ITV

Category: GECs

  • ZEEL CMO Prathyusha Agarwal on TRAI tariff order, channel pricing and content strategy

    ZEEL CMO Prathyusha Agarwal on TRAI tariff order, channel pricing and content strategy

    MUMBAI: Just 10 days away from D-Day, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has embarked on a mission to educate and enlighten consumers about the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) tariff order and how it will benefit them.

    Till now, packs focused on family viewing and bundled channels keeping everyone in mind. Now, it has launched a new multimedia multi-stakeholder communication initiative ‘Channels Ka Chunaav 2019’.

    Talking to media, ZEEL CMO Prathyusha Agarwal said rather than looking at it as a multimedia campaign their approach is in the form of a behavioural change. While in terms of choosing channels broadcast sector had a very low involvement from consumers, the scenario is going to change soon as TRAI has put the power in the hands of consumers. Over a period of time, consumers will gradually start to evaluate what they are paying for. Explaining the structural change across the value chain, Agarwal spoke about ZEEL’s initiatives as well as the new regime’s impact on the industry.

    On the new behavioural change program

    We did a lot of work. We have done price modelling and consumer research in terms of path-to-purchase. The biggest worry is if they will end up compromising someone’s need in the family because budget remains the same. Is that a reality? Not necessarily true. Because once they start doing the exercise, they will realise that they are able to reallocate to the ones which they want. The entire behavioural insight focuses on the variety of needs of each family member and how to meet that demand.

    The other one we have realised while doing this is that TV is seen as a family asset. So, when they are titrating it, the optimisation happens on the person fulfilling the needs of the family and hence the pricing of the bouquet is based on which is optimised for everyday entertainment needs. This is the monthly fee someone is willing to shell out that has been optimised for the everyday needs of everybody in the family. This is the ZEE approach and the behavioural campaign.

    On readiness of DPOs

    The DTH guys have systems in place and DTH consumers are already equipped with this. In terms of LCOs, it’s not as if every LCO is unprepared. I met an LCO who had his own app which he would look at for collecting payments and what he is giving to consumers. I met another LCO who did not have a clue. People who are already attuned to viewers’ demand will be the first movers and gainers. The rest of the mass majority will follow after that. Those who haven’t taken technological support are still empowering their salesmen.

    On protests from LCOs

    Every time there’s a change, there will be protests. First, they will ignore things, and then they will be listening and gearing up for action. I don’t think anybody is not wanting to do. Moreover, many times education and understanding help in a big way. Things will fall into place in the 29th-5th cycle when they go to collect money. By 25-26th of this month, they have to take the call.

    On the change of pricing model

    Currently, based on the pricing modelling that has been done, our pricing has been put by ZEEL which we believe is the right demand-led pricing. This is the channel which has a certain love from its viewers hence certain pricing has been fixed. It will get titrated because it was never an open market pricing. Earlier it was always a fixed bundle or fixed fee which is never a true representation of value.

    On the change in subscription cost for consumers

    The narrative is about reallocation, not increase. There might be or might not be an increase. India is a country where we always have a habit of trading up for what we want and trading down what we don’t need. So that is going to play out even in this sector. They will reallocate their monthly budget. If it does not fall in their budget they are going to shell that incremental money for what they really love. For consumers paying Rs 350, it’s going to be in the budget. Among those paying Rs 200, a little bit of reallocation and titration will happen.

    On whether channel price will be relooked if SC strikes down 15 per cent cap

    In TV ecosystem, now subscription pricing becomes an open market variable and hence you need to be ready not just when regulator intervenes but you have to be thinking about it at a conscious variable and hence be geared for it. Your consumer understanding of what is demand-led pricing will keep you in a good state in the long run. Obviously what the regulator is saying will make you go back and look at pricing. But even otherwise, we are really looking at it as the first pricing that has gone out. There is a behavioural change and there is a certain feedback loop that will happen from consumers saying what I am willing to pay for you. That will take six months to settle down. We will do continuous research.

    Impact on advertising revenue

    It’s a virtuous cycle. Brands which have the strength, pull and reach are going to actually benefit because the reach will keep going up. Because consumers will pick and choose, the reach will keep galloping and hence advertising revenues will go up. Where the product is not good, obviously you will not anyway get advertising revenues for it because there’s no reach. If it’s an open market, your offering and its quality will make you stand in a good state in both places. Till now there’s an artificial not knowing whether your product is doing well or not from the subscription side, now it will get opened up.

