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Tag: 9XM

  • Center Fresh presents Gum charades

    Center Fresh presents Gum charades

    MUMBAI: Center Fresh, with its ‘Zubaan Pe Rakhe Lagaam’ proposition, has recently launched a digital campaign called ‘Gum Charades’.

     

    Ogilvy & Mather handles the brand. The agency’s NCD Abhijit Avasthi said, “Center Fresh is a youth driven brand and is in the process of establishing itself in the digital sphere. Through Gum Charades, Center Fresh is revamping a popular game and adding a digital twist to it. We hope this game will be a hit among 15 to 24 year olds.”

     

    To translate the real experience of playing dumb charades to the digital medium a microsite has been created: www.centerfresh.in/gumcharades. To popularise the concept of Gum charades and drive traffic to the micro site, the brand has tied up with TV channels like 9XM, Channel V, M tunes and Zoom for content integration and will also be airing radio spots on popular radio stations in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Perfetti Van Melle India category head – gums Mandar Keskar, said, “Most digital initiatives today are adapted from television campaigns. With the growing relevance of digital as a medium especially amongst youth (our core TG), we realised that it’s important to customise brand content for this medium rather than adapt it. Gum Charades, is one such initiative in this direction. As far as the concept is concerned, it’s rare to find a popular game with a natural brand fit; we have been quite lucky in this aspect.”

     

    “We wanted an idea which was platform agnostic for Center fresh,” said Maxus Delhi general manager V Narayanan. “The concept of Gum Charades resonates seamlessly with the brand proposition, which consumers are willing to share across their social networks for its unique entertainment quotient.” The media agency is behind this idea.

    Apart from the microsite, the game can also be played on Facebook where an app has been created and on mobile platforms like Rocketalk and Vuclip.

  • Reliance joins the horde of TV channels challenging the 12 minute ad cap in TDSAT

    Reliance joins the horde of TV channels challenging the 12 minute ad cap in TDSAT

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today said a petition by Reliance Big Broadcasting, Mumbai, relating to their television channels will be heard along with other matters challenging issues relating to the ad cap sought to be implemented by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

     

    The matters will be heard by the TDSAT on 21 October along with other channels such as Music Xpress, Mastiii, B4U Music, M Tunes and 9XM.

     

    Earlier, TDSAT had accepted an assurance by TRAI not to take any coercive action against television channels from 1 October, when the ad cap of 12 minutes per hour was to have come into force.

     

    In a hearing earlier this week in a similar matter, counsel for TRAI had told TDSAT that an anomalous situation had been created with some channels having accepted the ad cap with effect from 1 October. It was therefore requested that the matter be resolved once for all.

     

    TRAI has so far admitted a large number of matters including one by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) which seeks to challenge the status quo of TRAI in the matter. That petition had been listed for hearing on 11 November but will now be heard along with the others.

     

    The Tribunal had earlier said that while the channels will maintain weekly records of the advertising time per hour on a weekly basis, they will not be required to submit this to the regulator. Unlike the current practice, the records will only be submitted to TDSAT at the time of the hearing of the case.

     

    At that time, Counsel A J Bhambani for the NBA had said that a delegation of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had submitted a formula to the regulator but that did not preclude the broadcasters from challenging the validity of the regulations.

     

    He also said that this was only a compromise reached between the broadcasters and the regulator and could not form the basis of penal action since it was not a regulation or legal provision.

  • Zenga TV has high growth ambitions in the mobile TV segment

    Zenga TV has high growth ambitions in the mobile TV segment

    Everybody yearns for a big-bang entry when they start off their career. The same can be said about Zenga TV which decided to take the path one would rarely tread upon.

    At a time when most of the mobile TV platforms were approaching mobile operators to be carried, Zenga TV offered the first free 'live TV' service in the country. People scoffed and laughed but two years after a debut with IPL 2009, serving seven million viewers in over 140 countries, the company has turned profitable. Now, after adding more than 150 channels and 18,000 movies to its kitty, the platform will soon be venturing into delivering original content in 52 genres.

