ITV

Category: Specials

  • 2014: A year of de-aggregation

    2014: A year of de-aggregation

    2014 was a year when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued, as many said, the ‘death warrant’ for the powerful aggregators. The year started with the regulator throwing the ‘big bomb’ on the channel aggregators by introducing the ‘de-aggregation paper’. The paper clearly stated that the broadcaster appointed content aggregators could not mix and bundle channels from different networks before signing deals with the distribution platforms.

    With the regulation, the once content aggregators were given a new name, that of ‘agents’ who would carry out the deals ‘on behalf of’ the broadcaster. TRAI gave the aggregators six months to dismantle operations, or realign as agents. As part of the regulation, it was the broadcasters who could now sign deals with the distribution platforms either directly or through agents, who could only work on behalf of the broadcaster and not bundle channels from different networks. The regulation came as a shock as it curbed the power of aggregators Media Pro, IndiaCast UTV Media Distribution and TheOneAlliance.

    Soon after, aggregators started disintegrating. MediaPro, the JV between Star Den and Zee Turner was the first to announce its separation. Thereafter, both of them began distributing on their own. Zee Network created a separate distribution entity called Taj Television which would also act as agents for Turner channels. MediaPro CEO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor headed off to handle Star India’s international business while COO Arun Kapoor became CEO of Taj. Soon after this, MediaPro terminated its alliance with NDTV, MGM and MCCS.

    The next in line to break up was IndiaCast UTV, the JV between Network 18 (TV18) and UTV. The last to do so was TheOneAlliance (a JV between MSM and Discovery) which has already announced its decision to break away but will formally happen only on 1 January 2015. Meanwhile IndiaCast will act as an agent for UTV as well as Epic TV channel, while MSM and Discovery will be setting up their own operations.

    While on one hand broadcasters were figuring out how they could deal with the new clause from TRAI, on the other hand distribution issues were being fought in the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). The fiercest of them was between Hathway Cable & Datacom and Star India/Taj Television that lasted for nearly seven months.

    The first accusation was from Star when it stated that Hathway had removed its sports channels and placed them as a separate pack. Zee Network was nearing the end of its deal with Hathway and wanted to re-negotiate it with the MSO. Hathway failed to reply on time, leading to disconnection of signals from the broadcaster. Thereby, the MSO took Zee to court.

    After long hearings between the three parties, the two cases got combined and it was settled that till the time the case does not come to an end, Hathway would pay Star and Zee at the rate of Rs 23 and Rs 21.5 cost per subscriber (CPS) basis for their entertainment channels and Rs 4 CPS for Star’s sports channels. The last verdict of the hearing came as the TDSAT directed Hathway to enter into RIO agreements with Taj Television and Star India for the DAS markets.

    When everyone thought that the case would come to an end, Hathway went to TDSAT once again claiming that there would be partiality in providing RIO rates to various platform operators. The case came to an end with Star India coming forth and stating that it would only be executing RIO deals for DAS markets with all distribution platforms from 10 November. Though Taj Television had also been ordered to get into a RIO deal with Hathway, the broadcaster later on signed a CPS (carriage) deal.

    The year’s ending saw much discussion on Star’s incentives that were being provided on the basis of channel penetration, reach and channel placement. While most MSOs vehemently protested against the new RIO at first, in the end they took up the channels on incentive basis and created new packs. Most MSOs decided to put the popular channels on the base pack and give the remaining as separate packs, in higher packs or as a-la-carte.

    The year also saw a rise in the carriage fees, which according to many has risen by 20-25 per cent for niche and news channels.

  • Our aim has always been to diversify humour genre: Tarun Katial

    Our aim has always been to diversify humour genre: Tarun Katial

    2014 was a fantastic year for Big Magic as we expanded reach and launched as a national entertainment channel positioned as the one stop destination for humour. Our journey has been excellent; we have not only performed in terms of numbers but have also won the affinity of our viewers. We ranked ninth within the leading channels which is a commendable start in spite of the clutter in the entertainment market

    After receiving phenomenal success in the regional belt, it was a logical step for us to go national. It was the perfect time as digitisation was getting implemented in key markets, which has helped us to reach out to a larger spectrum of audiences. With strong presence in HSM and PHCHP markets, our main focus was to create brand equity for the channel and newly launched shows. Each show has been conceptualised on the basis of market insights, derived from in-depth research amongst our core TG. The current offering on the channel has been a concoction of traditional celebrations peppered with comedy which has resonated excellently with the entire family. Our shows like Akbar Birbal, Ajab Gazab Ghar Jamai and Uff Yeh Nadaniyaan have been a huge hit amongst all age groups.

    Our aim has always been to diversify humour genre and explore the untapped opportunities. In the new year – the promise is to deliver more chatpata content living up to the expectations of our viewers with season wise programming focus across our popular shows.

    Hits and Misses

    One of the catalysts for our success has been the channel’s proposition of serving clutter breaking and fresh content in the humor space e.g. India’s first historical comedy – Har Mushkil ka Hal Akbar Birbal. In terms of the overall performance, Big Magic demonstrated an impressive 48 per cent growth in its viewership along with a staggering reach in 85 million Indian households. At present the channel delivers a 10 per cent unduplicated incremental reach across the markets of UP, MP and Rajasthan, when compared to the top six GECs. The exuberant performance of Big Magic has also garnered interest amongst leading advertisers and marketers, resulting 100 per cent ad inventory.

