ITV

Tag: Challenges

  • Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

    Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

    MUMBAI: With the majority of the OTT players operating on a freemium model, subscriptions are enjoying a new prominence as a revenue model for digital content and apps. While India saw Ditto TV working on the subscription revenue model, Balaji is all set enter the digital space with its digital platform Alt Digital Media.  

    The panel discussion on ‘Cracking the money code- Challenges and solutions for Digital Subscription models’ at FICCI FRAMES 2016 discussed the revenue models and the profit generation formula for this sector. Industry stalwarts included VUClip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar, Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, ALT Entertainment chief strategy officer Eklavya Bhattacharya, Eros Digital COO Karan Bedi and Spuul India CEO Rajiv Vaidya. The session was moderated by BBC World News presenter Ros Atkins.

    After throwing light on the revenue models that each of the platforms followed, the panellists broadly discussed the revenue models that are followed in India with their positives and negatives and the various challenges that OTT was facing due to certain issues like infrastructure, piracy, etc.

    Initiating the discussion with how the ‘freemium’ model helped the OTT platforms, VUClip’s Jakatdar said, “The thing with such an emerging market is that if you don’t give content for free to the viewers, they will switch to some other place where they are getting it. You need to have content beyond the subscription pay wall. For example, in Malaysia, we found that Korean content works well there and is extremely popular. We got the simulcast content rights for Korea which they had to pay for, but the library content was for free.”

    He further added that, “We believe in micro payments which means that viewers can pay per content they view.  This means that they can buy data for a single day and don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. This is working well for us.”

    “Even as we use the freemium model, the free content for is important. If we look at the free content on the platforms as an ad-revenue driver, then we may find it difficult to sustain in this space ,” he further added.

    Differing with Jakatdar, ALT Entertainment’s Bhattacharya opined, “I don’t agree that the consumers will move to a different platform if you charge them. That’s going happen if you provide the same content on different platforms. It is definitely a challenge to provide exclusive quality. People don’t want to watch free content. They want to watch good content. The key for such platforms is to target the most loyal audiences and to provide them good quality and exclusive content which they can’t resist to buy. If you are creating content and hoping that you can break-even on advertising, it’s not going to work out. If you are confident about your content, people will definitely pay for it irrespective of the cost. If you create content that the consumers can’t get anywhere, they will come to you.”

  • Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

    Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

    MUMBAI: With the majority of the OTT players operating on a freemium model, subscriptions are enjoying a new prominence as a revenue model for digital content and apps. While India saw Ditto TV working on the subscription revenue model, Balaji is all set enter the digital space with its digital platform Alt Digital Media.  

    The panel discussion on ‘Cracking the money code- Challenges and solutions for Digital Subscription models’ at FICCI FRAMES 2016 discussed the revenue models and the profit generation formula for this sector. Industry stalwarts included VUClip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar, Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, ALT Entertainment chief strategy officer Eklavya Bhattacharya, Eros Digital COO Karan Bedi and Spuul India CEO Rajiv Vaidya. The session was moderated by BBC World News presenter Ros Atkins.

    After throwing light on the revenue models that each of the platforms followed, the panellists broadly discussed the revenue models that are followed in India with their positives and negatives and the various challenges that OTT was facing due to certain issues like infrastructure, piracy, etc.

    Initiating the discussion with how the ‘freemium’ model helped the OTT platforms, VUClip’s Jakatdar said, “The thing with such an emerging market is that if you don’t give content for free to the viewers, they will switch to some other place where they are getting it. You need to have content beyond the subscription pay wall. For example, in Malaysia, we found that Korean content works well there and is extremely popular. We got the simulcast content rights for Korea which they had to pay for, but the library content was for free.”

    He further added that, “We believe in micro payments which means that viewers can pay per content they view.  This means that they can buy data for a single day and don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. This is working well for us.”

    “Even as we use the freemium model, the free content for is important. If we look at the free content on the platforms as an ad-revenue driver, then we may find it difficult to sustain in this space ,” he further added.

    Differing with Jakatdar, ALT Entertainment’s Bhattacharya opined, “I don’t agree that the consumers will move to a different platform if you charge them. That’s going happen if you provide the same content on different platforms. It is definitely a challenge to provide exclusive quality. People don’t want to watch free content. They want to watch good content. The key for such platforms is to target the most loyal audiences and to provide them good quality and exclusive content which they can’t resist to buy. If you are creating content and hoping that you can break-even on advertising, it’s not going to work out. If you are confident about your content, people will definitely pay for it irrespective of the cost. If you create content that the consumers can’t get anywhere, they will come to you.”

