ITV

Category: Specials

  • 2014: A year of improved subscriber numbers

    2014: A year of improved subscriber numbers

    The year 2014 has been better than the previous year, in terms of the share of numbers for all direct to home (DTH) players. Subscriber additions were higher and there was more stability in the overall industry. In terms of price discounting, people were more rational through the year. Overall, it has been a much better year than 2013.

    Increased subscriber numbers and ARPU

    Overall additions in subscribers, for all the DTH players, were higher in the magnitude of 25-30 per cent than the previous year.

    That apart, the churn came down substantially, not only for Dish TV, but for all the other DTH players as well.

    2014 also saw a rise in the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). But there are still problems, since the whole cable TV system hasn’t stabilised and gross billing hasn’t been fully implemented. Though, we do see some encouraging signs, in terms of people getting down to doing that now.

    DTH has been able to take price increases through the year. There was a price increase which took place in April, at the magnitude of 8-9 per cent. But the big collection from the ground will happen only once cable TV gets its act together.

    Different people calculate ARPU differently. For example, Dish TV calculates it on subscriber revenue, whereas Airtel Digital TV, as per its published figures, looks at gross numbers, and so do others. So there is no common matrix being used across the industry for definition of ARPU. But having said that, at the consumer level, the consumer prices are in the average price range of Rs 250-275.

    Challenges in 2014

    One of the major challenges that we continue to present to both the state and central government is on the high level of taxation on DTH. Apart from the taxation element which we have been presenting, we are the only industry which is subject to service tax and entertainment tax. While we were hoping for some relief in the last budget, we didn’t get that, we hope we will get some relief in the coming year.

    Secondly, there is no clarity on the licence fee issue, even though the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued a recommendation, there has been no action on that front.

    So while we lived in continued uncertainty in 2014, we hope that the government will take some steps in 2015. People have invested more than Rs 25000 crore in the industry, so at least we have the right to know what the law of the land will be going forward.

    The new launch Zing

    It has been an extremely successful product in all the geographies we launched. The specific proposition that we had, which was regional first and targeting the entire product mix around consumption has clicked very well with the customers. So we are very pleased with the way things have come.

    Highs and lows of 2014

     For Dish TV, it has been a fairly stable year. We regained our share leadership for about last three to four quarters. We launched a significant and tactical product in Zing which has helped us capitalize on the phase III and IV areas. The high point has been that we have been able to, post the balance sheet adjustment that we did last year, been able to get back on the growth path, which is what we have always said and we achieved that in 2014.

    The low point is at two levels: At one level, the whole issue of taxation and licence fee kept dragging for the whole year. Secondly, we expected the cable TV and broadcaster system to stabilize the whole regime. The whole issue of getting proper addressability and customers to actually choose and compare products has still not happened.

    Delayed Digitisation

    First and foremost, the manner of digitisation needs to be addressed. What has happened in the first two phases is simply the change of pipe. This has not been supported by addressability and that is the reason there has been no or marginal change in the revenue flow.

     Until and unless these issues are addressed, a non-addressable digitisation is of no help to anybody, neither to the government nor the stakeholders. We hope that by the time they get down to it, we will have some better roadmap of how to achieve that.

     

    (These are purely personal views of Dish TV CEO R C Venkateish and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views)

  • The year of improved sports marketing and production

    The year of improved sports marketing and production

    The year 2014 may have seen a few new leagues coming up but cricket very clearly rules the roost both from an on ground and on air perspective.  While gap between cricket and other sports have shortened, it’s still quite significant.  Indian Super League (ISL) has begun well with aggressive marketing and managed to garner eyeballs for Indian football. ISL has also garnered encouraging response from advertisers. For the first time a non-cricket sports has more than six central on ground sponsors.  Though lot of work need to be done in the grass root development of football, it’s been a great beginning considering its first season.

    Moving onto FIFA, the market in India for the sport is growing every four years as can be seen from the last three editions.  We have beaten the benchmarks of 2010 in 2014. It also generated lot of hype that helped garner newer audiences and fan base. Overall football, as a sport is growing and FIFA being the biggest football tournament has managed to score on all counts. The cumulative efforts over the last five to eight years, by  FIFA, European Soccer Leagues and the broadcast community backed by audience desire to see a more local flavor of football has helped in the formation of the ISL. 

    The surprise package of 2014 was the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), a pleasant surprise I must say. It was a league which was very well marketed and packaged with fantastic production value. While everyone thought of Kabaddi as rural sports, it’s quite interesting to see viewership numbers ticking from metros.  Looking forward to season 2 of PKL with a hope that it continues to attract audience and build stickiness.

    Indian Badminton League (IBL) launched in 2013 with top international talent and lot of fan following, missed the show in 2014. Hope to see IBL back with bigger and better show in 2015. The Hockey India League (HIL) also showcased fabulous production quality and packaging. HIL has also managed to grab reasonable response from advertisers till now. Currently with the fabulous winning performance of team India, in 2015 we would like to see a better marketing of HIL to attract and hold audience attention.

    The Champions Tennis League (CTL) and the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) both failed to generate buzz because of lack of marketing efforts. CTL has been a bit disappointing with respect to the production value, while IPTL’s production was world class. Expectations from IPTL were quite high considering the participation of big current stars and legends like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Serena Williams etc…. Aspirational and emotional connect with IPTL was very high for the fans who have been following tennis for more than two decades. It was like a dream coming true to see the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Serena Williams or even Sania Mirza playing in India. There was high interest in fans to go and see their heroes play live and get to meet them or get a closer glimpse of them.  But would that translate into TV viewership is something we will have to wait and watch. Therefore while CTL’s structure is towards building affinity for tennis as a sport with a hope that more Indian start playing the game. IPTL is clearly going after the experience of getting up and close with the big international stars and ride on their popularity to garner eyeballs. However considering the structure of both leagues, the overall objective of both leagues is little unclear.

    Marketing and production values of these sports have been a key highlight this year.  Sport marketing in India has been ahead of the curve in terms of marketing and production value. Great production values along with a greater thrust on marketing has led to a stronger audience and advertising interaction.

    ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is the biggest sporting event in 2015 and will continue to attract audience in large numbers. The advertising pie will grow and be bigger than 2011 as other sports are still catching up and are in the development phase.

     

    (These are purely personal views of GroupM ESP national director entertainment sports and live events Vinit Karnik and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views)

  • 2014: The year that changed landscape of distribution

    2014: The year that changed landscape of distribution

    2014 has been the most exciting and an eventful year for us in the Media and Distribution Industry. The phrase “There is never a dull moment” is so apt to define the year of 2014 that changed the landscape of distribution so significantly and posed challenges like never before. The year started on a promising note for the Industry with the impact of digitisation settling down and the benefits of this shift starting to roll in. Reduction in carriage fees and an upswing in subscription revenues indicated change, yet the industry continued to grapple with implementation of packaging at the retail level.