    Apart from HSM and having focused on distribution and marketing, we are experiencing new viewers from Maharashtra, Gujarat and other parts of the country. A major milestone for us was the launch of Big Magic International in US, Canada and Australia to tap Indian diasporas.

    As we know the route less travelled is always difficult, and it was no exception for us. One of the major challenges we faced was the stiff competition from the leading broadcasters. When we entered the market, it was already cluttered, but with our innovative programming strategy and robust distribution in place, we emerged as a leading contender. Another obstacle we faced was establishing the brand lineage in the markets where our competition has been the leader, but with steady performance we see positive reaction across these markets as well.

    In a nutshell

    We have seen positive synergises between radio and television which has further consolidated our position as the leading media network. With successful implementation of digitisation, the television network witnessed further boost.

    With the new government, the corporate world is optimistic, instilling positive sentiments amongst national and international investors. This year also saw e-commerce industry emerging as one of the highest spenders across advertising platforms especially on television. These factors will further help to boost industry.

    We also saw the launch of many general entertainment channels, but future will belong to the segmented channels offering niche content. Overall, Big Magic saw a promising year with new show launches – Har Mushkil Ka Hal Akbar Birbal and Bal Gopal Kare Dhamaal.

    92.7 Big FM has maintained leadership in share and some shows as Suhana Safar and Breakfast shows continue to rank as number one in the Mumbai and Delhi market. New properties as Big Green Ganesha, Big Green Durga that raised concern for the environment is our focus area, going ahead. New show launches as Seher with Anup Jalota has started rating well too.

    In 2015 broadcasters will focus on newer formats, as content will drive engagement and growth. Comedy as a genre will further see diversification and will continue to move north on the rating charts.

    (These are purely personal views of RBNL CEO Tarun Katial and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • 2014 exemplified that the next big thing is mobile

    2014 exemplified that the next big thing is mobile

    It’s been a year of tremendous growth for the digital industry. Digital advertising spends have increased significantly. And while we’ve been talking about mobile as the next big thing for a few years, 2014 saw the thought being well and truly realised. A fair indicator of this were the numerous campaigns run by online shopping merchants, advertising their app over other platforms and even creating deals specific to mobile devices. Another great example is the launch of key services on mobile by the government of Karnataka.

    There was also growth experienced in digital content, where not only were key properties available for viewing exclusively on web and mobile, but we also saw a lot of instances of specialised content being created for web and mobile. FIFA World Cup 2014 on LIV Sports is one example of how a grand event today isn’t just a TV property.

    Talking about LIV Sports, it has been a very successful year for us at Sony with the launch of LIV Sports simultaneously on web and mobile, as an app available on both iOS and Android. Apart from FIFA, LIV Sports also acquired the mobile and internet broadcast rights for the South African RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series for India, Vijay Amritraj backed Champions Tennis League, the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament and the Australian Open.

    A huge learning point for us this year has been the increased need to focus on mobile. Increase in mobile internet connectivity and introduction of cheaper smartphones along with a drop in internet surfing charges has led to huge increase in consumption of video content. The consumer today is looking for content on the go, thus, making mobile a key focus. As a result, we launched a number of apps including KBC Play Along, creating a second screen experience allowing viewers to answer questions with the contestants and win prizes. We also have the KBC Official App allowing fans to engage with the show any time they want. We’ve had approximately two million downloads for the KBC suite of apps and over 13 million downloads for both Sony LIV and LIV Sports.

    Keeping this in mind, in 2015 we will continue to innovate and engage our users by establishing our marquee properties in the new media space. We are excited by the opportunity, the overlap of better connectivity and smartphones, is offering entertainment content companies like us. Our aim is to be the leader in the digital video entertainment space. We will strengthen our mobile offerings to consumers and our agenda is to make 2015 the ‘Year of Mobile Entertainment’ and deliver great content through product innovations on SonyLiv.com and LivSports.in.

    (These are purely personal views of Sony Entertainment Network executive vice president and digital head Uday Sodhi and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • 2014: Cable TV’s year of missed opportunities?

    2014: Cable TV’s year of missed opportunities?

    2014 many would say has been a year of more downs than ups, especially for the cable TV industry. But, if one peels off the superficial layers and looks deep, it would be fair to say that it was indeed a year of opportunity for all the stakeholders in the cable TV ecosystem, despite all the trappings that it had of a Bollywood film with all the drama and twists and turns.

    The year began with industry regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) cracking the whip on errant multisystem operators (MSOs) and last mile owners (LMOs) who had not implemented simple hygiene requirements such as subscriber information and billing in Digital Addressable System (DAS) phase I and II areas. 2014 probably was the most litigious one in recent memory for those in the cable TV ecosystem with the various constituents spending more time in courts or in the portals of the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) than in upgrading their systems or moving ahead on business models. LMOs and MSOs snapped at broadcasters and aggregators, even as the latter took swipes at them with their heavy hands. No resolution seemed in sight and hence the anti-climactic postponing of phase III and phase IV DAS to 2016 by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry almost came as a lifeline to the industry. Some carped about the postponement, some decided to take it upon themselves to voluntarily digitise, while other LMOs just got back to squabbling once again.