    Content strategy

    You never had random content being pushed doing well. When they don’t work, we shut those channels. So any good broadcaster who is committed to good content offering has always evaluated if it is performing well. You had the reach numbers to tell you if it’s catching eyes or not. It isn’t as if because of the new regime people will start evaluating their content. The good thing is there will be feedback on what is being pulled or consumed which will refine your strategy.

  • ZEE puts Family First with ZEE Family Packs

    ZEE puts Family First with ZEE Family Packs

    MUMBAI: Currently, the Broadcasting ecosystem operates as part of a packaged bouquet environment where consumers pay a fixed amount and receive a pre-configured bouquet of channels. As per the TRAI mandate, the new tariff/pricing regime will come into effect from December 29th, 2018. In the new scenario, the power of choice shifts to the viewers who will have the freedom to choose their favourite channels and packs and pay only for what they want to watch. The new channel pricing regime also standardizes channel prices across all service providers / distribution platforms and ensures an open market operation that will lead todemand-led pricing in the category.

    ZEEL, the No 1 television network of the country, leading the change agenda for the new pricing regime, was the first to roll out multiple customer-centric packs and demand-led channel pricing. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Punit Misra, CEO, Domestic Broadcast Business, ZEEL said,“The new pricing regime by TRAI is a transformational structural reform that will go a long way in strengthening the sector with the creation of a uniform pricing model. It puts the power of choice with the consumer, giving him the flexibility to opt for channels and bouquets he loves and pay only for those. For over 26 years, it has been our commitment at ZEE to bring families together through the power of television. Our research on subscriber choice modelling and path-to-purchase understanding pointed towards consumers treating television as a family asset.The monthly purchase is optimized for everyday entertainment needs of all the family members.  Hence our approach towards pack configuration has been ‘family first’ – offering the top genres that contribute up to 85% of family viewing needs of our viewers on a daily basis.”

    Championing the “Freedom of Choice”, ZEE promotes “Channels Ka Chunaav 2019” – a multimedia multi-stakeholder communication initiative, urging viewers to fulfil demands of all family members through Family Ki Suno, Zee Ko Chuno!Keeping with the topicality of elections and the power of choice that has the ability to change status quo, Zee, with this campaign, aims to be the catalyst for the transformational change expected across the TV ecosystem.

    As content in themother tongue is usually the primary destination for TV viewing across India, the ZEE family packs have been configured regional language-forward with attractive packs across 11 languages – Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English.  With a sound understanding of the viewer consumption basket of channels across regions and languages, ZEE has three types of packs to cater to different viewer needs. Prime packs based on core regional language consumption, Family Packs that offer the top genres for every household and All-in-One Packs that offer all genres at great value. These packs come in very attractive pricesranging from the lowest at Zee Prime Pack Tamil-SD at Rs 10 for 8 channels, Zee Family Pack – Hindi SD at Rs 45 for 24 channels to the ZEE All-in One pack that brings the entire lot of 27 channels at just Rs 60 only. What’s more, ZEE has an exclusive launch offer of Zee Keralam at an unheard price of 10 Paise Per Month only.

    Tailor-made to fulfil multiple demands from family, the ‘Zee Family Pack’ targeted at the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM), is highly affordable, priced at Rs. 45 per month for a suite of 24 channels. The Zee Family Pack includes leading channels such as Zee TV, &TV, Zee Cinema, &Pictures, Zee Bollywood, Zee News, Zee Anmol, Big Ganga, Zing, Living Foodz and many others, cutting across multiple genres such as entertainment, movies, news, music and lifestyle thereby offering content that caters to every member of the family, every day. 

    To cater to the multi-genre needs of the premium viewers whose primary language is English, Zee has created the Zee Prime Pack English SD that includes premium channels such as Zee Café, & Flix, Living Foodz and WION priced at Rs 25 per month and the HD pack that includes & Prive HDin addition to these at Rs 35 per month.