    Shabir Momin, who made Zenga TV from scratch, will look for investors in some years to scale up the free mobile TV platform's ambitions

    Out of these, production in four genres namely fashion, styling, comedy, fashion and cooking will be done by Zenga, itself while the rest will be aggregated from all over the world such as music, gaming, extreme sports, travel and other fashion. "These four genres need localisation," says Zenga TV founder, MD and CTO Shabir Momin.

    A technologist all his life, Momin and his friend Vikramjiet Ray invested about six to seven million dollars into this venture which started reaping profits within two years. Industry sources put it at anywhere between Rs 2-3 crore per annum.

    Starting off at a time when the minimum bandwidth was 20-25 kbps in India as compared to 78 kbps in other parts of the world, they developed a code to provide live streaming at 2.5G and at this low bandwidth. Even though 3G is being promoted, only 10 percent of Zenga TV's users are 3G users. The arrival of 4G will only enhance the picture quality, according to Momin.

    Zenga TV has a long list of Indian channels as well as 30 international ones which are genre specific. However, 70 per cent of the traffic comes from movies while 30 per cent from channels out of which Aaj Tak, Pogo, 9xm are some of the popular ones. Animated content being in the top ten has surprised even those at Zenga TV. Some of the other channels it streams live are NDTV Profit, Raj News Kannada, Focus TV, Big Magic, 9XM, Sahara filmy.

    One of the news channels on the portal which wished to remain unnamed said that two years ago when they got into a deal with Zenga TV it helped it because it targeted non-smartphone users, even though it had an application of its own. However, its expectations from the association has been only 'just met' and in order to have more control from its side it is looking at revaluating the contract and seek more opportunities outside of Zenga TV.

    "Zenga TV is not very viable because broadcasters do not want to lose big money from their DTH and cable operators who may object to live streaming for free on the internet at the same time making money on advertising," says media consultant Sanjeev Hiremath. This could be why Star, Zee, Sony etc are not part of the bouquet but are available on its competitors Ditto TV and Apalya. Demand for these channels is there; according to Momin, but since there is no ROI for it and so he opted to not negotiate with them. To date a 50:50 revenue share is maintained with all its channels. Market estimates varied from approximately Rs 25,000 to Rs 7-8 lakh per channel. 

    "I would rather give you exciting and intriguing content which is cost effective for me as well," states Momin.

    Speaking in terms of demographics, 45 per cent of viewership comes from rural India while 35 per cent comes from urban cities, Delhi and Mumbai being the larger chunk of it; the rest from tier II cities. Local retailers propose a data plan to customers which will let them watch free TV on mobile. This benefits the customers as a lot of times electricity isn't available to watch TV and the plan is approximately Rs 200 a month. It also means customers coming back to them every month.

    Abhishek Joshi joined the team a few months ago to spearhead the project from Mumbai The time when most traffic is on it is from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. The average time span is 10 minutes per view and six to eight views per month each amounting to 250 million views per month. And is a male dominated area wherein 70 per cent viewers are men. The target group is 13 to 65 years but a majority of the viewers are the young audience between 18 to 35 years. About 85 per cent of viewers are from India while UK, US and UAE keep juggling in the top three spot from the international countries.

    It has an automatic system that adds servers to tackle unexpected increase in traffic, when it isn't manned and when traffic goes down, it automatically kills the servers. From two, the team now consists of 55 to 60 people in Delhi and Mumbai with an attrition rate of just 0.5 per cent most of the team being freshers who are brimming with ideas. Momin who was formerly the CEO, gave way to Abhishek Joshi to be the CEO in July 2012, marking the beginning of the Mumbai office. Bangalore and Kolkata are the next expansion destinations.

