Category: Specials

Guest Column: Regulating video in Internet age: Pressing challenges, slow movement

Video markets in Asia, as in other parts of the world, are being swept by a wave of commercial and technological adjustment to the rise of internet-delivered video, frequently referred to as “OTT” television. Unfortunately, in most countries adjustment of regulatory policies by governments is way behind.

Asia’s cities, in particular, are rapidly being wired for broadband connectivity. In developing countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India a broad digital divide has opened, with major urban areas enjoying improving connectivity and the countryside still reliant on more traditional modes of video delivery to consumers.

That divide is a problem needing attention, but in the meantime urban populations, at least, are enjoying a “sweet spot” of improving broadband and adequate disposable income to pay for services consumers want. As a result, they have become the object of a “race to serve” on the part of video providers on every scale:

• Traditional pay-TV operators are upgrading their VOD offerings and broadening device access to include smartphones and tablets.

• At the same time, new entrants are seeking to construct the right content offerings at the right price to win over consumers. Major global providers (Netflix and Amazon Prime) entered Asia during 2016, and immediately were confronted with the need to adapt a global approach to Asian realities (including lower price points).

• A raft of regional Asian OTT platforms have expanded their offerings (including Viu TV, Hooq, IFlix, and Catchplay), alongside a plethora of locally-oriented offerings (like Hotstar, Dittotv and Voot in India, plus Toggle, Monomaxx, Doonee, USeeTV, MyK+, etc., in Southeast Asia.)

These market developments have significantly ratcheted up the pressure on governments, who are seeing more and more consumers migrate to lightly-regulated (or totally unregulated) online content supply, and away from the heavily-regulated traditional TV sectors. Governments are in a quandary – most do not wish to impede their citizens’ access to global information sources, but at the same time they see evident challenges to long-established policies for content acceptability, broadcaster licensing, taxation, advertising etc. At the extreme, “pirate” OTT services happily locate offshore, respect no rules and meet no obligations of any kind (not limited to copyright authorization), all the while reaping millions in subscription and/or advertising revenues. Local content industries are crying foul.
This very unbalanced competitive landscape causes deep damage to network operators, content creators at home and abroad, and investors in local economies. In general, it isn’t possible to subject online content supply to outdated “legacy” broadcasting rules, so alternative solutions have to be considered, including self-regulatory approaches (which can gain acceptance from legitimate OTT suppliers, if not the pirate scofflaws) and lightening the burdens on existing players.

So far, despite various governments in our region trumpeting a desire to update regulations to suit the digital age, only piecemeal measures have been adopted. Several “major policy reviews” in places like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have produced thin gruel in the way of concrete adjustments. That said, to policymakers’ credit, there are now a few examples showing how existing rules can be lightened to allow licensed video providers to give consumers more of what they expect, in the internet age. South Korea relaxed rate regulation on cable TV operators so they could compete more fairly; Singapore eased its content censorship on VOD over pay-TV networks, to more closely match the approach used for online content suppliers; Vietnam allowed pay-TV providers to construct their own content offerings with different foreign channels instead of hewing to a single national content list.

So a start has been made, but there remains a huge work to be done; a vast thicket of taxes, licensing rules and interventionist regulation constrains licensed pay-TV providers throughout Asia and these burdens will have to be reduced to attract investments for modernizing network infrastructure and developing local content offerings. Even governments for whom this is not much of a current issue can see the future coming: more and better broadband is on the way for Asian consumers, and like viewers everywhere they will be looking to view their content online.

Unfortunately, ingrained habits die hard. Hong Kong’s regulators are wasting energy in a fight with major broadcasters over whether product placement in programming is too prominent; TRAI is going the wrong way – actually seeking to extend and tighten rate regulation on digital content when supplied by traditional cable operators; Thailand – eager to justify the high bids for digital terrestrial licenses – levies burdensome “must carry” rules on cable and satellite operators; Indonesia’s content regulators are pushing protectionist “made in Indonesia” rules for ads on traditional TV platforms. (Who looks at prices charged, products touted, or ad origins for online content?)

A better approach is reliance on self-regulatory systems wherever possible. Many issues (e.g. product placement, ad origination, content guidelines) should be the object of clear rules negotiated by industry bodies which can be applied by the respective players to online and offline networks. The ad industry is very accomplished at doing this; in the UK, for example, advertising self-regulation is being extended to online platforms as well as traditional ones.
In another corner of the industry, India’s own BARC is showing well how self-regulatory bodies can wield substantial influence, as it seeks to stem malpractices in audience measurement.
Rarely is the scope of future challenges so clear, as it is for Asian governments looking at the video industry. It is time to move to meet those challenges in a pragmatic and realistic way.

The writer is Chief Policy officer of Hong Kong based media industry group CASBAA. The views expressed are personal and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to them

January 6, 2017
Regulations 2016: Of DeMon challenges, changing goalposts & rampant litigation

The regulatory regime in 2016 not only continued to struggle keeping pace with fast-marching technology (4G is passé, 5G is being talked in some countries), but lack of consensus amongst stakeholders on major issues meant that litigation was rampant, thus leading to changing milestones. It was also about the government trying to enforce censorship via the backdoor and, hence, despite the best of intentions, only average dividends accrued to the media and entertainment sector in India, which is still described as a market with huge potential, but also a challenging place to do business.

The biggest policy (that ultimately turned into a regulatory challenge) initiative of 2016 — some would say the biggest hiccup — was PM Modi’s demonetisation bomb aimed at unleashing a surgical strike on black money and parallel economy in the country that, according to an earlier government narrative, made the poor poorer and gave a fillip to corruption. Debatable long term gains of such a move, notwithstanding, the media industry immediately felt the heat of cash crunch.

As collections from the ground dropped for LCOs, it affected the MSOs too, though many big MSOs insisted that making high-value currency notes illegal from November 9, 2016 could act as a catalyst for LCOs to make their business more transparent.

From an earlier estimate of Rs. 600 crore or Rs. 6 billion loss to the media and advertising segments owing to demonetisation, loss estimates ballooned to almost Rs 300 billion towards the end of the year when most corporate adspends were slashed owing to low on-ground collections. FMCG companies led this trend and are likely to do so the in the last quarter of the 2016-17 financial year too. The cascading effects on all segments made them yelp with pain.

Demonetisation also made the telecoms and broadcast carriage regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) scurry to issue guidelines to facilitate the government push towards a cashless economy. For example, reduction of the ceiling tariff for the use of unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking services from Rs 1.50 to Rs.0.50 and amendment to the mobile banking (quality of service) regulations to increase the number of stages from 5 to 8 per USSD session.

Though the government’s reluctance to interact with the media directly continued throughout the year as government representatives, led by PM Modi, relied more on social media to communicate with the country at large, like many regimes in the past this government too attempted to curb media freedom. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) directive to NDTV India, on suggestions from an inter-ministerial committee, to shutter for a day as a penalty for breaching content code on issues related to national security was one such example.

The government initially tried to justify the move saying national security was compromised by NDTV India, a Hindi news channel, but ultimately MIB buckled under pressure from a large section of the media frat and populace in general to go in for a face saver and the directive was kept in abeyance. However, the message couldn’t have been louder and clearer to not only the media, but also the critics: don’t underestimate the government’s resolve to crack the whip even though the Constitution grants Indians certain freedom of expression and free media be damned.