    Value chain as a whole moved towards a more structured form, with constituents at each level moving from an adhoc/ flat fee commercial arrangement to CPS model. Subscription flow from LCO to MSO which was significantly low in analog era started growing. Wider choice at the subscriber end also helped growth in ARPUs.

    One of the biggest changes that shall significantly impact the distribution model is BARC becoming a reality. It is set to redefine the way all of us look at distribution. Expansion in LC1 markets and forthcoming BARC measurement is pushing every broadcaster expand visibility to the deepest, darkest corners of the country. Such is the scope of expansion that it will require any organisation 24-30 months to plan, execute and brace one of the biggest change in the history of distribution.

    DTH industry saw a major shift this year in their outlook towards the business. Almost all of them moved away from the customer acquisition mode to better profitability. While the story of subscriber acquisition was not exceptionally different over the previous year, DTH companies managed churn, HD and ARPU increasingly well.    

    No other year has seen a bigger storm than 2014 in the Regulatory environment. There were so many storming changes that touched every stakeholder in the distribution chain. TRAI came out with regulatory changes like Disaggregation, DAS phase III and IV, Commercial establishments and Ad-Cap. The new regulatory environment posed new challenges such as keeping partners together, protecting bottomline revenue and remaining relevant in the new regime. Postponement of digitisation in phase III & IV caused recalibration of business plans by all stakeholders. TRAI’s regulatory change for commercial establishments affected an entire revenue stream of broadcasters and the matter continues to be fiercely litigated.

    Going into 2015, we strongly believe the industry will undergo some paradigm shifts in the way we do business. Implementation of RIOs in cable will see packaging in cable become a reality. Digital platforms hence shall compete effectively. Carriage fee, a big cost for broadcasters will get reduced to miniscule or only exist for FTA channels. HD and broadband in cable will see a big swing to drive revenues significantly for the cable companies. More interesting deals like DEN-Snapdeal shall emerge. DTH players shall equally bring about next level of offers to bring more value to the subscribers such as OTT, 4K boxes, TV Everywhere, and Binge viewing being offered to the consumers.

    For us here at IndiaCast UTV, the year 2014 was equally exciting. In face of compelling challenges, we en-cashed on the opportunities to attain significant growth. There is ample evidence that we are moving forward and in the right direction. In light of disaggregation, IndiaCast UTV was successfully appointed as the authorised agent for TV 18, Disney UTV and ETPL and the broadcasters reposed full faith in the our team. Transcending these regulatory changes, we emerged stronger than ever.

    On the DTH front, we saw all our renewals happening during the year. We had to up our ante and attain a fair share for the unmatched content that the network stands for. It was tough convincing the platforms but eventually they saw sense in the value we bring to the table. We are proud to say that we were able to stitch our multi-year content deals with all the DTH platforms at a healthy growth rate. On the visibility front, we embarked upon the biggest challenge to put in place an entire LC1 team and collectively put in thousands of manpower hours to expand our reach across the length and breadth of the country. Our ratings in the past few months are a testimony to the efforts of the affiliate team who seeded our channels in a number of new networks across smaller markets.

    The year also saw us successfully launching and distributing the third Hindi GEC “EPIC” which expanded the GEC space by offering a season based formats based on Indian Mythology and folklore. Viacom18 gave a myriad of entertainment options with Colors being the frontrunner in Hindi GEC space, launch of new Hindi GEC “Rishtey”, MTV Indies creating a new space in Music genre and by launching “24” – India’s first international non-reality format show with international standard production quality. TV 18 maintained its leadership position and added a business news channel in Gujarati called CNBC Bajar to its portfolio. The regional offering was strengthened by launching four news channels under the ETV banner – Kannada, Bangla, Gujarati and Haryana.

    This year has seen IndiaCast UTV coming of age, adding stability and propelled us to achieve more. We are confident of setting new benchmarks for ourselves and for the industry and embark on a larger journey which will see us coming out stronger than ever before. We are looking forward to an exciting and eventful 2015.

     

     (These are purely personal views of IndiaCast UTV Media Distribution EVP Amit Arora and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views)

  • The movers and shakers of 2014

    The movers and shakers of 2014

    To achieve something, one needs to let go of something, 2014 saw many stalwarts of the media and entertainment sector taking that leap.

    From being bitten by the entrepreneur bug to grabbing on to better opportunities, the industry saw a number of movements. Some of these created a stir while others went down as “regular” developments. Nonetheless, Indiantelevision.com lists down some of the major movers and shakers of the years…

     

    Ajay Bhalwankar: He is a man who can be credited to providing valuable programming inputs across content on various channels. The year 2014 was like a shuffling battle for Bhalwankar. After spending almost 19 years with Zee Entertainment Group, with his last stint as programming head at Zee TV for six years, he joined Sony Entertainment Television (SET) on 7 April, 2014 as chief creative officer. Now in SET, he provides creative leadership and direction for the channel, and leads the programming and OAP (on-air-promotions) teams. Spanning various roles of creating, writing, programming, producing and directing entertainment content, he is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience.

    Ajay Trigunayat: TTN English entertainment channels, Romedy Now and Movies Now CEO Ajay Trigunayat quit the network this year. With M K Anand taking over as TTN CEO and business functions being centralised, Trigunayat moved out. Before joining TTN, he was in the Middle East in an entrepreneurial capacity, and had been the business head of the Zee English Channels bouquet, and put in stints at Lintas, Contract and Rediffusion and at Pepsi in a sales role.

    Ajit Thakur: In a shocking development, the man credited for Life OK’s success story, Ajit Thakur decided to call it quits from the network. It was in July this year that he was given an additional charge of managing the network’s youth entertainment channel, Channel V. Currently he is serving his notice period and his last day in the organisation will be February, 2015.

    Abhijit Avasthi: An engineer by education, Abhijit Avasthi was the right-hand man of India’s ad guru Piyush Pandey. After spending more than 10 years at Ogilvy, he finally decided to hang his boots to pursue what he loves the most.

    However, according to reports, Avasthi is likely to set up his own creative agency, a move that he has been contemplating for a while.

    Alok Agarwal: Zee Media CEO Alok Agarwal ended his one and a half years stint at the network to take charge as Network18 group COO.

     

    Bharat Ranga: Since 1998, he had been an invaluable member of the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) family. After a 16-year stint with the network, he bid adieu in the month of October to explore new avenues. While at Zeel, he moved across functions and domains seamlessly, from sales to business head to being the international business head and then, the chief content and creative head for the organisation, he has been instrumental in making Zee’s content an unforgettable one for the audiences. His last project – Zindagi is getting critical acclaim from the masses.

    Dilip Venkatraman and Savvy Venkatraman: ITV Network, which owns and operates news channels NewsX and India News, appointed former CNN IBN and IBN7 CEO Dilip Venkatraman as group COO of strategy and business development. Meanwhile, Savvy joined the network as group chief marketing officer.