    At inception it was available on Windows, Android and iOS while Symbian 60 was added recently. Anybody with a browser could view. Everything is cloud based with seven Amazon servers across the world. It was only in 2012 that the app was created. Momin maintains that an app will not be made for Blackberry phones. It has over 10,000 fans on its Facebook page.

    Zenga TV works purely on advertising with more than 60 brands currently, most of them from India. It got its break when it bagged Pepsi during its telecast of IPL 2009. Cadbury, Red Bull, Aditya Birla, Fiat are some of the other brands it has deals with. Both video and banner ads are present but what is prevalent more is video ads that are either pre roll or mid roll. Industry sources put the CPT for a video ad at Rs 300- 350 and a banner ad at Rs 180-190. The annual revenue would be around Rs 13-14 crore per annum. Just like on television, depending on the customer's brand campaign the ads can be modified such as L-shaped ads or bugs. It can also be targeted based on content, channel and geography. A team of five works on ad sales.

    Media planners seem to be skeptical despite Zenga TV's claims. Ignitee digital media planner Saurav Kumar says that it is a good advertising platform if the client is targeting mobile phone customers. However, he adds that mobile phone commerce is still at a very nascent stage. "There is not much ROI on mobile advertising," points out Kumar. Lodestar Universal vice president Deepak Netram believes that Zenga TV is yet to gain critical mass but as an add-on, it is a great platform available.

    Money spent on mobile advertising is just five to ten per cent of the total as of now and the only way an increase can be seen is when the coverage of 3G increases and the price of 3G subscription decreases. In a mobile TV market of 30 million dollars, Momin claims Zenga TV owns about 60 per cent of it. "If you ask me, mobile TV advertising is the future," says Hiremath.

    Momin stated that he had initially approached mobile operators, which was the custom around 2007 but the business model was hitting a negative end for him so he decided to set up his own brand and connect directly with the users. It could have been a risky stance, but he decided to be his own master than be someone's slave (in this case the operators). "We are the only profitable company in this space. All the others are more than fifty points negative," he claims. "Most of my competitors work for operators," he says. Had Zenga TV decided to go the same way they wouldn't have been able to control price point.

    Apparently, not a single penny goes into marketing Zenga TV and everything was done by word-of-mouth. More than 50 per cent of users tend to come back and Momin attributes it to the fact that they have no system of registration or forcefulness.

    Changes have also come about since then. To increase content discovery, a search bar and index were added. Some football sports are being reviewed but only half of sports content is financially viable for it.

    Consumption patterns have changed from channel specific to genre specific viewership. 

    Predictions are that the current space of mobile TV advertising is about Rs 150 crore and in two years time it is set to multiply to Rs 3,000 crore due to better network. Zenga TV sets itself a target of doubling its viewership, profit and revenue and for the last three years they've surpassed their own predictions.

    As for the future, Momin says he might think of raising investors or IPO someday but he will not give up ownership of the company. "I didn't want to have investors initially because they have their POV and they drive it in a way you may not want to," he says.

    There is a general feeling that digital is the way forward. Zenga TV has achieved some success but still stays relatively unknown. In Momin's words, "Those who don't know Zenga TV don't use Zenga TV."

  • B4U gets Amar Dixit as regional head sales N&E

    MUMBAI: Amar Dixit has joined B4U as regional sales head North and East.

    Dixit will be handling B4U Music and B4U Movies. He will be reporting to B4U Network national sales head CF Moses.

    His last stint was with 9X as group head (senior manager)-ad sales where he was handling four channels 9xm, 9XO, 9X Jhakas and Tashan.

    Dixit comes with an experience of 11 years in the media industry across print, radio and TV.

  • Cinemax and 9XM enter co-branding deal

    MUMBAI: Music channel 9XM has entered a one-year deal with multiplex chain Cinemax India for co-branded activity. Under this agreement, all the mandatory slides shown during the movie screenings are branded with 9XM and the channel‘s popular characters – Bade and Chote of Bakwaas Band Kar.