However, it would be unfair to criticise the government for doing nothing except increasingly crack the whip. As part of overall reforms, the government did liberalise FDI norms for several sectors, including the media, in June. Foreign direct investment limits in broadcast carriage services like DTH, cable distribution, teleports, HITS, mobile TV, etc were allowed up till 100 per cent with certain caveats. Norms for FM radio broadcasts too were liberalised.

Still, foreign or global media players didn’t start pouring money immediately in ops in India. Government data on FDI till September 2016 makes it clear that the media and entertainment sector was not amongst the top 10 sectors where foreign investment flowed in and its share was comparatively small despite liberalised norms and New Delhi’s attempts to further work on ease of doing business in India.

The MIB did manage to shave off to an extent the time period taken to obtain a licence for uplink or downlink for TV channels and teleports, but failed on many counts to be proactive on developing issues (like controversial appointments in several MIB-controlled media institutions and attempted content regulation by non-authorised organisations), for example. Its reactionary approach complicated matters further.

Widely criticised for over regulating the telecoms and broadcast & cable sectors, the TRAI stuck to its avowed and stated aim of attempting to create a regulatory regime that would reduce ambiguities and create a level playing field for all stakeholders.

From trying to deal with issues in a piecemeal fashion (Net Neutrality being one) to smoothening the road ahead for the players via various guidelines and recommendations, TRAI, under chairman RS Sharma, has not shied away from confronting any bull (like Facebook) — some players, however, say it acted like a bull in a China shop.

Whether it was the issue of Net Neutrality or zero tariffs offered by telcos for certain services or tariffs, interconnect and quality of services in the broadcast carriage sector or pushing MSOs on digital rollout or suggesting free limited data to rural India to give a fillip to the digital economy or cracking the whip on mobile phone call drops, or interoperable boxes for DTH and cable TV services, the TRAI has been trying to walk the tight rope between regulations and industry and political lobbying.

But it must be agreed that TRAI has done less of flip-flops compared to organisations like the MIB or ministry of telecommunications and stuck on its stated route to regulation. It also has been talking straight. For example, TRAI could not have been more apt when Chairman RS Sharma told indiantelevision.com in a year-end interview that the regulator has to step in only when industry stakeholders fail to resolve issues amongst themselves. Because the industry has consitently been disastrous on managing this and thrives on ambiguities and rampant litigations, the regulator has had to time and again had to step in to remove doubts, even if that means minimalistic regulations, Sharma opined.

On cue, it seems, towards the fag end of the 2016, Star TV and Vijay TV moved the courts against draft TRAI regulations on tariff, interconnect and quality of services, pleading the regulator could not hold sway in areas where already established domestic and international laws are there. Till further hearing later this month, the Madras High Court directed TRAI to maintain the status quo.

With the digitisation goalpost shifted to March 2017 it is to be seen whether MIB can push through some ongoing reforms and withstand pressures arising out of demonetisation and from political allies.

January 5, 2017
Regulations 2016: Of DeMon challenges, changing goalposts & rampant litigation

The regulatory regime in 2016 not only continued to struggle keeping pace with fast-marching technology (4G is passé, 5G is being talked in some countries), but lack of consensus amongst stakeholders on major issues meant that litigation was rampant, thus leading to changing milestones. It was also about the government trying to enforce censorship via the backdoor and, hence, despite the best of intentions, only average dividends accrued to the media and entertainment sector in India, which is still described as a market with huge potential, but also a challenging place to do business.

The biggest policy (that ultimately turned into a regulatory challenge) initiative of 2016 — some would say the biggest hiccup — was PM Modi’s demonetisation bomb aimed at unleashing a surgical strike on black money and parallel economy in the country that, according to an earlier government narrative, made the poor poorer and gave a fillip to corruption. Debatable long term gains of such a move, notwithstanding, the media industry immediately felt the heat of cash crunch.

As collections from the ground dropped for LCOs, it affected the MSOs too, though many big MSOs insisted that making high-value currency notes illegal from November 9, 2016 could act as a catalyst for LCOs to make their business more transparent.

From an earlier estimate of Rs. 600 crore or Rs. 6 billion loss to the media and advertising segments owing to demonetisation, loss estimates ballooned to almost Rs 300 billion towards the end of the year when most corporate adspends were slashed owing to low on-ground collections. FMCG companies led this trend and are likely to do so the in the last quarter of the 2016-17 financial year too. The cascading effects on all segments made them yelp with pain.

Demonetisation also made the telecoms and broadcast carriage regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) scurry to issue guidelines to facilitate the government push towards a cashless economy. For example, reduction of the ceiling tariff for the use of unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking services from Rs 1.50 to Rs.0.50 and amendment to the mobile banking (quality of service) regulations to increase the number of stages from 5 to 8 per USSD session.

Though the government’s reluctance to interact with the media directly continued throughout the year as government representatives, led by PM Modi, relied more on social media to communicate with the country at large, like many regimes in the past this government too attempted to curb media freedom. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) directive to NDTV India, on suggestions from an inter-ministerial committee, to shutter for a day as a penalty for breaching content code on issues related to national security was one such example.

The government initially tried to justify the move saying national security was compromised by NDTV India, a Hindi news channel, but ultimately MIB buckled under pressure from a large section of the media frat and populace in general to go in for a face saver and the directive was kept in abeyance. However, the message couldn’t have been louder and clearer to not only the media, but also the critics: don’t underestimate the government’s resolve to crack the whip even though the Constitution grants Indians certain freedom of expression and free media be damned.

However, it would be unfair to criticise the government for doing nothing except increasingly crack the whip. As part of overall reforms, the government did liberalise FDI norms for several sectors, including the media, in June. Foreign direct investment limits in broadcast carriage services like DTH, cable distribution, teleports, HITS, mobile TV, etc were allowed up till 100 per cent with certain caveats. Norms for FM radio broadcasts too were liberalised.

Still, foreign or global media players didn’t start pouring money immediately in ops in India. Government data on FDI till September 2016 makes it clear that the media and entertainment sector was not amongst the top 10 sectors where foreign investment flowed in and its share was comparatively small despite liberalised norms and New Delhi’s attempts to further work on ease of doing business in India.

The MIB did manage to shave off to an extent the time period taken to obtain a licence for uplink or downlink for TV channels and teleports, but failed on many counts to be proactive on developing issues (like controversial appointments in several MIB-controlled media institutions and attempted content regulation by non-authorised organisations), for example. Its reactionary approach complicated matters further.

Widely criticised for over regulating the telecoms and broadcast & cable sectors, the TRAI stuck to its avowed and stated aim of attempting to create a regulatory regime that would reduce ambiguities and create a level playing field for all stakeholders.

From trying to deal with issues in a piecemeal fashion (Net Neutrality being one) to smoothening the road ahead for the players via various guidelines and recommendations, TRAI, under chairman RS Sharma, has not shied away from confronting any bull (like Facebook) — some players, however, say it acted like a bull in a China shop.