    Even as international strategic and financial investors got repelled by the chaos in Indian cable TV land, domestic lay investors and equity investors too gave the sector a thumbs down. One of the leading stocks, the Sameer Manchanda-run Den Networks, which was the investors’ darling in 2013, registered a 19 per cent erosion in its share price from Rs 161.65 in early January 2014 to Rs 131.30 on 24 December. Hathway Cable & Datacom rose 25 per cent from Rs 278.75 to Rs 347.50. Both underperformed the Bombay stock Exchange Sensex which rose 28.5 per cent from 21,000 on 2 January 2014 to 27,206 on 24 December 2014. However, an exception was the stellar performer  Essel group owned Siti Cable which appreciated 80 per cent from Rs 18.15 to Rs 32.75 on the same dates. 

    November 2014 saw Star India take a big punt and play pioneer by deciding to enter into only Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals with MSOs in DAS areas.  The hope was that it would push cable operators to come up with better subscriber packages and hopefully improve realisations for themselves and Star too. With ARPUs sneaking up marginally, the big MSOs and cable TV cooperatives aggressively moved ahead with the more lucrative broadband offerings to subscribers.

    The year began with the MSOs meeting in different parts of the DAS areas to ensure gross billing could be started. While Delhi and Kolkata could, at least in a few parts start gross billing, Mumbai and other phase I and II cities, even as the year comes to an end, haven’t seen bills being rolled out. The reasons for this being no consensus: on the biller’s name (whether it should be of the LCO or MSO), revenue share between the two and the pending entertainment tax case in the Bombay High Court.

     The next big development in the year was when Hathway Cable and Datacom announced a cricket pack, wherein the MSO created a separate offering consisting of all the sports channels. When the announcement was made, little did people know that the issue would be dragged to the court and would keep the TDSAT occupied for almost the rest of the year. Hathway has been one player that has been in the news throughout, mostly for its progressive moves- from launching new local cable channels, to launching DOCSIS 3 broadband technology. It also wrestled with the major broadcasters such as Star and Zee through the year on terms and conditions.

     2014 was the year of opportunities, as it opened doors for the $100 million Hinduja’s Headend In The Sky (HITS) project and the Cable Virtual Network Operator (CVNO) model. As part of this LMOs can come together and join hands with the MSO to take its infrastructure, thus giving the former the power to own their consumers. The former Indusind Media CEO and promoter of Bhima Riddhi Digital Services Nagesh Chhabria too showed his intent of getting into the cable TV market with a national MSO. A much hyped $200 million announcement – in July about his 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 it has been followed by a strange silence since.

    It was a year of opportunity, as after a gap of long seven years, the TRAI decided to defreeze prices and allowed a price hike. The regulator in March, released a notification, offering a 27.5 per cent inflation-linked hike to stakeholders in the tariff ceiling. The hike was to be implemented in two phases: 15 per cent from April 2014 and the remaining 12.5 per cent from January 2015. The move gave some hope to stakeholders to increase their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) which was at around Rs 180 – a 20-25 per cent increase. But the industry is clearly aiming at much higher ARPUs of Rs 300-350 in the short to medium term. 

    The most important month for the cable TV industry was August. Ask why? Well, this was the month, which shocked the whole value chain.  While the LCOs were relieved, the worried ones were the broadcasters and the MSOs. The newly appointed Information and Broadcasting Minister (now former)  Prakash Javadekar, looking at the condition of phase I and II cities, which had undergone seeding of set top boxes (STBs) decided to further push the digitisation dates for phase III to December 2015 and phase IV to December 2016, from the earlier deadline of December 2014. The reason given by the Minister was that he wanted to promote indigenous STB manufacturers, who had not benefitted much from the earlier two phases.

     The news brought in some cheer for the indigenous STB manufacturers who said that this would help the indigenous manufacturing industry give employment to about 50,000 people and would attract an investment of about Rs 500 crore. The move, according to many would also generate local support facility for repair of STBs and help in smooth implementation of digitisation in the country.

    While, everyone has their own take on the decision, one should take this as an opportunity to be able to complete phase III and IV cities, which includes the small towns and villages, in a much more organised manner. Currently in phase I and II, while boxes have been seeded, no proper rollout of package and billing has happened. The stakeholders have time to ensure that along with seeding of boxes in phase III and IV cities, they can ensure that Consumer Application Forms (CAFs) are filled, the information is added in the Subscriber Management System (SMS), packages are created, offering consumers the option to choose and proper bills are rolled out, bringing in complete addressability and transparency.

     According to many, with delayed digitisation, carriage fees are once again on the rise. According to a Media Partners Asia (MPA) report, carriage fee has gone up by 14 per cent, while broadcasters and MSOs peg this at around 20-25 per cent for niche and news channels. In fact, Colors CEO Raj Nayak at this year’s India panel in MIPCOM said that carriage fees which had come down by 20 per cent are again climbing and have gone back to pre-digitisation rates. Yes, all these can be counted as the drawback of delayed digitisation, but tackling the same is broadcaster Star India’s take on the deals with MSOs.

    The case which kept TDSAT busy this year was the Hathway vs Zee and Star case. It was during this, that Star India, in order to fight discrepancy in deals with MSOs, took a firm decision of entering into only RIO deals with MSOs. While this did hit the MSOs, since their cost of content went up, it did two things. One, it nipped carriage fees and two, opened the doors for the MSOs to increase their ARPUs. In fact broadcasters, who feel that the carriage fees are headed northwards, should consider entering into RIO deals, as was also said by MPA in one of its reports.