    With a total of 59 channels (43 SD & 16 HD) in 11 languages reaching a total of 148 million households every day, ZEEL has been offering audiences in India ‘superhit’ entertainment cutting across genres.Whether it’s Pragya, Preetha, Zara Siddique or Bhabhiji in the Hindi Belt to Rani Rashmoni in Bangla, Radhika in Marathi, Parvati in Telugu,Bhoomi in Oriya, Sembaruthi in Tamil, Kamli in Kannada&and many more in every region, our characters share a deep bond with viewers wanting them as dinner-table companions every day! The No.1 TV network that fulfils all the demands is Zee with its family packs that bring together the right assortment of superhit channels across the top genres of entertainment, movies, news, music and lifestyle, making it a must-have for every family!

  • IBF to intervene in TRAI’s SC petition on 15% discount cap

    IBF to intervene in TRAI’s SC petition on 15% discount cap

    MUMBAI: The TRAI tariff order, which remained a topic of intense debate and discussion in 2017 and 2018, is likely to dominate discourse early on in 2019 too, at least from a legal standpoint as the Supreme Court resumes work after the winter vacations.

    A source close to the development has told Indiantelevision.com that the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is set to intervene in the matter — a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the regulator seeking clarifications on 15 per cent discount cap — when it gets listed.

    All parties, including Star India, which were part of the Madras High Court proceedings, are involved in TRAI’s petition on the issue of 15 per cent cap on discount on a bouquet price or a la carte price of TV channels to consumers.

    The IBF was not originally a party, but an intervener. Hence it wasn’t incumbent upon the TRAI to make it a party in the fresh SLP. However, the IBF will now implead itself in the petition.

    Currently, the tariff order and regulations are getting implemented without the 15 per cent cap as confusion prevails over its validity, though a section of the industry is of the opinion that the Madras High Court had struck down the discount cap issue. TRAI had not issued any clarification on this while setting a roadmap earlier this year for the new tariff regime’s implementation after the Madras HC order.

    On Monday, Star India’s MD Sanjay Gupta during a media roundtable, responding to a question from Indiantelevision.com on the broadcaster’s position on the 15 per cent discount cap said, “It is up to the court to decide that. Now, as an SLP is in the SC…the courts will decide. I don’t have a view beyond that. In the current ruling, there is no discount cap. It may change going forward depending on the SC ruling.”

    Gupta, however, was confident in adapting to a new pricing structure should the SC uphold the high court’s view on the 15 per cent cap.

    “In case the court has a new ruling that discounts have changed, pricing [too] needs to change, both a-la-carte and bouquet pricing in that case, because the distance between them has to be only 15 per cent. I think we are still awaiting the court’s decision and if we need to adapt to it, then we’ll adapt to it. But there will be a shift again in pricing if that comes through,” he added.

    TRAI’s petition demands that the SC set aside the portion of the high court judgment that frowns on the 15 per cent cap on discounts on bouquet prices of TV channels.   

    The Madras High Court, while upholding most of the TRAI tariff order — issued middle of 2016 and challenged by Star India and Vijay TV later that year on grounds of overstepping of jurisdiction — had struck down as arbitrary almost 18 months later the 15 per cent cap on bouquet prices.

    With the case finally disposed of by the Supreme Court earlier this year, upholding the high court’s views, TRAI had issued a notification stating that India’s broadcast and cable industry stakeholders implement its tariff regime in phases and report on compliance.

  • Sanjay Gupta on executing the new tariff regime, Star India’s strategy and channel pricing

    Sanjay Gupta on executing the new tariff regime, Star India’s strategy and channel pricing

    MUMBAI: Star India MD Sanjay Gupta is a veteran of many high-stake battles. The one he’s currently involved in could be long drawn, unpredictable, unlike anything he’s encountered before and potentially his toughest in a while. However, as India’s broadcast bosses put their heads down to implement TRAI’s new tariff regime, Gupta and Star seem to be first off the blocks. Over the weekend, the network unleashed a nation-wide, multi-media and multi-starrer campaign to educate the consumers across about the radical changes.

    While Star fought the TRAI order tooth and nail in India’s top court, Gupta and team deserve full marks for the sheer scale and speed at which they seem to have got things moving after an unfavourable ruling on 30 October. Gupta says his team at Star is ‘excited’ and sees the new tariff regime as an ‘opportunity’. More power in the hands of the consumer and transparency in the value are the two major highlights as India’s broadcast sector undergoes a facelift, he feels.

    That’s not all. Gupta also articulated his views on Star India’s strategy, channel pricing, disruption in the value chain, the SLP filed by the TRAI in the SC, its implications and more as he fielded wide-ranging questions on a balmy Monday morning on the 37thfloor of Star House.