Whether it was the issue of Net Neutrality or zero tariffs offered by telcos for certain services or tariffs, interconnect and quality of services in the broadcast carriage sector or pushing MSOs on digital rollout or suggesting free limited data to rural India to give a fillip to the digital economy or cracking the whip on mobile phone call drops, or interoperable boxes for DTH and cable TV services, the TRAI has been trying to walk the tight rope between regulations and industry and political lobbying.

But it must be agreed that TRAI has done less of flip-flops compared to organisations like the MIB or ministry of telecommunications and stuck on its stated route to regulation. It also has been talking straight. For example, TRAI could not have been more apt when Chairman RS Sharma told indiantelevision.com in a year-end interview that the regulator has to step in only when industry stakeholders fail to resolve issues amongst themselves. Because the industry has consitently been disastrous on managing this and thrives on ambiguities and rampant litigations, the regulator has had to time and again had to step in to remove doubts, even if that means minimalistic regulations, Sharma opined.

On cue, it seems, towards the fag end of the 2016, Star TV and Vijay TV moved the courts against draft TRAI regulations on tariff, interconnect and quality of services, pleading the regulator could not hold sway in areas where already established domestic and international laws are there. Till further hearing later this month, the Madras High Court directed TRAI to maintain the status quo.

With the digitisation goalpost shifted to March 2017 it is to be seen whether MIB can push through some ongoing reforms and withstand pressures arising out of demonetisation and from political allies.

January 5, 2017
Guest Column: 7 digital trends that will dominate 2017

As a digital marketing specialist, I often get asked by peers, clients and friends alike: “What can marketers look out for in the digital space next year? “Digital is by far the fastest growing medium and we can gear up for exciting times ahead. Here’s a peek at the top digital marketing trends (in random order) that, in my opinion, will reign supreme in 2017.

1. Video, the shining star: Video has come to the fore like never before, with talks of it replacing television even. Video on Demand and Over the Top content on mobile are doing well and marketers will jump on the bandwagon. With the introduction of apps like Sony LIV, Hotstar and Voot performing well, this category is poised for significant growth. Research has shown that the engagement levels of video ads through mobile are significantly higher when compared to television ads. Mobile video ads too are extremely popular and an effective form of mobile advertising today, especially in the case of in-app and native video ads. Live videos especially will see great growth.

2. My mobile strongest: With the 4G entry, increased internet speeds and the 200 million odd smartphone users in India, mobile devices have become a preferred medium to consume content. Mobile advertising is like any other exponential technology and will adorn a large part of the digital landscape in the future. Though it occupies only four per cent of the advertising pie currently, it is almost doubling every year. It could be half of all advertising in about five years. Mobile optimization will be a top priority. Over and above the upsurge in dedicated mobile apps, mobile will also be the best medium to consume local and regional content, which most industry players are attempting to ace.

3. Intelligence goes artificial: Been reading all about Chabots lately? Yes, artificial intelligence has arrived, and will see more traction in the next couple of years. This combined with concepts like robotics and machine learning are set to revolutionize digital and disrupt most industries. It will replace the functions human beings do, not human beings altogether. The best part about machines is that once one machine makes a mistake, no other machine makes a mistake! This makes concepts like voice assistants sound last season.

4. The rise of augmented and virtual reality: The possibility of augmented and virtual reality as an advertising format is exciting, since that pretty much increases the screen size to infinity. Apart from advertising, augmented and virtual reality will go more mainstream and create a paradigm shift in all sectors as consumers seek real life immersive experiences.Pokémon Go gave us a flavor of the same, however reflected only a fraction of capabilities of the concept. Imagine falling off a cliff into a large net with the logo of a particular brand, you will never forget the brand after that experience!

5. Data, data and data: Data is the lifeline of marketers – its actionable insights and analysis form the crux of any brand campaign, not just digital. Technologies that can identify customer psychographics, demographics, behavioral patterns, preferences more and more minutely, will rise rapidly. Visualization and interpretation of the data will be an increasing need. If companies tried hard to crack the consumer code last year, they will try much harder this year. Automation will drive digital – as they say, there is nothing like too much data.

6. About the Internet of Things: Wearable technology will keep looking at reinventing itself to solve more problems, change the way we interact with each other and redefine how businesses target its customers. Smart devices will get smarter as consolidation will be the answer to most services. Product experiences will take centre-stage rather than pushing mere features and capabilities. Innovation will be at its best as marketing attempts to get more real.

7. Social media under the limelight: Research shows that a majority of the millions of Internet users in urban India regularly access social media platforms. Personalized content will gain popularity and users will demand real-time information. Brands will be compelled to shell out more monies in a bid to gain increased visibility in the cluttered space given most have turned to social media for their marketing solutions. Also, social media platforms will eventually provide end-to-end services making it more user-friendly.

The biggest trend, however, is that we are moving from digital advertising to digital age – where digital will play the role of a catalyst and multiplier for every facet of an organization rather than being limited to advertising and communication.

Vivek Bhargava is CEO, DAN Performance Group. The views expressed here are personal and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to them

January 5, 2017
Guest Column: 7 digital trends that will dominate 2017

As a digital marketing specialist, I often get asked by peers, clients and friends alike: “What can marketers look out for in the digital space next year? “Digital is by far the fastest growing medium and we can gear up for exciting times ahead. Here’s a peek at the top digital marketing trends (in random order) that, in my opinion, will reign supreme in 2017.

1. Video, the shining star: Video has come to the fore like never before, with talks of it replacing television even. Video on Demand and Over the Top content on mobile are doing well and marketers will jump on the bandwagon. With the introduction of apps like Sony LIV, Hotstar and Voot performing well, this category is poised for significant growth. Research has shown that the engagement levels of video ads through mobile are significantly higher when compared to television ads. Mobile video ads too are extremely popular and an effective form of mobile advertising today, especially in the case of in-app and native video ads. Live videos especially will see great growth.

2. My mobile strongest: With the 4G entry, increased internet speeds and the 200 million odd smartphone users in India, mobile devices have become a preferred medium to consume content. Mobile advertising is like any other exponential technology and will adorn a large part of the digital landscape in the future. Though it occupies only four per cent of the advertising pie currently, it is almost doubling every year. It could be half of all advertising in about five years. Mobile optimization will be a top priority. Over and above the upsurge in dedicated mobile apps, mobile will also be the best medium to consume local and regional content, which most industry players are attempting to ace.

3. Intelligence goes artificial: Been reading all about Chabots lately? Yes, artificial intelligence has arrived, and will see more traction in the next couple of years. This combined with concepts like robotics and machine learning are set to revolutionize digital and disrupt most industries. It will replace the functions human beings do, not human beings altogether. The best part about machines is that once one machine makes a mistake, no other machine makes a mistake! This makes concepts like voice assistants sound last season.

4. The rise of augmented and virtual reality: The possibility of augmented and virtual reality as an advertising format is exciting, since that pretty much increases the screen size to infinity. Apart from advertising, augmented and virtual reality will go more mainstream and create a paradigm shift in all sectors as consumers seek real life immersive experiences.Pokémon Go gave us a flavor of the same, however reflected only a fraction of capabilities of the concept. Imagine falling off a cliff into a large net with the logo of a particular brand, you will never forget the brand after that experience!

