Mumbai: At the Media Investment Summit (MIS) 2023 organised by Indiantelevision.com on 15 February, IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha delivered the keynote address and he spoke about the future of television.
He flagged off the event by discussing that television, at the end of the whole day, ends up being digital. It’s not one versus the other. It’s all about the growth of the industry, the industry grows, and we all grow along with that. And that’s what I say.
“So, television, I believe, has a future in spite of what people think about it. 65 per cent penetration in the country today, enough headroom to grow. And it’s a true story to tell because I’m not saying 30 per cent, but the affluence is coming in and the power of digital is coming into India, especially in the HSM, in the northern belt,” he points out.
He further adds, “The other thing everyone talks about is that television is not growing, it’s in a state of decline. So the first thing is that I see some baseline numbers of Barc that have not been put out yet. There is a six per cent growth in television – so we’re adding 14 million homes over the last two to three years. And at the same time, people are wandering from television under the so-called fancy word of cord cutting. So we are adding more to television than losing through chord cutting.
Also while a lot of people have actually gone away from television by cutting out their cable connection, a lot of people are doing both – which is connected TV. So the thing is that you know it’s easy to say that television has declined, but with absolute numbers television has grown. Though it co-exists with other forms of distribution.
All this time and data processing is cheap in India. It will be a bipolar market between Airtel and Jio, along with data prices being what they are and Freedish, chances are there’ll be some people coming back to television, so it’s going to be a TV plus market and not a TV minus market.”
Sinha brings to light, “The other point which I want to make, which is a larger point, is that India has 90 per cent single TV homes. A lot of it is about affordability. Not many people can afford a television. TV is the highest consumption, individual consumption in a day three hours and 40 minutes per day, higher than any other medium. But that’s not the point I’m making. So while it remains number one compared to all other media consumption, the point is that we at Barc also capture household data. So the household level is five hour and 40 minutes. In international markets, you’ll find the gap between individual and household data to be very high. In India, the gap is not much – it’s almost 65-70 per cent so individual data is three hours and 40 minutes, while the household data is about approximately five hours and 30 minutes or so.
What does this mean? It means that at any point in time that television is happening, it means approximately 2.7 to 2.8 people that are watching television together. Now, this makes sense because finally, television is not only about viewing content and enjoyment, it’s also about family time together. Our whole society is built on families, the Asian society is around that. And this cold viewing which we are talking about of 2.7 – 2.8 is pretty high. This number indicates that appointment viewing is not going to go away and it is going to be a big thing in the future.
So I believe that the movement is happening to OTT. I believe that there is a huge opportunity for television to engage families, like nothing else. Whatever happens on the handset will always be individual, but family bonding time and family together, having dinner over TV or doing whatever you want, chatting over TV will be a part of a huge change. That change is not going to go away.”
Coming to OTT, he said, “Everyone else will look at the numbers and streaming is very big. Today finally streaming TV, and most of it is over connected TV. So the fact remains that a lot of what we see is not from TV – the form may be different you know, but it is our television. So connected television homes, numbers may vary. There’s no data point on numbers, but 25 million, 20 million. What about when we put the numbers in that ballpark? 25 million homes are still lower than SD homes. So SD homes are 50 to 70 million. Now may consider dropping in SD versus no measurement of viewership in OTT. There’s no third party measurement there. So it’s a bit unfair to compare but the fact remains OTT has grown. If you think about it, most of the OTT guys are not making money under the hope of investing in this country in the future. So finally it is the content guys who are making money from the TV business that money back into OTT platforms. So I think in some way this country is responsible for the growth of OTT and not giving justice to TV.
Measurement in this country has been the lowest common denominator. It is very individual-driven when you go home and you put a meter reading to measure individual homes. People like us would never allow a meter to be put into our homes. So it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. So in a way in a manner of speaking, measurement in the way it is designed has been responsible for that self-fulfilling prophecy of looking at the heart of the country and not looking at the top end of the creamy layer which is a ready opportunity for OTT and all of us believe what we see what we do. All of us probably watch OTT. So if measurement in a country is measured by measurement has to be modified, there are ways of doing it which we’re working on. It is a long process, it is not easy. Whether you look at it on a budget or whether you look at household meters, there are many ways of fixing the problem.