    On the tariff order’s impact

    The biggest change the tariff order is making is bringing transparency into the whole system of how content gets created to how content gets bought. The biggest change you’re going to see is the transparency, which is existent in almost every industry. It is the biggest shift this industry could have asked for and is great value from a consumer point of view. 

    On preparedness of the system 

    I think people will learn. Over the next two-four weeks, it’ll be an intense learning experience. The good thing in this country is people learn very well quickly. The biggest change in this tariff order is the transparency and power to the consumer.

    On Star India’s strategy

    Our strategy has been in delivering great value to consumers. You know that we invest in making marquee content. Be it our channels in drama, movie, sports, National Geographic or any other content that we deal with. And the question that we ask ourselves is how do we ensure that we provide great value to our consumer through our pricing. We offer content in every geography – be the drama we create with Star Plus and Star Bharat in Hindi, Asianet in Malayalam, Star Vijay in Tamil, we add movies to it in each of the markets, National Geographic – which has some of the best infotainment content to consumers – and on top of it sports. What we are trying to do is make the price affordable to ensure that every consumer has access to this content. Not only do they have power but it is power at a great value from a Star bouquet point of view.

    On channel pricing

    The reason we started the communication early, at Star and IBF, is to let the consumers know that a change is happening. I think it requires a lot of education and communication for people to talk to. To my mind, it’s critical and important. And we wanted to begin early, as early as practically possible. Our price is not led by sports but it is also regionally decided. So, we have a different price in Tamil Nadu as compared to Bengal. Depending on what we think is the strength of our bouquet and the quality of content we are offering. So there is differential pricing like in any business that you decide it regionally and locally. We have a strong channel in Asianet, we have a much weaker channel in Vijay. So we are trying to ensure that consumers get dramatic value in each geography.

    For content with mass requirement, we have tried to make it as cheap as possible within the constraints of the investment we make in each of the businesses.

    On weaker channels

    As I said, the real big change is the power to consumers. They have a choice to decide. Less performing channels cannot come to consumers if they don’t like it. The business will be forced to perform better and better to meet consumer expectations.

    On viewership and ad revenue

    If the channels are powerful and the consumers want you, they will take that option. I think the real question is – Are the channels and content powerful enough? Great content will get viewership. It will force everyone to up their game in terms of the kind of content they offer.

    On TRAI’s SLP in SC

    It is up to the court to decide that. I think now as an SLP is in SC, whenever it gets picked up, the courts will decide. I don’t have a view beyond that. But at this moment, the current ruling is that there is no discount cap. It may change going forward depending on the SC ruling.

    In case the court has a new ruling that discounts have changed, pricing needs to change, both a-la-carte and bouquet pricing in that case, because the distance between them has to be only 15 per cent. I think we are still awaiting the court’s decision and if we need to adapt to it, then we’ll adapt to it. But there will be a shift again in pricing if that comes through.

    On whether distribution chain is ready

    I think we will know closer to time. It is possible that they are all not ready at one time and at that point in time TRAI will have to take a view whether they’ll give more time for people to transit. For now, 29 December is the deadline and we are following the TRAI deadline fully in our intent, in our communication and our effort on ground. In the last few months, we have invested aggressively both in putting together our communication, putting up our pricing on the website, training our teams internally because this is such a massive change. All our internal teams need to get prepared too because this has never been done before. It requires a complete re-understanding within the organisation and briefing our partners.

    On potential change in pricing

    Pricing once defined will remain the same. This is the pricing we have published. People can change their pricing but once consumers pick it up, it applies for the next one year. You can’t change it then. This will also bring about discipline in the industry.

    On the impact on advertisers

    I don’t have a firsthand view on it. But I think this will mean some challenges in implementation. A massive shift of this kind brings out a bit of chaos in the beginning. But I think when I look back – when we went from analogue to digital there were similar concerns, and personally, I carry that worry more than anyone else. But if you look back, it happened more smoothly than what all of us anticipated. Given the enterprise of our partners and consumers, we find solutions to difficult problems quickly. So I think this transition will be a little chaotic but hopefully, it will settle down in a few weeks.

    On disruption in distribution chain

    Consumers are used to buying everything else on MRP and choosing. So, they are used to it across business and categories. It is a big shift for people who deliver content to them, i.e., all of us and distributors – both DTH and cable. I think I personally feel all of them have been working hard over the last few months to prepare.