5. Data, data and data: Data is the lifeline of marketers – its actionable insights and analysis form the crux of any brand campaign, not just digital. Technologies that can identify customer psychographics, demographics, behavioral patterns, preferences more and more minutely, will rise rapidly. Visualization and interpretation of the data will be an increasing need. If companies tried hard to crack the consumer code last year, they will try much harder this year. Automation will drive digital – as they say, there is nothing like too much data.

6. About the Internet of Things: Wearable technology will keep looking at reinventing itself to solve more problems, change the way we interact with each other and redefine how businesses target its customers. Smart devices will get smarter as consolidation will be the answer to most services. Product experiences will take centre-stage rather than pushing mere features and capabilities. Innovation will be at its best as marketing attempts to get more real.

7. Social media under the limelight: Research shows that a majority of the millions of Internet users in urban India regularly access social media platforms. Personalized content will gain popularity and users will demand real-time information. Brands will be compelled to shell out more monies in a bid to gain increased visibility in the cluttered space given most have turned to social media for their marketing solutions. Also, social media platforms will eventually provide end-to-end services making it more user-friendly.

The biggest trend, however, is that we are moving from digital advertising to digital age – where digital will play the role of a catalyst and multiplier for every facet of an organization rather than being limited to advertising and communication.

Vivek Bhargava is CEO, DAN Performance Group. The views expressed here are personal and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to them

January 5, 2017
MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

‘Live streaming’, ‘Video on demand’, ‘data crunching’, ‘branded content’, ‘geo-targeting’, ‘digital measurement’, ‘native advertising’, ‘programmatic’, ‘digitisation’, ‘demonetisation’….2016 has generated enough buzzwords for the Indian marketer. So much so that it is hard to place one’s finger on that one thing that defined 2016’s marketing trends. Whatever be that theme, 2016 was definitely a year of disruption.

Certainly it was disruptions galore. Disruption in how the audience consumes content (Hotstar, Netflix anyone?); disruption in how TV is viewed with major push towards digitisation; disruption in what content advertisers pay for (HUL’s Brooke Bond Red Label and the Six Pack Band, Tata Tiago driving TVF’s Tripling); disruption in media planning and buying (Amagi’s Mix); disruption in how we use money (payment banks and e-wallets) and finally disruption in pricing.

One prime differentiator for brands this year was pricing or even no- pricing! The year started with the popular debate on Net Neutrality sparked by Airtel Zero and Facebook’s internet.org. Both had ambitious plans to provide internet across India at zero cost to preferential consumers. These projects couldn’t take off without blessings from TRAI, but differential pricing was also a major weapon used by OTT players in their race to be India’s primary SVOD service.

Not to mention Baba Ramdev-pioneered Patanjali Ayurveda that gave global and incumbent Indian FMCG giants sleepless nights with its highly competitive pricing, even taking over other major advertiser by setting aside Rs 300 crore or Rs. 3 billion in ad spends. The nationalistic flavour that dominated the year further added to the brand’s marketing success.

Patanjali wasn’t the only brand that cashed in on India’s new found nationalism in 2016. Another good example is Bajaj V, Bajaj Automobile’s latest launch in the 150 cc category, a part of steel used in which came from the now-decommissioned Indian navy’s warship INS Vikrant. The long-running and innovative marketing campaign, conceptualised and experimented with long-form content by Leo Burnett, picked up several medals in this year’s awards season.

Nationalism aside, one of the major disruptors that the Indian marketers had to keep up with in 2016 was the Indian government itself. With some 60-odd policy changes throughout the year across various sectors, with remarkable execution time, the government kept the nation — and the markers — on their toes. Demonetisation of high value currency notes being the latest. While one would expect government and its departments to take several months to act on a single policy change, the PM Modi-led government remained exceptionally pro- active throughout 2016 — some critics dubbed it extremely destructive, but that’s another story — including the Star-Up India initiative that would further pump out a new breed of digital brands by 2017.

‘Marketing isn’t magic. There is science to it.’ This famous quote by Hubspot’s social media scientist and award winning marketer Dan Zarrella was felt strongly in 2016. Marketing in India saw a major facelift with increasing stress on technology. Whether it was the rise of messenger apps over social media, FB opening its door to easy and convenient live streaming, chat bots fronting the direct marketing initiatives by new age services, drones becoming the messengers of communication, media agencies putting more emphasis on data procurement and trend mapping through new tools, or AR/VR changing the ball game altogether…. ‘martech’ has taken a leap of faith worth a few decades in just a year. And for once, India wasn’t lagging at the tail end of this disruption. In some cases it was actually in the eye of the storm.

Social media and technology giant Facebook recently announced India as its second most important market after the US and has in fact invested heavily in several India- only initiatives for both its users and brands. The result is that several brands, which were solely dependent on YouTube for the ‘digital video’ aspect of their marketing mix are now taking Facebook seriously. Although YouTube remains the market leader in digital video ad spends, 2016 Facebook has drawn significant attention from brands thanks to the advanced targeting options and different format options it offers with its video service (360 degree, live video, etc). Given the major setbacks that Facebook faced in this market, first with internet.org and then its mistake with measurement figures, this positive acceptance by brands was a major plus.

2016 also saw several major Indian brands dabbling in Virtual Reality. Tata Motor’s virtual desk drive through mass distributed Google cardboards is a classic example. While innovations brought freshness in the sector, it has only set the stage for a more substantial use of VR/AR for marketing in 2017.

When it comes to the start-ups and e-commerce world, the general trend was that of austerity. With cash crunch in the investment world and investors asking to recheck acquisition costs and several start-ups nearing their re-evaluation period, many companies saw themselves moving from GMVs to NPS to measure their value. With their burn rates going down, ecommerce giants couldn’t continue their marketing blitzkrieg as they did in 2015.

While 2016 remained loyal to the ad spend estimates, third quarter saw a major fall in advertising spends across mediums following marketing budget cuts in major FMCG brands in the aftermath of demonetisation. Advertising was the first sector to be impacted due to this government move. Though the effect was felt across the whole medium, cut in television advertising spends accounted to almost Rs 600 crore (Rs. 6 billion) — some estimates put it as high as 2500 crore or Rs 250 billion. Print and out of home were the second most impacted segments. At the cost of over-generalising, the industry has seen a drop of almost 25 per cent in advertising spends in the current quarter. Advertising is also likely to be the last sector to return to normalcy as long as brands continue to treat it as expenditure and not an investment.

Though comparatively digital advertising suffered less due to demonetisation, the digital video saw a major setback, while SEO and other forms of digital advertising managed to stay afloat. Nonetheless, it is imperative that most major agencies would revise their advertising forecast for 2016- 2017 estimates factoring in demonetisation.

It goes without saying that digital became one of the primary mediums of advertising for brands in 2016 with traditional agencies planning major account with the ‘digital first’ as a concept. The rapidly growing digital advertising spends got a major boost as social media planning became a buzzword. Industry experts and senior planners are hopeful that this trend will continue through 2017 with the availability of cheaper and faster data across India. The ongoing dialogue of a cashless economy saw digital brands such as payment banks and e-wallets emerge as a major spender. The government’s push towards cashless transaction of money is most likely to give rise to a new breed of digital brands, which is good news for the digital advertising world.

