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Tag: APOS 2020

  • Gaming & entertainment content are emerging as major growth areas for Twitter in Asia: Maya Hari

    Gaming & entertainment content are emerging as major growth areas for Twitter in Asia: Maya Hari

    KOLKATA: It has been a while now since when the digital platforms have started reorienting their focus on the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Amid intense competition, Twitter is also tapping into the new wave of users across the market. While the California-based social media platform has been scaling its operations gradually in the region, gaming and media-entertainment are emerging as key potential segments.

    At the second phase of APOS 2020, Twitter APAC VP & managing director Maya Hari spoke about the interesting consumption behaviour which emerged this year. Twitter recorded 45 million conversations around gaming- in just the first four months of 2020 in the southeast Asia region, up nearly 50 per cent year-on-year. The predominantly millennial internet audience is preferring gaming with social interactivity more.

    The social media platform polled users at the end of the first half of this year. Nearly half of the users in Australia have two subscriptions for content but interestingly over a third of Twitter users have more than two subscriptions for entertainment content. Despite this, the users were willing to access more entertainment content. In addition to that, tweets of live videos also doubled in the first half of the year. 

    This massive upsurge is not a surprising trend because gaming and entertainment consumption has been seeing an upward trend for quite some time now. What these changed circumstances have done is the expediting of this process in a more “pronounced fashion." However, due to the absence of new film releases, TV and OTT content have seen massive consumption this year.

    “One of the big elements that we are focusing on is partnering around premium video content and this has been a consistent strategy for the past two-three years. In Asia, we have partnered with over 60 content creators including broadcasters, content rights owners across the region. Our focus has been this year has challenged as large scale sports and events have been challenged. We found that better balance in being able to drive monetisation around content has come from getting brands to double down on cultural moments or market at scale,” Hari said.

    Other social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube are also aggressively upping their focus on the region. As Hari pointed out, the experience of live videos sets Twitter apart from its foes. She termed the concurrent audience around live moments as the crown jewel of the platform. Hence, all of Twitter’s partnerships with publishers, the content providers are being driven around that pillar. The depth of fan engagement around premium video has been another key differentiator.  

    “I have been driving the region for a little over three years and it has been consistently exciting with the ability to grow and innovate. We have talked about how APAC has been a growth engine for us, even coming out of Q2, we had recovery in markets of Asia to be ahead of the world and some parts of the market were on year-on-year growth territory. So, it has been a really exciting region to lead,” Hari revealed. 

    Twitter has witnessed 37 per cent year-on-year growth on the monetizable daily active users (DAUs) in the international markets. Talking about the different regions, north Asia offers incredible growth opportunities, especially in terms of gaming. Hari mentioned that south east Asia has been very interesting in case of rapid adaptation of any product. She also added that brand marketers are willing to put their money where the mouth is. 

    “India has been a very strategic market for a while. We are constantly thinking to bring new product innovations there. We launched Fleets recently and we have seen the usage of Fleets to be very interesting. There is always something unique about that market in terms of how it adapts and embraces content,” Hari highlighted.

    Although the growth of digital platforms has been tremendous lately, Social media companies have been under pressure about the proliferation of misinformation on their platforms. Speaking on this issue, Hari emphasised that the platform is highly focused on healthy conversations both globally and regionally. According to her, the understanding of the right combination of automation, content review and human intervention could be an answer to the threat of fake information. The platform used past experiences to keep away misinformation during Covid2019 as well. “It's something we are very committed to. Its one of the largest and biggest focus for us to make sure that the health of the conversations on the platform is strong,” she signed off.

  • Punit Goenka sets two prime goals for ZEEL in next few years

    Punit Goenka sets two prime goals for ZEEL in next few years

    KOLKATA: Over the years, Zee Entertainment Entertainment Limited (ZEEL) has ruled the Indian pay-TV ecosystem. A slowing economy, the arrival of new entertainment offerings along with challenges at the promoter level had compounded the difficulties for the network. But as they say “the show must go on”, ZEEL continued its operation without minimum interruptions. The network which has been always in the range of 16-18 per cent despite all hardships is now aiming to take over “one quarter” of the country’s viewership.