     With the extension of digitisation dates, a number of MSOs also decided to opt for voluntary digitisation, which was a welcome move, since it showed the intent of MSOs to see the country fully digitised.

    Keeping digitisation and broadband plans in mind, the year saw a few MSOs raising funds for themselves. Considering the money spent by the MSOs in acquiring content and taking digitisation forward did not match with the on-ground collections, MSOs were left with no choice but raise more funds to complete the task in hand. So while Hathway got board approval to raise Rs 300.80 crore through preferential allotment of shares, Essel Group’s subsidiary Siti Cable Network raised Rs 600 crore through the issuance of securities. Last mile owner Ortel Communications too made its move towards getting listed. The LMO, this year, filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) with the securities and exchange board of India (SEBI). The IPO may raise as much as Rs 360 crore.

    The year also saw the I&B cracking its whip on a few MSOs like Digicable and Kal Cable as their licences were cancelled following refusal of security clearance by the Home Ministry. But the duo got relief from their respective state High Courts and are still up and running. Even as Tamil Nadu former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa owned Arasu Cable struggles to get its DAS licence, Karnataka state government Minister for Information, Public Relations and Infrastructure R Roshan Baig too showed some interest in entering the cable TV business, this year.

     The cable TV industry, like every year was brought together through one forum organised by indiantelevision.com and MPA, IDOS 2014, held in Goa. The three day event threw light on some important statistics:

    ·         Of the 262 million households in the country only 162 million houses have a TV. Of this, 27 million is taken up by the free to air service providers such as Freedish via satellite and 7 million by terrestrial DD, while the rest comes under cable and satellite.

    ·         Rs 32,000 crore has been invested in digitisation since 2005 with a bulk of the investment coming from the DTH operators followed by the MSOs and LCOs since 2011. Out of this, over Rs 11000 crore in the last 24 to 30 months has been invested by MSOs and LCOs.

    ·         While the cost of all the pay channels on a wholesale basis is Rs 922 to digital platforms, the highest pack price is Rs 550 which is an anomaly and needs correction. Retail pricing is the answer to correct this. And it is competition amongst six DTH, two HITS, five national MSOs and several regional ones and the local cable ops will keep retail rates in check.

     We at indiantelevision.com hope that broadcasters, LMOs, MSOs will take a progressive view towards digitisation of their operations and also becoming transparent with their partners in 2015. The fact is there is a lot of work to be done: more than $3-4 billion are needed to digitise India’s cable TV infrastructure; a large part of these will most likely come from international players.   Many of these who were pacing the sidelines watching the developments clearly got a stomach upset and decided to park their funds elsewhere. Now it is up to the industry to restore investor confidence; that cable TV is a sector where one can see adequate returns. Failing which newer distribution technologies like OTT, video streaming and 4G might end up being good options which video lovers could end up considering.

  • 2014: An astonishing year for regional cinema

    2014: An astonishing year for regional cinema

    2014 was an interesting year. It started with a great deal of promise but at the end there is a feeling of unfulfillment too.

    What started with new films of different and interesting genres doing well at the box office ended slightly unsatisfied with some big film with a lot of expectation underperforming slightly.

    English content though continued to perform well with a lot of Hollywood’s big films doing really well at our BO. There is an increasing anticipation for these films and every year we are seeing more dubbed languages adding to the size of the release.

    Regional cinema, especially Marathi, has had an astonishing year. Audiences have clearly chosen to enjoy these films because they are telling intimate stories close to their heart. Still lessons were learnt and I think 2015 again holds great promise.

    There were also various trends in content in 2014; perhaps these trends didn’t follow through that well in the second half of the year. Content is certainly king right now and audiences are becoming very selective of the films they see. This is something that will continue, I think as prices for the content rise, people will become more and more elastic, choosing only films that they really want to see.

    I think next year has a lot of terrific looking films lined up and I expect films to build on this expectation to push audiences to the cinemas.

    Social media and the connected mediums will continue to drive a lot of reaction and indeed influence content. This trend will continue to get stronger as more and more people join the medium. Content viewing online is something that will also grow strongly. Without doubt this is an area where mobile internet will help greatly and the promise of 4G will fuel the need for content and the desire to consume it.

    I also think the trend of over-marketing films will also continue. Maybe for a short term but at the moment I truly feel marketing budgets are out of sync with the feasibility of a lot of the films they are being spent on and this is a slightly worrying trend. Sadly, there are no trends this year that have died out! I think there are always trends that die out and then slowly re-emerge as a ‘new’ trend again a few years later but I don’t think trends die out completely.

    Old wine in a new bottle is what our films are based on and I don’t think our audience will tire of that anytime soon.

    (These are purely personal views of Mukta Arts MD Rahul Puri and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • 2014: The year of big movements in the news channel space

    2014: The year of big movements in the news channel space

    MUMBAI: The year 2014 was an important year for the news channel industry, monetarily and otherwise. The bonus for the industry was the national election which not only kept them busy for the first half of the year, but also sent all the networks into profits for the first financial quarter. However, several changes took place on the people front with numerous big names moving out from their associated companies.

    The biggest shocker that hit the industry was the acquisition of Network18 by Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Independent Media Trust, putting the entire TV18 (news channels) section under the Mukesh Ambani conglomerate. Network18 founder and chairman Raghav Bahl, this year sold his baby to Ambani for a whopping Rs 4000 crore. Bahl has now set up his own new venture in the mobile space called Quintillion Media.