However, television continued to be the most preferred medium; especially with brands going after maximum reach and engagement. Television in India proved its efficiency as an advertising medium, thus ruling ad spends. But, major media management agencies such as GroupM and Dentsu Aegis Network are moving towards ‘video planning and buying’. Being platform-agnostic is the way forward.

Overall, 2016 started with a good pace but slowed down for the advertising world towards the second quarter. The industry took a major hit in the third quarter and is yet to recover from the demon(etisation) bit. While media gurus are bullish on long-term effects of demonetisation, they don’t have high hopes of the industry returning to normalcy anytime before the end of the financial year.

While the advertising world awaits ‘achhe din’ (a period of prosperity) in 2017, it bid adieu to 2016, the year when marketing and advertising leap-frogged into ‘Digital India’.

January 5, 2017
MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

‘Live streaming’, ‘Video on demand’, ‘data crunching’, ‘branded content’, ‘geo-targeting’, ‘digital measurement’, ‘native advertising’, ‘programmatic’, ‘digitisation’, ‘demonetisation’….2016 has generated enough buzzwords for the Indian marketer. So much so that it is hard to place one’s finger on that one thing that defined 2016’s marketing trends. Whatever be that theme, 2016 was definitely a year of disruption.

Certainly it was disruptions galore. Disruption in how the audience consumes content (Hotstar, Netflix anyone?); disruption in how TV is viewed with major push towards digitisation; disruption in what content advertisers pay for (HUL’s Brooke Bond Red Label and the Six Pack Band, Tata Tiago driving TVF’s Tripling); disruption in media planning and buying (Amagi’s Mix); disruption in how we use money (payment banks and e-wallets) and finally disruption in pricing.

One prime differentiator for brands this year was pricing or even no- pricing! The year started with the popular debate on Net Neutrality sparked by Airtel Zero and Facebook’s internet.org. Both had ambitious plans to provide internet across India at zero cost to preferential consumers. These projects couldn’t take off without blessings from TRAI, but differential pricing was also a major weapon used by OTT players in their race to be India’s primary SVOD service.

Not to mention Baba Ramdev-pioneered Patanjali Ayurveda that gave global and incumbent Indian FMCG giants sleepless nights with its highly competitive pricing, even taking over other major advertiser by setting aside Rs 300 crore or Rs. 3 billion in ad spends. The nationalistic flavour that dominated the year further added to the brand’s marketing success.

Patanjali wasn’t the only brand that cashed in on India’s new found nationalism in 2016. Another good example is Bajaj V, Bajaj Automobile’s latest launch in the 150 cc category, a part of steel used in which came from the now-decommissioned Indian navy’s warship INS Vikrant. The long-running and innovative marketing campaign, conceptualised and experimented with long-form content by Leo Burnett, picked up several medals in this year’s awards season.

Nationalism aside, one of the major disruptors that the Indian marketers had to keep up with in 2016 was the Indian government itself. With some 60-odd policy changes throughout the year across various sectors, with remarkable execution time, the government kept the nation — and the markers — on their toes. Demonetisation of high value currency notes being the latest. While one would expect government and its departments to take several months to act on a single policy change, the PM Modi-led government remained exceptionally pro- active throughout 2016 — some critics dubbed it extremely destructive, but that’s another story — including the Star-Up India initiative that would further pump out a new breed of digital brands by 2017.

‘Marketing isn’t magic. There is science to it.’ This famous quote by Hubspot’s social media scientist and award winning marketer Dan Zarrella was felt strongly in 2016. Marketing in India saw a major facelift with increasing stress on technology. Whether it was the rise of messenger apps over social media, FB opening its door to easy and convenient live streaming, chat bots fronting the direct marketing initiatives by new age services, drones becoming the messengers of communication, media agencies putting more emphasis on data procurement and trend mapping through new tools, or AR/VR changing the ball game altogether…. ‘martech’ has taken a leap of faith worth a few decades in just a year. And for once, India wasn’t lagging at the tail end of this disruption. In some cases it was actually in the eye of the storm.

Social media and technology giant Facebook recently announced India as its second most important market after the US and has in fact invested heavily in several India- only initiatives for both its users and brands. The result is that several brands, which were solely dependent on YouTube for the ‘digital video’ aspect of their marketing mix are now taking Facebook seriously. Although YouTube remains the market leader in digital video ad spends, 2016 Facebook has drawn significant attention from brands thanks to the advanced targeting options and different format options it offers with its video service (360 degree, live video, etc). Given the major setbacks that Facebook faced in this market, first with internet.org and then its mistake with measurement figures, this positive acceptance by brands was a major plus.

2016 also saw several major Indian brands dabbling in Virtual Reality. Tata Motor’s virtual desk drive through mass distributed Google cardboards is a classic example. While innovations brought freshness in the sector, it has only set the stage for a more substantial use of VR/AR for marketing in 2017.

When it comes to the start-ups and e-commerce world, the general trend was that of austerity. With cash crunch in the investment world and investors asking to recheck acquisition costs and several start-ups nearing their re-evaluation period, many companies saw themselves moving from GMVs to NPS to measure their value. With their burn rates going down, ecommerce giants couldn’t continue their marketing blitzkrieg as they did in 2015.

While 2016 remained loyal to the ad spend estimates, third quarter saw a major fall in advertising spends across mediums following marketing budget cuts in major FMCG brands in the aftermath of demonetisation. Advertising was the first sector to be impacted due to this government move. Though the effect was felt across the whole medium, cut in television advertising spends accounted to almost Rs 600 crore (Rs. 6 billion) — some estimates put it as high as 2500 crore or Rs 250 billion. Print and out of home were the second most impacted segments. At the cost of over-generalising, the industry has seen a drop of almost 25 per cent in advertising spends in the current quarter. Advertising is also likely to be the last sector to return to normalcy as long as brands continue to treat it as expenditure and not an investment.

Though comparatively digital advertising suffered less due to demonetisation, the digital video saw a major setback, while SEO and other forms of digital advertising managed to stay afloat. Nonetheless, it is imperative that most major agencies would revise their advertising forecast for 2016- 2017 estimates factoring in demonetisation.

It goes without saying that digital became one of the primary mediums of advertising for brands in 2016 with traditional agencies planning major account with the ‘digital first’ as a concept. The rapidly growing digital advertising spends got a major boost as social media planning became a buzzword. Industry experts and senior planners are hopeful that this trend will continue through 2017 with the availability of cheaper and faster data across India. The ongoing dialogue of a cashless economy saw digital brands such as payment banks and e-wallets emerge as a major spender. The government’s push towards cashless transaction of money is most likely to give rise to a new breed of digital brands, which is good news for the digital advertising world.

However, television continued to be the most preferred medium; especially with brands going after maximum reach and engagement. Television in India proved its efficiency as an advertising medium, thus ruling ad spends. But, major media management agencies such as GroupM and Dentsu Aegis Network are moving towards ‘video planning and buying’. Being platform-agnostic is the way forward.