    A road to growth and recovery:

    During a session at MPA’S second leg of APOS 2020, ZEEL MD & CEO Punit Goenka spoke about the goals he has set for the next few years. It is no wonder that its rising digital business acquires a major space in its strategy where Goenka sees a potential of the 4x-5x rise in revenue in the next four years. But that is not overpowering ZEEL’s core strength i.e. domestic broadcast business. “My target in the next two-three years is that I want to own one-quarter of viewership of this country,” Goenka stated.

    The regional markets hold the potential to make ZEEL achieve this target. In many markets, ZEEL reaped the benefits of being an early mover. It has been able to get eyeballs in other markets too. Its newly launched Punajbi GEC channel made it to the top in terms of viewership in just three months. Goenka reiterated his belief in the regional market – “I do believe there is still room for the regional segment.”

    He is not very happy with its flagship channel ZEE TV’s performance lately. While Covid2019 has definitely bruised the business, he added that it had lost market share in the pre-pandemic period also. However, he emphasised that it is on its way to recovery and fairly optimistic about the next two quarters. Goenka is not only happy about its Hindi GEC channel but the recovery of the overall network in the same period, even for ZEE5’s advertising revenue. 

    “From my perspective, recovery in the advertising market has been reasonably good. I am pretty confident that from the next financial year, things will be back to normal and the country’s growth will fuel growth for advertising as well,” he stated. According to him, FMCG is at the forefront of advertising resurgence at this moment but going forward the advertising mix may change.

    Rebuilding ZEEL: 

    Amid debt issues of the promoter Essel Group, the last 18 months have not been very smooth. But Goenka said the company really never underwent that current. It was largely related to promoters and the financial crisis faced by them due to several market dynamics. 

    But he acknowledged that this phase was quite turbulent for him personally. “Being a part of the family it was my duty to take some of that burden and to share that and make sure we come out keeping our head held high. Because in the end,  the equity that we have built over being an entrepreneur for so many decades in the country can not be diluted by just one thing that happened. That took on me personally. But having come out of that last November, I have renewed the energy to come back to rebuild the glory that ZEE deserves,” he added.

    In late July, he laid out the roadmap for its new journey while clarifying it he is here to stay and lead the transformation in a letter to shareholders. Governance, granularity, growth, goodwill, and gusto are the five pillars of ZEE 4.0, he stated.

    The change and challenges in the ecosystem:

    One of the major issues, not less powerful than economic turmoil, the players in the industry are facing is regulatory changes. While his peers in the industry like Disney’s Uday Shankar earlier expressed the discontent over frequent change, Goenka reflected the same tone. 

    “Unfortunately, I don’t have much to talk about the regulator. Because I have not heard anywhere in the world regulation changes this frequently. Of course, it is the right thing to do in their wisdom. I believe when NTO 2.0 will be implemented. , the impact will be felt more by consumers than by content providers like us,” he added.

    “Its a function of fragmentation. At a time, we had only a national broadcaster that existed in this country and then came the time of private TV which was led by ZEE TV, and then a whole lot of people came into the market. Eventually, the market grows, and fragments. With the advent of new technologies, the market will further at best fragment and you will get smaller buckets of audiences. You are going to create content for a smaller bucket rather than creating for one size that fits all,” he commented on the overall ecosystem.

    The new bet:

    Well aware of the changes, ZEEL is trying to build a super app through ZEE5 to stay relevant. Where ZEE5 has already grown well in the domestic market on the back of local content, getting around 80 per cent revenue, from the country, it is now expecting to grow further in the west. ZEEL will soon shut the high-cost linear business in those markets and will deliver its content through ZEE5. The third or fourth generation diaspora audience who has lost connection to Indian content can come back to it through ZEE5. Taking ZEE5’s revenue up by four-five times in the next five years is his another major goal.

