ITV

Tag: Alpha channels

  • Alpha channels to feature region-centric ads

    MUMBAI: ‘Alpha Features’, the latest ad revenue generation strategy announced by the Alpha Group of channels plans to do away with the myth that TV advertising is expensive.
     

     
    The innovative concept aims at targeting the small time entrepreneurs and retailers in each region by giving them a chance to advertise brands which need high local penetration and visibility.

    By doing so, the Alpha channels, part of the Zee network, expect to expand their revenue stream by tapping the retail segment which they expect will contribute 50 per cent of the overall revenue of the channels.

    The scheme, slated to be economical for advertisers, will offer anchor support to them and inform the viewers on the products, services, latest trends, various schemes and discounts offered, states a press release.

    To maintain the right balance between advertising and informative programming content for its viewers the channel is appointing ‘business partners’ who will help the advertisers produce informative features on the industry at a nominal fee, the release adds.

    “Today, with the introduction of Alpha Features, we are bridging the gap existing between an advertiser and viewer by offering them a mutually beneficial relationship. The initiative will also enable the advertising market to grow exponentially with the introduction of cost effective advertisements. We have advertisers like Runwal Builders, Chintamani Jewelers, Davars College, Raj Tours and Travels to name a few,” says Alpha Channels Head Prashant Sanwal.

    The channel has also introduced various on-ground value added incentives for advertisers and the audience such as free passes to the Alpha Gaurav Awards, the prestigious literary awards for Marathi films, music and theatre, if the customer buys products from an advertiser’s establishment worth a particular amount.

  • Zee Turner says mera gaon, mera market share

    NEW DELHI: With a view to consolidate its market share in rural India, and provide family entertainment to TV households, Zee Turner, the distribution arm of Zee Telefilms and Turner International India Pvt. Ltd., has launched special initiatives targeting the rural markets across India, including increasing the dealer network to over 400.

    These initiatives, targeted at reaching out to viewers in remote areas and small towns and cities across the country, will offer cable operators the option of providing viewers with popular channels at a very competitive pricing.

    Commenting on the company’s latest initiative, an official release quotes Zee Turner COO Siddharth Jain as saying, “Of the 43 million cable and satellite universe in India, 15 million lie in the rural sector. This offers a huge potential and an opportunity to tap the rural market. Our rural drive will not only provide better options of entertainment to the viewers and better business opportunities to the cable operators, but also help us in consolidating our market share in this largely untapped market.”

    Road shows are also being planned for the rural markets, wherein the channels will be taken to small villages with the objective of reaching out to people and giving them a first hand viewing experience.

    “We endeavor to take our content offering to the grassroots level and be available in every C&S household, whether in urban, semi-urban or rural India. To this effect, we have also expanded our dealer network to over 400,” added Jain.

    The new packages have been created keeping in mind the economic profile, demographics and viewers’ choice. The operator can therefore choose any channel from the Zee basket (Zee TV, Zee MGM, Zee English, Zee Cinema, Zee Music, Alpha channels, etc), the release added.

    Andhra Pradesh (AP) has been given a special focus in this initiative. According to Jain, “Andhra Pradesh, with a total of 7.3 million C&S households, is the single largest contributor to the Indian C&S households figure. While the urban contribution to such households is 46 per cent, rural contributes 56 per cent, which clearly indicates a huge potential in the AP rural market.”

    As a part of the AP rural initiative, Pogo, the kids channel after Cartoon Network, has been introduced with a two-hour Telugu feed to it. This makes it very lucrative for the cable operator both in urban and rural markets because of its regional content. Along with this channel, the cable operator can choose freely from any two channels from the Zee basket (Zee MGM, Zee English, Zee Cinema, etc).

    Tamil is another option that the channel is exploring. As a kick-off to Pogo’s localization strategy, viewers will be introduced to the new faces of Pogo on a new, hip zone, called Prime Pogo, from 6 August.

    Prime Pogo will engage viewers with the channel through online contests, phone-in competitions, viewer letters, celebrity guests and special reports on amazing kids from across India. It will also feature a selection of the best shows ranging from Round the Twist and the Sleepover Club to Mr. Bean and Walking With Beasts.