     

    KV Sridhar: After 17 long years Leo Burnett India chief creative officer, Pops, moved on to join SapientNitro, an interactive marketing, creative design and technology services agency. The movement did create a stir in the industry with many questions being raised on who can fill his shoes. Rajdeepak Das joined the agency as chief creative officer, soon afterwards.

    MK Anand: The former Disney UTV Media Networks MD MK Anand took over as the new MD and CEO of Times Television Network (TTN), stepping into Sunil Lulla’s shoes.  Anand had previously worked at The Times of India group for nearly 19 years, beginning first with the print business for 14 years and later on with the television business at Zoom from 2004 to 2009. He was the managing director for Disney UTV Media Networks till December 2013. The move saw functions like HR, finance, distribution being centralised and direct reportage to Anand.   

    N P Singh: The industry was treated with a good surprise at the beginning of 2014, when in a major development Multi Screen Media (MSM) promoted its COO N P Singh as the new CEO. He replaced Man Jit Singh who was designated as non-executive chairman and moved to Los Angeles (LA).

     

    Namit Sharma: From a creative background to a broadcast space, it was a challenge for former Wizcraft head for television business Namit Sharma. It was in early February when the news of former programming head Ajay Bhalwankar quitting and Sharma stepping into his shoes came to light. From directing fiction shows at Cinevistaas to film production and script writing at Yash Raj and handling events and non-fiction properties at Wizcraft International Entertainment, Sharma has done it all. As the programming head of the channel, he has brought some best creative ideas to the table.

    Nagesh Chhabria: IndusInd Media Communications Limited (IMCL) CEO Nagesh Chhabria too was seen hanging his boot this year. Chhabria later bought 50 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Bhawani Rajesh Cable & Digitech Services through his company Bhima Riddhi Digital Services (BRDS). He also signed an agreement with Atlas Consolidated LLC – a joint venture between Greenwich Equity Partners and Jagran Infra-Projects led by Sanjiv Mohan Gupta – to create a national MSO with about $200 million being pumped into it.

    Prem Kamath: The industry was shaken after former Channel V head and Star Pravah general manager decided to quit from Star for better opportunities at A+E Networks as deputy managing director, Asia Pacific. Associated with Star Network since 2007, Kamath had been heading Channel V for more than four years. Seeing his capability, he was given an additional responsibility at Star Network to head Star Pravah in 2013.

    Pradeep Hejmadi: With more than 18 years of well-rounded experience in the Indian media industry spanning media sales, media planning and buying, consumer research, business planning and product development, he is the man with multi-dimensional understanding of the media business. Former TAM Media Research senior vice-president Pradeep Hejmadi quit the organisation to join Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) as business head in the month of June. At TAM, he was responsible for revenue generation, client management, new business development and new product development and changed the working dynamics of the TV industry.

    Pratap Bose: Omnicom-owned DDB Mudra witnessed a sudden churn at the top, early this year when DDB Mudra Group COO Pratap Bose resigned from the agency after a six-year stint.

    The exit, who was looking to take over the top job, came after group chief executive officer and managing director Madhukar Kamath was given a four-year extension.

    Raghav Bahl: Network18 founder and chairman Raghav Bahl, sold his baby to RIL chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani for a whopping Rs 4000 crore. What followed this was an upheaval of sorts, as one by one, the main pillars of the company began to fall. As soon as the meeting concluded between Bahl and the management of Network18, departures began which included group CEO B Sai Kumar, COO Ajay Chacko, CNN-IBN deputy editor Sagarika Ghose, IBN Network editor in chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Network18 Media CEO Sanjay Dua, Network18 digital CEO Durga Raghunath, Network 18 CFO RDS Binni Bawa and deputy foreign affairs editor Suhasini Haidar.

    Rajdeep Sardesai: It was in July this year that after nine long years, the face of IBN18 and editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai decided to move on from the network. He later on joined the India Today group as consulting editor. Further, penning his expertise of writing, in November he launched his book – ‘2014: The Election That Changed India’. The book tracks the story of the 16th Lok Sabha elections with a media insider’s view. It was in the same month when deputy editor at CNN-IBN Sagarika Ghose too bid adieu to the Network18 group and joined Times of India as consulting editor. 

    Rajesh Iyer: Associated with the channel since its inception, Colors marketing head Rajesh Iyer has been one of the many behind the success of popular shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi, India’s Got Talent, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Bigg Boss. Iyer quit Colors in March to join Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) as its business head, new initiatives, Hindi broadcast. With more than 13 years of experience in marketing and business segment, he aims to create some thrilling benchmarks in the industry.

    Ravi Mansukhani: The year 2014 saw the ending of the seven year innings from IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd. (IMCL) managing director Ravi Mansukhani, who decided to step down from his position. It was said that Mansukhani had expressed the desire to relinquish his services, which was accepted by the board of directors in the board meeting held on 31 January. His next move is yet unknown.

    Sameer Nair: He has donned numerous hats. From selling space in Yellow pages to being a member of a political party, Sameer Nair has had a volatile career. It was in July this year when the former Star India CEO joined Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms as Group CEO.

     

    S N Sharma: In what can be described as the biggest setback was the resignation of DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma, who was one of the founding members of the multi system operator. Sharma’s vision of growth through consolidation and digitisation had laid the foundation for the company. He has also spearheaded DEN’s rapid growth with his visionary leadership and unparalleled execution abilities. He has also been the driving force behind taking the company into the digital era.

    Suhasni Haider: In a major development, CNN-IBN deputy foreign affairs editor and prime time anchor Suhasini Haidar bid adieu to the organisation in May this year. To focus on long-format journalism, she joined The Hindu as its diplomatic editor. 

     

    Sunil Lulla: A 30-year media and communication veteran, Sunil Lulla made headlines in July when he decided to move on from Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. After almost 10 years with BCCL, Lulla, joined WPP-owned Grey Group as chairman and MD for Grey Group India.
    His joining the advertising industry was homecoming as he had started his career in one.
    However, his appointment led to Grey Group India president and CEO Jishnu Sen moving on from the network.

    Tony D’silva: With Ravi Mansukhani stepping down, IMCL saw a new MD and CEO in Tony D’silva, who was earlier the president of Hinduja Ventures Limited (HVL) and was overlooking its upcoming Headend InThe Sky (HITS) project. D’silva was given additional responsibilities as Group CEO-Media of HVL, and MD and CEO of IMCL.  

    TS Panesar: Star India EVP for distribution TS Panesar, who was entrusted with the responsibility of handling distribution for national DTH and digital addressable systems (DAS) earlier in 2014 when the JV between Star and Zee- MediaPro was broken, quit.  He later joined MSO Hathway Cable & Datacom as head-video business.  