    The deal covers 71 Cinemax theatres across the country and will showcase slides to promote 9XM, including Bade-Chhote jokes, during shows. This will be in addition to the social awareness slides that the theatres already show.

    This is a barter deal and Cinemax would get logo presence on a short format show that is aired on 9XM called Filmy Flash. Besides, Cinemax would also get Aston Band presence on the channel.

    Earlier, the two had an agreement under which Cinemax played the promos of movie contests and clippings of latest songs on 9XM during movie shows.

  • 9XM ties-up with Tantra to launch branded merchandise

    9XM ties-up with Tantra to launch branded merchandise

    MUMBAI: Bollywood Music Channel 9XM has entered into a strategic alliance with Tantra to launch a special range of t-shirts.

    The t-shirts will feature 9XM‘s animated characters – Bade and Chote of Bakwaas Band Kar fame. They will have messages and themes which reflect the personality of the characters.

    9XM head – programming Amar Tidke said, “The Bakwaas Bandh Kar Tees designed by Tantra with their funny and cool one-liners reflect the ‘no-nonsense‘ attitude of today‘s youth. Bade-Chote‘s famous wacky humor will definitely make these Tees fun to wear!”

    Tantra has designed six different variants of this theme featuring Bade Chote.

    Tantra owner Ranjiv Ramchandani added, “This is an interesting partnership, and pretty unusual too. It is a link between the humor and nuttiness of the channel‘s most recognised faces and the creativity of a T-shirt partner.”

    9XM-tees are available in unisex range in different colours at select Tantra outlets across India from Rs 499/- onwards.

  • Gelato Italiano, 9XM join hands to launch Bheegi Billi ice-cream variant

    Gelato Italiano, 9XM join hands to launch Bheegi Billi ice-cream variant

    MUMBAI: Ice-cream brand Gelato Italiano has joined hands with music channel 9XM and launched Bheegi Billi Strawberry Splash as the flavour of the month to celebrate February as the month of love and romance.

    Bheegi Billi is one of the popular animated characters on 9XM, who is known for strumming his guitar and singing songs.

    The new strawberry splash is available to the patrons across 55 outlets of Gelato Italiano.

    9X Media EVP Sales Pawan Jailkhani said, “We are delighted to partner with Gelato Italiano in this unique initiative. 9XM’s Bheegi Billi is very popular among youth and so is the range of Gelatos. The popularity of the character and the association for the flavor of the month will definitely receive an overwhelming response from the young patrons of 9XM and Gelato across the nation.”

    In addition to the special flavour of the month, 9XM and Gelato Italiano are also giving their patrons an opportunity to help Bheegi Billi win a date by launching a SMS-based contest called the “Bheegi Billi Love Contest”.

    The contest will go on till 20 February and the winners of the contest will get a chance to win gift vouchers from Gelato Italiano and 9XM goodies.

    Pan India Food Solutions Head-Marketing Vinay Gopinath said, “We are excited about our association with 9XM, one of the leading music channels in the country and have thereby co-branded this month’s flavour of the month ‘Bheegi Billi Strawberry Splash’. Gelato Italiano has specially created this fun and romantic ‘Flavour of the Month’ keeping in mind the fun-loving traits of the popular 9XM character ‘Bheegi Billi’ and Gelato Italiano’s scrumptious flavours.”

  • Music channels face uncertainty

    Music channels face uncertainty

    Year 2010 saw major changes in the music and youth TV channel genre. Firstly, the space got further cluttered with the launch of a new player – Mastiii. Secondly, at least three channels – MTV, UTV Bindass and 9XM – were fighting week-on-week to know who is first among the equals. And thirdly, the focus of the channels shifted – some went for pure music and others for pure youth.

    The 13-odd channels in the genre (as per Tam) are locked in a rat race. From January –December 2010, in the C&S 15+ age group of Hindi speaking Market (HSM), MTV and 9XM were leading the pack with a 14 per cent average market share. UTV Bindass was, however, in hot pursuit with 13.9 per cent.