     

    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.

    Soon after, the discussion circled the possibilities of news manipulation by the conglomerate as well as editorial interference started cropping up. In order to assuage the racing thoughts of the employees, the newly formed management took a town hall meeting. A new set of executives joined the company including former Zee Media CEO Alok Agrawal who took charge as Network18 group COO, Umesh Upadhyay as news director, Rohit Bansal as non executive director, Hariharan Mahadevan as CFO and Deepak Parekh and Adil Zainulbhai as independent directors.

    The year also saw several people shifting loyalties due to various reasons. The biggest of them were Rajdeep Sardesai joining India Today as consulting editor and primetime anchor, Dilip Venkatraman and Savvy Venkatraman joining ITV Network as group COO of strategy and business development and group chief marketing officer respectively, former Indian Express editor in chief Shekhar Gupta moving to India Today as the vice chairman and editor in chief of news properties but within two months relinquishing his positions and becoming editorial advisor to the group and Sanjay Dua joining ITV Network as NewsX CEO and ITV network chief revenue officer.

    Months after Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla was elevated to BCCL Group president of corporate development, he quit the company to join Grey group India as chairman and managing director.  Meanwhile, Times Now, ET Now and Zoom CEO Avinash Kaul went to IBN18 Network as CEO. ITV Network elevated CEO RK Arora to group CEO and soon after Arora quit to join News Nation as its CEO, which had been vacated by Shailesh Kumar, the former CEO and editor in chief of the channel. Kumar recently joined Focus Group as the managing editor for regional channels. Neeraj Sanan who headed distribution and marketing for MCCS that operates ABP news channels, quit and went to Focus Group as group CEO.

    News Xpress CEO and editor in chief Vinod Kapri decided to step down as well and was replaced by Prasoon Shukla. Early in the year, CNN-IBN managing editor Ashutosh quit to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was replaced by Vinay Tewari who after several months shifted to Headlines Today as managing editor, a place left vacant by Nalin Mehta. Radhakrishnan Nair was appointed in place of Tewari.

    On the business side, Bloomberg TV India editor in chief Vivek Law quit to pursue entrepreneurial activities and the position was filled by Siddharth Zarabi. Zee News resident editor Sumit Awasthi joined IBN7 as deputy managing editor. News24 managing editor Ajit Anjum joined India TV in the same capacity. QW Naqvi who joined India TV as editorial director, left after a few months’ stint.

    On the international channels side, Naveen Jhunjhunwala replaced Preet Dhupar as BBC Global India COO while Ravi Agrawal was appointed as CNN International bureau chief for India. Bhupendra Chaubey who became executive editor of CNN-IBN, post takeover by Reliance, decided to shift his role to consulting editor. The year also saw the demise of veteran journalist Jehangir Pocha.

    The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has been fighting tooth and nail for keeping news broadcasters out of the 12 minute ad cap. The case is still being heard in the High Court for more than a year. NDTV executive vice chairperson KVL Narayan Rao, after four years of heading the NBA as president was succeeded by India TV chairman and editor in chief Rajat Sharma. A new entity called the All India News Broadcasters Association (AINBA) was formed for the regional news channels with Azad News chairman MS Walia as its chairman.

    The other big takeover rumour that was making rounds was about the Adani group trying to stake claim in NDTV (which completed 25 years) which the company vehemently stated as a false one.

    The year also saw a few channel launches such as CNBC Bajar, News Nation UP/Uttarakhand, several regional news channels under the ETV group (now under Network18), Zee Purvaiya and Zee Kalinga which have now been converted into fully entertainment as against the earlier format of 50 per cent news and 50 per cent entertainment.

    2014 was also the year of revamps, with India TV, IBN7, NewsX, News Xpress and Zee News changing the look and feel of the channel. NDTV Profit converted into a dual channel NDTV Profit/Prime, with Prime operating as a fully sponsored channel, aimed at easing out the losses being made by Profit over the years.

    The 16th Lok Sabha general election added the much needed boost to the balance sheets of news channels that have been cribbing about high carriage fees, low subscription fees and advertising rates. CNN-IBN and Times Now came up with their election apps. The latter also tied up with north east channel News Live for poll coverage. Network18 tied up with Microsoft to set up an analytics centre for the elections while BBC used WhatsApp and WeChat for getting more traction from Indian audiences. This election season saw a new trend: that of editors moving out of the comfort zone of their studio and reporting from ground zero.

    As we approach the new year, burning issues are yet to be resolved such as the ad cap, carriage fees, paid news as well as foreign direct investment in news channels which is still stuck at 26 per cent and does not seem to have a better future any time soon.

  • 5 best social media campaigns of 2014 from India: TeamPumpkin

    5 best social media campaigns of 2014 from India: TeamPumpkin

    You must have noticed #AlexFromTarget or #IceBucketChallenge being the runaway success of 2014 on social media, both originating in America.  India also has its share of viral trends as brands and non profits spent ever increasing portion of their resources on social media to gain eyeballs and engage with their customers.

    Every day people on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels are bombarded with new hashtags, contests and other campaigns to hook them up to brand and social causes. While some campaigns stand out as trending content or on other form of social media metric, many sink without a trace.

    Here we present Our Choice of 5 Top Social Media Campaigns of 2014. While these have top of the chart social media metrics to boast, we have limited ourselves to the uniqueness of campaign and engagement it brought with targeted audience.

