Category: Viewership

Mumbai: At the Media Investment Summit 2023 organised by Indiantelevision.com one of the panel discussions was on the changing paradigm of the media business with the Emergence of the Digital Age. One point noted was that digital is in an emerging state. But there is complexity. With web3 and the metaverse coming into the picture the complexity needs to be broken. It needs to be made a lot simpler.

The panellists were Byju’s marketing head Atit Mehta, Abbott Nutrition head media, digital and CRM Loveleen Gajria, Dentsu India COO media Bhasker Jaiswal, Clovia general manager – marketing Nikhil Gulati, Pernod Ricard India lead digital communications Shetanshu Dikshit. The session was moderated by DDB Mudra chief digital officer Preetham Venkky.

Jaiswal made a point about complexity. He noted that measurement needs to be worked on to better measure campaign effectiveness. He said that the creation of jobs is going on in digital like creative technologists. This never existed a few years back. Command centres have been created within organisations. Niche profiles are being created. From a brand side, there are data specialists, analysts, technology specialists, creative mindset people, brand planners etc. All this is good because there needs to be enough awareness and education to be connected to the brand’s needs. In the coming five years digital will be pushed much more. Spends will increase. Clients and brand teams will be much more aware of digital.

Gajria meanwhile broke down the journey of digital into fewer phases. Initially digital was seen as being cheaper entertainment than television. Today, there is top-rated production quality content being created digitally. She also noted that digital inclusion has happened through things like financial independence, e-learning etc.

At the session, it was also noted that the next phase of digital will be what happened with television. One will see heavy, medium and light users. The challenge will be to segregate and for a brand to figure out where its cohort sits. Digital is not playing second fiddle to television anymore, noted the session. Brands have to see how they can take the digital space ahead. What are the kinds of customisations, and personalisations that can be done? Digital has certainly emerged and one has to see what is next.

The discussion then moved on to the new digital channels that are growing that are not Meta, Google or OTT. The channels it was noted on are already there. It is a question which will come in. Nobody knew that the metaverse would be like one year ago. Today everybody is excited about it. If consumers adopt a technology brands will also adopt and then agencies will put more thought into it. So technology will drive digital not a platform.

Gajria noted that specific segments have emerged in digital that cater to various audiences. People spend time on bite-sized games in between commuting. “That is a huge space, E-learning is another one.” She also noted that consumers learning about brands on e-commerce platforms will be important. At the session, the importance of AI was mentioned. Brands can get involved in ChatGPT. This can be a game-changer. There is a lot of scope for SEO, content marketing. It remains to be seen how Microsoft integrates it into its products. Right now experimentation is going on in ChatGPT and brand safety is important. The good news though is that each new technology that comes in sees a faster adoption rate. Brands need to know what the guardrails are so that they know what they are getting into. Search whether it is audio or video gives a lot of space for brands as an avenue. But at the end of the day it is important to be channel agnostic and consumer first. One has to see where the TG is. Dikshit noted that gaming, audio podcasts are big trends that brands should explore. He said that Blenders Pride conducted India’s first fashion show in the metaverse. “It was a big hit. We were clear on what we were looking for.” He added that influencer marketing is growing in importance.”

It was noted that OTT is struggling in terms of SVoD. There are TV channels that have one million subscribers on YouTube. Subscription is struggling because the purchasing power is not in proportion to what the consumption is. While some OTT platforms are lagging with 15-20 million subscribers a lot of the same content is seen on YouTube. Advertising is attractive. The dispersion between the paid customer and the ad customer is different here. OTT players are struggling with their paid subscriber numbers not going up. 

The session also noted that the lines are blurring in terms of content consumption. One has to understand consumer segments irrespective of where they stay. One has to understand what they want. What they consume is more critical and in this way brands can make their plans better. There is also immense potential in the vernacular Bharat side of things. The issue is that while OTT apps have 10-11 languages often the entire app experience is not native. This is what platforms like Josh, JioCinema are working on. The affinity for vernacular languages is high. There is a lot of untapped potential for brands to target vernacular languages.

The session also noted that people from broadcasters to agencies, digital platforms define India, Bharat, India 1 India 2 in a different way. Is it based on demographics, psychographics, geographically? As a business, this does not matter. It is more of a planning conversation. At the end of the day brands need to focus on selling products where the consumers are. Business objectives have to be fulfilled. There is a market mix model and it could have Bharat, India 1, India 2. So if West Bengal is the key market then an OTT platform like Hoichoi works well. Brands need to be relevant to the context, culture of a place. Market priorities need to be taken off through a media plan.