    On readiness of DPOs

    I think DTH is ready in any case because they do this for a living. DTH covers around 60 million homes. They are fully ready. I think cable is ready from a technology point of view. I think from a people point of view they are getting ready. They have been working hard to get ready. I do hope that given the value this is going to unleash, given the power to consumer this is going to provide, our consumers will really come forward and adopt it and force the transition to happen quickly and smoothly.

    On nature of agreements with DPOs

    Now the nature of agreements is simple – there is no long term agreement. You offer your RIO, which is offered by all content owners on the website. People can download and sign it. Basis the number of consumers that you get every month and the price that you set, you get paid. So it’s a fully transparent way of working for everyone. There is nothing like a long-term agreement anymore.

    On how content will be offered to consumers 

    I think DPOs will decide that. But we are offering to every DPO a-la-carte content and bouquet content both. It’s the same price to DTH and cable. It’s a transparent price to all. They can now choose to make their own bouquets by using a-la-carte channels or they can combine bouquets of different broadcasters. I think that’s the strategy each distributor will define on its own. The interesting thing will be from a consumer point of view, you’ll know everything – what’s the a-la-carte price for a channel, what’s the DPO bouquet and what’s the content bouquet. This kind of transparency has never existed in content business ever before.

    On impact on content offering

    Low performing channels will be under pressure. It will put pressure on content to be better and better. Hence, everybody will have to invest in quality to ensure your channels become better. Content has to work well.

    On consumer awareness

    We have launched a big campaign across eight languages. We are doing a big digital push led by Hotstar and digital assets outside. We are trying to make a very simple communication, at both IBF and Star, to simply explain to consumers what is the change. I’m sure all DPOs and channels are investing equally. The amount of communication consumers will see on this front will be quite significant. So I think communication will be a big draw for both the distribution industry and the content industry in the next few weeks.

    On the relationship between broadcasters and distributors

    One big change that is happening is (and that is the power of the TRAI ruling) that pricing is the same for all distribution partners. There is no difference. It’s equitable and it’s transparent, which means more trust. I think this should help drive a much better and a deeper partnership with the distributors.

    On measuring viewership

    As consumers shift, each of them won’t behave the same way. Each distributor won’t behave the same way. Some of the challenges on measurement would be the sampling, which is an important backbone of any measurement, might go for a toss. Because there are 180 million homes measured through 40 thousand boxes. So if there is chaos in 10 thousand boxes, the ratings may not reflect. Hence the IBF made a request (to not release viewership data for two months) to BARC. Now the BARC board has to decide what the next step should be.

  • Uday Shankar elected FICCI VP for 2018-19

    Uday Shankar elected FICCI VP for 2018-19

    MUMBAI: Adding another feather to his cap, 21st Century Fox Asia president and Star India chairman and CEO Uday Shankar has been elected as the vice president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for 2018-19.

    He has recently been appointed chairman of Star and Disney India and president of the Walt Disney Company, Asia-Pacific, a role that he will take over after the takeover of 21CF by Disney takes place. He is the first ever Indian media and entertainment executive to assume the leadership position in a national industry chamber like FICCI.

    A trend-setter in the media and entertainment industry for over two decades, he played a leadership role in making Star India one of the largest media & entertainment companies in India, reaching over 720 million viewers a month across the country and more than 100 other countries. 

    He has been a leading voice in the Indian media and broadcasting sector, shaping reforms for the industry and its consumers. As chairman of the FICCI Media & Entertainment Committee and former president of the Indian Broadcasting Federation, he has been at the forefront of landmark changes in self-regulation and pushing access for consumers to the digitised distribution.

  • Zee TV extends its early primetime fiction to Saturdays

    Zee TV extends its early primetime fiction to Saturdays

    MUMBAI: Zee TV, India’s pioneer satellite broadcaster, has cultivated a strong relationship with the middle class over the last 25 years, presenting path-breaking content that mirrors their core sensibilities. The channel has been on a consistent growth trend, having launched new shows in recent times that have only strengthened its primetime line up. To consolidate its position further, the channel is now extending its early primetime programming to Saturdays. Starting December 15th,  viewers will be able to watch four of their favourite Zee TV shows including Yeh Teri Galiyaan – 7:00 PM, Manmohini – 7:30 PM, Guddan… Tumse Na Ho Paega – 8:00 PM and Tujhse Hai Raabta – 8:30 PM six days a week (Monday – Saturday) and follow it up by tuning into Fear Files and Spotlight.

