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Tag: cable

  • Hathway focuses on high data usage consumers to grow broadband

    Hathway focuses on high data usage consumers to grow broadband

    MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd (HCDL), which has been one of the major players both in broadband and cable business, could be most vulnerable to the changes in the ecosphere given that much of its business is urban-centric. Now, the company is focusing on high data usage customers (more than 80 GB per month users) to remain relevant in the competition and the company will roll out more plans around this segment very soon. To have a more stable and loyal subscriber base, apart from 30,000 regular churn, it had 57,000 forced churn from low speed, low data consumption consumers.

    The company had to take the step of forced regular churn because it did not want to utilize capex for them. Low pricing data plans from networks can easily lure the customers who use less than 40 GB data per month increasing the churn rate of the service provider. Especially, the bucket of 0-20 GB data has more low pricing deal seeking tendency as HCDL MD Rajan Gupta said in an earnings call. Though the company is focusing on retaining 80 GB data users, he also mentioned there’s no stress in the bucket of more than 40 GB usage.

    “These customers, who were anyway not using the network, are suddenly getting the same 12-20 GB for Rs 200 even on post-paid, even with the reputed number 1 and number 2 players. So these people from January- February started asking for more and more deals. So we had two options. We could have given them deals and maintained them at Rs 300 ARPU. But then I’m blocking my capex, my CMTS, my network hubs, my data centre, which will prevent me from giving that sort of quality service to all my high data users, or I have to put much more capex. We didn’t want either of the scenarios,” Gupta explained the logic behind cleaning up “non-productive base”.

    While the company currently stands with 5.5 million home passes, for the rest of this financial year it will not expand home passes any more. The focus will be on adding high usage customers within the current network. The strategy is to initially invest in growing this base through a mix of FTTH, pay TV, OTT and IoT services. In few select cities, the plan of offering home services bundling solutions along with high-speed data has already been rolled out on a four-month plan. Gupta claims to see 10 per cent increase in gross addition in those particular geographies while six to seven per cent current consumers are upgrading to it.

    But before coming up with extravagant marketing strategy, it wants to get the right product first. In the next three to four months, the company will master the product and overall service. However, while ARPU has declined to Rs 690 this quarter, the initial focus is on adding value to the service of high usage customers rather than expecting a return in ARPU. Basically, the plan is revolving around J-curve growth strategy where the initial focus on service will lead to harvesting revenue and higher EBITDA growth.

    Jio Giga Fiber has already lured customers with several additional amenities including Jio Giga TV set top box. In this changing scenario, Airtel and BSNL have already revised their plans. The giant DTH player Tata Sky has recently rolled out its broadband service in 12 cities. Another MSO DEN Networks has chalked out plans of working more closely with local cable operators to get a hold of last mile competition.

    However, like many other experts in the industry Gupta also emphasised that with the entry of large players, the awareness about fibre to home, high speed broadband will increase because of the PR and marketing efforts. He mentioned that out of the current 17 million wire and broadband base, only 5 million is high speed broadband. On an optimistic note, he thinks eventually this 5 million will become 17 million.

    “We want to make sure, in every market we operate, we have the best of solutions; either the ability to give even 1,000 GB to a consumer at a very low price or the ability to give speeds of 200-300 Mbps. On ARPU we’ll see 2-3 per cent reduction every quarter,” he added.

    While the company which itself is focusing so much on broadband business sensing the demand, the question rises how OTT is affecting the churn in its cable business wing. Gupta says a high number of consumers are still sticking to cable and DTH because of low monthly pricing. He adds that OTT and cable or DTH will more and more start complimenting each other over a period.

    “We don’t believe these are two very separate spaces. We believe our expertise is the last mile. We have access to consumers. Now if consumers want broadband, we are pretty much there. If consumers want OTT, we will be there. And if consumers want linear TV, which again, is not showing any sign of drop, we are already there,” he added.