  • Regional TV: The land of opportunities and challenges

    Regional TV: The land of opportunities and challenges

    MUMBAI: For national broadcasters, having a regional footprint is becoming imperative as it is growing at a furious pace compared to its matured richer brother that is more than double its revenue size.

    Pegged at Rs 140 billion, regional TV media grew at a whopping 70 per cent in 2011 compared to the industry growth of around 12 per cent. Deeper penetration of cable & satellite (C&S) homes, rise in per capita income, emerging middle class and high consumption expenditure are fuelling this growth.

    Asianet managing director K Madhavan calls regional the new “National” as the language entertainment channels compare strongly with the Hindi GECs on critical parameters like viewership and reach.

    “Regional has become the new national. In 2011, the regional space grew at 70 per cent compared to the national growth of 11-12 per cent. Overall, the television industry is pegged at Rs 300 billion while the regional is Rs 120-140 billion. Regional channels have a strong captive audience. One of the reasons for this high growth rate is the emerging new middle class with increased purchasing power in the Tier I and Tier II cities; the positive impact of this could be huge and bigger. The per capital income of Southern states is almost 80 per cent higher than the Northern states.”

    In recent years, as national markets have slowed down, advertisers have shown renewed interest in regional television.

    Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) EVP regional channels Sharda Sunder, “Growth in the regional sector is largely due to a few factors like size of population. The top nine regional states form 50 per cent of the population and the per capita income in these states is higher than the national average. Consumption expenditure is, thus, higher than the national average.”

    Regional broadcasters, however, do have their own set of problems that need to be dealt with on a long-term and short-term basis. These range from lack of quality content coupled with rise in cost of content to monetisation. Carriage fee is also a huge concern.

    Says Sunder, “Subscription revenues need to drive in. New media is also a challenge.” She was speaking at Ficci Frames 2012.

    The regional market mainly consists of six states – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal and to a lesser extent Maharashtra. “Tamil Nadu has the lion’s share with a revenue size of Rs 12 billion, followed by Telugu and Bengali which accounted for Rs 8.5-9 billion each. Kannada and Malayalam rake in revenues of Rs 6 billion while the Marathi genre is estimated at Rs 3.5-4 billion,” says Madhavan.

    He also pointed out that the penetration of cable as well as DTH is growing in the South; regional channels have also increased. The quality of local content has improved due to competition.

    “Of the total C&S penetration, we had one-third in the South, while DTH has conquered 30 million connections out of the total 42 million. Time spent in non-metros is growing and should catch up with the metros in two to three years. Currently, time spent in non-metros is two hours and three hours in metros. Due to competition with national channels, the quality of local content has increased considerably. The contribution of revenues from overseas market is 10-12 per cent,” he averred.

    Another challenge is the movie-driven GRP, with almost 35 per cent of regional GRPs coming from movies. “The problem is that the cost of movies has gone 200-300 per cent up in the last 2-3 years. There is difficulty of good content and the shortage of skilled talent specially to cater to 100 plus regional channels has become a big issue.”

    Since movies drive ratings for regional channels, both Madhavan and Sunder are of the opinion that financing film related content could be a preferred option. Channels, in fact, need to look at getting into movie production.

    Madhavan said the cost of producing a show has gone up considerably. While it used to cost Rs 100,000-150000 to produce a local show, it has increased considerably. A case in point is the Tamil version of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC).

    “KBC, which we are producing in the South, costs Rs 2.5-3 million per episode. The big question is whether regional media will be able to absorb this cost. Earlier, 90 per cent of the software was available locally. Now by default we are forced go to national producers like Endemol,” he pointed out.

    While Madhavan concurred with Sunder that digitisation is good for the industry, he was skeptical about its reception in the semi-urban and rural areas as set-top box costs were high. He also said that the carriage fee for regional channels has gone up.
    Madhavan also termed the recent decision of the Tamil Nadu government to impose heavy tax on DTH service as a dampener for the industry since it had emerged as a major source of pay revenue for the broadcasters.

