soaps, which are complemented by the popular big-ticket shiny floor shows with big names like Salman Khan on the weekend on Bigg Boss, the popular TV format Big Brother is now in its 13th season or KBC which is now in its 11th season with megastar Amitabh Bachchan. These shows continue to rule weekends for the audience while the bahus take care of weekdays.

    This is what makes India such an exciting market to work in for content producers. At one end of the spectrum, you have Taarak Mehta, Kundali Bhagya, and Kumkum Bhagya to a small show like Little Things that explodes suddenly as a Netflix original in season 2 to Family Man and Made in Heaven picking up all the accolades in their debut season. Delhi Crime was a standout female cop drama on the backdrop of the Nirbhaya case.

    The phrase Peak TV suits India very well, with the mega bucks IPL cricket tournament attracting millions of eyeballs in the summer has made Hotstar a name to reckon with among the streamers in India. There is just so much to watch in these months with Cricket and Kabaddi leagues mushrooming in India. Hotstar launched its set of originals this summer in the middle of IPL and 2 shows that became household names were the popular BBC Drama series Criminal Justice and the popular Israeli drama Hostages, both launched with the same names in India. 

    The obsession of franchises will not fade so easily, whether it is Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Love Lust and Confusion 2, Nagin 4, Inside Edge 2, the yearning to attract audience in a cluttered market will always remain high. This hype supersedes the reality in this Indian market.

    The Chinese year of the pig has ended well for Hotstar and it abodes well for the theme of the “Sheroes”.Out of Love starring Rasika Dugal has emerged as an outright winner in the year, based on the popular BBC Drama series Dr. Foster, starring Suranne Jones who won the Bafta in 2016 for Best Actress. The show has put Rasika Dugal on the top of the list of female actors in the country and has only strengthened her case after Delhi Crime and Mirzapur. The real pleasure after watching this series lies in the fact that a powerful female protagonist is at the center of it all and the series has not treated the character like a victim, which not many players were willing to experiment with, at least with Indian originals to begin with.

    Will the audiences continue to be pampered with more quality shows? Will mainstream TV get their ratings mojo back? Will English cluster in India survive the heat from the streaming giants? Will mobile phones become replacement devices? Will more platforms launch content services? A lot will unfold in 2020.

    Let’s see what content choices it leaves for us in 2020 from being a year of sequels like Family Man, Delhi Crime, Mirzapur, Hostages, Criminal Justice, Out of Love to Peak TV staying  for a couple of more years, only time will tell.

    (The author is business head, Productions BBC Studios. The views expressed are his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)