    In the cable TV segment, the company plans to increase phase III, phase IV ARPU by about 15 per cent. While 6 per cent has already come in Q1 owing to the price implementation, balance effect is expected to come in Q2. In the case of the first two phases, the plan is to increase ARPU by 7 per cent. As all the price changes have been implemented from the month of August, it hopes to stabilise it by September.

    The company plans to have 25,000-28,000 gross additions per month in the next 9 months of FY19. Alongside that, the company is also focusing on doing underground fibre to increase the service to customers. As the entire fixed broadband business ecosystem gradually picks up thanks to more Indian, vernacular content on OTT platforms, Hathway is also taking more aggressive moves in the segment.

  • Hathway Cable gets approval to raise funds worth Rs 99.63 crore

    Hathway Cable gets approval to raise funds worth Rs 99.63 crore

    MUMBAI: Leading cable and broadband player Hathway received an approval to raise funds worth Rs 99.63 crore at a board meeting held on 29 August. Following the approval the company’s shares rallied as much as 15 per cent.

    The approval has come for raising of funds through issuance of 30,800,000 equity shares at a price of Rs 32.35 per equity share including premium of Rs 30.35 per equity share which is higher than the issue price determined in accordance with Regulation 76 of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009, as amended, aggregating to Rs. 99.63 crore on preferential basis to Hathway Investments Private Ltd, an entity forming part of the promoter group, as posted on BSE.

    Hathway offers cable television services across 140 cities and towns and high-speed cable broadband services across 21 cities.

  • GTPL Hathway to promote 40 Mbps broadband speed to masses

    GTPL Hathway to promote 40 Mbps broadband speed to masses

    MUMBAI: As wireline broadband business is emerging as a sector full of growth opportunities, several cable operators, as well as MSOs, are increasing their investment in the segment. GTPL Hathway, the Gujarat based cable and broadband player, is ready to lower its ARPU in the broadband segment to get more customers. Reliance Jio’s entry has got companies worried about losing subscribers and many of them are revising prices while others are ready to lower subscription costs.

    GTPL Hathway’s capex allocation shows the increased importance of broadband business for the company. While in Q1 2019, the capex stood at Rs 21 crore (almost equal to Rs 24 crore capex for cable TV business), in Q4 FY 2018 Rs 8 crore was the broadband capex. For entire FY 2019, the company will invest Rs 50-60 crore on broadband.

    The company’s plan is to make 40 Mbps a mass product for which the ARPU stands at Rs 388 to Rs 450 per month. One of the main reasons for emphasising on this particular range is to control churn rate of subscribers as attracting more customers with high speed and high volume will make a loyal user base. Churn is happening more on the side of lower speed, where the company is providing 5 Mbps or 8 Mbps speed due to the wireless competition. Even for the 40 Mbps plan, the cost has already come down.

    “We are pushing this (40 Mbps) for mass, so we are looking forward that the numbers will start coming from this quarter and next quarter we will see a surge in the number,” chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj commented on the broadband segment revenue in an earnings call. The company has targetted broadband revenue for this financial year to be at Rs 160-170 crore.

    Though overall the company witnessed only 10,000 new broadband subscriber addition despite creating 230,000 home passes, its logic revolves around the basic formula of supply and demand. “In this quarter if you see our FTTH implementation on the ground for the home pass is around 65-70 per cent complete and then you see the home pass is increased,” Pankaj added. According to company guidance, it is going to add around 100,000 net subscribers this year.

    The Jio rampage is likely to cause havoc in the broadband sector too. Pankaj said that the company is waiting for other players to come into the market with new pricing to make any decision on whether or not to scale down investment. For now, the capex guidance for broadband business would remain same.

    “The decision like investment in broadband cannot be based on one quarter pricing of any particular player. We expect the market to expand considerably,” GTPL Hathway chairman and non-executive director Rajan Gupta said.

    While GTPL has a huge fibre network available in Gujarat, it is not rolling out fibre to home or building because of low demand. There is a very limited demand for 100mbps and 40mbps in those markets.

