Brands

Saregama plots Carvaan’s post-Covid journey

Published

5 years ago

September 24, 2020

MUMBAI: ‘Who buys a transistor radio in the times of iPods and apps?’

Well that was the narrative until 2015. Then came Saregama’s Carvaan which shattered that myth by launching what looked like a classical retro transistor radio, the kind we see in antique stores. But within the box was housed silicon, which stored oodles of songs, an easy to use digital dial and radio player, and good sounding speakers. The Caravan went on to become a runaway hit, selling more than a million units in just 16 months of its launch and has become a case study in management courses worldwide.

To its credit, it also managed to bring back the publicly listed firm from the brink. Part of the RPG SanjivGoenka group, Saregama had a solid back catalogue of 120,000 songs (from 1903 to 1983), but was not able to monetise it well enough. And the company was struggling with low revenues. Caravan allowed its classic songs in various languages – – including Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Malayalam and Marathi – and genres based on artistes and moods to be bundled with it and make more money for the company than it ever did from music publishing and licensing.

Launch Alert: Carvaan Malayalam with pre-loaded 5000 evergreen songs classified into Artistes, Devotional and Carnatic. No internet, No ad breaks! 1 year warranty.
Also supports Bluetooth, USB, Aux and FM.
Buy now https://t.co/Fo70QcCXVg
Song list: https://t.co/PKNy5BUVYe pic.twitter.com/IPM4IrF80y
— Saregama (@saregamaglobal) September 18, 2020
Advertisement

The product portfolio today consists of: Carvaan (priced at Rs 6,000), Carvaan Premium (Rs 6,990), Carvaan 2.0 (Rs 7,990), Carvaan Gold (Rs 10,900), Carvaan Gold 2.0 (Rs 12,990), Carvaan Go (Rs 3,990), Carvaan Go 2.0 (Rs 4590), Carvaan Gold (Rs 5590) Carvaan Mini (Rs 2,490) and Carvaan earphones (Rs 1199). The basic models have blue tooth, USB, AM/FM radio, while the more premium 2.0 models have wifi and some of them even sport fancy Harman/kardon speakers. Owners of a few of the models also get access to the Carvaan app on the App Store and the Google Play store and can access numerous podcasts online.

Saregama MD Vikram Mehra says that the entire ethos of Carvaan is a leaned back listening experience. Mehra describes it as a physical product in a world where everything is moving digital. “After dedicated research we came out with Carvaan that was indeed a marriage of the digital with the physical. It was more like a portable digital player, similar to an older generation transistor that operated with just pressing of a button. It had pre-loaded songs and could also be tuned in to FM Radio, without any operational complications ideal for people who just wanted to sit back and relax,” shares Mehra.

Read more news on Saregama

The genesis of Carvaan began when Mehra – who had come in from Tata Sky in 2014 – and his team refused to accept feedback that associates and consultants were giving them: no one was interested in old Kishore Kumar, LataMangeshkar songs that Saregama had. Mehra, a retro music lover, believed that there surely must be others like him for whom the only sense of relaxation comes from listening to old classics.

He then commissioned a qualitative study across 23 different cities nationwide to find what kind of music people are listening and the issues they faced accessing its catalogue. One of the key findings was that some music lovers believed that Saregama was hoarding its music and not releasing it for them to consume.

जीवन के दिन छोटे सही हम भी बड़े दिल वाले, कल की हमें फ़ुरसत कहा! #Saregama #Carvaan #OldSong #OldMusic #RetroVibe pic.twitter.com/WQqKs9HAeX
— Saregama (@saregamaglobal) September 17, 2020

“The moment we went out of the four metros, a very dramatic picture revealed that the people who loved Saregama music told us that we were not sharing our music with them, although we were present on all digital platforms like Gaana, Saavn etc. This was the reality we faced in 2015, ”reveals Mehra.

Saregama decided to sack the consultants, and bid them goodbye. Further probing revealed that retro music lovers 45 years and older were put off by the complicated music apps on their mobile phones, one of the reasons they could not listen to the songs they had grown up with.

Read more news on Vikram Mehra

“They were worried that money would be deducted at the press of a button on their mobile phones. Most of them thus used it for free apps like Facebook, WhatsApp or for calling only,” recalls Mehra.

What could Saregama marry its retro catalogue with to help these older music aficionados between the ages of 45 and 70 to enjoy their music?

The answer was: create a simple piece of hardware which could serve the songs digitally and would appeal to them as it looked and was easy to use.

Itni Masti!#Saregama #Carvaan #MondayVibe #OldSong #HappyDance pic.twitter.com/wMN1qBfteH
— Saregama (@saregamaglobal) September 21, 2020
Advertisement

In brainstorming meetings with their boss SanjivGoenka, a team member pointed to an old Murphy transistor radio, saying the older audience would identify with that. “This is how we came with the look and feel,” Goenka has been quoted in media reports. “Then there was a campaign which was very targeted, focused and emotional. It was about gifting a product to your parents. It worked.”

Mehra asserts that in 2014 when he joined the company, experts had been very clear that nobody would pay for music in India. And that’s been disproved by Saregama’sCarvaan. “We have sold two million units till January 2020 whereas, the total amount of paid subscriptions for the nine music apps in India is less than 1 million.”

Amid the lockdown, when economies and businesses came to a standstill, Saregamawas inundated with requests from buyers wanting delivery of a Carvaan, and from users who narrated how it helped them through the ennui and fear by entertaining them in the confines of their homes.

It gave the Saregama team a good insight into to how much the older generation has come to depend on their Carvaans, almost like a companion.

“We got so many requests to deliver Carvaan directly to homes since shops and online deliveries were closed. The moment restrictions were lifted, our online sales picked up heavily. Though the trade did suffer as expected but things are coming back on track,” says Mehra.

The company has cut back on ad spends and is working hard to service the bottled-up demand, for now, at least.

Its focus currently is on increasing the online content available to Carvaan 2.0 – which can hook up to wifi – owners. Currently, they have access to 282 different streams of podcasts – across genres like food, travel, Bollywood, news, music. Content creators make money through revenue share deals the company has signed with them. Mehra believes that opportunities lie in placing adverts too.

Apart from further extending Carvaan, Mehrahe is milking the catalogue that Saregama owns. It recently entered into a licensing deal with Facebook which allows its members to use its songs in the videos which they upload to their profiles. Says Mehra: “It’s a great time to partner with Facebook, Sharechat, and Moj. These are huge platforms and used widely to create content. We have seen a great usage of our content on these platforms across age groups. Our entire catalogue has been made available across these social media platforms for users to create interesting content.”

Mehra’s belief is that “Saregama houses a treasure in its song catalogue, which is a national treasure which must be passed on from generation to generation.”

Under his stewardship, Saregama has done well for the current older generation, at least.

Up Next

How Netflix is scripting India story?

Don't Miss

Viacom18’s Mahesh Shetty’s tips for sales teams & professionals

Click to comment

Brands

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 days 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 days 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 days 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.