But this is our duty to segment – it is the broadcasters’ task to segment themselves. There is no one size fits all. But they have to compete with OTT, and actually they can compete because they’re profitable and they will make money. So, if we move with the times, and which we’re hoping and praying that we will do so will allow people to monetize those audiences ever since Barc is coming to place, HD has just gone for a toss. The number of homes has not gone away, because the content – Anupama is a great show, it does very well but it’s not designed for those HD homes. So they will look for alternate content, OTT content which is coming and Mirzapur will always do well there. But if I start measuring and have access to the homes, currently we don’t have access – and when we have access to the homes obviously there will be an opportunity to customise content so the broadcaster will do two kinds of content. This seems theoretical but it is possible. It might take a little time, but all of you are familiar with your path. The government is doing a great job of encouraging us to work towards it.
So I think the numbers on digital, I won’t say are overstated. None of us knows what’s happening in programmatic or SME, where the digital growth is coming from. But the overall sentiment is that it’s not about one versus the other. It’s about the growth of the industry. So I personally believe there is a lot of juice, there are some structural flaws, which broadcasters need to sort out which we need to enable them from a measurement point of view. And if that happens, we’ll take time. There is a lot of juice left in the industry.”
He elucidates on the sports factor. “Finally, you know, the biggest property – sports is a big driver to television and I’m sure you see in our data which says that television and sports are a big thing. All over the world. People still watch live sports on TV. That’s what makes sense and to me – TV is TV – I don’t differentiate it by going HD or SD or connected TV or Jio. I think sports is what drives so while you’re getting to the medium of TV, digital or streaming or whatever, the larger point is where people spend time, brands spend time.
And IPL is a big property – it is probably one of the biggest properties in the world, competing with Super Bowls and stuff like that. So I think whatever it takes to make it grow, whatever it takes to protect that is in our collective interest. So why compete with each other? That’s what happened to the news guys, that you know there are 10 number ones. As a result, we’re and clients are confused. This will be so usually if viewership is dropping, whether a person watched on Jio or on SD we don’t know. My view is to promote the IPL, the IPL is our future. That’s the future. It is not about pulling away from each other. So, focus on getting what is your actual share, you’ll get that share.
The faster we face it, the faster we come closer, the faster we say this is globally a challenging year. I’m sure we’re a connected economy, and there’ll be some sentiment; we may suffer less, but there will be some sentiment. So this is a time for all of us to rally together and say how we get together for brands, how do we grow their business and how do people partner with diverse businesses.”
A question arose, “So you said you have to reduce the confusion, how do we reduce the confusion? How do we reduce the confusion because it’s getting stronger and stronger than fusion?”
Sinha explained, “The point is that industry leaders need to sit together. This cannot be done by sitting in a room. Four key people have to get out together and say – guys, are we here to grow the industry? We compete by the day, that’s our job, but we don’t kill each other. It’s not vanity. We collaborate.”
Another question, “Let’s look at the price of a Superbowl ad and this year I believe that viewership was the highest for the Superbowl, if you look internationally. I think it used to be a few million but now it’s turning into a double-digit million for a 30-second spot. In India, the realisations are very low. Brands want to get more than a bang for the buck. They want to get 100 bangs for the buck. We’re not looking at increasing realisation, we’re looking at reducing realisations. How do we change that?”
Sinha replied, “I keep saying there are three key masters you work for and that’s true for any company – the clients, employees and shareholders. If Unilever performed well in the pandemic it’s primarily because they took their prices up – when Unilever increased the prices of some of its products, nobody questioned them, right? Not just Unilever, but every other company did that. So, about the price-output ratio, someone who needs IPL and the audiences for a launch needs it. I tell a brand, you’re a relatively young brand, and you want to make a mark, you need audiences, you want a national presence – there can be nothing better than that. That’s the advice I give my clients – you need a combination, you take whatever combination of connected TV or streaming that you want, and along with that take television.”
On being questioned, “The cost of acquisition of rights is going up across – especially sports. In that dichotomy with clients putting pressure on getting better realisation from agencies, from the broadcasters and the platforms, there’s that pull and pressure. Like we said, the amount of money they paid for IPL this year – half the revenue was earned last year across one platform now they’re looking at realising twice the revenue just from advertising investments.”
“So, we got to understand that pricing and cost are not connected, that’s a business call. Now the economy has gone through a tough time. But these are such companies that can weather all storms – be it the Disney network or even Jio. My only point is – help grow the industry, help grow the property,” he wrapped up.