    To add on to the fierce competition, Sri Adhikari Brothers’ Mastiii, which launched in July, quickly climbed and captured a good 12.6 per cent average share.

    Meanwhile, Channel [V], Zoom (Bollywood and lifestyle channel), B4U Music, ETC and E24 (Bollywood news channel), which Tam puts in the same genre, followed with 9.1 per cent, 8.8 per cent, 7.7 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively of the overall pie.

    The also rans include Zing, Imagine Showbiz and Vh1.

    The question remains: How the music and youth channels will survive with such competition? Industry pundits peg the whole pie between Rs 2.5–3 billion yearly and believe the market is small while the players are too many. Some say that the music space has undergone tremendous transformation and today they all have the more or less same generic content – be it music or reality shows.

    But how true is it? Answers Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath, “TV is not the primary medium for music anymore as it is available everywhere. More importantly, the greatest monetisation in television comes from differentiation. The biggest limitation of the music television model has been that there is no scope whatsoever in differentiating the content of one channel from another. Every channel has access to the same pool of music and, hence, very little differentiates one channel from another.”

    And to counter this situation, Channel [V] has cut down its reliance on music drastically. The channel airs music only between 7-10 am band, which is a prime slot for music channels.

    However, at the same time, pure play music channels – 9XM and Mastiii – are doing great so far as ratings go. What is their success mantra?

    9XM programming head Amar Tidke says, “It’s all about how you package your content. Yes, you have to break through the clutter and for that we have animated characters.”

    Tidke believes that other “youth channels” have diluted the music proposition. And on the point that music is skewed towards Bollywood only, Tidke strongly replies that it is wholesome music. “Bollywood music contains all the forms of music including romantic, sad, sufi, bhajans, etc. So it is wrong to say that we are neglecting other forms of music,” he says.

    And while Channel [V] and Bindass are youth channels, through and through, MTV, the long standing undisputed leader of the genre, changed its positioning twice in the year.

    While MTV continued cutting down its music content to 20 per cent, in the later part of the year it backtracked and increased it to 50 per cent. Some rival channels executives believe the step taken by MTV is rather unfortunate. “The channel has lost its positioning. It had a head start with cult shows like Roadies. But they have spent a lot and the latest seasons of the shows did not perform well. The high cost may have been a reason behind going back,” one senior executive on condition of anonymity said.

    However, MTV India channel head Aditya Swamy said that the channel has adopted a new “Raw” identity. “MTV as a brand is much bigger than a TV channel,” Swamy said. “We felt that a good combination of music and reality is necessary, so we have increased the music content.”

    However, experts believe that pure music channels 9XM and Mastiii are forcing the older music channels to relook on their music content. “MTV and Channel [V] had taken steps to reduce their music content as they repositioned themselves as youth brand channels. MTV could now be trying to play a fine balance between their reality and music content,” says a media tracker.

    Meanwhile, on the reality content front, MTV’s reign is shaking as UTV Bindass has succeeded with bold homegrown reality shows like Emotional Attyachaar and Dadagiri. And Channel [V] also is upping the ante with new reality shows.

    Also, as per ad sales executives, a pure play music channel can have a revenue upside of Rs 600-650 million, if it leads the genre and buying music is not expensive. And that precisely is the opportunity Sri Adhikari Brothers’ saw while launching Mastiii.

    As might be the case with MTV, the reality content doesn’t come cheap. It increases your cost significantly, while results are not always that great. So is it not safe to play pure music? Kamath disagrees. “Music is very easy form of content to put on a channel, but then there is a limit to grow. Moreover, many pure play music channels are getting good ratings from retro songs, which are not sampled by youth,” he says. Channel [V] claims of targeting youth in the 15-34 year segment.

    Meanwhile, the year 2010 saw a slight increase in the whole genre, presumably because of the launch of a new channel and the combined effort of other channels to market their shows.

