Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India has appointed Rachin Khanijo as the marketing head. Earlier, he was associated with Beginnen Media as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He was responsible for on-air promotions, marketing, and corporate & digital communications. Beginnen Media runs Hindi GEC Azaad TV.
He has over 17 years of experience in the industry. Prior to this, he has worked with Eros Now as vice-president-marketing; Zeel as marketing head; Viacom18, Ogilvy & Mather and SET.
Mumbai: India’s first rural entertainment channel, Azaad has launched a new show Kasturi, a story inspired by the life of Padma Shri Rajkumari Devi popularly known as Kisan Chachi. It is the story of a village girl, who broke conventional myths with her spontaneous grit & determination to become independent, self-supportive and a big crusader for social change.
The channel of Beginnen Media has been growing week on week with its affinity towards rural audiences. Over the past year, Azaad has built a runway to launch new shows with rural values and heart-touching stories. Beginnen Media managing director Bharat Kumar Ranga said, “Azaad has grown its market share in the last couple of months and is here to stay. We have witnessed a 110 per cent growth in female viewership and 67 per cent in the rural market between March 2022 and May 2022.”
On the new show
Kasturi is based in a village near Patna and will showcase how a young Kasturi lives her journey from living with her parents, younger sister and grandmother to adjusting to post-marital issues and becoming an independent farmer and teaching new farming techniques to other farmers which got her the coveted Padma Shri Award.
Azaad chief content, creative & consumer officer Anooj Kapoor said, “We are excited about the launch of Kasturi which is an inspiring story of how a village belle in extremely adverse conditions, not only achieved financial independence through farming, a first for a woman; but she also learned and taught innovative cropping techniques to other farmers, helping them as well to prosper. We have tried to tell the story through a slice of life narrative with both bitter and sweet moments woven together.”
The show has been produced by founder Rajeev Singh’s Ideaz Pictures. The show’s protagonist Kasturi is played by India’s Best Dramebaaz 2016 runner-up Tammanna Deepak.
Kasturi will air on Azaad from Monday to Saturday at 8:30 pm and also on MX Player.
Mumbai: Beginnen Media has announced the appointment of Anooj Kapoor as chief content, creative and consumer officer and Tushar Bansal as chief revenue officer for the TV channel – Azaad.
In his previous stint, Kapoor launched Sony Pal and served as SAB TV business head where he was instrumental to transform the brand into a high-yield profitable channel, said the statement.
“I’m pleased to announce that Anooj and Tushar have joined the leadership team at Azaad,” said Beginnen Media managing director Bharat Ranga. “Anooj understands heartland audiences’ tastes closely and is deft at telling ‘mazedaar’ stories to win their hearts. He leads the strategic edge and rustic power to brand Azaad. Tushar will pursue the campaign to bring about the premium status that the rural audiences rightfully deserve.”
Kapoor will head product development, programming and content strategy, product innovation, content creation, and curation. Kapoor will also provide the strategic inputs for Azaad’s growth path. He has successfully straddled over three decades in the field of marketing, advertising, and television.
“I am very happy to be a part of India’s first rural entertainment channel, a very relevant but ignored positioning by a GEC,” said Kapoor. “Bharat and I go a long way. I am very happy to associate with him and look forward to creating another exciting GEC Brand with Azaad.”
Bansal will spearhead the ad revenues division at Azaad. He has two decades of experience in ad sales and driving strategic initiatives for garnering revenue opportunities. He has worked with prestigious media houses like Zee Entertainment, Sony and Ten Sports in leadership positions, with the latest being the executive cluster head at Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
“These are exciting times to join Azaad, a point where growth in TV households is much faster than urban and the viewership is also showing an upward trend in the rural markets,” said Bansal. “There is a remarkable emergence in the economic, social and technological environment in the rural market and every advertiser is looking at ways to reach the ‘ru-urban’ consumers. The journey seems very interesting and I look forward to contributing in shaping up the revenue model for advertisers in rural and free-to-air category on Azaad.”
Mumbai: Beginnen Media’s premium rural entertainment channel Azaad and entertainment app MX Player have announced a strategic partnership to enable exponential growth by bringing together the linear, rural, and digital worlds.
With the strong belief in the ‘power of engaged connections’ and the aspiration to meet its viewers at their doorstep, Azaad and MX Player are all set to reach out to the Indian diaspora with new stories embedded in the rural fabric and culture, said the statement. “Azaad will soon add to its repertoire original content, besides the syndicated content that is currently on air,” it added.