    With the new independent board, changes in the margin and cash-flow target, ZEEL is on the right track. But challenges overmount as deep-pocket international players target the Indian the market for the next phase of growth. Even the HBO Max can enter India in the next two-three years. The upcoming merger of Sony and Viacom18 will throw a challenge in the traditional broadcasting business as well as OTT. Hence, time will say how ZEEL achieves the targets that Goenka has in the mind.

  • Around 80% of ZEE5’s revenue is attributed to India: Punit Goenka

    Around 80% of ZEE5’s revenue is attributed to India: Punit Goenka

    KOLKATA: ZEEL is working towards creating a digital dominance in the Indian media and entertainment market. Their plan has been on track as ZEE5 has significantly grown in the last one year.

    At the second leg of APOS2020, ZEEL MD & CEO Punit Goenka reported the last quarter’s financial results of ZEE5 for the first time since its launch. He mentioned that 80 per cent of ZEE5’s revenue is currently attributed to India, and the rest comes in from Asia.

    Goenka shared that the platform has not seen a lot of revenue coming in from the western world till now as ZEEL’s linear business is pre-dominantly still running there. Goenka thinks this part of the world could offer the next phase of growth for ZEE5.

    ZEEL will shut its linear business in the UK and Europe sometime around the end of this year and ZEE5 will carry the content instead. Later, the move will be repeated in the US and other developed markets. Given the Indian diasporas demand for content, it is presumable that ZEE5 will certainly see fair traction in traffic.

    However, the plan is not similar in APAC, MEA, and Africa due to different market dynamics. As TV and digital co-exist in these markets yet, ZEEL is not planning complete digital migration immediately. But, Singapore and Hong Kong exceptionally provide an opportunity for such migration although the timing is not decided yet.

    “We have to understand ZEE5 will be played out in the Indian context very differently compared to the developed world. In India, we are still a 97 per cent single TV household market. Therefore, the consumption of television still remains prime. What happens in the digital world or on ZEE5 is that we get consumption in individual capacity which is private consumption. We don’t have enough penetration of alternate screens like PCs or laptops that you see around the world which can replace television,” he states.

    “In India, the second screen is usually a mobile phone. You can never replace the TV experience on the phone. Therefore, the consumption of ZEE5 while at home will be replacing television for all people who are either not TV consumers or have moved out of television because of the sheer kind of content. I look at ZEE5 or digital content consumption as an incremental consumption of content. It is not TV versus digital,” he further opines.

    ZEE5’s advertising revenue has been impacted in the second quarter of the calendar year as well due to the unprecedented situation as it largely depends on television content. But like the linear business, Goenka is confident that ZEE5 will see a resurgence in advertising from the second or third quarter onwards as it comes out of the Covid2019 situation.

    “The biggest thing I had said as a part of the agenda last year was to take ZEE5 ahead and build ZEE5. I put a five-year horizon where it could be as much as 30 per cent of the total business of the company. The business of the company is growing at healthy 12-13 per cent on a CAGR over five year period. That would mean, even on today’s context, ZEE5 revenue could potentially go up by 4x or 5x in the next four years,” Goenka puts it as. 

  • “We are helping SMBs build a sustainable online model”: Facebook India’s Ajit Mohan

    “We are helping SMBs build a sustainable online model”: Facebook India’s Ajit Mohan

    KOLKATA: Facebook has always expressed its interest in small businesses globally. Moreover, a large chunk of the social media platform’s advertising revenue comes from that segment. Likewise in the Indian market, the company is putting a lot of energy to help small businesses come back faster from the pandemic crisis. In terms of ad spends, that market is coming back well as well as the overall number is moving up.

    Facebook India vice president and managing director Ajit Mohan spoke about its deep-rooted commitment to small business while participating in APOS 2020. “Around the world, businesses are starting to come back and a lot of our energy is leaning towards how we can help small businesses come back faster to where they can build a sustainable model,” said Mohan.