Overall, 2016 started with a good pace but slowed down for the advertising world towards the second quarter. The industry took a major hit in the third quarter and is yet to recover from the demon(etisation) bit. While media gurus are bullish on long-term effects of demonetisation, they don’t have high hopes of the industry returning to normalcy anytime before the end of the financial year.

While the advertising world awaits ‘achhe din’ (a period of prosperity) in 2017, it bid adieu to 2016, the year when marketing and advertising leap-frogged into ‘Digital India’.

January 5, 2017
Sports TV 2016: Digital explosion, player consolidation & confusion

2016 was a roller-coaster for Indian sports in the truest sense. It was akin to a Bollywood pot-boiler of the country’s sportspersons bringing cheer and applause in various disciplines, including Rio Olympics, to melodrama and suspense of wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s doping issue and whether he or Sushil would represent India to superb action on and off the field (off the field ones involving mostly our politician-administrators and their disdain for rules of the games) to romance to multiple climaxes in a game-changing year that could well herald Indian sports broadcasting becoming a two-horse show with digital media piggy-back riding sports in general.

The year began on a strong note with Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) joining hands with majority Walt Disney-owned ESPN to launch two new English channels, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD. The channels started broadcasting on 17 January 2016 with the Australian Open and going on to telecast several high profile and popular sporting events, both Indian and international, throughout the year. The co-branded Sony-ESPN channels replaced Sony KIX.

Sony’s bouquet of sports channels (Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD) also broadcast the Euro Cup, one of the hottest sporting properties and the second most followed event in the football fraternity after the World Cup. The numbers were good with a league phase match between Italy and Spain garnering as much as 1.7 million impressions on BARC ratings. A quarter-final match between Poland and Portugal, the eventual winners, managed 290,000 impressions. The whole tournament totted up a cumulative TV audience of 62.7 million viewers . The final between Portugal and France witnessed 12.4 million Indian viewers, reaching a peak between 1:00 AM to 1:30 AM on 11 July 2016 with 7.4 million viewers. Kolkata notched up the highest percentage (19.3 per cent) of total viewership followed by Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Aizwal.

For SPNI, which promoted the event extensively and started selling ad inventory six months before the tournament began at a fairly high rate (Rs 250,000 for a 10-second spot) , it was a positive sign for the future of football broadcasts in the Indian market as such rates were unheard of three to four years ago. That Sony was building up to a climax became clear later in the year.

Setting rest to speculations, Sony Pictures Networks announced on 31 August 2016 that it had entered into definitive agreement with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) to acquire the Ten Sports network in a deal worth $385 million. Owned by Taj Television, the distribution arm of ZEEL,TEN Sports operated five channels— TEN 1, TEN 2, TEN 3, TEN Golf HD and TEN 1 HD.

As and when the acquisition is completed— it is subject to regulatory approvals — SPNI’s bouquet of sports channels will be the biggest in India, heralding not only consolidation in a fragmented sports market, but also making the Indian sports broadcast realm a two-horse race (Star India on one side and Sony-ESPN combine on the other) as Nimbus Sports with two channels and few premier events rights (French Open for one) remains a comparatively small player.

The other big gun in the sports arena, Star India added more channels to its sports-channel stable with the mid-July launch of Star Sports Select HD 1 and Select HD 2. The channels will not only widen the Star Sports bouquet, but would also add marketing fire-power to Star India as the new channels were launched to exclusively offer Premier League, Bundesliga, Tennis Grand Slams and Formula 1. What makes the sports scene exciting is that Star India has sunk not only billions of dollars in acquiring strong sporting properties, including rights of Indian cricket, but is also building new properties like India Soccer League and Pro-Kabaddi for both men and women.

But cricket ruled the Indian hearts of Indian fans keeping them on tenterhooks for on and off the field activities. The most successful Indian league, the Indian Premier League or IPL, despite criticism revolving around it becoming stale, continued to rule the waves with addition of two new teams and Vivo coming on board as the title sponsor in a deal estimated to be worth Rs. 2 billion or Rs. 200 crore, marking a 25 per cent increase in what PepsiCo paid earlier for a five-year deal.

According to a few media reports, IPL earned close to Rs 2,500 crore or Rs. 250 billion in revenues, which included TV and digital rights, teams’ sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandising. On social media too, IPL made just the right amount of noise, but it lagged behind last season’s buzz, according to media firm Maxus’ MESH report on the IPL. Overall, IPL2016 generated 3.1 million mentions throughout the tournament in 2016. While IPL 2016 lagged behind in mentions throughout the tournament as against IPL2015, the final week of this season saw a jump of 74 per cent in conversations.

On the TV platform, IPL continued setting new trends. 54 per cent of the total Indian audience remained glued to the event on pay television. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad were the best markets in terms of TV viewing, cumulatively reaching 361 million people. The final, played between Sunsrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, was the most viewed match of the season; getting about 44.68 million impressions. Summed across the five channels over five weeks, the total viewership stood at 1.02 billion BARC impressions, one of the highest-ever in Indian television history.

Year 2016 also saw the rise of `other alternative’ sports or those disciplines that can be kept in a tray where non-cricket and non-tennis games are kept. Pro-Kabaddi League came up with two editions this year. The first edition of the league saw a rise of 36 percent in terms of TV viewership compared to last year. The event was beamed on five channels – Star Gold, Star Sports 2 and 3, Plus Suvarna and Maa Movies, apart from the digital platform of Hotstar, which also saw a 33 percent growth in terms of ‘total minutes viewed’ over the first 11 days of Season 3.

The fourth season of the Pro-Kabaddi League or PKL also happened in 2016. The ratings showed a growth pattern, making PKL one of the prime sporting properties in the Indian market. Star Sports said that the league had seen a cumulative growth of 51 per cent, regularly posting 10 million average impressions that were about 2.3 times higher than last year, turning a rural sport into a cult hit. Time for Bharat to take a bow!

A fairly good show by the likes of pro boxing matches featuring India’s Vijender Singh, Indian Badminton League, ISL and Pro Wrestling League convinced sportspersons, event managers and advertisers that if properly packaged non-cricket sports too can attract viewership, audiences in stadia and generate revenues for all stakeholders.

The year also witnessed the rise of the digital platform, in general, and marketing tactics by them to further increase penetration riding on the craze for popular sports in India. For example, Hotstar bought the digital rights of IPL last year to push its boundaries. While 35 million people had watched the IPL play-offs in the 2015 season, the numbers swelled remarkably in 2016 reaching 80 million. It would be quite safe to predict that there were a billion views on the digital platform this season for sporting events.

Throughout the year, Hotstar’s premium services saw a huge drive to add new members. The registration was kept fairly simple and all major football leagues in Europe and Germany were broadcast on the digital platform. Cricket ODI matches and Tests on Star Sports were broadcast with an average delay of about five minutes, which garnered a lot of traction and spurred downloads of the app.

With Sony LIV giving good competition with El Clasico and other events, it seems popular sports can actually drive the growth of digital platforms, especially subscription-based OTT services. The total watch time on OTT platforms in 2016 went up by 60 percent, driven also by the fact newcomer Reliance Jio started giving away the Hotstar app free to its subscribers.