    “With large players coming in investing there and that is where is the whole demand will build up and GTPL already has a huge infra, so pricing is one play, but more than pricing it is about revenue from a particular area and the overall size of the pie. Frankly, there are multiple factors needs to be evaluated, which will be clearer over the next two to three quarters,” Gupta added.

    In terms of its traditional cable business, the company expects phase three and phase four ARPU increase in this quarter and next quarter while phase one and phase two ARPU increased in the last quarter.

    “For phase two we are going to take the hike (10 per cent hike) in Q4 of FY 2019. Phases three and phase four we have already taken the hike in Q2 that is from July onwards,” Pankaj said. “Current Q1 ARPU we will see the 10 per cent jump for phases three and four, but you will see the full 10 per cent increase in two quarters’ time in Q2 and Q3,” he added further.

    Though the company had Rs 126 crore content cost in Q1, it is now confident that it won’t exceed Rs 500-510 crore until some big acquisition happens. However, the company has indicated it is looking forward to some of the acquisitions which could increase the content cost further as well as the revenue.

  • Higher production values of OTT content won’t put pressure on TV biz: Punit Goenka

    Higher production values of OTT content won’t put pressure on TV biz: Punit Goenka

    MUMBAI:  With the growth of OTT market, all the big four broadcasters in India have ramped up their investment in digital ventures. To woo the online viewers, OTT platforms are producing high cost shows especially when it comes to originals. While there have been concerns that higher production values of OTT content might affect the content cost of TV business, Zee Entertainment MD and CEO Punit Goenka does not foresee such a scenario in his case.

    Starting from Amazon Prime’s Inside Edge to Netflix’s Sacred Games, ZEEL’s digital venture ZEE5’s Karenjit Kaur, the star cast, and content quality clearly indicates the high budget of the shows, though the exact numbers have never been revealed.

    Speaking in an earnings call, Punit Goenka said,“In terms of quality, I think it’s comparable to what television quality is because we use the same equipment. It will not put pressure on the television part because the sheer volume of television content that is being produced and the economies of scale that is being achieved there versus what we are producing for digital, the delta is far apart.” But he agreed that the content being made for digital platforms is of higher production value because of outdoor shoots and bigger stars.

    Zee crates 500 hours of original content every week for broadcast while that is a mere 800 hours for the whole year on digital. “There is no per hour concept there, it is all story and concept-based content cost,” he added.

    After creating a buzz in the Indian market thanks to its regional content, ZEE5 is expected to be launched globally soon. Commenting on that, Goenka said the global rollout will be completed in a phased manner. By the end of this fiscal year (FY 19), it will be available globally.

    Goenka is very hopeful of Zee5’s international success.”If ZEE5 does cannibalise our existing subscription revenue in international markets I will be very happy with that because that’s a direct ownership of the customer that the company gets rather having it through a distributor. So that’s a good problem if it happens that way and that is one of the parts of our strategy of going global with ZEE5,” he said.

    With the technological disruptors, the entertainment industry is always in a flux. 10 years ago, the entry of DTH players changed the industry. Then the increasing internet consumption with the entry of Jio bought another disruption. Now, as Jio with its FTHH connection eyes at  50 to 100 million households, there could be some structural changes especially affecting the broadcasters. However, that possibility does not concern Goenka.

    “My view has always been, even when DTH came 10-11 years ago, that all technologies will coexist in a country of our size. So, cable will also coexist, DTH will coexist and even ZEE5 will work. So, it’s all going to be different services at different price points. For a content company like us, it doesn’t really matter because at the end all three are pipes. So, as long as my content is relevant, I will still get my value from consumer payout,” he said confidently.

    However, with a realistic view, he expects ZEE5 to break even in next five years in stark contrast to several players who expect to break even within two-three years. According to him not only ZEE5 but the industry is still now in investment mode and there isn’t a chance to breakeven in the first three years.

    Almost every OTT player has already struck deals with telecom players, but ZEE5 has not yet signed any telecom deal in India or overseas. Till the time it isn’t getting the right value of its content, there won’t be any such negotiation.