    “Facebook is fundamentally a marketing platform that is tuned to need of small businesses. Around the world what we have seen is that most frugal marketing spend come to Facebook because this is where small businesses can grow. Through the second half of March and April, we did see a very tight lockdown in India that had an impact on the ad market. But that started to change especially in the last few weeks of June and heading into July we see the numbers moving up,” Mohan added.

    Mohan also stated that experts tend to not incorporate and count India’s vibrant online ad market. One per cent of startups and five per cent of enterprises actually do spend money disproportionately on digital to find new sources of growth.

    Covid2019 has accelerated the shift from offline to online. It has brought new cohorts of users to the digital platform. According to him, the behaviour of coming online got hyperdrive. Facebook also saw extraordinary growth for all its platforms it sees that continuing.

    Mohan, who worked alongside Jio when he was in Hotstar, is again working as a partner of the former as Facebook has acquired a minority stake in Jio Platforms. According to him, there is an alignment of the mission of two companies. While Facebook’s energy comes from the belief in giving people the power to build community online, he sees the same passion in Jio as it is playing the role of enabler in the digital ecosystem. Moreover, the alliance of WhatsApp-Jio Mart was one of the focus areas of the Facebook-Jio deal. Mohan said if they could pioneer a certain model of shopping on WhatsApp giving a lean structure to it, Facebook could take the model globally.

    “We are just at the beginning of an exciting hockey stick. If we look at the last few years, the first phase of work was all-around access. The number of 4G users has gone from 50 million to 550 million in less than four years. It has all happened in a very short period of time and that’s the foundation. In the foundation phase, it has lit up multiple sectors. Now, the next five to 10 years will be to see the impact of all the hard work that has been done on the access front,” Mohan commented on the overall ecosystem.

    “If we can bring 60 million businesses online that creates an impact for leveraging the 550 million consumers who have already come online. Connecting the dot between businesses and consumers will open up the explosive economic opportunity not for just those businesses but for others who seek to serve them. With innovation, all kinds of opportunities open up in education, health, etc., and in ways that have barely scratched the surface. We have done the hard work and set up the foundation. Now is the moment to translate that to real innovation and economic opportunity,” he added.

  • “Our subscriber acquisitions are returning to normalcy” – Airtel DTH’s Sunil Taldar

    “Our subscriber acquisitions are returning to normalcy” – Airtel DTH’s Sunil Taldar

    MUMBAI: Having their heads buried in a transformative ecosystem, major DTH players have constantly been expanding their offerings and Airtel’s DTH arm is not an exception. The world is busy discussing traditional TV versus OTT but DTH players like Airtel Digital TV are embracing the opportunities coming from streaming services, according to Bharti Airtel DTH CEO Sunil Taldar.

    In an interview with Media Partners Asia executive director and co-founder Vivek Couto during APOS 2020, Taldar spoke in the session "Innovation and growth in India's Video Market" alongside Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal. He addressed queries about existing opportunities, changing consumer preferences during pandemic as well as the future of his own platform. He also sounded highly optimistic about creating a universe of hybrid set-top boxes along with the growth opportunity to expand the existing DTH consumer base.

    Edited excerpts:

    You run very large consumer business. How has the pandemic affected consumer behaviour, generally and specifically and what are the growth trends across your business? And what does the future look like now for the DTH industry?

    First and foremost, we are an essential service and we became a little more essential during the crisis period. And we did see a change in behaviour which led to a significant increase in the consumption of news. In the absence of fresh programming and live sports, we have seen a large number of customers turning to OTT, and we have seen demand increasing for the hybrid set-top box. So that's one shift that we've seen in the industry.