    Vikram Mehra: After spending close to 10 long years at one of the leading DTH companies in India, Vikram Mehra, the chief commercial officer of Tata Sky moved on to Saregama, this year. While at Tata Sky, he was responsible for subscription revenue management, churn management, brand marketing, new product development, consumer analytics, interactive service operations, consumer research and PR, he is handling the digital platform for Saregama.

    Vikram Sakhuja: It was in October that GroupM announced the appointment of Lindsay Pattison as global CEO of Maxus, the post held by Vikram Sakhuja. Till date his next move in the group hasn’t been decided, but he is expected to take up a global role at parent firm GroupM.

     

    Vivek Srivastava: It came as a surprise when the news of former Colors commercial and digital head Vivek Srivastava quitting, shot the mailers. His extensive background in research, awareness of new media and over a decade in the broadcast industry contributed to maintaining the robust presence of all Colors brands in the digital space and managing the overall costs for the brand.  He headed to Times Television Network (TTN) in the month of October as senior vice-president and head of the English Entertainment Cluster, which includes premium channels like Movies Now and Romedy Now.

    (The names are in alphabetical order)

     

  • Prasar Bharati: A ‘successful’ year gone by

    Prasar Bharati: A ‘successful’ year gone by

    Since 1995, Doordarshan has been trying to build bridges of communication with Indians living abroad and also to showcase its diverse culture, values and rich heritage to the world by launching its international channel.

    From March 2011, Doordarshan started availing of the service of ISRO’s INSAT-4B in both KU band and C band. However, the inadequacy of not being able to locate any significant global partners to distribute and connect DD to homes overseas continued. Doordarshan did make renewed efforts through Indian Missions to distribute its international channel abroad, but it could make little progress in this last mile distribution, because of several reasons. On the other hand, countries like Japan, Germany, China, Russia and France, invested heavily to ensure a global reach for their international channels.

    Over the last one year, concerted efforts made by Prasar Bharati to locate viable global distribution platform to DD India has resulted in an agreement with Deutsche Welle (DW), the international broadcasting arm of the German public broadcaster for a slot on the DTH platform of EUTEL SAT Hotbird 13 B. It is an extremely popular DTH platform and in Europe it was the logical choice for DD India to launch its overseas services afresh. Hotbird 13B has a total number of 1543 TV channels of which 1117 TV channels are free-to-air. A total of 124 English channels are available on this satellite, prominent amongst which are BBC, CNN, CCTV, RT, France24, VOA TV, Euromans, Sky News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera, etc.  DD India will be in the basic package of the DTH service. The projection of India’s viewpoint to the global audience being  a dire necessity, Prasar Bharati has found a suitable platform with DW on extremely favourable terms on reciprocal basis which is no mean achievement.Placing DD on Hotbird DTH platform will also give it full access to the Middle Eastern GCC countries, where Indians work and reside in large numbers. The telecast trials are likely in a few days and formal launching is expected shortly.

    It was a feather in its cap and moment of honour for India when the Prasar Bharati CEO, Jawhar Sircar, was elected as vice president of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in 2014 with its presence in 63 countries, boosting its international presence.

    Doordarshan team has come up with new serials in the current year attracting more eye balls in the afternoon session of DD National creating a new record heralding resurgence of the public broadcaster towards fulfilling its mandate with renewed vigour away from market driven commercial initiatives. Meeting the aspirations of the people of Telengana, dedicated DD Yadagiri from Hyderabad and DD Saptagiri channels from Vijayawada for Seemandhra have become fully operational. Other major initiative was upgradation of  four Hindi channels as 24 hours channels as DD Rajasthan, DD Madhya Pradesh, DD Bihar and DD Uttar Pradesh  from the respective capital DD Kendras giving local look and feel enriching  the telecast with regional flavour.  The basic infrastructure to operationalise DD Kisan channel has been put in place by Doordarshan.  Concerted efforts are on to enrich the channel in the coming year meeting the aspirations of all the agro-economic zones with due importance to related fields and provide wholesome content to the agrarian population of the nation.  

    A major decision in 2014 was to optimise the huge advantage of Digital Terrestrial Transmitters from the four metros which are ready and from other important state capitals in cluster with ability to provide a bouquet of 20 attractive TV channels along with a combination of audio channels from each location with perfect digital output reaching the hand held smart devices equipped with tiny dongles or chips which are under field trials already. The technology is capable of live streaming content without buffering and circumventing ‘server down’ possibility fully.

    Doordarshan was in news for amateurish display by some casual assignees  highlighted in media exposed huge vacancies of creative professionals  in Prasar Bharati and absence of a vibrant mechanism to service the HR functions for cadre restructuring, removal of service conditions related anomalies, conduct of regular departmental promotion proceedings, induction and appointment of creative professionals after strict professional evaluation. After Dr Surya Prakash joined as chairman, the proposal for Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board gained impetus and its establishment looks to be on course.

    Prasar Bharati chose to strengthen its popular Vividh Bharati network in the metros by simulcasting in FM mode. While Kolkata has already commenced its operation, other metros are awaiting the launch. AIR’s 86 odd local radio stations across the country have already started simulcasting Vividh Bharati across the nation spicing up AIR’s airwaves in the cause of uniting India.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly Mann ki Baat – a heart-to-heart and intimate sharing of thoughts with the people living in every nook and corner of the country – is a shot in the arm for Prasar Bharati and AIR undoubtedly has emerged a clear winner in reaching the whole nation through all its channels. The programme has received spontaneous response from thousands of listeners spread all over the country including far flung areas. The broadcast has done the vastest disseminated public service through territorial, satellite and web modes.

    While AIR has decided to webcast all primary channels from all its capital Kendras, it has started field trials of its most popular Vividh Bharati as part of its internet bouquet of FM Gold, FM Rainbow and Urdu Service.

    The dream of CEO Jawhar Sircar is to connect the whole of India through FM-station utilising its existing terrestrial towers all over the country for mounting FM antennas and cutting costs and simulcasting its primary service to ride over shortcomings of Medium Wave transmission.

    For Prasar Bharati, creative dynamism has remained a challenge with innumerable competitors in the field. But its new team is optimistic to accomplish its mandate as a national public broadcaster to inform, educate and entertain the masses at home and abroad and achieve conspicuous deliverables in the new year.

    AIR has become the torchbearer of the Prime Minister’s clarion call for ‘Swachh Bharat’ i.e. Clean India mission through its extensive campaign so that it becomes a truly peoples’ movement and the Prime Minister’s dream of clean India by 2019 becomes a reality. To lend support to the mission, AIR launched extensively several programmes on all its channels, in a variety of formats. The objective is to bring about attitudinal changes and behaviour modifications in the way of life of people while making them aware about environmental hygiene and cleanliness.

    Apart from promos, jingles and slogans on the theme, a multi-episode serial in Hindi entitled ‘Des ApnaUjla-Ujla’ has been launched w.e.f. 2 October 2014.