  • Hathway ropes in Sitendu Nagchaudhuri as new CFO

    Hathway ropes in Sitendu Nagchaudhuri as new CFO

    MUMBAI: Leading cable operator Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd has appointed Sitendu Nagchaudhuri as the new chief financial officer (CFO). The fellow chartered accountant’s experience in the field of corporate finance, commercial and strategy leadership spans over 27 years.

    In a corporate announcement to the BSE, the company has informed about the appointment decided in a meeting of the board of directors held on 2 July.

    The earlier CFO Vineet Garg resigned in May after a stint of almost four years in the company. He was promoted to the position of CFO in February 2016.

    Prior to this appointment, Nagchaudhuri worked as CFO in Navin Fluorine International Ltd. The company is engaged in the specialty fluoro-chemicals. Along with plants in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the company has a global footprint in the UK, US and Asia Pacific.

    The expert has experience with Fortune 500 MNCs and leading Indian enterprises in diverse sectors like specialty chemicals, oil and gas, lubricants, FMCG and infrastructure.

    Also Read :

    Hathway CFO Vineet Garg resigns

    Hathway reports improved standalone Q3 results

  • DEN Network fixed-line b’band biz plan hinges on partnerships & leveraging present infra

    DEN Network fixed-line b’band biz plan hinges on partnerships & leveraging present infra

    MUMBAI: With telcos handing out data at cheap rates in various package sizes under innovative schemes, mobile data consumption has increased rapidly in India in the last few years, while the growth of fixed-line broadband (FLBB) users has been tepid, if not completely static. MSO DEN Networks now wants to tap the hitherto unexplored opportunities of FLBB as a business proposition. So, what’s the plan?

    Not only DEN wants to use its own and partners’ customer bases in 100 small cities of India, but is also, probably, eyeing the huge FLBB market that will open up as the Indian government ramps up its BharatNet project to provide Internet and broadband services to approximately 250,000 gram panchayats or local village administrations through state-run telcos and third-party service providers, including cable operators. 

    The reason for hi-speed broadband in 100 cities in 10 Indian states is to try overcome the low returns in big cities and metros. “We have also seen a lot of stress in the fixed line broadband ARPUs of all the major metros, be it Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore [and] Kolkata,” DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma said during a recent analyst call, going onto add that the ARPUS were low in the “top 10 towns of the country”.

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    In April, DEN Broadband Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of DEN Networks, had announced expansion of its hi-speed internet services to 100 cities across India.  After completion, DEN Broadband aims to enable 1.1 crore (11 million) Indian households with high-speed broadband services by 2020 with 20 MB speeds on an average under different sets of packaging and schemes — in contrast to average lower offerings from various telcos.

    And, to back its claims, DEN Networks quotes data from international and domestic sources. In a presentation made to investors, the Sameer Manchanda-founded company justified its focus on FLBB by saying that if regulator TRAI’s December 2017 data was to be believed, there were 425 million wireless Internet subscribers, while there were only 18 million FLBB subs. Over the years, Indian FLBB growth has remained static compared to its APAC peers like Australia, China, Vietnam and Thailand.

    So, how is DEN going to go about its FLBB plans in 100 cities? The company plans to leverage its existing cable universe and tie-ups with last mile operators by going the franchisee model, leveraging present infrastructure (80 per cent already fibre-enabled), and lower capex and operational costs. Affordable technology like Metro Ethernet and GPON, coupled with standardized technical solutions, customer support from DEN and a pre-paid collect model on B2C basis, according to the company, would make good business sense.

    “We have a plan to enable 15 towns in the first quarter. Overall, 100 towns have to be enabled, and you will be surprised that LCOs themselves are approaching us,” Sharma informed an analyst, adding that it was not just a one-way traffic as company execs too were tapping LCOs informing them of the benefits as the infrastructure is already in place and the project could have additional revenue spin-offs for the LCOs. DEN has earmarked Rs. 100 crore (Rs.1 billion) as capex for the FLBB project over the three-year period.