    In the upcoming episodes of Yeh Teri Galliyan, Shantanu professes his love to Asmita in a drunken stupor but she decides not to pursue it until she proves her innocence. During a family picnic, bhua’s plans to bring them closer because of which Shantanu and Asmita get stuck overnight in a jungle. Romance buds between the two but Asmita accuses Shantanu for taking her for granted and they end up in a heated argument. The next morning, when they return home, the relatives defame them but Shantanu takes the blame which enrages Ridoy. Will this cause a rift between both brothers?

    This week in Manmohini, we will see Mohini trying to gain control over Ram's senses through her magical powers. But despite multiple attempts, she fails to overpower him. Moreover, her attempts to put Sindoor on Karvachauth as Ram’s wife go in vein as Siya come just in time and becomes Ram’s shield, preventing this from happening. Hell bent on attaining Ram through any means possible, what will Mohini do next? Will Siya be able to outsmart her?

    Its festive time on Guddan…tumse na ho payega with Christmas around the corner. There is a lot of warmth and love but is this is the calm before the storm as drama brews under the surface. A turn in events will put Guddan in a though spot where she will have to choose between her own family and her Sasural. Constantly plotting against Guddan, the bahu’s decide to make her father dress up as a clown and insult him. Upset by this, Guddan blames Akshat for her father’s insult but tackles the situation in a quirky way. What will Guddan do to take a stance and fight back to prove herself?

    Tujhse Hai Raabta will see some entertaining drama in the upcoming week as the Mother-Daughter duo end up applying to the same collage oblivious of each other’s plans. When they come face to face on the application day they are absolutely stunned. Anupriya new to the entire set up gets sucked into ragging from where Kalyani smartly rescues her. On the entrance exam day, Bhua plans to frame Kalyani by slipping cheating chits in her bag which are later caught by the invigilator putting her in extreme trouble. Anupriya and Malhar immediately rush to her rescue. Will they make it there in time?

  • Uday Shankar’s meteoric rise from Star India to Disney APAC

    Uday Shankar’s meteoric rise from Star India to Disney APAC

    MUMBAI: The man running India's largest media company – Star India-  has made it to the top in the Asia Pacific region at probably the world’s most admired entertainment company – Disney. Uday Shankar, who once was a reporter with The Times of India, and then went on to successfully lead news channels such as Aaj Tak and Star News, on Thursday added another glorious chapter to his awe-inspiring journey.

    Late in the evening of 13 December came the announcement that Uday – as he is referred to – would be taking over as chairman of Star and Disney India and president of the Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific.

    Ever since the acquisition of Fox was announced by Disney, many expected Uday  – the blue-eyed boy of the Murdoch family – to get the corner office in the new entity. Doubting Thomases wondered whether the Mouse House would allow an entrepreneurial executive to steer its fortunes in Asia, let alone India.

    Uday has, by sheer dint of his risk-taking ability and innate knowledge of how Indian consumers watch television, transformed the Star Network from a struggling channel  (which was under attack from a slew of old and new players) into India’s largest TV network serving viewers entertainment in many languages as well as delivering India’s top passion, cricket, on its sports channels and its OTT service Hotstar.

    As much as Uday believes in a free culture which encourages entrepreneurialism thanks to his previous direct bosses Rupert and James Murdoch, Disney believes in extreme systems and processes which is a positive for most companies but that has not worked as well as far as its India operations are concerned. Star India overpowers Disney India by multiples in revenue terms.

    Under the new structure, the 55-year-old has a phalanx of old-time Disney executives reporting into him. Among these: Greater China, Japan, and Korea executive vice president & managing director Luke Kang;  Australia and New Zealand managing director Kylie Watson-Wheeler,  and  Middle East senior vice president and managing director Chafic Najia.

    That he has chosen Uday over old Disney timers is a clear sign of the confidence that the Disney direct to consumer and international segment’s chairman Kevin Mayer has reposed in him; that he is the man who will do the job and give him a free hand to help shape the Disney-Fox-Star combine into an even bigger money making machine that it can be in the region.