    Another thing that I would like to highlight here is true for the entire industry. We have done a lot of work to digitally service or fulfil the needs of our customers with zero or minimal physical contact. And I'm making sure that there are no safety or security concerns both for our customers as well as for our field staff. Within the business, there has been a massive focus on serving those who serve our customers and how do we enable our field staff on the ground. This entire work that has happened in the last three months will offer a significant competitive advantage to the DTH industry.

    Our acquisitions are coming back to normal. I think we are acquiring more customers today as we speak. And DTH being present in only 70 million out of 300 million homes in the country, there is a massive land grab opportunity and massive headroom for growth. And I see the long-term future of this industry to be vast.

    You have been innovative for many years. So what else are you introducing to address competition? And to appeal to wider consumer needs and requirements?

    If you look at it from a consumer route, we live in a connected world and one of the challenges of the connected world is actually proliferation of services, which forces our customers to maintain multiple relationships, which is tedious. So, there is some work that we have done, which is a first of its kind in India, such as offering a converged proposition to our consumers and allowing them to buy services like mobile, broadband, landline and DTH together. Moreover, when we say DTH it also includes aggregated content. So, it actually takes care of one of the biggest pain points for the consumer i.e., one bill, one payment, one app and one call centre to get services or address your complaints. It's a process improvement of offering a converge competition. 

    The other is there's an opportunity in the market for the entire DTH industry, which is the content creator industry to work closely with us. India is one of the most under-screened countries in the world. We have a 100 per cent control over content, distribution and security. We have the ability to deliver content to our customers on a pay-per-view right now and we have access to 70 million homes in the country, we have a trusted relationship here with 70 million customers. Now today, if we were to launch Hollywood or Indian movies on this platform, that's a massive business opportunity. In this crisis period that we're living in, I don't see theatres opening soon, anytime. Neither do I anticipate consumers walking into theatres in the near future. But even if that was to happen, given the screen density in the country, it's a very large opportunity that the industry will explore.

    What is the opportunity of hybrid boxes? 

    The future belongs to hybrid boxes. If we increase or drive the penetration of the hybrid boxes and an ecosystem develops around that there are opportunities whether it is video conferencing, gaming, e-commerce, etc. So, these are all opportunities which are there.

    What is the best way to monetise the connected box ecosystem? Is it through advertising or subscription? What is the revenue model?

    The connected box gives us good access to viewership data because it's a two-way system. Today, the entire industry operates on extrapolated data at a very small sample size of customers. Now, here we have a great quantity of data. In my view, there could be two streams for monetisation that can be watched. One is we can use this data to improve the quality of content and increase stickiness for linear programming and building large subscription business. And this is an interest for broadcasters and operators, provided both of us work together to improve the quality of content and therefore stickiness and therefore subscription. Or the other area is, advertising might be an opportunity but how do we improve the efficacy of spends for advertisers.

    DTH platforms have around 70 million subscribers and that's going to continue to grow. But first of all, do you ever see within the next five years any of the OTT platforms, the top three or four, having that kind of reach directly through a huge universe? And is that a friend or a foe? 

    Live TV is here to stay because nothing can replace live programming like news, live sports, etc. And we have embraced OTT rather than fighting OTT. If the OTT universe grows, whether one player or all, to be even 50 million tomorrow, it's actually good for us because one great consumer insight is everybody wants to enjoy that content on the large screen. It will offer help to our efforts to drive the hybrid universe. So we tend to benefit both ways, to benefit from the OTT business and also from live content. I don't think we are here to fight that.

    What are you seeing as changes in the Indian consumer ecosystem and mindset through these last few months? And some of them I'm sure are good changes and are they lasting changes? Will they have any impact on your business and products in the long-term?