    However, 2011 will be a tougher year for the players. There is one more new player in Sony Entertainment waiting for licence to launch its music channel – Sony Mix. Imagine Showbiz has also changed ownership and is now in the hands of Anil Ambani. So wait for more uncertainty in the genre.
     

  • Viewers looking for FM feel in visual space?

    The viewer‘s verdict for music channels for the year 2007 is out. The long established players like MTV and Channel [V] are losing on the front of relative shares while new kid on the block 9XM has shown an unprecedented growth from the second month of its launch.

    Indiantelevision.com‘s analysis of music channels using Tam data (HSM, CS 15 – 24 years, all day parts) during the one-year period beginning January 2007 reveals that 9XM is way ahead than MTV and Channel [V].

    Launched in October 2007, 9XM, with its tagline Haq Se, had secured a relative share of 43 per cent by December. In comparison, MTV stood at 20 per cent while Channel [V] had 11 per cent.

    Music Channel‘s Relative Shares
    Channel Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
    9XM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 34 43
    MTV 32 29 31 32 29 30 31 31 32 29 21 20
    Channel V 15 14 13 11 11 14 13 11 13 16 11 11
    Music India 12 15 12 14 19 20 18 17 16 17 11 7
    B4U Music 12 11 11 11 9 10 10 13 13 11 6 5
    Zee Music 8 11 11 11 12 7 10 12 9 7 5 4
    ETC 15 12 12 9 9 10 8 8 7 6 4 4
    YO Music 3 3 6 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3
    Enterr10 4 4 4 4 3 2 4 3 5 5 4 3
    Lemon 0 0 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0
    Source: TAM, TG 15 – 24, HSM, Jan-Dec 2007, All Day Part

    From January to October 2007, MTV was on top of the music channel heap with an average relative share of 30 per cent while Music India and Channel [V] were tossing for second and third position with 15.8 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively.

    The whole scenario changed dramatically with the launch of 9XM in October. By the second month of launch, 9XM had 34 per cent whereas MTV was reduced to 21 per cent and Music India and Channel [V] had 11 per cent each.

    In December, it was thumbs down for other channels like Zee Music (4 per cent), B4U music (5 per cent), ETC (4 per cent), Enter10 (3 per cent) and Yo Music (3 per cent). Wooden spooner Lemon‘s share is so insignificant that it has not even registered on the GRP scale.

    On the new market scene, INX Media‘s music entertainment channel head Vikas Varma says, “I think the qualities of youth are what our channel targets, not necessarily as the demographic youth. That is why we are getting the unprecedented ratings.”

    It is to be noted that 9XM has no VJ‘s, only some animated characters. The USP of the channel is current Bollywood songs. However, the verdict among the media pundits is that 9XM is playing only songs; it is more like an FM station in the visual space.

    The ratings have not got in much by way of ads as yet though so how is it going to generate revenue? Avers INX Media revenue management, advertising sales and new media group director Probal Gaanguly, “We are offering ‘Club INX‘ partnerships to sponsors. Very soon we will officially announce the tie-ups. An exclusive platform will be provided to them.”

    MTV India vice president ad sales and marketing Aditya Swamy has a different story to tell: “Our ad sales and revenue has gone up. We have established the youth based music channel in India. Roadies, Konees (animated characters) etc are our initiatives; it is not fair to compare it with a channel like 9XM. We are a youth brand.”

    Channel [V] head honcho Amar K Deb sings a similar tune. “Channel [V] has won awards for many initiatives we have taken. We have our hands full and our competition is not with 9XM. It is anyways too early to comment on the future,” avers Deb.

    Music India that started life without ad breaks, gave in to the lure of commercials in 2007. 9XM appears to be going the same route, with a few ads visible on the channel intermittently since the beginning of the year.

    If indeed all that the Indian viewer is interested in is uninterrupted songs sans ads, it will be interesting to watch how the year unfolds for 2008.