    On Uday’s shoulders rests the responsibility of steering Disney – and Star India – to entertain more than half the world’s population – the middle east, APAC, and China account for about 4 billion people. And an estimated $10 billion-plus in revenues for The Walt Disney Co.

    It probably is the highest an Indian executive has risen in a global entertainment company. He has his challenges ahead: a merger always means some amount of chop and change and he has to manage that first mainly in India because of the business scale differences between Star and Disney in the country.

    But the bigger challenge will be staving off the competition that Disney faces from the rising FAANGs in India, southeast Asia, Australia New Zealand well as from players from China such as Tencent, Youkou, Iqiyi who could very well eat into the huge pie that Disney China has in its studio business there.

    In Uday, Disney has a go-getting decisive no-nonsense APAC lead exec who likes to get things done; no task is impossible. Every problem brings with it opportunity. That attitude should serve him in good stead in the years to come.

  • TV still has headroom for monetising from underpenetrated areas

    TV still has headroom for monetising from underpenetrated areas

    GOA: With the advent of OTT platforms, technological disruptions and change in content consumption trends, traditional linear TV has been facing a difficult time. Moreover, demonetisation and inclusion of GST also came as additional challenges in the recent past, with effects that lingered for long, while the biggest disruption – the new tariff order – is on the way. Due to the rapid changes, traditional players in the ecosystem are changing their strategy to stay profitable.

    In this scenario, Video and Broadband Summit 2018 held a session on monetising TV in times of transition. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) chief growth officer Ashish Sehgal, TAM India CEO LV Krishnan, KPMG India media and entertainment partner, deal advisory and head, Girish Menon took part in the session which was moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder and CEO Anil Wanvari.

    Wanvari kick-started the session asking what the monetisation trend in TV industry was in the last nine months. Menon, whose organisation KPMG published a report two months ago on the entire ecosystem, spoke about the increasing interest levels, contribution and demand from rural and regional markets on the advertising side which ensures that there is a growing deeper demand. He added that if someone is able to optimally monetise those options, the opportunities fairly exist for ad growth. He also added that a fair amount of traction in the FTA market is attracting brands there. On the subscription side, Menon said there’s enough headroom for growth as till now only 65-66 per cent households are penetrated by TV in India.

    ZEEL's Sehgal also endorsed Menon’s view on the growth opportunities for TV. “Across the industry, there has been a healthy double-digit growth which is happening. Even if you talk about the demonetisation and GST period, which stunted growth, even then the industry grew in single digit. It’s not like it had gone back to a certain level and then grew back,” Sehgal commented on the growth of the TV industry.

    Asked about tariff order, he said they still need to see how it’s going to pan out. But he mentioned that broadcasters like Zee and Star have come out with consumer-friendly packages which will help in ARPU growth. While he was asked whether users will start cutting cords if the price of subscription packages goes up too much, he answered that there’s no other better option available. According to him, to get the amount of content available on cable or DTH, users need to subscribe to ten other platforms.

    TAM India CEO Krishnan also agreed with Sehgal on the growth side of TV. He said that in the first 9 months of this year, TV showed around 11 per cent growth. Owing to the assembly elections, the growth may reach up to 12-13 per cent at the end of the year. Moreover, he added, it is the real revenue growth, not only volume growth.

    While the moderator asked if TV has got its real value, Krishnan said it definitely has brought in value itself from advertising and subscription. He also spoke about opportunities in hyperlocal advertising which is very much prevalent in print. There were 130,000 new advertisers just in the last 9 months compared to 2017 on the print medium which is coming from hyper-local editions of newspapers. But when that is being monitored in the adex data, those advertisers are still not translated into advertising on television or radio or digital yet.

    “On the other hand if I look at exclusive advertisers happening on digital and on TV it’s very comparable. There are around close to 16,000 advertisers uniquely positioned only on TV and around 12,000 unique advertisers on the digital adex. Now they are just 10 per cent of the overall volume that’s coming into print. If that translates slowly into regional television or digital OTT platforms for advertising, imagine the growth that TV and OTT can get,” he added.

    Sehgal believes that certain TV genres aren't getting a fair deal. “Average price across the genres are increasing. Yes, I would say there are certain genres which are still underpriced. For example, south channels are 90 per cent penetrated in terms of television. They are still underpriced. This pricing needs to be corrected. Kids' channels segment is underpriced. Hindi movie genre is highly underpriced while the value input behind purchasing movies is high, from advertising as well as subscriptions you are still not getting the value back,” he said.