     

    Nat Geo Cover Shot

    National Geographic India launched “My Nat Geo Covershot” on Facebook and amplified the contest on other platforms to gives fans a chance to use their photography skills and get featured on cover of National Geographic. Fans had to upload the photos with suitable caption and also had the chance to win travel packages. The campaign was followed up with daily updates, status and prompt winner announcements. In this period the FB page of National Geographic received millions of likes and generated buzz for the channel.

    The USP of the Campaign: Using strength of Facebook as photo showcase platform.

    Happy New Year Movie

    Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’ released its trailer on social media including Whatsapp. The fans on Twitter and Facebook also interacted with SRK, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Farah Khan including receiving digigraph posters from Film’s official twitter handle. The film hogged the trending topics for many days with hashtags #HNYTrailer, #HNY, #Indiawale #HNYTeamRocksHouston and other related pieces of campaigns. While the star cast was a guaranteed viral generator for the film but the execution team worked well to bring everything under one cohesive plan and generating a heightened buzz before the release. It was reported that the film grossed more than Rs 200 crore during its run.

    The USP of the Campaign: Execution of mega launch with coverage across channels and geographies.

    Pond’s Selfie Ready

    Folks at Hindustan Lever commissioned this campaign to go with latest craze – Selfie. The insight was spot on that while clicking selfies, people are most conscious of their skin. Campaign planners then executed this well by having a microsite as well as using twitter, instagram, youtube and facebook. They gave out skin care tips and kept the interest growing by having a selfie song. The campaign ran for more than a month and remained one of the best remembered social media initiative by a brand this year.

    The USP of the Campaign: Deep Brand Insight and using that to build a cohesive campaign.

    Rice Bucket Challenge

    Close on the heels of Ice Bucket Challenge, The ‘rice bucket challenge’ was the innovative idea of Hyderabad-based Manju Latha Kalanidhi who posted the challenge and asked friends to cook or buy one bucketful of rice and feed the poor in the locality. It was later known that she is a journalist and reports on rice market. “I personally think the [Ice Bucket Challenge] is ideal for the American demographic, but in India, we have loads of other causes to promote”, she elaborated to online news outlet NPR. A facebook page dedicated to the challenge gained nearly 50,000 fans within 10 days besides scores of people from all walks of life donated to the cause and joined the campaign. It was widely covered by print & TV news outlets generating unprecedented buzz for this user generated initiative.

    The USP of the Campaign: Simple message and social Good.

    Gillette #MyRoleModel

    This year father’s day belonged to P&G as it launched Gillette #MyRoleModel campaign targeting Men of 15-45 year age group. The campaign was well executed and had a 360 degree approach with Hashtag embedded TVC, Blogger outreach, Contests and giveaways. The highlight was innovativeness of the selfie campaign where Father-Son duo can put shaving foam and share the picture to win prizes. It was well supported with offline activities where cricketers interacted with fans and chatted about their father being the role models. What helped the brand is that the lead endorser of the campaign Rahul Dravid is himself a role model and a campaign like this around him was sure to generate buzz across channels.

    The USP of the Campaign: 360 degree approach.

    While now you have a list of top 5 social Media Campaigns of 2014, we can’t resist mentioning one of our in house campaigns that generated similar buzz and engagement for one of our Client.

    Tangerine’s #TangerineColorsOfLife

    Tangerine, the newest buzz in the Home Fashion Industry, decided to change its positioning to “Colors of Life” in March 2014. Across a 3 month period – April-June, tangerine organised various activities, right from videos regarding some celebs talking about “What Colors Mean to them” to a 12 week long contest asking people what Colors mean to them. The campaign received a huge buzz on social media with more than 22000 entries across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp and Phone. #TangerineColorOfLife hashtag also trended on Twitter for two continuous days. The campaign helped the brand in setting its new positioning correct in the minds of their target customers and also engaged the customers to a great level.

    The USP of the campaign: Simplicity and outreach through different channels of Social Media.

     

    (These are purely personal views of teampumpkin.com co-founder Swati Nathani and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • The DTH industry’s big developments in 2014

    The DTH industry’s big developments in 2014

    MUMBAI: 2014 was the year of mixed fortunes for the direct to home television industry in India. The seven players in the industry continued to burn cash as customer acquisition costs continued to stay at high levels, at least one of the players spent a large part of the year looking for a white knight, all the players pushed ahead with their HD offerings in phase I, and II digitisation areas, leading to attractive rises in average revenues per user. The total number of registered subscribers and active subscribers, for all the six DTH players, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report, as on 30 June 2014 was 67.57 million and 38.24 million respectively. Close to 43.41 per cent of DTH subscribers were inactive till June 2014.

    At least two of the players have started generating positive cash flows during the year, even as new spectacular announcements of preparing launches of Ultra HD or 4K services were made during the year. Fresh debt and equity infusions, efforts to introduce new subscriber packages, and an announcement of new policy directions for licensing DTH by TRAI were the hallmark of the year.

    The DTH industry in the country saw some big innovative changes being made over the year 2014. These helped the industry in adding more subscribers while marginally increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU).

    The year began with three DTH operators, Tata Sky, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital TV being issued notices by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) for not showing the mandatory 24 Doordarshan channels. Later on the Ministry also pulled the entire DTH industry for not paying licence fee worth Rs 2066 crore.

