Brands

Audience is understanding importance of licensed merchandise: Saugato Bhowmik

Published

8 years ago

August 30, 2018

MUMBAI: You walk into a kids store and you see Sponge Bob backpacks, a sipper of Lightning McQueen from Cars, or a t-shirt with the word Barbie embossed on it. Licensed merchandises are everywhere today.

The retail licensing business in India is estimated to be worth $1.26 billion where entertainment license is valued at $406 million, sports licensing at $30 million and fashion licensing at $594 million. However, Indian brands make up less than 10 per cent of licensing and merchandising activity in India.

The Indian licensing and merchandising market is primarily dominated by Disney followed by Viacom18 and Turner (Cartoon Network). While Disney merchandise has been available in India for over 30 years, Viacom entered the business only 8 years back and already has a large share in the segment.

Viacom18 Consumer Products is a significant player in the ever-growing consumer products space with its diverse portfolio. Viacom18 has channels including Colors, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Vh1 and MTV and sells licensed merchandises for its marquee characters including perfumes, jewellery, footwear, watches, bottles, tiffin boxes, apparel, backpacks, jackets, beauty products, etc.

The advancements in technology and expanding marketplaces have been key to successful licensing programmes in India in the last few years. But local trademark owners and licensees need to now follow in the footsteps of international brands and adopt licensing as a core revenue stream.

While the licensing business is pretty fascinating, it has its own challenges. While you may be able to buy a licensed product in a store or a mall at Rs 200, you will find the same product being sold at street corners for Rs 100. Counterfeit is a huge challenge for the industry and though it can’t be completely eradicated, it can, however, be reduced by exercising raids and creating consumer awareness.

License India recently concluded its trade show India Licensing Expo 2018 for the budding licensing fraternity to apprise themselves on the concept of licensing as a business module, and explore exhibited licensing opportunities in multiple product categories. The show gathers the potential of the industry to network and connect, to further explore possibilities to grow bigger and faster in the given peripheries.

Indiantelevision.com spoke exclusively to Voot Kids, INS and consumer products business head Saugato Bhowmik and Viacom International Media Networks London VP licensing and business development Dan Frugtniet where they discussed the licensing business in India, the scope and challenges, their target consumer and much more. Excerpts:

Licensing is relatively new in India as an organised sector. How do you view the segment?

Saugato Bhowmik: Licensing is an exciting business where India has grown rapidly. It is a young industry and there are a lot of brands that have come to India which have been led by us and our friendly competitors but we still need more brands to come in.

How big is the licensing sector in India? What is the market size?

Saugato Bhowmik: As per our estimate, the licensing business today is around $1.4 billion of retail sales which includes all kinds of licensing — fashion, sports, entertainment and characters. Viacom18 operates in about 40 per cent of the licensing segment which is in entertainment and character licensing and some part of the sports licensing. It has been an exciting journey for the last 5-6 years for Viacom18 consumer products because we have grown rapidly.

What is Viacom18 Consumer Product’s market share in the licensing business?

Saugato Bhowmik: There is no way to identify the market share of any player as there are no syndicated industry reports that suggest market share. Also, it’s difficult to identify the market share of a business that is a horizontal multi-category business. However, what we’ve learnt from our partners is that Viacom18 Consumer Products is the second largest consumer product business in India. The number one player has been in India for 30 years, whereas we have been here for only 6-7 years but we have grown aggressively in the last five years.

But licensing as a business is still expensive in India…

Saugato Bhowmik: If you are going to add the value to the brand to a product, that price incremental will happen. Yes, some licensed merchandises like toys, hard lines are important because a lot of the manufacturing base is not yet in India. The Indian government, on the contrary, wants the manufacturing to move to India because that is when the pricing will go down and the industry will grow further. It’s slow going on that front, but we expect that in the upcoming years, as more consumers move into this piece, the demand will grow and you will see manufacturing base growing further.

What are your most popular characters for licensing and merchandising?

We are primarily structured around our brands SpongeBob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Dora, Shimmer and Shine and others. We also have Viacom18’s own homegrown animation that has been tremendously successful. Motu Patlu, Gattu Battu, Shiva and Rudra have been some of our exciting properties. Motu Patlu is in the top three brands in India at any given time. We are also seeing spectacular results with Shivaas well.

You are here at the India Licensing Expo 2018. What is Viacom18 looking at from this licensing expo?

Dan Frugtniet: India Licensing Expo is a place where common shareholders, stakeholders, licensees, licensors get together to build the industry. We need much more of this. We are a huge believer in these trade shows and expect the footfall to increase over the years. These trade shows are for long term building and commitment on partnership and trust because we need to meet our partners in person. It’s important to have domestic market trade shows where we can help home grown stakeholders have a meeting place but also where all licensors can come and expand their business by meeting their partners.

What are the key challenges in this sector? What’s your plan to overcome them?

Saugato Bhowmik: There are a lot of challenges for licensing business in India in terms of infrastructure, retail fragmentation and depth of audience. But all the metrics are in the right direction and the economy is in the right direction. The e-commerce is headed in the right direction and the audience is now understanding the importance/worth of licensed merchandise. We are getting better at it with more licensees coming into the business, more distributors being added to the business, more manufacturers and retailers coming in. The industry is headed in the right direction but we have to continue investing as there is no easy growth. It’s still a long distance to go before licensing as an industry becomes massive yardstick business like it is in the UK and US.

Today, there are several international brands present in the market that have become kids’ favourite. Is there a competition and challenge for you to create distinguished products?

Saugato Bhowmik: There is no such theory to prove it and it’s all about brand love. Different people get attached to different brands. A fan of Motu Patlu who is five years old is obsessed with Motu Patlu. The concept of international and domestic doesn’t exist in kids’ head and it’s the characters that they fall in love with. This domestic v/s international characters may be the theory for adult audiences where they may view international brands as more premium. But I can’t really comment on it.