  • ‘Insight into consumer behaviour all important‘

    ‘Insight into consumer behaviour all important‘

    Ratings don‘t answer all issues facing planners and broadcasters alike, qualitative data is what is needed.Psychographics are becoming more important than ever before and insights into consumer behavior is what will keep you ahead. That was the gist of what research consultant Prashant Sanwal put forth at indiantelevision.com‘s National CAS Media Summit in Mumbai last Friday in his presentation during the session “Beyond Ratings”.

    Sanwal, former head of programming and marketing at SET and later, head of the Alpha channels, probed the question of whether ratings alone would be a sufficient measure and guide to planners after CAS is implemented. Exploring the vista beyond ratings, Sanwal said that it is pertinent to understand sociological/psychological changes to predict which formats will work in the future, as well as to anticipate which people would go in for the set top boxes.

    Excerpts from the presentation:

    Current Scenario
    Today?s markets are represented by 4 Cs
    – Complexity
    – Cut-throat Competitiveness
    – Constant Change
    – and…

    What is needed are need holistic solutions not part
    – This requires complete information
    – Little knowledge is dangerous

    Ratings
    * Imply measure
    * How many? watch what? for how long?
    * Need to know WHY which people watch what for how long

    Thus ratings are a must but not enough
    – Need Qualitative inputs too

    Some Qs – beyond ratings
    * Why will which kind of people go for STBs?
    * Why do more men watch movies? In the afternoon?
    * Why do other (than Star) saas-bahu shows not work?
    * For how long will saas-bahu work?
    * Understand sociological/psychological changes to predict which formats will work in the future
    * Is Kyunki really X times more effective than Kkusum or Lipstick?
    * Is mere watching = involvement?

    Some Qs
    *Solidarity Vs Power
    – Who controls remote, when, for how long?
    – Active vs passive watching
    – Do all members in front of the TV watch with equal interest?

    *Message effectiveness
    – What is remembered?
    – Is it considered relevant?
    – What are the feelings associated?
    – Brand ? Program fit?

    Surface messages Vs Metamessages
    –     In communication two kinds of messages are sent out
    – You ask your assistant ?Have you finished the report??
    *Surface
    – Literally is the work finished or not
    *Meta
    – I don?t think you have finished your work
    – You are incompetent

    Metamessages
    –     Conveyed through intonation, pitch and facial and bodily expressions accompanying the words.
    – Meaning conveyed through
    Words: 7%
    Tonality: 38%
    Body posture: 55%
    – Thus the powerful part of communication is through metamessages

    In Sum
    –     Ratings don?t answer all the issues
    – In today?s scenario you need Qualitative data too
    – Psychographics are becoming more important than ever before
    – Insights into consumer behavior is what will keep you ahead – Can you afford to ignore this in the face of the final C?
    CUT IN COSTS!

    Among the key points the presentation made therefore, are that it is equally important to study whether a Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is more effective than a Kkusum or a Lipstick, and whether the saas bahu formula will endure.

    Other questions that need to be looked into are – who controls the remote, when, for how long and whether all members in front of the TV watch with equal interest. Message effectiveness also needs to be monitored with respect to what is remembered, whether it is considered relevant and the feelings associated with it.

    Prashant Sanwal has recently started his own research and marketing consultancy company called Vitamin S. Like vitamins he intends to use research as a process to both prevent and cure marketing problems.

     

  • Zee TV begins test signals for encrypted beam for Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal

    Zee TV begins test signals for encrypted beam for Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal

    Subhash Chandra’s Zee Network’s plans to launch a separate encrypted beam for markets in the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal under the Zee International banner finally took off today with a technical launch.

    This is to be followed by a formal launch in the Middle East by the beginning of May, in Bangladesh by the middle of May and in Pakistan as soon as cable operators are allowed to receive channels from Indian channels.

    The Zee International beam can be configured to take advantage of the prime time in the Middle East and South Asia, with the intent of providing customised programming.