    The DTH ops resisted the amount stating that they had been paying the fees on the gross revenue (GR) basis while the government was extracting it on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR). A court case on the same had been pending from nearly four years and is still ongoing. However, Tata Sky and Reliance decided to challenge the same in the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) while Sun Direct made an application on its 2009 petition regarding AGR.

    The licence fee case was put in the backburner by the TDSAT stating that since it is relative to the telecom case on licence fee issue, it would hear that case first and then come to the DTH case. By the end of the year, however, the TDSAT agreed to hear the DTH ops separately rather than wait in line, the case is still on. Tata Sky in the meanwhile has already paid a sum of Rs 383 crore to the I&B Ministry, while Dish TV awaits court orders.

    The budget 2014 got some relief to the set top box (STB) manufacturers by reducing the excise duty from 12 per cent to 10 per cent from February to June 2014. However, they continued to fight the entertainment and service tax that was being levied on them since several years while cable operators go without paying it. Dish TV raised the issue with the finance minister Arun Jaitley and then I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar to discuss the multi layered taxes, which however didn’t lead to any conclusive solution on the same. DTH ops are subjected to licence fee, 12. 3 per cent service tax and also entertainment tax at the state level.

    The DTH Operators Association also saw a change of head with Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish replacing Tata Sky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal. Doordarshan ADG Ranjan Thakur who also headed Freedish moved out due to the expiry of his term.

    Freedish has been working on adding several Indian as well as international channels through its auctions while also setting up MPEG-4 boxes alongside MPEG-2 for the interior parts of the country.

    Several new innovations came across last year. Tata Sky introduced a new feature of Karaoke on TV while Videocon d2h came out with a headphone attached to the remote for watching TV without disturbing others. Both of them also were the first ones to introduce 4K HD TV set top boxes in the country. However, the official commercial rollout for both has yet to happen. Tata Sky even did a live telecast of one of the FIFA world cup matches on its 4K TV as a demo.

    Dish TV on the other hand, chose to go local, by introducing customised packs for regional India. A sub-brand ‘Zing’ was launched that would give localised packages in the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Seemandhra, Telangana and Maharashtra. The oldest DTH operator also heaved a sigh of relief when after months, it received the nod from the Sri Lanka government to commence operations for its DTH project in the neighbouring country.

    With markets being more receptive, Videocon d2h, which has been planning on launching its IPO since long, went ahead with its filing to SEBI for Rs 700 crore with seven banks managing the share sale. Much of what it can raise will go towards acquiring STBs and outdoor units. Dish TV is also contemplating on starting its own manufacturing unit, though it hasn’t laid any concrete plans on it yet.

    TRAI played a big role when it came out with its DTH licencing recommendation paper which is now pending before the I&B Ministry. The paper restricted broadcasters from owning more than one DPO which is likely to affect Dish TV/Siti Cable under Zee and Sumangli Cable/Sun Direct under Sun Network.

    The paper however extended the 10 year licence period to 20 years while the one time entry has been retained at Rs 10 crore. DTH operators whose licence term expires after 10 years will be allowed to apply for a 10 year extension. The licence fee has been reduced from 10 per cent of GR to 8 per cent of AGR.

    The earlier norm of providing a bank guarantee (BG) of Rs 40 crore was change to the amount payable as a licence fee for two quarters and will have to be renewed year on year till the end of the licence period. New entrants will however have to provide a BG of Rs 5 crore for two quarters and then progress as above.

    The year ended with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India coming out with a scathing report on the management of satellite capacity for DTH service by the Department of Space (DoS). In it, it stated that over the years the DoS has been lagging in its satellite launches that were required by DTH operators, leading to them migrating to foreign operators and loss of revenue to the government. The DoS had also goofed up on charging Sun Direct and Prasar Bharati leading to a loss. On the other hand, its commitment to Tata Sky for first right of refusal for using its Ku band transponders, led to its transponder space remaining idle for years.

  • 2014: A year of change for GECs

    2014: A year of change for GECs

    2014 was a year of change and evolution for Zee TV. The game is not over yet, I think we are still evolving everyday and so are our audiences and that is the real excitement. This year, we saw a lot of buzz and excitement on the channel, around the new properties and we are carving our own identity year-on-year in the general entertainment space.

    The channel created some extraordinary concepts in 2014 and now we are seen as a channel that has clutter-breaking ideas within the traditional format. We have launched shows with very different type of protagonists from Jamai Raja to Bandhan.

    We also came up with a weekend block of Zee Super weekends with Maharakshak Aryan and Neeli Chatri Waale and the other non-fiction shows. So, there was an attempt to provide differentiated content to the viewers and yet something that they will be familiar with very easily. This year, we have also observed a very quick traction for all our new shows. Be it for Kumkum Bhagya or Jamai Raja and even Neeli Chatri Waale which has seen strong growth within eight and nine weeks of its launch.  

    We are happy that people are attracted to the differentiated content that we are providing. 2014 was also a year of experiments in the non-fiction category, right from finding talent in India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj to Dil Se Naachein Indiawaale. Moreover, we are now coming back to the traditional Zee show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs as we enter the last leg of the year.

    The idea is to be happy with whatever you do because I think from a product and positioning point of view we have changed in the last nine months. We made a conscious shift about how we look and feel. There is certain uniformity in what we are doing and a certain sense of it coming together. The numbers have been good, so satisfied at that level. We are aligned with the legacy of Zee and yet evolving in a direction that we want to take the channel in.