Mumbai:  aha promoter Allu Arvind and CEO Ajit Thakur announced  aha’s expansion plans in Malayalam and Kannada in the next three years.

“Our next growth plan is to expand into new languages and genres, we are committed to infusing Rs 1000 crores”,  aha promoter Allu Arvind made an announcement at a media round table yesterday.

aha CEO Ajit Thakur joined him, saying, “We reached 1 million subscribers in our first year and that was not planned. We were celebrating our first birthday at that time, and we had 1.8 million subscribers by the second year. And this year, as we complete our third year we have 2.5 million subscribers. From the first to the third year, the number increased from 1 million to 2.5 million. Growth has slowed this year, but we grew 40 per cent more compared to last year. ”

Thakur explained how  aha is aiming for 6 million subscribers by the year 2025 with 600 million views.  aha also believes there is an opportunity to play dual SVoD and AVoD strategies. Currently,  aha has 12 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) with a 55 percent re-subscription rate for Telugu. 

Arvind believes demand for regional content is at its peak but it is significantly underserved by OTT in India. “We want to serve all the South Indian languages but when you open the app, the very unique quality of the  aha app is that you will find only that language you want, and that will be served to you, and now we want to explore languages like Malayalam and Kannada as well,”  added Arvind.

“Today, three years later, we are successful in Telugu and we are growing fast in Tamil, I believe the time has come for us to grow further into more languages. I am happy to say that over the next three years, we have a solid plan of growth with expansion into new languages and genres; and to that end, we are committed to infusing Rs 1000 crores,” added Arvind. 

About the hybrid model, Thakur said, “Primarily we are SVoD and will continue to be for over the next three to five years. The idea was not to dish out ads to paying subscribers but monetise through the unique proposition we have. So we started to hit a very good number in terms of non-subscription revenue this year, which is $ 4 million. And 80 per cent of that is not coming through ads but it is coming through brand solutions. So we are serving ads to people who are free users, amongst the things that we are adding to the Telugu offering as we get to the short form, we want to add live commerce to that content.”

He further added, “AVoD is here to stay but in the foreseeable future sign of a good platform is if you can demand subscription revenue”

Thakur informed that actor Allu Arjun, one of the promoters, is very actively involved as a board member of  aha. “He is a huge fan of brand marketing and creating brands. He’s been very actively involved in helping with everything from the logo design to other things including the naming of the app, when we were in the testing stage, his contribution behind the scenes has been significant,” said Thakur. 

The average age of  aha’s consumers is about 24. The audience from age 20 to 30 is the primary target. A large part of its consumer base is between 20 to 45. It is about 65 per cent men now, when we started it was 75 per cent.

Today,  aha has 2000+ hours of content, including 350+ hours of exclusive and original content, and 32 million app downloads. It is best known for shows like Unstoppable with NBK and Telugu Indian Idol.

With the addition of Telugu and Tamil, the overseas network has expanded to the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, as well as Southeast Asia, which includes Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. According to recent industry surveys,  aha is already the most popular Telugu OTT service.

Indian Television caught up with  aha CEO Ajit Thakur who shed light on content and the business strategy.

Edited excerpts 

On Rs 1000 crore investment 

We want to grow aggressively, primarily we have to invest in the current languages Telugu and Tamil which are doing well, and we are investing in new languages as well. This is why the need to raise a much higher corpus to expand from Telugu and Tamil to other languages.

The time is now for us to get into Malayalam and Kannada. So what we are saying is the promoters will infuse 50 per cent and the other 50 per cent we will raise from the market so that we can get to these newer languages faster without losing focus on our current leadership. There’s no point in going and producing films, they’ll get produced for theatre anyway and then we can compete with others to buy the smaller films. Nobody’s taking the risk. So there’s a large opportunity for directors and actors available. We will go and invest upfront.

On aggregator apps trend 

We want to stay away from it as long as possible, because there we don’t own the customer.

We are content creators if we make our content available to everyone. So, what is the benefit of a platform? We want to stay in the B2C model because we have the advantage of having the platform and being able to control the narrative and the customer. But in the future if we have to do it at some point, then we will select one big aggregator like Jio, because their phones have reached the last mile customer in rural India.