    The yeoman service rendered by All India Radio (Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu) during the recent devastating deluge, which helped in saving hundreds of lives, connecting families, keeping the morale and spirit high of the population hit by the worst ever natural calamity and prevention of outbreak of epidemics in the aftermath of the disaster, have all come for lavish praise from every quarter including the Chief Minister of J&K and the cabinet secretary to the government of India. AIR’s uninterrupted service during this unprecedented disaster became all the more laudable as all other sources of information like print media and other electronic channels had come to a grinding halt in the State during those trying days.Similarly, AIR’s role in effective disaster management communication during the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations at the time of recent Hudhud cyclone in the Andhra coast and particularly Vishakhapatnam also won accolades.

    Vividh Bharati, the old faithful, is avidly listened to even today in the face of stiff competition from rival media, especially private FM radio stations. Described as All India variety programme (Akhil Bharatiya Panchrangi Karyakram), it was initially radiated on two high-power shortwave transmitters at Mumbai and Chennai. Later, the service was progressively extended to 37 centres. Today, it is a veritable national service owing to its country-wide reach, with several stations/transmitters carrying the service:-

    • Exclusive/dedicated Vividh Bharati Channels                            37
    • Local Radio Stations (10:00 am to 5:00 pm)                               65
    • 100 Watt FM Relay Centres                                                         82

    Almost all these stations operate on the FM mode. Till recently, in the four metros, the service was available only on the emaciated medium wave transmitters. AIR has recently launched dedicated FM transmitters in the metros as well. Availability of the service on 102 FM transmitters, not to mention the 100 watt FM relay centres, has further enhanced the exposure to Vividh Bharati, owing to proliferation of FM receivers, car radios and mobile devices. To begin with, Vividh Bharati was an urban phenomenon. Today, it is able to penetrate deep into the country side and is an ideal vehicle for those eager to capture the rural markets.

    The fact that Vividh Bharati simultaneously reaches a vast section of people of all hues creates a psychological bond of togetherness, building up cohesion and common values.

    The year 2014 is the 75th anniversary year of external broadcasting in India and the 50th anniversary of its Urdu service. The External Services Division (ESD) is truly the extended arm of foreign policy and public diplomacy. The traditional modes of shortwave and medium wave transmission have been largely replaced during the year by FM and internet radio bringing about a turnaround during the year. The highlights of the revamping of the ESD are:

    1. Enhancing the level of engagement with the MEA particularly the External Publicity/ Public Diplomacy Division on an urgent basis, MEA will carry details of important programmes scheduled for broadcast in the General Overseas Service (GOS), the flagship service of ESD in English as well as other services in their bi-monthly magazine ‘India Perspective’.

    2. Modernisation efforts of ESD like creation and maintenance of multi-media websites with live internet radio and Radio on Demand components. Trial runs for the websites have been completed and GOS has already been informally hosted and ready for launch.

    3. ESD has also created three round-the-clock web radio portals, featuring live streaming of all the services. These have also been tested and ready for formal launch.

    4. With a view to reaching out to the Indian diaspora and involving the PIOs in the development agenda of the nation and making them true brand ambassadors for the country, multi-media websites for the Indian language services of ESD like Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Tamil and Urdu are being developed, with content specifically designed to the respective  target areas.

    5. General Overseas Service is targeted to the English speaking listeners all over the world with the exception of USA, Canada, South-America and the Caribbean. To reach these uncovered areas, a dedicated multi-media website ‘airworldservice.org.in’ has been launched during the year. The programmes of GOS are also available on the web radio portal of ESD. A GOS programme on Gandhian Philosophy has recently won the best programme award for the year 2014.

    6. To augment reception quality of cross-border and neighbourhood services targeted to South-East Asia and some countries in the East Asia from Chinsura (West Bengal) and to Pakistan, Afghanistan and some CIS countries from Rajkot, transmitters were upgraded. This will go a long way to support the new initiatives of the Central Government to strengthen its relations and engagement with the countries in the neighborhood and also undertake counter-propaganda and perception management programmes in a more effective manner. 

    • The News Services Division (NSD) of All India Radio is one of the world’s largest news gathering and dissemination apparatus.
    • Harnessing mobile technology, NSD launched free AIR news SMS service to the public in several regional languages viz. Asamese, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit and Tamil, besides English. The number of people registered for the Service has crossed 5 lakhs, with nearly 80% opting for the regional languages.
    • Substantially increased its presence on the social media, reaching out audiences far and wide. Popularity of AIR’s Facebook page can be gauged by the fact that the number of likes increased from 7 lakh in May, 2014 to 17 lakh in November, 2014. 
    • Twitter handle @airnewsalerts is also gaining momentum day by day, from 2,15,000 followers in May, 2014 to 3,70,000 in November, 2014
      • To further strengthen its reach, NSD joined another online audio platform sound cloud in May 2014. Sound cloud is an audio platform which is used in over 200 countries and has a global reach of 317 million per month. Within short span of time, it has become popular and has nearly 5.4 lakh plays so far, with an average of around 20,000 plays and 800 downloads per week.
    • To lend support to the Mann Ki Baat programme, NSD has been carrying content of  the PM’s speech in all bulletins, national as well as regional, the later carrying the regional language version. SMSes, based on the content, are sent in several languages to the people who had registered for the service. A special static home page was created on www.newsonair.nic.in with a link to take people directly to live webcast page of ‘Mann Ki Baat”.  A special window was created for the webcast of the speech, uploading the text of the address on the website. PM’s speech was live tweeted both in Hindi and English simultaneously. What is more, it was posted on Sound Cloud, generating unique plays within a short span of time reflecting its appeal
    • A variety of CDs based on the prized possessions in the treasure trove of AIR’s archives was prepared, released and uploaded on AIR’s Youtube. Significant among these CDs are the audio cuts of Mahatma Gandhi, Bharat Ratna and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Marian Anderson and Dr. Martin Luther King (Jr.).
    • CDs based on recordings of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are ready, with refurbishing in its final stage.
    • CD containing recordings on various subjects by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is being prepared. Refurbishing of these recordings is in final stage.
    • 300 hours (approx.) fresh recording received from AIR stations have been digitized with detailed metadata. 3000 hours (approx.) of archival recordings have been deep archived with detailed metadata in Storage Area Network (SAN).
    • AIR has a humongous network of 590 transmitters serving 414 stations, covering virtually the entire population of the country.
    • Under an ambitious digitalisation programme, 31 old medium wave transmitters and five shortwave transmitters have been replaced by new DRM transmitters.
    • Archival facility was setup at Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, facilitating digitalization and restoration work
    • Under the Special Package for J&K and North-East, several new FM transmitters are being installed.
    • Modernization and automation of existing Regional News Units.
    • The dream of Prasar Bharati to connect whole of India through FM-isation, utilising its existing terrestrial towers all over the country for mounting  FM antenna cutting costs and simulcasting its primary service to ride over shortcomings of  medium wave transmission, especially the dwindling number medium wave receivers, is fast becoming a reality through a phased progamme launched by AIR.
    • While AIR has decided to webcast all its primary channels from all its capital sations, it has started live streaming, on a trial basis, to take field trial of its most popular Vividh Bharati service as part of its internet bouquet of FM Gold, FM Rainbow and Urdu Service.  This has helped in taking the service to listeners overseas, especially the Indian diaspora, clamouring for it.