    Zee International channel will open up markets for their full advertising potential and for enhanced pay revenues. Till now, Zee TV has been accepting advertising from these markets only in its late prime (post 11 pm) time slots. The separate beam will help Zee TV monetise all 24 hrs of its programming for airtime slots from these markets.

    Currently most advertisers in these markets do not advertise on Indian channels because:

    * Advertising rates in India are much higher, especially during prime time.

    * India’s prime time is 1/2 hour behind Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan and 1 hrs ahead of Middle East.

    This means that advertisers in these markets do not derive maximal benefit by advertising on the top-rated programmes on India prime time.

    Zee TV went pay in all these markets in June 2001. The separate new beam will not have any effect on the current decoder boxes already in place in these markets and will only require a quick one-time retuning of frequencies.

    The separate beam allows Zee TV to tailor content to coincide with prime time in different markets while concurrently valuating airtime inventory at locally relevant and competitively attractive rates.

    Says Sandeep Goyal, Group CEO, Zee Telefilms: “As we had announced earlier, we are now ready to launch the Zee TV International beam. We have already started getting immense response from advertisers in the Middle East market, with clients taking up sponsorship of programmes like Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, Nilaam Ghar, Kohi Apna Sa, etc. We may not be able to offer the channel in Pakistan till the time the market opens up. However, we are already in the process of offering the same channel in Bangladesh and will soon start tapping the local advertising market there.”

    The channel will consider some content customization of the beam. Market relevant programming in Bangla, Punjabi and Urdu will be added to cater to viewers in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Similarly, Zee TV may, at a future date, enhance some of the movie content on this beam, as Indian movies have a high fan following in all these markets. Zee has a 3000+ strong movie library while Bangla and Punjabi content may be cherry picked from its Alpha Channels.

    S’PORE GOVERNMENT CORP’S STAKE IN ZEE 5.11 %:
    The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation’s holding in Zee Telefilms has crossed the 5 per cent mark and now stands at 5.11 per cent of the total paid up capital of the company.

    This has been a creeping acquisition by Singapore Investment and Zee made the mandatory announcement on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday.

  • Nickelodeon launching Hindi band 4 September

    Nickelodeon launching Hindi band 4 September

    It’s been a year and ten months since the Viacom-owned kid’s channel Nickelodeon entered Indian air space but it might as not have come at all considering the kind of recognition levels it has achieved till date. In a fresh attempt to get it some viewer cachet, Nickelodeon will be launching a Hindi band of programming – “Nick Masala” – from 4 September.

     

    Beginning the first Tuesday of September (the 4th) “Nick Masala” will be aired thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the slotting is in the evening band from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM while on Sundays it will be in the noon band from 11 am to 1 PM Depending on how the new initiative is received, MTV India – which is directly responsible for pushing the channel in India (without disturbing the existing distribution arrangement with Zee that is) – will take a call on whether to increase Hindi programming.

     

    How Nickelodeon is being distributed by the Zee-promoted Siticable has been a major sore point, with the pay TV service reportedly managing to get a cable TV penetration of less than 3-4 million, and a paying subscriber base less than one tenth of that.

     

    Queried about what Zee was doing to improve things, Partha Sinha senior VP, marketing and communication said a promotional push which involved a host of on-ground activities – including direct-to-people contact efforts and other promotional spots – were in the pipeline to increase the visibility of the channel. Sinha said the rollout of these initiatives would take off by September-end.

     

    DISNEY SHOWS ON FOUR ALPHA CHANNELS: Sinha confirmed that Zee had entered into a deal with Buena Vista (distributors of Disney programming in India) for airing dubbed Disney shows on four of Zee’s Alpha regional channels – Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi. As for whether there were plans to bring Disney onto the other Alpha channels, Sinha replied in the negative.

     

    When queried as to whether there wasn’t cross-purpose activity going on when Disney shows were airing on Alpha channels while Zee was supposed to be promoting Nickelodeon, Sinha had this to say. He justified the move on the grounds that before Nickelodeon could be introduced onto the Alpha channels it would have to become more familiar to viewers. A chicken and egg scenario it would seem.

     

    In the meantime, Nickelodeon still has a mountain to climb before it can turn from being a mere blip on the viewerscope to something more substantial.