On Bharat vs India 

We are focused on Bharat; everyone is competing in India, but nobody is focussing on Bharat. We are 100 per cent local, and the definition of local must be Bharat. They are watching all kinds of content, be it Korean, Spanish, and everything but it’s dubbed in their language. The consumer in rural areas is watching content for six – eight hours per day. They have a lot more time than we do. But they are watching a lot of content on older and less expensive phones, the quality is not great, but that’s fine.

On pan India content

Pan-India stories are here to stay, with South Indian content taking the lead, but there’s no reason why Hindi films can’t cross over. I mentioned that OTT has fueled that even more because there is nothing like which language you’re watching it in because all content is being dubbed and subtitled in all languages. The truth is that a good story in any language will work and a bad story will not work. 

On the challenges 

The most difficult aspect was getting the content to scale properly. There are few writers, and we were the leaders in Telugu in terms of producing a whole generation of writers for OTT through film and television. Creating new content was difficult, as was raising awareness among subscribers, and the fourth challenge was competing for content acquisition. We now face the fifth challenge, which is hiring people.

On distribution 

We want to own the customer. So far, we’ve done it with a couple of ISPs where the subscribers are still with  aha. Then distribution becomes a function of marketing, and the beauty of OTT and the television world is that you’re not dependent on a middleman. If your brand is strong, marketing has to be aggressive and reach newer markets. 

On international reach 

We will focus deeply on this 100 per cent on the local diaspora in Telugu, this diaspora is primarily in the US, Canada, and Australia. And in no time we scaled up to 100,000. Today we are at 110,000 subscribers in the US. Telugu works like magic because that’s their connection to their roots and language. 

So we’ve had a great success story in those three markets where a lot of Telugu diaspora is. With Tamil we are now targeting Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore, and in Malayalam, we’ll be able to target UAE and cover the rest of the world.  

On investments and break even 

In two and a half years, we will be the first language platform to break even. So we’ll break even in Telugu in five years, but we’re investing in Tamil, so we’ll keep investing as a company. And I believe the breakeven is occurring for a variety of reasons.

We have a better understanding of the market. Someone who lacks local knowledge may be willing to pay a 50 per cent premium for them. We are also constantly innovating and creating content to reduce the cost of content. 

We are staying away from purchasing films as it is costly. As we have got into producing films and if a director wants a theatrical release we will do it, to reach a larger audience. However, the acquisition cost is fixed at the time of investment, as opposed to when it’s ready, which is a costly proposition.  We are not a multinational that can invest indefinitely.

Mumbai: After bringing cheer to your homes with the SA20 cricket tournament, Colors Tamil viewers can look forward to a rollercoaster ride in the coming week with three riveting web series: Cyber War, Memories and Time Out.

To be aired from February 13 to February 24, from 8:30 pm to 10 pm every day, the three popular Hindi series dubbed in Tamil oscillate between cybercrime, family drama, romance and superhuman power. 

Starting at 8:30 pm, the crime thriller titled Cyber War boasts of 20 episodes. Starring Mohit Malik and Sanaya Irani, their mission is to wipe out cybercrime in Mumbai city which springs several twists and turns along the way. Solving the Malware attack against Mumbai police on the one side and handling blackmail threats on the other lead to some compelling moments.

Memories, an edge-of-the-seat crime fantasy romance thriller, with 13 episodes talks about superhuman power where the hero knows all the secrets, memories and desires of dead people. Starring Rohit Roy, Surleen Kaur and Priyal Gor, and to be aired at 9:30 pm, it has a well-known news anchor who uses all his superhuman powers to crack some cryptic clues and secrets of dead bodies for the police.

Finally, Time-Out is a captivating six-episode series on mid-life crisis about two characters Radha and Rahul when the latter comes to know that the former gets pregnant. How they manage and navigate between the fear and shock of facing reality sums up to an interesting watch. Stuck between evaluating his choices and how his life can change post it, the web-series can be seen from 10 pm.

Mumbai: Zee Theatre has announced ‘Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti’, an adaption of William Shakespeare’s famous comedy ‘Taming of the Shrew’. Drenched in 90’s nostalgia, this visual feast is directed by cinema and theatre veteran Akarsh Khurana and stars Prajakta Koli in her teleplay debut along with Shikha Talsania, Chaitnya Sharma and Adhaar Khurana. 

The central conflict of the plot is that love birds Lakshman (Chaitnya Sharma) and Priya (Prajakta Koli) cannot marry each other till the latter’s elder sister Pallavi (Shikha Talsania) gets married. Lakshman then devises a hilarious plan and tries to get Pallavi hitched to an eligible NRI groom (Adhaar Khurana). What follows is absolute mayhem, endless fun and impossible wedding moments.  