Proliferation of HD services too (mostly separately and differently priced for consumers), like OTT platforms, joined the gravy train trying to entice viewers through sporting events. For example, Indian fans of the English Premier League were in for a surprise when Star Sports announced that Indians will not be able to watch the matches beyond 31 October 2016; they would have to perforce sign up for the Star Sports HD channel package, which included Star Sports Select HD1 and HD2.

With the arrival of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as players with huge fan-bases and forever-at-loggerheads managers Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, Star knew the Indian following would not diminish — and they were not disappointed. If a consumer subscribed to all the sports channels in HD on a DTH platform, the package would cost approximately Rs. 700 per month. Many ardent non-cricket fans chose the high ticket option, while the remaining moved over to the digital platform as a significant number of live sports events were watched on Hotstar where the premium service cost Rs199 per month.

However, one of the many climaxes, which added to the roller-coaster ride of sports broadcasting in India, involved the sports administrators. BCCI’s continuing face-off with the Supreme Court-mandated Lodha Committee recommendations on proposed clean-up of cricket — buffeted by allegations of match-fixing, conflicts of interests and brazen politicking — could pose a question mark on cricket matches organised by BCCI and their eventual telecasts.

A shadow has even been cast over the 10th edition of IPL too. If the BCCI and Supreme Court don’t come to an amicable solution on former’s defiance and the latter’s hardening of stance, IPL future could be hazy having cascading effects on issues like broadcast rights and on some stakeholders like SPNI, Star India and team franchises who all have sunk in billions of Indian rupees in the juggernaut called IPL and India cricket.

The year may have come to an end, but sports promises to continue providing more excitement. As they say, the match ain’t over till it is over.

January 2, 2017
Sports TV 2016: Digital explosion, player consolidation & confusion

2016 was a roller-coaster for Indian sports in the truest sense. It was akin to a Bollywood pot-boiler of the country’s sportspersons bringing cheer and applause in various disciplines, including Rio Olympics, to melodrama and suspense of wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s doping issue and whether he or Sushil would represent India to superb action on and off the field (off the field ones involving mostly our politician-administrators and their disdain for rules of the games) to romance to multiple climaxes in a game-changing year that could well herald Indian sports broadcasting becoming a two-horse show with digital media piggy-back riding sports in general.

The year began on a strong note with Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) joining hands with majority Walt Disney-owned ESPN to launch two new English channels, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD. The channels started broadcasting on 17 January 2016 with the Australian Open and going on to telecast several high profile and popular sporting events, both Indian and international, throughout the year. The co-branded Sony-ESPN channels replaced Sony KIX.

Sony’s bouquet of sports channels (Sony Six, Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD) also broadcast the Euro Cup, one of the hottest sporting properties and the second most followed event in the football fraternity after the World Cup. The numbers were good with a league phase match between Italy and Spain garnering as much as 1.7 million impressions on BARC ratings. A quarter-final match between Poland and Portugal, the eventual winners, managed 290,000 impressions. The whole tournament totted up a cumulative TV audience of 62.7 million viewers . The final between Portugal and France witnessed 12.4 million Indian viewers, reaching a peak between 1:00 AM to 1:30 AM on 11 July 2016 with 7.4 million viewers. Kolkata notched up the highest percentage (19.3 per cent) of total viewership followed by Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Aizwal.

For SPNI, which promoted the event extensively and started selling ad inventory six months before the tournament began at a fairly high rate (Rs 250,000 for a 10-second spot) , it was a positive sign for the future of football broadcasts in the Indian market as such rates were unheard of three to four years ago. That Sony was building up to a climax became clear later in the year.

Setting rest to speculations, Sony Pictures Networks announced on 31 August 2016 that it had entered into definitive agreement with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) to acquire the Ten Sports network in a deal worth $385 million. Owned by Taj Television, the distribution arm of ZEEL,TEN Sports operated five channels— TEN 1, TEN 2, TEN 3, TEN Golf HD and TEN 1 HD.

As and when the acquisition is completed— it is subject to regulatory approvals — SPNI’s bouquet of sports channels will be the biggest in India, heralding not only consolidation in a fragmented sports market, but also making the Indian sports broadcast realm a two-horse race (Star India on one side and Sony-ESPN combine on the other) as Nimbus Sports with two channels and few premier events rights (French Open for one) remains a comparatively small player.

The other big gun in the sports arena, Star India added more channels to its sports-channel stable with the mid-July launch of Star Sports Select HD 1 and Select HD 2. The channels will not only widen the Star Sports bouquet, but would also add marketing fire-power to Star India as the new channels were launched to exclusively offer Premier League, Bundesliga, Tennis Grand Slams and Formula 1. What makes the sports scene exciting is that Star India has sunk not only billions of dollars in acquiring strong sporting properties, including rights of Indian cricket, but is also building new properties like India Soccer League and Pro-Kabaddi for both men and women.

But cricket ruled the Indian hearts of Indian fans keeping them on tenterhooks for on and off the field activities. The most successful Indian league, the Indian Premier League or IPL, despite criticism revolving around it becoming stale, continued to rule the waves with addition of two new teams and Vivo coming on board as the title sponsor in a deal estimated to be worth Rs. 2 billion or Rs. 200 crore, marking a 25 per cent increase in what PepsiCo paid earlier for a five-year deal.

According to a few media reports, IPL earned close to Rs 2,500 crore or Rs. 250 billion in revenues, which included TV and digital rights, teams’ sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandising. On social media too, IPL made just the right amount of noise, but it lagged behind last season’s buzz, according to media firm Maxus’ MESH report on the IPL. Overall, IPL2016 generated 3.1 million mentions throughout the tournament in 2016. While IPL 2016 lagged behind in mentions throughout the tournament as against IPL2015, the final week of this season saw a jump of 74 per cent in conversations.

On the TV platform, IPL continued setting new trends. 54 per cent of the total Indian audience remained glued to the event on pay television. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad were the best markets in terms of TV viewing, cumulatively reaching 361 million people. The final, played between Sunsrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, was the most viewed match of the season; getting about 44.68 million impressions. Summed across the five channels over five weeks, the total viewership stood at 1.02 billion BARC impressions, one of the highest-ever in Indian television history.

Year 2016 also saw the rise of `other alternative’ sports or those disciplines that can be kept in a tray where non-cricket and non-tennis games are kept. Pro-Kabaddi League came up with two editions this year. The first edition of the league saw a rise of 36 percent in terms of TV viewership compared to last year. The event was beamed on five channels – Star Gold, Star Sports 2 and 3, Plus Suvarna and Maa Movies, apart from the digital platform of Hotstar, which also saw a 33 percent growth in terms of ‘total minutes viewed’ over the first 11 days of Season 3.

The fourth season of the Pro-Kabaddi League or PKL also happened in 2016. The ratings showed a growth pattern, making PKL one of the prime sporting properties in the Indian market. Star Sports said that the league had seen a cumulative growth of 51 per cent, regularly posting 10 million average impressions that were about 2.3 times higher than last year, turning a rural sport into a cult hit. Time for Bharat to take a bow!