     

    (These are purely personal views of Prasar Bharati principal adviser Brigadier (Retd) VAM Hussain and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • 2014: Setting trends, changing paradigms

    2014: Setting trends, changing paradigms

    Cinema is at its best when it surprises, changes paradigms, pushes the envelope and sets new trends. The year that was, saw new trends being set, new vistas being explored and the journey of evolving new Bollywood had some interesting new pit-stops. Here are a few of them though our lens at VMP.

    Lady’s Finish First 

    Queen and Mary Kom, two strong scripts, viewed from the eyes of two equally gutsy woman characters, set the Box Office ablaze. Mary Kom packed a punch with its record breaking opening weekend collection, a feat most pundits would shy from predicting for a female centric film. Queen made a silent start and like all long distance runners, gained pace as it refused to budge from the cinema halls week after week – both films eventually crossing the 100 crore gross mark globally with rave reviews that brought in audiences from every part of the world.

    World Tours

    Post a historic Indian leg last year, Bhaag Milkhaa Bhaag continues its run around the world. The film is all set for a theatrical released in Japan in January 2015. Release in Latin America and France are in the works as we also take the remote Wasseypur to the United States of America with theatrical release of Gangs of Wasseypur 1 & 2 lined up in January 2015.

    Reversing the remake traffic

    Traditionally Bollywood has seen remakes of south or Hollywood blockbusters.  We flipped the trend to remake Hindi blockbusters in the south. After its successful run at the box office, Queen and Special 26 will now be seen in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam avatars. Kahaani will soon speak to audiences in Kerala in Malayalam.

    Beyond the Fan boys

    An iconic Hollywood franchise in India usually rakes in considerable attention from a niche audience. However, the beloved Transformers in its fourth avatar attracted not just ardent fans but also made new friends clocking a 30 crore weekend at Box Office.

    A Contest to Win

    Through Cineshorts, we established a new and unique platform that offers the exclusive opportunity to budding filmmakers. Contestants showcased their talent through a five-minute short film, of which top five are set to be premiered on MTV Indies besides receiving significant cash prizes. The top 50 films were showcased on the studio’s official YouTube Page. A new first step to presenting fresh talent with opportunity.

    The Global 70mm

    Well before its Indian release, ‘Margarita With A Straw’ started making its mark on international film festival circuit. Premiering as opening day film at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival and winning the prestigious NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award for Best Asian Film. The film went on to receiving standing ovations at the 19th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and the 58th BFI London Film Festival. This Kalki Koechlin starrer also won her the Best Actress award at 17th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.

    But mistake us not for elitists! We’re bringing a flurry of entertainment to cinemas in the new year. Slate of releases in 2015 features Gabbar, an action thriller with Akshay Kumar in a new look, while Dharam Sankat Mein with Paresh Rawal in the lead, along with veteran actors Anu Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah. Sequel of Pyaar Ka Punchnama as the audience must look forward to watching it. Ramesh Sippy’s Shimla Mirchi marks his directorial comeback after a 15-year hiatus and the Hindi remake of Malayalam stunner  Drishyam. Our Hollywood platter includes two of the biggest crowd-puller franchises Terminator Geneysis and Mission Impossible 5.

    (These are purely personal views of Viacom18 Motion Pictures COO Ajit Andhare and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • More than just an ad…

    More than just an ad…

    MUMBAI: To tell a brand’s philosophy in just 30 seconds isn’t an easy task. But everyday creative minds oil their machines to do just the same. While some click with the viewers, others are muted by them or flipped through without a second glance.

    While the year began with the political parties going all out to woo the voters – there were television commercials, digital films as well as hoardings pasted all across the country, Airtel’s Boss film led the charge with the Twitterati going crazy over it. 

    With the e-commerce sector war heating up, the companies too launched TVCs throughout the year to cash in the most, especially during the big sales offered by them. Digital as a medium to connect with the correct audience was optimised well. For instance, Honda for Mobilio released a 2.5-minute ad on YouTube featuring stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma as a salesman.  

    Promos of Indian Premium League (IPL), Pro Kabbadi League, Indian Super League (ISL) as well as Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) were able to catch people’s fantasy and created enough buzz before the game started. The right mix of sentiments and music made the films popular especially on the social media.

    2014 saw many ads which were more than being just a promotional feature and as the year comes to an end, Indiantelevision.com lists down some of the best ads of 2014.

    BJP election campaign

    Creative agency: Soho Square

    Purpose of the ad: After the Delhi gang rape case and many more that followed it, the campaign highlights the fact that the government has failed to provide safety to the women of the country and worse, hasn’t been able to punish the culprits.

    Storyboard: The black and white advert highlights how even though the country has progressed and people have sent there girls for higher education and work in other cities, they are not at ease. The woman/mother in the ad, stresses on the fact that the country isn’t safe in current government’s hands as women aren’t safe.

    Airtel Boss film

    Creative agency: Taproot

    Purpose of the ad: To strengthen Airtel’s legacy of identifying fresh and relevant insights around relationships.

    Storyboard: Relationships often get strained due to professional demands. At such times, smartphones transcend their role of being a mere communicating device, and play cupid.

    The TVC shows a woman boss ordering her subordinates to finish an assigned job no matter what. It turns out that the woman boss is the wife who goes back home to cook for her husband who happens to be the junior she had ordered.

    Fortune oil, ‘Ghar Ka Khana’

    Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather

    Purpose of the ad: Adani Wilmar’s campaign for its Fortune Oil brand, shifting from ‘The joy of eating’ to a more personal ‘Ghar ka khana, ghar ka khana hota hai’ (Home cooked food is home cooked food after all).

    Storyboard: When you are away from the comfort of your space, braving the rigours of everyday life, all you need is two morsels of tasty home food cooked with a lot of love and affection. The gush of emotion that you feel when you have the first bite, only makes you thank your good ‘Fortune’!

    Idea, ‘No Ullu Banaoing’

     

    Creative agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners

    Purpose of the ad: To educate the masses about how some people cash on the other’s unawareness.

    Storyboard: A common phenomenon in almost every part of India, is how some people in order to make money or gain benefits, tend to take advantage of the ill-informed by coloring the truth or concealing the facts.

    In the TVC, a guide lies to tourists who then search on the web and the truth is exposed.

    Nescafe stammering standup comedian

    Creative agency: McCann Erickson

    Purpose of the ad: While perfection is what people chase these days, this ad feeds on a different meaning.

    Storyboard: The TVC shows a stammering stand-up comedian who faces rejection, but doesn’t give up and turns the same weakness into his strength.