What about Roadies merchandise? We don’t get to see them a lot. What are your sales points for them?

Saugato Bhowmik: You can find Roadies collection on e-commerce sites. Earlier we had done several deals in the apparel and eyewear category. We have exited a lot of existing partnerships. We are going a little slow on youth space because we want the right partnership to happen for both MTV and Roadies. For youth, we don’t want to get a deal with smaller partners. While partnering with someone, we look at the product aesthetics, distribution, ability to market as it has to be at a different level altogether, which is why are taking it slow and selectively appointing partner.

The time between your deciding on launching merchandise and it actually hitting the shop is huge! How do you strategise on what to launch and what to miss?

Dan Frugtniet: There is nothing worse for a brand owner than its product launch not working because it reflects badly on us. There’s a lot of time, energy and money that goes behind it and that’s why it is best to invest cautiously on youth market as it’s very difficult to identify what is hot and what is not for the target demographic as it changes rapidly and our deals are not fast. It may take us 3-6 months to get the contract signed, followed by 3-9 months to get the product produced, shipped and listed on stores. You’re talking 12 months which is the quickest you can get a product out in the market. By that time, some of the trends have gone! We have to be extremely cautious about what we launch and select the properties with a detailed eye.

Where do you see most of your consumers coming from that want to buy merchandise?

Saugato Bhowmik: At the moment, most of our consumers come in from six metros but over the next 3-4 years, I do predict that half of our audiences will come from beyond the metro cities because of e-commerce and a lot of local animation licensing taking off.

What’s your distribution strength and how do you plan on penetrating rural India?

Saugato Bhowmik: We want to tap into everyone from rural and urban equally. We want to tap into people from all kinds of economy strata and not just have one kind of consumers but have a wide portfolio.

What are your online sales like?

Saugato Bhowmik: E-commerce definitely gives us a lot of access into cities and towns where we did not have any presence in. But, discoverability has always been a challenge on online platforms and we work with our partners to improve our discoverability.

How do you choose your partners?

Saugato Bhowmik: For us to decide on a successful partnership, we ensure the partners have enough expertise and professionalism. Product quality is most important and ensuring the partner has good distribution is also needed.

Do you think counterfeit is a challenge for the licensing industry or does it not bother you?

Saugato Bhowmik: Imitation products only get sold if there’s a demand and it makes us happy to see that there is a demand. We do take actions from time to time to send the message out but today, license merchandising business is not yet equipped to address everyone in the Indian market and gradually over a period of time, counterfeiting will go away as our technology and reach gets better. It’s what happened to music streaming, where there was a point when nobody paid for music streaming but today music piracy has gone away. Technology changed the game for them and while it might not change the game completely for us but technology will change the industry.

Dan Frugtniet: We have reduced counterfeit with direct action by raids and seizures. I think it’s important to educate the consumers about the health risks of giving imitated toys to their kids. If not today, these things will eventually stop.

How do you view the licensing business in India going forward?

Saugato Bhowmik: I think more and more players will keep coming in because the industry is going to grow. I think a lot of international players will come in and a lot of Indian brands will also start to understand the licensing business and they will get into it.

What is your strategy and plan for Viacom18 Consumer Product growth? How do you want to take the business forward?

Saugato Bhowmik: The plan is to just keep growing very aggressively in high double digits every year because we want to make it a large scale profitable business. We want to continuously grow our existing brand portfolio and bring in more brands, open new categories and new experiences categories. A lot of hard work ahead but an exciting time.

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Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

Brands

BCCL profit jumps 53 per cent in FY25 as tax bill shrinks

Revenue rises 4.3 per cent to Rs 10,209.33 crore while deferred tax gain lifts bottom line sharply

Published

4 weeks ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL) has posted a sparkling set of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025, proving that there is still plenty of ink and gold left in the ledger.

Revenue from operations climbed a steady 4.3 per cent, reaching Rs 10,209.33 crore compared to Rs 9,786.44 crore the previous year. When you sprinkle in other income, which rose 8.9 per cent to Rs 949.36 crore, the total income for the media behemoth hit a healthy Rs 11,158.69 crore.

While the income grew at a modest pace, the bottom line tells a far more dramatic story. The real headline is the 53 per cent surge in annual profit. How did they pull off such a feat? While Profit Before Tax (PBT) saw a gentle nudge upward of 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,610.00 crore, it was a vanishing act by the taxman that really did the trick.

Total tax expenses plummeted by 32.4 per cent, dropping from Rs 468.76 crore down to Rs 316.97 crore. This was largely thanks to a swing in deferred tax, moving from an expense of Rs 156.02 crore in FY24 to a benefit of Rs 39.44 crore this year.

Total income rose from Rs 10,658.55 crore in FY24 to Rs 11,158.69 crore in FY25, marking a 4.7 per cent increase. Total expenses grew at a slower pace, up 3.0 per cent from Rs 9,306.06 crore to Rs 9,581.45 crore. Profit before tax inched up 2.7 per cent, moving from Rs 1,567.02 crore to Rs 1,610.00 crore. However, the standout figure was net profit, which jumped sharply by 53.0 per cent, climbing from Rs 1,042.03 crore in FY24 to Rs 1,594.73 crore in FY25.

Despite the rising costs of doing business across the globe, BCCL kept a tight grip on the purse strings. Total expenses rose by just 3.0 per cent to Rs 9,581.45 crore. By keeping costs lower than the rate of income growth, the company ensured that the final figure, a net profit of Rs 1,594.73 crore, was nothing short of a front-page sensation.

In a world of shifting digital tides, it seems the BCCL ship is not just steady, but sailing into significantly wealthier waters.