A fairly good show by the likes of pro boxing matches featuring India’s Vijender Singh, Indian Badminton League, ISL and Pro Wrestling League convinced sportspersons, event managers and advertisers that if properly packaged non-cricket sports too can attract viewership, audiences in stadia and generate revenues for all stakeholders.

The year also witnessed the rise of the digital platform, in general, and marketing tactics by them to further increase penetration riding on the craze for popular sports in India. For example, Hotstar bought the digital rights of IPL last year to push its boundaries. While 35 million people had watched the IPL play-offs in the 2015 season, the numbers swelled remarkably in 2016 reaching 80 million. It would be quite safe to predict that there were a billion views on the digital platform this season for sporting events.

Throughout the year, Hotstar’s premium services saw a huge drive to add new members. The registration was kept fairly simple and all major football leagues in Europe and Germany were broadcast on the digital platform. Cricket ODI matches and Tests on Star Sports were broadcast with an average delay of about five minutes, which garnered a lot of traction and spurred downloads of the app.

With Sony LIV giving good competition with El Clasico and other events, it seems popular sports can actually drive the growth of digital platforms, especially subscription-based OTT services. The total watch time on OTT platforms in 2016 went up by 60 percent, driven also by the fact newcomer Reliance Jio started giving away the Hotstar app free to its subscribers.

Proliferation of HD services too (mostly separately and differently priced for consumers), like OTT platforms, joined the gravy train trying to entice viewers through sporting events. For example, Indian fans of the English Premier League were in for a surprise when Star Sports announced that Indians will not be able to watch the matches beyond 31 October 2016; they would have to perforce sign up for the Star Sports HD channel package, which included Star Sports Select HD1 and HD2.

With the arrival of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as players with huge fan-bases and forever-at-loggerheads managers Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, Star knew the Indian following would not diminish — and they were not disappointed. If a consumer subscribed to all the sports channels in HD on a DTH platform, the package would cost approximately Rs. 700 per month. Many ardent non-cricket fans chose the high ticket option, while the remaining moved over to the digital platform as a significant number of live sports events were watched on Hotstar where the premium service cost Rs199 per month.

However, one of the many climaxes, which added to the roller-coaster ride of sports broadcasting in India, involved the sports administrators. BCCI’s continuing face-off with the Supreme Court-mandated Lodha Committee recommendations on proposed clean-up of cricket — buffeted by allegations of match-fixing, conflicts of interests and brazen politicking — could pose a question mark on cricket matches organised by BCCI and their eventual telecasts.

A shadow has even been cast over the 10th edition of IPL too. If the BCCI and Supreme Court don’t come to an amicable solution on former’s defiance and the latter’s hardening of stance, IPL future could be hazy having cascading effects on issues like broadcast rights and on some stakeholders like SPNI, Star India and team franchises who all have sunk in billions of Indian rupees in the juggernaut called IPL and India cricket.

The year may have come to an end, but sports promises to continue providing more excitement. As they say, the match ain’t over till it is over.

January 2, 2017

Guest Column: The new gods of digital newsrooms

Modern journalism began in the early 1600s, triggered, as any new vocation or market usually is, by technology, ie, the invention of the printing press. At first, a very crude community narrow-sheet was born, which was circulated to a few households in the vicinity. It took almost a hundred years of slow evolution for today’s broadsheet daily to acquire shape, with a large distribution footprint, photographs and advertising. It took another century for the next innovation in news journalism, the birth of radio broadcasting. But evolution was quicker after that, with television news appearing just a few decades after radio.

Nearly 400 years later, around 1990, internet news disrupted the whole landscape. And that was a seminal turning point for mainstream journalism.

Technology only changes the practices, never the principles of any established vocation – this was the irrefutable wisdom until the Internet turned a million axioms on their heads. Simply put, the principles of journalism – who, what, why, where, when, how, integrity of facts, stringent adherence to the truth, always giving the right of response to the accused/aggrieved – remained inviolable, even as the dissemination medium changed from ink on paper to sound on analogue waves to sound with moving pictures on electronic satellite signals. Technology could never change the principles, only the methods and practices, of telling a news story.

But the Internet did the unthinkable, forcing mainstream journalism to modify its principles. I like to describe the pre-digital era of news as “the voice of God journalism” – the Gods, of course, were the all powerful editors. Since I won my editorial spurs in that bygone era, I too belong to that Tribe of Gods, where every morning, a bunch of stiff guys would troop into the conference room, with pencils and notepads, and decide the order of news stories for the day. It was such a unilateral exercise! “Let’s lead with Gandhi, then do that parliament debate … and just stuff a bit of sports and movies towards the end”. Done. The viewer was a complete “outsider”, her interests were peripheral, because “Gods” had the divine right to mandate the run order of news stories.

I grope for the correct adjective here. Archaic? Anathema? Anachronistic? Absurd? Perhaps all four of these, and a billion more, could be justifiably used if “the voice of God journalism” were to invade and dominate a digital newsroom today. Why? Because a digital newsroom is not a unilateral, linear, one way transmission of stories. In the nanosecond after you publish anything, readers and viewers pounce at it with their likes, hates, shares, comments, denials, corrections, updates, meme tweaks on WhatsApp, cartoon caricatures on Instagram, vociferous protests, loud applause etc etc etc … an intelligent or distasteful cacophony gets lit, and you have to respond to it, agree with it, deny it, debunk it, decorate it, ie do something, anything with it or to it, but you simply can’t ignore it. Because if you choose to be the unmoved, stoic, non-responsive “Godly” editor of the early 90s, you will be out of a job. Pronto.

Let me illustrate with a simple choice that we had to make the other day. We were dealing with two big “demonetization stories” – one was a rather complex unraveling of the tax rules enshrined in the new Income Disclosure Scheme, wherein you would have to pay X% tax/penalty if illegal cash was deposited by Y date; and if you failed to do that, you would be liable for Z additional penalties. The other was a heart rending story of a 75-year old woman, the youngest sister of five brothers.

For the last 50 years, she had kept 250 precious envelopes in her safe, containing cash given to her on bhai dooj. In her world view, that cash was a sacred gift from her brothers, not to be ever spent. Her heart was broken when her son forced her to open each envelope, take out nearly Rs 1.50 lac in notes of various denominations, and deposit them in banks. Her faith was rattled, shaken. What an astonishing human story, capturing the unusual pathos that demonetization has inflicted on ordinary people. In the unilateral, Godly days of yore, the tax rules would have played upfront, while the human interest story would be tucked towards the end, to be soon forgotten. But in today’s digital newsrooms, the story of this rudely disenfranchised 75-year-old woman would gain unrelenting velocity on social media, would whiz around cyber space, getting Facebooked, WhatsApped and Instagrammed, touching the hearts of a million people, instigating thousands of comments/shares/likes.

No God could stem the viral force of this venerable lady’s touching story, which would simply obliterate the dry prose of tax rules, and reign supreme in the world of digital news.

The author is the co-founder and chairman of Quintillion Media, including BloombergQuint. He is the author of two books, viz ‘Superpower?: The Amazing Race Between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise’, and ‘Super Economies: America, India, China & The Future Of The World’. The views expressed are personal and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to them

December 29, 2016