    Fevicol Crazy chairs

    Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather

    Purpose of the ad: Takes a humorous take on the current election scenario.

    Storyboard: A chai-wallah enters the shop of a carpenter who is making the next Prime Minister’s chair. He points out to three variations – one with BJP’s lotus, another with Congress’s hand, and a group of chairs joined unevenly symbolic of the Third Front.

    OLX Kapil

    Creative agency: Lowe Lintas and Partners

    Purpose of the ad: To promote selling off ‘unused or under-used’ products.

    Stoaryboard: Kapil Sharma stars in the film and plays a ‘juicer’. In the kitchen, he addresses the lady of the house urging her to use him (the juicer), or sell him. The lady notes that no one would buy him, telling him he’s useless. He corrects her, saying he has been ‘used less’. He proceeds to tell her how things are sold on Olx.in, and finds buyers in no time.

    Imperial Blue Men will be men

    Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather

    Purpose of the ad: To carry forward the 17-year-old catchy tagline and philosophy.

    Storyboard: The campaign opens with a ghazal, “Pyar ki raah mein”, playing in the background as a beautiful young woman is seen talking on a phone in a lift. The camera reveals the torso of two men standing with her. The minute the woman exits both the men heave a sigh of relief and exhale, letting their stomachs hang out again. The film ends with both of them sharing a friendly high-five.

    Tata Docomo Bhalai ki Supply

    Creative agency: Contract Advertising

    Purpose of the ad: To encourage its subscribers to ‘Open Up’ and share happiness using their customised data offers.

    Storyboard: The advertisement features a ‘social media queen’ who appears to have lost her loyal online following. She pouts and preens in order to post the perfect profile picture that could restore her lost glory, but is continually disappointed, till one virtual ‘Like’ makes her day.

    Cadbury Snow Fight

    Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather

    Purpose of the ad: To make the consumer aware of the fact that life lies in the ‘now’; that joy resides in the act of letting go, and that one should live like no one’s watching.

    Storyboard: The TVC shows a couple walking on a snowy mountain. While the man is busy oh his phone, the woman decides to change the situation by throwing a snowball on the man. The man too throws a snowball at her. The fight continues as they enjoy it.

    Titan Raga #HerLifeHerChoices

    Creative agency: Ogilvy & Mather

    Purpose of the ad: To tell that Raga is an evolved watch for the evolved woman of today – a woman who’s self-respecting and confident. 

    Storyboard: The film begins with Nimrat Kaur sitting at an airport reading a book. She is interrupted by an ex-lover who asks her if he could join her. When Kaur asks him how he has been, he makes a reference to Kaur leaving him. As they talk and catch up, it is revealed that Kaur is still single. On being asked why it is so, Kaur tells the man that she never gets time from work. This being something he knew all too well, he makes a passing comment about how their relationship would have worked had Kaur stopped working. Kaur retorts by saying that he could have also quit. Offended, he tells her that he could not have quit, seeing how he is a man.

  • Indian broadcasting industry is on the cusp of transformation, says Rahul Johri

    Indian broadcasting industry is on the cusp of transformation, says Rahul Johri

    The year 2014 has been a remarkable one for Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP). It announced the launch of three new channels in India, in May. Widely recognised for enhancing the television viewing experience in India over the last two decades, Discovery launched a refreshing new concept Hindi entertainment channel named ID – Investigation Discovery.

    The company also expanded its HD offering with the launch of two differentiated gold standard channels – TLC HD World and Animal Planet HD World.

    The year saw Rahul Johri being promoted to the role of executive vice president and general manager, South Asia and head of revenue, pan-regional ad sales and Southeast Asia. And the end of the 10-year joint venture distribution company with Multi Screen Media (MSM).

    DNAP south Asia and southeast Asia GM and executive VP Rahul Johri talks about the high and low points of the year.

    What has been the highlight for the year for Discovery Networks?

    Discovery Networks launched three new channels in 2014. Today, we operate in six unique genres through our robust portfolio of 11 networks reaching a cumulative 260 million homes in five languages. Extending our brand experience beyond television, we made a foray in print with the launch of Discovery Channel Magazine. We expanded our business fuelled by marquee initiatives – new channels, unmatched India productions and marketing innovations.

    Continuing to offer the widest repertoire of programmes, we launched more than 300 high-quality programmes catering to the interests, passions and demands of children, youth, women, men and families. We strengthened our India content slate with unprecedented 100 original hours in the last two years bringing unique stories, pristine subjects, and exclusive accesses.

    Some of the path-breaking India productions on Discovery Channel and TLC include programmes like Revealed: National Defence Academy, Revealed: The Line of Control, Revealed: World’s Biggest Election, India: Living Traditions, Ravinder’s Kitchen, Trinny & Susannah’s Makeover Mission India and The Great Indian World Trip amongst many others. We have recently launched Revealed: Rann of Kutch, an extraordinaire account of the seasonal salt marsh located in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

    We launched ID – our distinct and high-quality investigative channel. Our research findings revealed that Indian viewers have immense appetite to watch true investigation and crime based narratives if presented in an entertaining way. We identified this vacuum and created a segment within the Hindi entertainment genre.

    As a pioneer in high-definition, we further extended our leadership in this genre with the launch of TLC HD World and Animal Planet HD World.

    To broaden the appeal of Discovery Turbo, we have refreshed the brand with new logo, new identity and have expanded its content offering to suit tastes and preferences of male audiences.

    We are committed to offer the finest viewing experience and differentiated offerings to viewers and maximum value to our trade partners. Our expansion over the past few years and the matching success is a reflection of India’s significance in the world of Discovery.

     

    What was the challenging phase faced by Discovery Networks this year?

    I have often said that digitisation has brought new opportunities and challenges in equal measure. Competition has got fiercer. Viewer fragmentation is a reality. Innovations are making the existing channels look traditional. In short, one has to be ahead of the rest to enjoy viewers, affiliates and advertisers’ confidence. However, whichever way one looks, the benefits far out shadows the challenges.

    The year 2014 marked to be the year of opportunities for Discovery.  We expanded our portfolio with the launch of three new channels and the launch of Discovery Channel India Magazine.

    Discovery had some of most path-breaking India productions like Revealed: National Defence Academy, Revealed: The Line of Control, Revealed: World’s Biggest Election, India: Living Traditions; and our first local animated series KISNA on Discovery Kids.

    Benefiting from digitisation, all our channels have witnessed viewership growth this year.  Discovery Kids jumped by 80 per cent and Discovery Science’s viewership grew by 39 per cent over last year.  Animal Planet recorded lifetime high ratings in the channel’s 20-year presence in India.  Propelled by engaging content, nationwide penetration and innovative campaigns, Animal Planet has registered 16 per cent rise in viewership this year.  Building strong affinity with its viewers, Animal Planet has surpassed History TV18 ratings this year, increasing its gap to 10 per cent for the YTD period.