    “Recently the Tamil Nadu government imposed a tax of 32 per cent on DTH services, so that is going to impact pay revenues. Advertisement rates are the lowest in the country because of the unhealthy competition in the regional markets. We are selling at 8-10 per cent of the national channel rates,” he stressed.

  • Challenges of TV programmers in a fragmented market

    Challenges of TV programmers in a fragmented market

    MUMBAI: Tailoring content to fit into a fragmented television and fast-changing socio-economic milieu is a fresh challenge that content creators face in India today. An expansive youth population makes the task even more daunting. So what works? Gut feeling backed by research and knowledge of social changes taking place in the country, say senior programming executives of leading entertainment broadcasters.

    The decision of launching a new show is, indeed, very complex. Zee TV programming head Ajay Bhalwankar says, “Research gives us certain ideas, but it is not a prescription. One should go with instinct more than research. And it is something that one needs to understand from the viewer‘s point of view. What we perceive, what we do, how will the society react is very complex and it is a programming person’s job to understand this complexity.”

    TV programming executives need to understand the societal changes that are taking place in India as the economy opens up and the speed of growth accelerates, albeit with inequalities and other challenges. Indian viewers have shown that they have taste for social issue-based entertainment content, evident from the popularity of Balika Vadhu that has stayed for long as Colors‘ flagship show. Research helps in providing information and capturing these trends.

    Says Bhalwankar, “When you are creating a show for Indian audiences, you have to behave like a family member and that viewpoint can come through a research. There is a lot of gut feeling involved while creating a show but that needs to be informed through research and also evolved along with the changes taking place in society.”

    Though private television has expanded its reach in the country, there are still 220 million people who don‘t watch TV. Programming executives need to create content that will make them watch.

    Says Star India SVP-content strategy Gaurav Banerjee, “We are shaping India in the real sense. C&S has a large effect on women in rural India. There have been behavioural changes that have been seen. As content creators, it is our responsibility to also reach out to people who don‘t watch television.”

    Making TV shows that have an impact is important. Says Storyshare International‘s television producer Peter Dodds, “Creative producers have to take the vision of writers and directors ahead. We can‘t take drama for granted. If you say that content is king, then the story has to be relevant and engaging. At the same time, the nature of this business is that one has to be risk friendly. No one exactly knows what works and what doesn‘t.” Based out of Australia, Storyshare International is producer of shows such as Neighbours and A Country Practice.

    Driven by profit pressures in a tough global economy, broadcasters yield to commercial considerations when they decide on content. Producing popular content is, thus, very important and not an easy task.

    According to Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor, there have been 91 new show launches in India in 2011, out of which only 7-8 have had lasting impact. Most of them didn’t even survive for more than six months.

    “Television shows in India have 15 per cent success rate. The research team of channels should work in co-ordination with the creative team. Research plays an important role and can help this 15 per cent grow to at least 30 per cent,” says Kapoor, co-founder of a consumer knowledge firm that specialises in the media and entertainment business.

    Following the herd and adapting ‘me too‘ concepts do not work. The biggest example of this is the ‘Saas-Bahu‘ theme, popularised by content production house Balaji Telefilms through its three serials (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kasauti Zindagi ki), that ran successfully on primetime television on Star Plus for so long but failed on other Hindi entertainment channels that tried to create similar dramas.

    Spotting the trend is important. “For the last year or so, the general mood of entertainment in the country is light-hearted dramas. There has to be a rare mix of uniqueness and relevance in the content. Formats like ‘Bade Achche Lagte Hain’ on Sony are good examples,” says Kapoor.

    Opines Bhalwankar, “The formula today is to work outside the formula.”

    Programming executives should keep their creative juices alive, going beyond research and commercial considerations. Says Geo TV CEO Ibrahim Rahman, “One should do something with conviction and passion and not only think about making money. In Pakistan, the popular dramatic television shows are issue-based.”

    International reality show formats have mushroomed in India, but their initial spark is dimming. Says Banerjee, “We are beginning to see the first steps of indigenous reality content. We launched ‘Aap Ki Kachehri’ with Kiran Bedi. The trend of bringing International formats is still there, but it’s not easy anymore. There is nothing like KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) that happened years ago and it has grown because it is truly Indian. We don’t get the same impact for non-fiction properties these days. The most popular shows are fiction because they are more Indian.”