    I see the same evolution being mirrored in the rest of the industry as well. Channels are providing content that is in the familiar zone but with very different types of protagonists and very different propositions. You may feel like you are watching a show which is in a genre that looks familiar but the story, characters, subjects, the way stories are presented are all different. There is a sense of innovation which broadcasters are giving and audiences are accepting. I think this is a beginning of a good phase.

    Not only Zee, but talking about the whole industry, what we as broadcasters will continue doing is living and breathing what our audiences want and giving them that.

    In 2014, we at Zee have started a new journey and it will take us to a very different place from where we were before. I hope the audiences will be with us in the journey.

    (These are purely personal views of Zee TV programming head Namit Sharma and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • 2014 – The Year of the Mobile

    2014 – The Year of the Mobile

    2014 was a new era in the rise of mobile, content marketing and big data for many businesses. Right in its embryonic stage, mobile has irrevocably transformed digital marketing. It’s been an eventful year for marketers with the rise of omni-channel, mobile-first marketing, and a rapid growth in geo-tagging management – to name, but a few. The digital marketing industry will evolve even further in 2015, bringing a new set of marketing strategies and opportunities to look forward to. Here are some recent trends marketers should be attentive to for the year ahead.

    We have already heard a lot about the mobile craze everywhere but 2014 bucked that trend. We are now going to witness major consumer transactions happening via mobile driven by mobile payment options such as paytm and freecharge. There is a perfect atmosphere of strong consumer evolution to mobility for every aspect of their lives, as well as enterprises treating mobility as a strategic advantage. We also saw mobile usage of social media overtake desktop usage. The mobile-centric Instagram, grew to over 300 million active users. There are more mobile phones (7.2 billion) on planet than number of people (7.16 billion).

    It happens very rarely that a prediction in digital industry comes true. There were a lot of talks about 2014 being a year of mobile and that statement has come true, with 2014 witnessing an enormous growth in smartphones and so will 2015. Mobile presents a huge opportunity for marketers to reach their target audiences. Google research shows that 7 per cent of mobile searches led to a purchase within 24 hours, rising to 18 per cent for local searches. Smartphones are also changing communication habits – particularly for younger generations – with 94 per cent of communication time for 12 to 15 year olds spent on text-based activities such as instant messaging and social media, and only 3 per cent spent on voice calls.

    In 2015, we will see the widely discussed mobile-first marketing approach finally develop to take advantage of these high consumption levels. Retailers will push more high-volume, low-cost products through their mobile commerce platform, to gain enhanced data on consumer behaviour, locality, adaptation, and ROI.

    In the 2014 elections, we saw most politicians using social media for campaigning. Not only Indian politicians used social media but during the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 president Barack Obama’s team most effectively used social media campaigns. In India, we saw the Modi selfie on voting day, live rally broadcasts on mobiles, AAP using it for driving new member joinees and for getting citizen participation in its initiatives.

    Global revenue from app stores is expected to rise 62 per cent this year to $25 billion. From ecommerce companies to travel outfits to government departments, everyone is launching mobile apps and driving significant sales and user engagement through same such as paytm, free charge and other mobile centric means for micro small payments. It’s almost like a DoTcom evolution of 15 years ago – no one wants to miss the bus. The same followed by a rise in the mobile handsets sales, led by newer and fancier smartphones is a major catalyst in making 2014 an era of the mobile and paving way for the coming year. India is already the 3rd largest market for smartphones and will overtake USA shortly.

     Telecom operators have finally started to see a lot of data usage from their customers and their 3G infrastructure investments have started to show financial results. Consumers are in a happy mode with lot of choices – lot of people have more than one handset and kids and teenagers are not the only one using them for social media.

    India has emerged as the strongest market for digital companies who see a huge growth opportunity here. For Facebook, Whatsapp, Google – India is one of their top markets. Regardless of where an Internet company is launched today, India very quickly becomes a large user base for it.

    Rural India is also not untouched from this craze and has started seeing relevant information and entertainment services readily available to them via mobile. Venture capitalists and investors are willing to bet long term on sustainability of mobile led digital evolution and are pumping in millions of dollars.

    So what does all this mean as a marketer?

    1- Jump on mobile bandwagon quickly, else you will lag behind

    2- Gear Up for Big Data & analytics to play a bigger role in next phase of mobile evolution

    3- Gut based decisions will start getting replaced by more number driven decisions

    4- 3Ms need to be central to your marketing plans –i.e., Millions of people engaging with Multiple offerings on their Mobile devices.

    Mobile has started to impact almost every sector of our life – payments, healthcare, shopping, eating, travel, investments, and education etc. and it is important for marketers to understand the changing trends and design their marketing strategies accordingly. Mobiles provide a personal connect to user base and customers which helps impactful brand engagement with the audiences, which is all a brand campaign is about.  It’s an era of dialogue creation, with integrated campaigns across platforms made even more convenient via mobile. 2015 promises to ride this wave of momentum as smartphones will become more secure, more contextual, more location-aware, more targeted, and more integrated. We will witness the most engaging mobile experiences till date come to life in 2015. There will be an integration of Mobility, the cloud, and the Internet of Things creating significant opportunities for businesses to expand and for consumers to enjoy. But these opportunities will also come with newer challenges.

    (These are purely personal views of Digital Quotient chief operating officer Vinish Kathuria and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)