    What is fueling DEN’s aspirations? Quoting Singapore-based Media Partners Asia figures, the company presentation told investors that there had been 

    15X rise year-on-year in Internet data traffic in 2017 with video content contributing 65 per cent of total mobile data traffic apart from the fact that India’s FLBB penetration was expected to increase to 10.3 per cent from the present single digit share by year 2022. Moreover, as content and applications keep getting heavier and denser in size, FLBB high speed broadband solutions could be ideal for offices and homes.

    “Our fiber is just 100 meters away from each of the subscriber that is being served by us,” Sharma explained to analysts, adding with broadband ARPUs low in metros and bigger cities it was decided to target the rest of the country that is not only a “virgin area” but has “equally good” demand.

    Asked about Reliance Jio’s ambitious plans to rollout broadband services in the country, which can disrupt this segment too, Sharma refused to comment, saying, “I am nobody to comment on others business.” 

    Also Read :

    DEN expands broadband services; plans Rs 100 cr capex

    Aim to take phase 3 ARPU to phase 1 value: Den Networks’ SN Sharma

    DEN readies Android-based STB for Feb launch

    TDSAT rules in favor of DEN Networks, directs ZEE entertainment to provide channels on RIO basis

  • Traditional pay TV under pressure from OTT services: Horowitz report

    MUMBAI: A recent report from Horowitz Research’s State of Pay TV, OTT and SVOD reveals that three-quarters (76 per cent) of TV content viewers report subscribing to a traditional pay-TV—cable, satellite, or telco—service, down from 86 per cent in 2014.

    According to the study, just 71 per cent of 18-34 year-olds subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service, compared to 75 per cent of 35-49 year-olds and 81 per cent of TV viewers 50+. Although TV viewers are watching more TV content than ever before—the study reveals that TV content viewers report watching an average of 6.5 hours of TV a day—the fact that there are many lower cost services competing for consumers’ video budgets is impacting the perceived cost-benefit ratio of traditional pay-TV.

    74 per cent of cable TV subscribers, 78 per cent of satellite TV subscribers, and 80 per cent of fibre TV subscribers say that they are satisfied with their TV service overall. However, when asked how “worth it” the TV services they subscribe to are cable, satellite, and fibre TV subscribers are less likely to say that their TV service is worth it compared to most over-the-top services, reveals the study.

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    Seventy percent of satellite and fibre subscribers and 62 per cent of cable subscribers say that their service is worth it; between 8-13 per cent say their pay-TV is not worth it. On the other hand, 91 per cent of Netflix subscribers say that Netflix is worth the money, and 83 per cent say that Hulu is worth it. Digital pay-TV providers Sling TV and Hulu with Live TV also fare better than traditional pay-TV, with 79 per cent of Sling TV subscribers and 77 per cent of Hulu with Live TV subscribers saying their service is worth it.

    In addition to exploring the value of TV and video services, the study also asked how interested TV viewers would be in either switching to a service such as this from their cable/satellite/fibre service (if they currently had pay-TV service) or subscribing to one (if they did not currently have pay-TV service). Nearly half (48 per cent) of pay-TV subscribers express interest in a dMVPD (digital MVPD); this rises to 58 per cent among 18-34 year-olds.

    Horowitz SVP of insights and strategy Adriana Waterston says, “The majority of subscribers to over-the-top services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are also multichannel subscribers; a smaller percent of them are cord-cutters and cord-nevers. Those services are essentially VoD ‘on steroids,’ and they have tended to supplement, rather than cannibalise, the services offered by traditional providers.”

    While these data are based on a broad, general description of dMVPDs and may not translate into actual cord-cutting, they do indicate a willingness among consumers to explore these services, and cost plays a major role. Nearly all of those interested in dMVPDs cite the lower cost as a key factor why they are interested in a dMVPD. Beyond cost, the viewing and technology experience that consumers have come to expect from over-the-top services is highly valued and, in many cases, more user-friendly than many traditional MVPDs’ set-top box guides.

