MUMBAI: Sales of digital music in the first half of this year rose by 106 per cent to $945 million when compared with the first six months of last year.
Globally, digital sales now account for 11 per cent of the total recorded music market worldwide, up from 5.5 per cent in December 2005.
According to a report put out by the Ifpi the US is still leading the digital revolution, with 18 per cent of recorded music sales now being made through digital channels. Digital music sales in the US increased by 84 per cent to US$ 513 million in the first six months of 2006.
Digital music also accounts for a significant part of the overall market in South Korea (51 per cent), Japan (11 per cent), Italy (9 per cent) and the UK (8 per cent).
The explosion in digital music services, spurred by consumer demand and a widening array of delivery channels, has seen online and mobile music sales grow from $134 million in the first half of 2004 to $945 million in the first half of 2006.
In Japan, Italy and Spain mobile dominates the digital market, accounting for 85 per cent, 76 per cent and 78 per cent of the overall sales respectively. Online downloading is more prominent in markets such as the UK, Germany and the US, where online sales account for 70 per cent, 69 per cent and 64 per cent of digital sales respectively.
Physical music sales declined in the first half period, down by 10 per cent worldwide. This led to total music sales falling by four per cent in the period to $8.4 billion in trade values ($13.7 billion in retail values). Piracy and competition for consumer spending contributed to the first half fall.
There was growth in some markets, such as Japan (12 per cent), South Korea (5 per cent) and Australia (6 per cent), counter-balanced by declines in Germany (-4 per cent), the US (-7 per cent) and France (-9 per cent).
Ifpi promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide. Its membership comprises over 1400 major and independent companies in more than 70 countries. It also has affiliated industry national groups in 48 countries. Ifpi’s mission is to fight music piracy; promote fair market access and good copyright laws; help develop the legal conditions and the technologies for the recording industry to prosper in the digital era; and to promote the value of music.
“We have launched about three to four shows during this period including Nach Baliye 2, Saathi Re & Paraaya Dhan (Star One) and Antariksh, Karam Apnaa Apnaa and Prithviraj Chauhan (Star Plus) and the effort is to take on any kind of competition in any time band. Star Plus is not going to sit pretty on its relatively strong position. Now, the effort will be to constantly improve the performance. There will be no let off from our side on this front”, says Star India EVP content Deepak Segal.
“The turnaround started with Saath Phere and Kassamh Se and the kind of innovations and experiments we employed in our storylines have really contributed to this good performance. This way, we managed to get the audience flow. We have steadied our soaps. The launch of Betiyann has completed our soap range for the year and now the focus is on various other genres. Hence, we will have now programmes such as the mythology Raavan and reality show Cinestars coming up. So, the strategy will revolve around non-soap genres for the next phase,” says Zee TV programming head Ashwini Yardi.
Kyunki Saas Bhi… continues to be Star Plus‘ channel driver programme. The long running soap of Hindi television recorded its best rating of 14.17 TVR on 31 July, 14.31 TVR on 29 August and 13 TVR on 4 September. The channel has a fixed line up of shows occupying all the top four positions including Kyunki… and the shows are Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kasauti Zindagi Kay and Kahiin To Hoga. While in July, the fourth and fifth positions were occupied by Baa Bahoo Aur Baby and Kkavyanjali respectively, in August the positons went to special shows Nach Baliye 2 Muh Dekhai and Shaadi Ke Rang Bhabhi Ke. In September, Prithviraj Chauhan (best TVR 7.38) and Karam Apnaa Apnaa (best: 7.12 TVR) made it to the reckoning.
The Star ploy of countering Betiyann with Naach Baliye 2 special episode worked well for the channel. Betiyann‘s launch ratings stood at 2.58 TVR, while Nach Baliye 2 opening episode recorded a rating of 4.86 TVR (CS4+ HSM). However, it looks like the ploy had backfired in Kahaani…‘s case as the soap could gather only 6.14 TVR for the particular day. (Kahaani… normally records a rating of about 8 TVR on an average).
Strategy-wise, as Yardi has revealed, Zee TV‘s focus will be now on non-soap programmes such as Raavan and Cinestars. Star Plus is looking at the kids genre in a big way and has even accommodated a kids-oriented superhuman show Antariksh in its weekday 8 pm prime time band. The channel has lined up another kids show Lucky for the same slot on Saturdays. As Segal puts it, “We are looking to develop kids also as a key viewer segment of ours. Star has always been popular for its quality kids shows.” Sahara One‘s October-November plans will mainly revolve around the upcoming soap Solhah Singaar‘.