    It's very difficult to say the changes that we have seen whether they are going to last forever. For example, work from home is a significant change that we have seen. Will this behaviour last forever or people will go back to working from offices once things ease out? But some of the opportunities are not related to this. It's a function of what has happened and a function of what platform do we create. As we said, pay-per-view, even if it is the launch of movies through a platform, it is a real opportunity for both today and tomorrow. If you ask me about the education segment, is that an opportunity today? Would that be an opportunity tomorrow in the connected world? That’s yes. We're actually managing connected devices, video conferencing, etc., and all these are real opportunities. And these can have a significant contribution to our top line as well as for our bottom line. What is required is for us to try penetration with an ecosystem, have the imagination and conviction right and the ability to convert.

    Some of the changes that we have seen, whether it is OTT adoption, a customer seeking education online, an opportunity for video conferencing or minimising physical contact, there are efficiencies right where we build models to where people upgrade from their existing box to a new box through absolutely zero contact.

    These opportunities are going to remain for a long period of time and fundamentally alter the way we conduct this. What we need to do is work towards the rest of the constituents of this entire ecosystem, be it broadcasters or technology providers or partners. And I think if that happens, it will fundamentally change the trajectory of the DTH industry. 

  • APOS 2020: Why Indian pay TV still holds a lot of potential

    APOS 2020: Why Indian pay TV still holds a lot of potential

    KOLKATA: Even as the doomsayers have been predicting impending doom for India’s television business and tomtomming the growth of streaming services, Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal and IndiaCast Media Distribution Group CEO Anuj Gandhi believe that there’s tremendous scope to grow pay-TV in India. Taking part in a roundtable as part of Media Partners Asia’s virtual APOS 2020, both said television has barely been penetrated yet. 

    Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal – who's running, arguably, one of India's most respected DTH platforms – highlighted that there is a distribution game which needs to be played well. Nagpal mentioned two ways that the business can get a growth impetus: one is reaching out to the un-penetrated households and secondly selling more to existing consumers.

    He backed his statement with facts. According to Nagpal, 100 million homes in India are TV-less, and would go on to buy one eventually. Moreover, 35 million TV watchers have subscribed to free to air service DD Freedish. According to him, the Indian consumers are gradually moving from no TV to FTA to pay-TV, acknowledging that those in the higher end of pay-TV spectrum in urban areas are migrating to OTT and broadband. While he acknowledged the movement to OTT, he also mentioned that it is slower compared to the growth of linear TV and it will continue for a while.

    “Households without a TV have not bought one so far, and those that bought one have moved to FTA because they could not afford the Rs 300 plan which the platforms charge,” says Nagpal.

    Hence, he added that expecting them to pay Rs 1000 for bandwidth to watch Rs 300 worth of content is a bit much. He stated that they would start with linear TV paying only for content while they may migrate to new media in the next decades. 

    “In the last two years, we have seen a huge surge in small screen viewing of content essentially because data cost was abysmally low. As the data prices find their right level, which is what it should be, I guess the projections we all are making will level up,” he stated.

    Indiacast’s Gandhi agreed with Nagpal’s view on the distribution game and the growth opportunity. He pointed out while pay TV’s potential has been spoken about a lot, the industry has barely made any change in the past six-seven years. 

    The silver-lining is that fictitious numbers of cable subscribers were floating up in the market before the NTO while after its implementation the industry now agrees on the number of 120-130 million paying subs. According to Gandhi, the growth opportunity is low-ARPU market which is partly either on DD or getting pirated content needs to be converted. This ongoing process cannot be taken away by streaming services.

    Moreover, Gandhi stated that the pandemic has made the industry realise that overly depending on advertising revenue is a troubling trend. Until now, content players have not focused on subscription revenue by not creating cohorts or not helping the platforms to plan for a better ARPU or upselling. Hence, while there are opportunities in the pay-TV business: one has to build a robust subscription model by tweaking, changing, remodelling the existing one.

    The statistic of 500 million smartphone users has been touted enough but Gandhi noted that all of them may not have four-inch plus screens or enough memory to have more than seven-eight apps on their devices. Hence, he opined that despite the fact that a part of the high-end consumers have started subscribing to streaming services – some of them live –  using connected TVs and devices, linear TV cannot be replaced for most of the consumers.