Khurana commented, “Some stories are just an absolute joy to tell, and ‘Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti’ was one such project from the very beginning. The cast and crew and I absolutely loved blending the colourful quirks of the 90s with the comedic genius of Shakespeare, both of which I grew up loving. Writer Adhir Bhat’s script, Lisha Bajaj’s hilarious one-liners, and the energy of the actors brought the house down every time we rehearsed. I have no doubt that the audience will enjoy this story immensely.”

Sharing her experience, Koli added, “I have done theatre before and working with Akarsh has always been a treat. He is like a mentor and guide to so many young actors and I always go to him to have heart-to-heart conversations. Even though he is a prankster, he always draws the best out of actors and I trusted him completely to guide me through my first teleplay and had an absolutely wonderful time on the sets. The joy we experienced during the shoot is palpable in the final cut. The audience is going to love that this teleplay is so ‘extra’ and packed with so much fun!”

Talsania who plays Pallavi in the teleplay said, “Shakespeare + the 90s + Akarsh + collaborating once again with dear friends = Yeh Shaadi Nahi Ho Sakti. I had a great time playing Pallavi, took inspiration from all the actors of the nineties that I adored and brought a whole lot of my own madness to it.”

Mumbai: On 1 February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget 2023, and India TV emerged as the top Hindi News Channel among the 9 other channels that did not use landing page strategies to boost viewership numbers.

According to Barc data released on Thursday, 9 February, India TV had 9043 Gross AMA (000s) and was ranked first. It was followed by Aaj Tak, which received 9013 Gross AMA (000s), and TV9 Bharatvarsh which received 8974 Gross AMA (000s).

(Source: BARC, 1 February , 2023, 6:00 AM to 11:59 PM, Target audience: people 15 years and older, Market: Hindi speaking market, Gross AMA 000s, Channels: Nine Non-Landing Hindi news channels (Channels not available on landing pages in more than 50 head-ends))

India TV hosted the ‘Samvad Budget Conclave 2023’ on 3 February  at a prestigious venue in Delhi, as it was the need of the hour to make the Union Budget 2023 accessible and understandable to viewers.

To discuss and analyse the budget, the Conclave brought together prominent leaders from both the ruling BJP government and the opposition. Top-level political leaders attended the event, including Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, who provided a detailed explanation of the budget and addressed opposition criticism. Other key cabinet ministers, including Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, took part and answered questions about their respective ministries and the budget as a whole.

Mumbai: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that Australian media company Nine Entertainment Co. (Nine) has been awarded the exclusive free and subscription audio visual rights and non-exclusive audio rights to every Olympic Games from 2024 to 2032.

Commencing in July 2024 with the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Nine will provide Australia with a front row seat to the next five Olympic Games, including the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, Los Angeles 2028 and the yet-to-be-announced 2030 Winter Games, all leading up to Australia’s return to hosting an Olympic Games, in Brisbane in 2032.

Nine said that it will bring the images and sounds of the Games to audiences like never before, harnessing the power of its diverse streaming, television, audio and digital platforms, across 9Now, Stan, the 9 Network, and talk radio stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR. Full coverage will also be delivered across Nine’s suite of print and online publishing platforms: The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, WA Today, The Australian Financial Review and nine.com.au.

IOC president Thomas Bach said, “Australia is a great sporting nation with a long Olympic history which will be taken to new heights with the hosting of the Olympic Games Brisbane 2032. Our new partnership with Nine will ensure Olympic fans across Australia have unparalleled coverage of the Olympic Games on their platform of choice.”

Nine CEO Mike Sneesby said, “This partnership with the IOC is an important part of Nine’s strategy as we continue to define Australian broadcast and streaming television. We’re delighted to be bringing the Olympic Games to Australians, whenever and however they choose, from Paris 2024 to Brisbane in 2032.”

“These rights complement our recently renewed partnerships with the NRL and Tennis Australia at a time when live sport continues to demonstrate its ability to drive strong growth in streaming audiences and strength in free-to-air TV consumption. Importantly, this deal enables Nine to make the Olympic Games accessible to all Australians across more platforms than ever before.” 

“For our audiences, advertisers and teams across Australia, today’s announcement brings the Olympic Games home to Nine, and directly reflects our purpose  Australia Belongs Here.”

Over the next decade, Nine’s Wide World of Sports (WWOS) will assemble a world class team of experts and storytellers to continue the country’s Olympic journey and to inspire a new generation of Olympic fans. Together, they will deliver thousands of hours of Olympic content across Nine’s suite of platforms, connecting with sports fans like never before.