     

    How did the Indian broadcast industry fare in 2104?

    Indian broadcasting industry is on the cusp of a transformation.  Undoubtedly, digitisation has been the biggest change the industry is experiencing. It will help drive up the value of differentiated and high quality content and thus will naturally benefit Discovery’s channels.  We support this drive and believe it will be a milestone achievement for the country and generate higher value for all stakeholders especially the viewers.

    The other milestone should be the new audience measurement system – BARC, which should create new value system for the broadcast sector.

     

    High points and low points for the brands…

    India is a vast country with diverse needs and attitudes. Indian viewer is discerning and appreciates variety of content. Discovery has catered to this need with its wide ranging bouquet of 11 networks from factual, lifestyle, kids’, high-definition to Hindi entertainment. Our compelling programming repertoire spans genres including science, exploration, survival, natural history, technology, space, health and wellness, engineering, crime and investigation, civilizations, kids and more. We have been able to lead in the respective genres through our commitment to deliver on the brand promise.

    Today’s viewer is well travelled, aware and has experienced finer things of life demanding a mix of India and international content in the comfort of his home. Discovery Networks, through its eclectic programming mix across networks offers the right blend of India and international content. We have consistently presented India themes that can travel the world and international themes relevant to India. We have surprised and delighted the viewer with some of our extraordinary shows giving them an opportunity to watch and enjoy once in a lifetime experiences such as Skyscraper Live with Nik Wallenda – a LIVE event which has been a huge hit all over the world. Another one to air on December 31 will be Eaten Alive, which is an attempt to be eaten alive by an anaconda.

    Offering credible and high-quality content 24 hours x 365 days consistently, Discovery is missioned to satisfy the curiosity of Indian viewers. The audience, advertisers and affiliates expect nothing less than the finest from Discovery.

  • 2014: A year of challenges and achievements for OOH

    2014: A year of challenges and achievements for OOH

    The year 2014 has been a challenging one for some sectors of the economy and a time of hope for others with the coming of the new government at the center. Overall, both trade as well as manufacturing have been sluggish. Outdoor like other advertising platforms is a barometer of the health of the economy. OOH grew by a 15 to 20 per cent in the last one year despite increased competition, unenthusiastic buyers and galloping inflation.
    In this scenario marked by rising operational costs, stiff competition and high inventories, Global responded by innovating its price, product as well as service offerings. We created Asia’s biggest hoarding in Bandra, threw a rope to cash-strapped real estate firms by offering barter deals and flexible payment options and offered complimentary PR and social media support.
    We have entered an interesting phase as far as the real estate sector is concerned. High rates of interest on home loans coupled with rising unit prices have built up big inventories as high as 15 months in some parts of the country. In this situation marked with serious cash flow issues, real estate players are offering discounts, easy payment facilities and other facilities to attract clients. Global is meeting this challenge by offering hoardings on EMI, and on barter to its builder clients across India. Mumbai’s buyers, who wish to invest in a second home as well as holiday villas and plots, have to be made aware of projects in markets that offer more reasonably priced properties with better ROI. We are making special efforts in this direction and have executed several campaigns in the last few months – the latest being for XRBIA in Pune which was a grand success.    

    If I have to note one big highlight in the year behind us, it would be the marked improvement in political campaigning. All parties led by the ruling party at the centre used OOH as a primary medium to send their message across to voters along with digital and social media. The last Lok Sabha campaign has changed the face of election campaigning in India for ever. This is good news for OOH as well as for advertisers in general as it underlined like never before the power of OOH as a medium.

    OOH has a long way to go before it can serve the grand designs of our PM to turn India into a global manufacturing hub. We continue to struggle with red tape, lack of standard norms and arbitrary levies and delays in decision making. There is also an urgent need for transparency, regular monitoring and a system that measures OOH media on the basis of accepted metrics. In several cities there are restrictions on erecting digital billboards that come in the way of developing new properties. These factors come in the way of growth of those in the outdoor business and also create trust issues between service providers and clients. One hopes that the PM will look into all these issues and work towards the creation of standardised guidelines for outdoor properties that include new, better, and transparent rules for the erection, leasing and licensing of billboards and other outdoor media.      

     (These are purely personal views of Global Advertisers MD and CEO Sanjeev Gupta and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • “I don’t see growth beyond a point in the music industry”: Neeraj Vyas

    “I don’t see growth beyond a point in the music industry”: Neeraj Vyas

    The music industry has had a lot to celebrate this year. If we look at Sony Mix, I am happy to say that we have set a record; the music channel was a leader for 52 weeks in a row and for a three-year old to achieve this, is remarkable.

    We have set our niche and made it stronger through the years. We are now labelled as a channel which understands the nuances of musical play out, we know what to play at what time and at what tempo. Mix is a channel that probably understands melody more than anybody else.

    I think we have now happily established ourselves as a melodious channel and whether we remain number one or two is irrelevant. Ups and downs will happen and we have to be ready for it as it is a part and parcel of the industry.

    What we have managed to do and what makes me happy is the fact that we have led a change. Previously, the entire genre was a trade genre where people just played free music and movie trailers. But I think, Mix can take a lot of pleasure in saying that it has brought back musicality in the genre. And today a lot of people are trying to do what Mix is doing.

    The only desire, we as an industry have, is to better our rates in terms of what we sell at. We would be a lot more profitable if we don’t just remain frequency buying options for advertisers. And we would become a lot more relevant if we produced better content and not just play music back-to-back.

    Also, I don’t see growth beyond a point for the entire music industry. I think we are still around 125-130 GRP mark and we all have a long way to go. But time spent is also an issue. People watch music channels for 4 to 5 minutes a day which is not optimal. The reality is that we need to monetise better and that needs to be a goal for all of us going forward because we are still extremely critical to a media plan. There is a general entertainment channel (GEC) and Hindi feature film genre and after that if one wants to capture the Hindi heartland, then they have only two options – music or news. And with 6 per cent share of the overall pie, we should be charging a lot more and getting a lot more.

    But unfortunately, music channels have historically been undersold and have become a frequency option. I think that needs to be cleaned up as fast as possible. 2014 has not seen much change in the music industry. We all depend on labels to provide us music.

    A significant learning that we have acquired in 2014 from our audiences is that retro songs still hold a strong relevance. And the trend will only grow. Our own retro brand has shown a growth in certain key markets. Retro, overall, even on other channels has grown. It is not that everybody is watching a music channel is the so-called youth. There is a large cross section of people that come in to sample good music. Getting the right mix across the right day parts is the challenge going forward. Melodies of the past will never go out of fashion. Item songs can be a good tadka, but they cannot be your main staple.

    However, unfortunately not much has happened in the genre beyond a point. I don’t think anybody has created anything different apart from Mix, which has and will continue to experiment.

    (These are purely personal views of Sony Mix, Max and Max 2 senior EVP and business head Neeraj Vyas and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)