Beginnen Media recently launched Azaad with the premise of being ‘People First. Rural First’ and MX Player, with its large and diverse audience of over 200 million monthly active users caters to its audiences with varied entertainment palettes.
“The union with MX Player offers a seamless consumer experience on both mediums as we attempt to be innovators at the intersection of TV and digital,” said Beginnen Media’s managing director, Bharat Kumar Ranga. “Azaad is for people with rural mindsets where people access entertainment on both TV and the internet. We needed to find the right anchor that compliments Azaad on the internet. MX Player immediately aligned to our vision as we share a commonality of consumer centricity that will assist us with our expansion goals. MX valued our idea and intent, and Azaad loved their youthfulness, vigour, hunger for growth, and uncanny consumer centricity. For consumers, MX and Azaad will appear like one common platform. This reflects Beginnen Media’s entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to using our experience of innovation as the roadmap for propelling the industry forward to an all-new way of doing business,” he added.
“In an industry first, this association will transcend traditional TV and digital OTT to drive synergies and foster growth for both players, by creating innovative new content and catering to a larger audience set. As a platform that can reach consumers at every touchpoint, this strategic partnership with Azaad is sure to entertain the masses and drive more engagement for both brands,” shared MX Group CEO, Karan Bedi.
“We believe that this distinct UnionShip with MX Player will surely be the best manner in which two standalone brands together will unlock the power of TV and OTT in an integrated manner by leveraging synergies to reach and engage with maximum viewers,” said Beginnen Media CMO, Rachin Khanijo. “We have approached this association creatively as well as strategically to ensure that there’s a strong audience fit and have planned on scaling it with projected metrics of what TV and digital are expected to deliver – both at an attributed and holistic level.”
“This unique union compliments MX strategically – adding many hues of entertainment to our diverse content offering and bringing with it fresh, young, and new flavours reflecting the ethos of today’s rural Indian fabric,” said MX Player, SVP, and head – content acquisitions and alliances, Mansi Shrivastav. “With this distinctive slate, we are well poised to cater to every palette and are excited that this association with Beginnen Media’s premium heartland entertainment channel Azaad will enhance viewership and aid market expansion.”
New Delhi: Even as the fast-growing network of Over the Top (OTT) platforms take the media industry by storm, television continues to hold its position as the preferred screen choice for a majority of Indians. And, a vast section of this audience lives in rural India. In fact, the ownership of TV sets in rural India has outpaced growth in urban pockets, shows the latest data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
With this, has come a paradigm shift, where consumers have once again taken the centre stage in determining how traditional broadcasters decide their content offerings. While there may be a plethora of content for urban viewers, there aren’t still enough choices for the rural audience. It is this vast market that Mumbai-based Beginnen Media is keen to tap into, with its new Hindi GEC- Azaad TV. The channel with its philosophy – ‘People First, Rural First’ hit the airwaves in May and caters exclusively to people in rural India. It’s currently available on DD Free Dish and select DPOs.
In an exclusive interaction with Indiantelevision.com, Beginnen Media, managing director Bharat Kumar Ranga talks about his vision for the new channel, its financial model, content offerings, and introduces for the first time, the newly formed team that helped build the brand.
Edited excerpts:
On the decision to focus on rural India
At Beginnen Media, we wanted to relook at the media and entertainment sector with a fresh perspective. We believe that the real transition is not from broadcasting to individual casting or TV to digital, but from being from creative/content-centric to being consumer-centric. We found a great opportunity in the rural segment. While the urban segment has been over-serviced by TV and digital platforms, consumers in rural India are still under-serviced with content that was originally created for urban viewers. They weren’t really considered primary consumers. So, we thought that there was an opportunity for us to see them as primary consumers and create stories exclusively for them.
On how the target audience was identified
We put most of our energies into identifying our target audience. We saw that rural people have a certain mindset, and we decided to focus on that. No matter which place they migrate to, they will carry that mindset with them. Though our content will cater to the Hindi-speaking audience, it will also try to reach out to Hindi-understanding markets like parts of Gujarat, West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, where people may not speak Hindi, but they do understand the language. We want to design our content in such a way that people from across states relate to it. We have also hired specialist agencies that work on consumer products, like the Delhi-based agency- Futurebrands, which is led by Santosh Desai to provide us with data and insights.
On the decision to go Free-to-air (FTA) and growth opportunities in the rural market
In terms of distribution, the TV consumption in rural India is largely through DD Free Dish, and you cannot be on DD Free Dish if you are a Pay channel. So, we chose FTA so that we could reach out to that audience. Since we are the first rural GEC, we thought it makes much more sense to reach out to people quickly, and start building on that connection.