    Waterson concludes, “The new dMVPDs do compete directly with traditional providers by offering linear television, including sports and local channels in many markets, DVR service, and other elements of traditional multichannel, but for a lower price and with the app-driven, consumer-friendly OTT experience that has transformed consumers’ expectations about how and where they can access their content. It is incumbent on traditional players to continue to assert their value proposition at the same time as they pivot their businesses to serve consumers’ evolving expectations.”

     

  • Industry optimistic about RPD technology for viewership

    Industry optimistic about RPD technology for viewership

    MUMBAI: Across the world, efforts are on to make audience measurement systems more reliable and tamper-proof so that advertisers can get the right value and content providers can tailor content as per market demand.

    Return Path Data (RPD) is a globally used system for collecting viewership data and is used by distribution players to study consumer behaviour in the UK, US, Canada and South East Asia. India’s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Den Networks and Siti for including its subscriber homes on the BARC India RPD Panel. The partnerships will provide a fillip to BARC India’s plan for scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000.

    Zee Melt 2018 saw a session on ‘how return path data will turbo-boost television audience measurement globally’ with panellists DEN Networks Group CTO Sanjay Jain, IndiaCast EVP Amit Arora, Tata Sky CCO Arun Unni, Star India head data science and IT Kaushik Das, Numeris Canada VP research Ricardo Gomez-Insausti and TRAI principal advisor Debkumar Chakrabarti. The panel was moderated by Castle Media executive director Vynsley Fernandes.

    Chakrabarti said that single third-party body with proper governance structure is best placed to do RPD. BARC India, with its experience of panel-based TV measurement is best placed to partner with DTH and cable platforms for RPD based measurement. “This will avoid confusion, give single comparable metric and thus give confidence to both advertisers and broadcasters. It has been the experience in other fields that multiple bodies can lead to conflict and confusion,” he said.

    Tata Sky too has realised the importance of increasing the panel home size. While it started RPD with 10,000 boxes, it has now upped it to 30,000. “Considering the changing consumer preferences, their choice of content also changes. This makes it important to refresh the panel every year,” said Unni. He also added that it is still representative of only seven to eight per cent of Indian households. “RPD is the lifeline and every decision taking place in the future will be based on this data. Changes in environment lead to consumer behaviour changes and it is fundamental to do business.”

    Das said that first we need to understand the raw data right. In terms of OTT you know exactly what every viewer is doing; whereas in linear, you have limited samples. “If we look at what Google and Facebook are doing, we need to understand our viewers correctly. What makes them choose to turn on a TV channel or to watch a show on OTT and unless we really know why they are making a choice what they like, what they don’t like, it is very difficult to respond appropriately because TRPs exist today, all of us know that we have been exposed to Netflix and the user experience we get from that, there is no reason why Indian television cannot provide the same user experience.”

    According to Arora, there is a need for a single agency for RPD as it is only then that the platform will remain neutral. “I am presuming that we are talking about one single agency realising now that actually, it has to be the representative of the 1100 platforms that we have in our country.” He said that we cannot have a Netflix kind of an environment where every viewer sending the time and then what is the size of sample will remain the question.  

    The motivation for Den Networks to join hands with BARC India came from their need to go beyond just installing Den STBs in subscribers’ homes. “We wanted insights into viewer behaviour to understand who is watching what. This data is important for us to be able to present the kind of content that consumers actually want,” Jain said.

    Unni said that they have been closely watching what’s happening for the last 12-18 months. He said that huge digital consumption has been happening in the country. “How did it impact our platform, which segments of our consumers are visiting and what’s the reaction to that, so does it mean that the platform consumption is going down? It doesn’t actually,” he said.

    Unni added that the digital data consumption has gone up. It is adding on top, rather than substituting conventional television.

    Star has subscribed to the RPD data from Tata Sky. But it too agrees that broad-basing the RPD panel would be the right way to move ahead. Das said, “For better targeting, we need to experiment. Currently, we do not have enough data that gives deep insights into consumer behaviour.”