    Where all the experts agreed was that sports content and TV premieres get higher value but when it was asked if it’s enough compared to other countries they said it’s linked to the purchasing power of the country. Moreover, they also said the growth rate in India is much higher than the US or China. It was also said that the pay-TV ecosystem in most of the developed markets are subscription led not ad led. India is always going to be a market where the rates of advertisement will be low but the fact is given the level of demand there is in the country from a consumption perspective, the growth will also be much higher than what can be seen globally.

    While most of the players work on volume rather than value, Sehgal said ZEE is working on the mix. “We have to start working with the real mix – how to get value and volume both together. Today, we are going 2X with the market only because we are not only getting the volume but also value. My price point from what it was last year to this year has increased in every channel. Now somewhere it has increased more and somewhere it has not increased more,” Sehgal said.

    On the question of how TV, cable or DTH can be monetised better, the experts think they should not shy away from the competition coming from digital. They think investment in technology, going back to advertisers with more value proposition is important. Though TV cannot engage like digital, they think brand building on TV is easiest. Unless a brand advertises on TV, building awareness becomes difficult.

  • Zee TV VP marketing Azmat Jagmag quits

    Zee TV VP marketing Azmat Jagmag quits

    MUMBAI: Zee TV’s VP for marketing, Azmat Jagmag, who was responsible for brand building, team growth, sales strategy and revenue facilitation, has quit the organisation last month.

    Jagmag started her career as an account executive at Draft FCB Ulka in 2004 and was there for over a year. Her next move was Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd in 2005, where she joined the company as the marketing executive for Zee Cinema.

    She was then elevated as Zee TV AVP marketing position and launched brands that propelled Zee TV to a strong challenger brand. She then became the marketing head at Zee TV.

    Jagmag served the organisation for over a decade and before making a move, she was also held responsible to look after Zee Anmol as the brand marketing head. The channel ruled the roost in terms of reach within three months of launch. Also, the Facebook page showed the highest organic growth of 32 per cent across competition, whereas Twitter base grew by 370 per cent.  

  • Transform by tackling moral dilemmas: Sudhanshu Vats

    Transform by tackling moral dilemmas: Sudhanshu Vats

    MUMBAI: Media companies can no longer ask ‘if’ changes are happening. They are, there’s no doubt about it. But now it’s a question of how to respond. Addressing the CII Big Picture 2018 in New Delhi, Viacom18 group CEO and MD Sudhanshu Vats spoke on the topic of ‘Changing M&E landscape – from convergence to transformation’.

    According to him, the industry is battling moral dilemmas. “If you step back and introspect about all that is happening with our industry across the world, you will agree that we are battling several changes – and most of them are a result of moral dilemmas and our response to them. If we can tackle these dilemmas successfully (and defining success is the hardest part), we can believe that we have transformed,” Vats commented.

    Another issue bothering the industry is about misusing its reach and credibility to influence electoral processes across the world. Equally troublesome is ensuring fairness in terms of availability of content to consumers and parity across distribution platforms, especially in the future when convergence is going to dial up vertical integration across value chains.

    As the content consumption on digital is increasing rapidly, the access of media companies to consumer data will also go up. He said, “As consumption moves online, our access to data will increase. In many ways, data will be a competitive advantage and drive advertising revenues and personalised user experiences – what processes do we put in place to ensure it is not misused – how and where do we draw the line differentiating personalization versus privacy?”

    Correctly treating their biggest asset, human resources, both on screen and off, is also necessary. “How do we react when their individual, personal behaviour questions the fabric of the society we want to create? Think of this especially in light of the recent issues around diversity and inclusion that we’ve experienced. It’s important for everyone, but especially so for our industry,” he said.

    He also added that the list of moral dilemmas is endless. Hence, everyone needs to be cognizant of these dilemmas as organisations, industry bodies, policymakers and governments as they look to scale up businesses.

    “I’ve always been an ardent supporter of data and its importance in driving decision making. In this address, I have not used a single data point – because I believe that the course we take over the next decade will be determined more by these fundamental issues of values and how we tackle moral dilemmas than just commercial considerations,” he said.

    “Driving consensus will be difficult yet more important than ever before. This is even more so given that India is today amongst the world’s largest ‘open’ media markets and home to a multitude of players from all over and of all sizes,” he added.