Generally, people tend to confuse Free-to-air (FTA) with rural. While it is fair to say that most people who consume FTA channels are in rural India, and that is the market that we are entering into. But a significant part of the rural audience is also watching pay platforms, other than on DD Free Dish. So, we are venturing into a new category, where we are competing with not just the FTA channels, but also the Pay channels in the rural segment. FTA channels are also available in more households than Pay TV. It’s just that the FTA market has not unlocked its full potential yet. The over-supply of acquired content on these channels does not seem to be working anymore. The audience understands that the channels are recycling content, and they want something new, so that is why we hope that our rural model might work.
On the content offerings and original shows
Our original shows got delayed because of the pandemic. But since we had to start the channel distribution, we went ahead with the soft launch. We started building a connection with the audience. Now, our new shows are also under production and we hope that we will be able to sustain and keep the process running in case there’s a third wave too.
In terms of content, we have put in a huge amount of energy to determine what our rural audience will like to watch. On the face of it, our content might not look different, but the larger differentiation is in the point of view of the people, that we will try to reflect in the shows. Currently, stories on pay platforms are set up in rural areas, but they are told to an urban audience. We wish to tell stories that reflect their point of view irrespective of where they are based.
On the financial model and opportunities for advertisers
As a rural entertainment channel, we need to have all kinds of revenue- subscription-based, advertising-based, as well as digital revenue. In terms of advertising revenue, we are looking at some sort of premium around the environment that we are giving to our advertisers- ‘digital virtues in a TV business’. Firstly, we are providing a focussed target audience. For instance, if a campaign runs on any FTA channel, the advertiser may not know if it’s reaching the urban or rural audience. But, in the case of Azaad, the focus is entirely on people with a rural mindset. Secondly, the programming environment. If an advertisement is put on YouTube, it’s difficult to identify the content/genre that the consumer is watching. However, we will offer brand safety in terms of content that aligns well with the values of the brand. Advertisers will be interested in an entertainment platform that is consumer-focussed. We already have some regular advertisers like HUL on board. But the main exercise will begin once we launch original shows.
On the distribution plans for the channel
Simple to our plan, we have looked at all the MSOs. We began with DD Free Dish, where the channel is currently being aired. Then we identified some 50 individual distribution cable operators in rural areas. We are also in talks with 15 more such operators who are working in the outskirts of these areas. They may be lesser-known but attractive to us. We are also in touch with some top DTH and MSOs, but our priority is rural India and we will stick to that.
Rural is a super mass category. We want to create a little space for ourselves, and we understand that it will take some time for us to create a relationship with the audience. We want to become the most credible platform for rural audiences.
On the team that leads Beginnen Media
Director – project & operations: Mohan Gopinath
A media and broadcast veteran, Gopinath carries nearly 25 years of work experience. He worked with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) for 18 years, turned entrepreneur, and co-created Bhu Entertainment in 2015. He also helped Viacom launch its first movie channel, Rishtey Cineplex.
Chief marketing officer – Rachin Khanijo
Khanijo carries over 17 years of extensive MarComm experience, during which he has worked at Eros Now as vice president, marketing, and COLORS as associate director – marketing. He has also worked as marketing head at &TV and brand director – Filmfare, Femina, and GoodHomes. At Beginnen Media, he handles marketing, corporate communications, on-air promotions, research & distribution.
General manager, product: Doris Dey
Dey spearheads Business Development, Programming & Content Strategy, Product Innovation, Content Creation, and Curation. In a career spanning 18 years, she has worked as a writer, creative director, and even Independent Producer (OTT). In her previous stint at Essel Group, she envisaged and launched &TV.’
Chief revenue officer, Johnson Jain
Jain carries over two decades of experience in the Media & Entertainment industry and specialises in advertising revenue. He has worked with leading media conglomerates including ZEEL, Sony Network (SET India) & 9x Group. He has played a key role in relaunching Zing in 2016.
Chief financial officer, Dinesh Bhutra
An associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Bhutra has more than a decade of experience in various sectors like Airlines, Telecom, Entertainment, Education, Finance, Media, Data Centre and Refinery including Jet Airways, Reliance Jio, Essel Corporate, MT Educare Ltd, ISSL. At Beginnen Media, Bhutra also heads Commercial, Administration & Human Resources as its chief finance officer.