    Arora explained his point by giving an example that a particular platform with whom the data is available, the data is open for intervention, and so those safety pacts will become the most important thing altogether. So now, what is relevant? “India being such a rigorous country, the representation of every language, every society, and every market for that matter may have lower RPDs influencing the data in the different markets,” he added.

    Summing up the panel discussion, Fernandes said that RPD is a way to go in the future as it increases the sample size; it increases our understanding overall of stakeholder levels by the broadcasters, big agencies, digital platform operators and benefits to consumers. It is very important to have a single apex body in terms of monitoring all the data provided a single currency to the industry. 

  • DSport reaches 110 mn households in a year

    DSport reaches 110 mn households in a year

    MUMBAI: DSport, the sports TV channel by Discovery Communications, has achieved the milestone of reaching 110 million households in India. The channel was launched on 6 February 2017 and achieved the milestone within one year of operations in India and has expanded its distribution across all DTH and cable platforms.

    It has broadcasting rights for some of the elite sporting events with 4000 hours of live programming.

    The channel claims to have grown consistently across the country and has been ranked among the top channels in motorsports and golf this year. In the car and bike racing genre, DSport has a 72.9 per cent market share. Moreover, in Golf the channel says it enjoys the second spot with a comfortable 32.2 per cent market share. Even in combat sports, the channel has witnessed a growth of close to 200 per cent in viewership. 

    In cricket, DSport brought the live action from the 2018 Nidahas Trophy and Pakistan Super League 2018 to the Indian audiences. In football, it has the exclusive rights to the Brazilian League, Major League Soccer and Chinese Super League. In golf, it telecasts three out of the four major PGA tours around the world including the historic British Open, PGA Championship and Augusta Masters.

    Also Read:

    Star spending up to Rs 2 cr on production per IPL match

    Dsport not in the running for BCCI’s media rights

    DSPORT to Broadcast Augusta Masters 2018 featuring Indian Golf Prodigy Shubhankar Sharma

  • We are becoming more platform and screen agnostic: Sudhanshu Vats

    We are becoming more platform and screen agnostic: Sudhanshu Vats

    He heads the youngest Indian network engaged in general entertainment television. Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, has, over the past six years, steered Viacom18 India into launching a clutch of new channels catering to the different regions of India as well as niche segments. He has built a rock-solid leadership team to run the services, which have been growing at a rapid clip.

    Vats, a former long-serving Hindustan Lever (Unilever India) executive, has also seen the company transition from being a joint venture with global media major Viacom to one which is now majority owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

    A thought leader in the industry, he is constantly propagating the message that India is rich with media and entertainment potential at both domestic and international confabs. Vats was at the Media Partners Asia-run APOS in Bali late last month. On stage having a conversation with Vivek Couto, Vats spoke freely on a range of topics right from Viacom18, the Reliance ownership, Voot and the pay TV ecosystem in India. Excerpts from the interview.

    Your views on the pay TV ecosystem in India?

    At one level, the pay TV ecosystem is not developing as well as it should. Partly, all of us, as part of the ecosystem, are to blame. There is lack of addressability. There is lack of customer centricity and customer service attitude with the distribution partners. India being a poor country there will also be a pressure on free to air up to a particular stage.

    My view of the country is that it will be a hybrid ecosystem of both pay and free to air. And, in my opinion, both can exist. But for pay to exist, pay will have to earn its right. And as content players, we are concerned because it’s not going the way we would like it to.

    Free to air is growing and will grow and we need to find models, largely advertising-led models, to make that happen–that piece is okay. But the pay subscription growths are not commensurate–the addressability is not there. Recognition of change of viewership; change of pattern is not there today.

    And I think no better than us, we have leading channels in almost all genres; but our ability to get subscription income is very little. Because it is all dependent on this. Pick up a genre and we have a leading channel. We are not recognising the changes; we are not addressing the customer and not being customer specific.

    How is the Indian television ecosystem faring overall?