In addition to free-to-air and streaming coverage, Nine will broadcast key moments from the Olympic Games across its talk radio stations, 2GB Sydney, 3AW Melbourne, 6PR Perth and 4BC Brisbane. This will allow Australians to tune in anywhere, anytime and on any device to get the very latest Olympic news and coverage.

Mumbai: Entertainment content marketplace MipTV has announced that it will organise a summit called Fast And Global. It will take place on the second day of MipTV on 18 April 2023 in Cannes, France. 

It will focus on the international opportunities for content producers, IP rights holders, buyers and commissioners.

Headline speakers and contributors already confirmed include Fast channel programming experts Gary Woolf (All3Media International), Shaun Keeble (Banijay Rights), Daniel Nordberg (Playground TV), Cédric Dufour (Rakuten TV Europe), Bea Hegedus (Vice Media Group), Philipp Rotermund (Video Solutions AG / wedotv.com ) and MD of specialist SVOD, AVOD and Fast consultancy The Local Act author of The State of European Fast report, Marion Ranchet, among others. 

Companies from the sector already confirmed as attending the MipTV market include Blue Ant Media and FilmRise.

RX France’s entertainment division director, MipTV director Lucy Smith said: “Fast channels are the biggest boom to the global distribution business, and MipTV is the obvious home for a dedicated summit. We’ll focus on what this boom in Fast channels and services means to the international market.”

Mumbai:  Colors Tamil, Viacom18’s Tamil Entertainment channel, is all set to bring the world television premiere of “Oru Adaar Love” on 12 February 2023.

Oru Adaar Love, the 2019 Malayalam rom com, is a light hearted high school romance. Written by Sarang Jayaprakash and Lijo Panadan, it is inspired from a story by director Omar Lulu of Happy Wedding, Nala Samayam and Dhamaka fame.

It features Priya Prakash Varrier and Noorin Shereef with Roshan Abdul Rahoof in prominent roles. Notable names like Aneesh G Menon, Roshna Ann Roy, Shivaji Guruvayoor, Pradeep Kottayam and Anjali Nair are also part of the cast.

Famous for the wink which went viral across social media platforms, Priya Prakash Varrier plays a crucial role in the movie along with Noorin Shereef, who are both Roshan’s love interests.

Two high school sweethearts wish to take their romance and relationship to the next level when destiny strikes in the form of a WhatsApp video in a common group. It creates a furore and their relationship hits a roadblock. What happens to the three main characters in this engaging love story forms the rest of the movie.

Roshan finds himself in a dilemma when he has to choose between his lover and his best friend, when feelings for his best friend turn into love. The film has an interesting narration and some cute romantic moments between the lead pair, as also some peppy music, which makes it an enjoyable watch.   

Commenting on the movie, director Omar Lulu said, “We made a sincere attempt to portray and showcase this beautiful love story which talks about relationships, emotions and feelings of teenage love along with an element of suspense that keeps viewers hooked. The endearing love story had to be sensitively handled and yet presented to the viewers in a very convincing way. I am sure the lovable romantic scenes in the movie and the tragic climax coupled with the natural performances by the lead actors will be loved by all.”

Mumbai : Qyou Media Inc. has announced that it will integrate its global operations based in the United States and India for global creator media solutions.

Qyou president Glenn Ginsburgwill oversee synergies across the award winning US and Indian businesses as part of the integration strategy, while Pranay Swarup and Julie Kriegshaber, CEO & COO of Chtrbox, will move to Co vice chairman roles to strategically advise collaboration efforts.

Qyou and Chtrbox have been leading influencer marketing mandates for global companies such as Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Activision, P&G, HP, Amazon, Spotify, Pinterest and many others across the US and India, who will benefit from increased expertise, cost efficiencies and cross border reach as a result of this integration.

Ginsburg added “Beyond expanding our set of clients list in the Qyou USA team, we’re finding increased demand for pan regional and global campaigns. With Chtrbox we can further support our clients with scaled and cost effective efforts that are relevant and authentic. We’re really excited to tap into the team of 80+ influencer marketing specialists, their massive creator networks in India, Asia and around the World.”

Swarup said, “While Chtrbox has taken up a fair amount of international work already, we are excited for Qyou ; Chtrbox to unlock a new layer of global growth together. Under the QyouMedia group, Chtrbox is in great hands and I look forward to staying strategically involved.”