    There were two events in India in the last couple of years—GST and demonetisation. They affected ad sales in my opinion. But the good news is that in the last two or three months, it is coming back. We are clearly seeing certain sectors performing very well—FMCG is back and very strongly. Automobile is back in a reasonably big way. Consolidation in telecom will lead to more telecom spends. Handsets are there, they have always been there. Rural economy is also doing quite well. We are seeing a surge in the regional rural pieces quite a lot within our portfolio.

    If you look at Viacom18 per se – I think we have had a pretty good year in FY18, which we closed. We delivered 20 per cent top line growth led by our performance in films as well with Toilet ek Prem Katha. But even in ad sales, we have delivered a mid-teen growth for the year.

    And interestingly this has come at a time when our leading channel Colors was slightly muted because of the impact properties on Colors that came in. It’s the portfolio, which we built that has helped us—its regional, it’s FTA, it’s niche. I personally feel, moving forward, the ad sales will rebound to the levels that India has been used to seeing.

    The ad market will go to mid-teens and some of the better companies may look at doing even high teens.

    How has the change of majority ownership impacted the organisation you head?

    The advantage for us with the consolidation with Reliance is two-fold. Ambition and the things we can do is one big thing today. The second big thing is the resources that can come in which could be of a different level. Because, as a joint venture, we were balancing some of those pieces. Now perhaps we can take concurrent bets as we go forward. So that’s fantastic news for Viacom18. We need to continue to motor on what we have built as a culture that is critical for us. So, if we retain that culture and we bring in that ambition and resources, it’s good news.

    Your digital piece, Voot, how is that faring?

    Voot has been primarily advertising led. The good news here is that we have been growing quite rapidly. We exited March of 2018 at 3X the number we were at March of 2017 on almost all parameters.  So, today, according to App Annie, we are number two in everything which you see after Hotstar. We are number two in downloads; we are number two in active users. We are actually number one sometimes in time spent. We are between one and two in time spent. We have about 35-40 million monthly actives and close to about 45 minutes of watch time.

    The Voot service is doing very well. Interestingly, there is a lot of work which we are doing which is tailored for it. If you look at our content: the breakup of our viewership – if I were to give you an order of magnitude – would be about 60 odd per cent of what you have on television – that’s catchup maybe 60 to 65 per cent. About 20-odd per cent or sometimes 20-22 or 25 per cent is what we call Voot exclusives or content around content. So it is content which is running on television, that is the theme is running on TV – especially non-fiction – and there is a lot of content which is not on television which is shown here. That’s gaining a lot of traction. And finally there are originals and kids. That stacks up the full piece.

    What plans do you have for Voot?

    Our thinking moving forward is that this is just the beginning. It’s an AVOD piece, again advertising is coming in reasonably well from a very small base – we are doubling every year. But what we also do is we’ve built in a freemium layer, for people who are at the higher end where we offer them an ad free environment, maybe additional services—that is the thinking that is there.

    The second thinking that is there is that we are going to do something for Voot Kids. That’s a space we are very bullish on. We want to go well beyond video, we want to well beyond watch, we will go into spaces of watch, learn, play and all that. We are looking at the edutainment piece. You will come into it for entertainment, but you will have light gaming, some number of e-books, some amount of learning or options available to you particularly at the pre-school stage. We are not getting into pedagogy or hard-core education. That’s not the space we want to be in.

    We are looking four to five million daily active users currently. The kind of data you are seeing now is pretty rich. And we are just about beginning to learn to mine that data.
    On the original front, it has been part of our journey. This year you will see us going into overdrive or at least accelerate our originals. You will see a lot more of them in Hindi, you will see them in regional. And as we speak, there is work happening on many of them. We may use some of them to go behind our freemium service as well.

    You seem to have changed your mind on sports as a piece of content? Will Viacom18 drive deeper into sports?

    We have dabbled a bit in sports. We piloted a few things. We actually did the Nidahas Trophy on our channel. We are looking to see if there is a way of putting sports together that may not have cricket. Cricket, as you may know, is with Uday now. We are continuously looking at areas that might be of interest to us.