ITV

Tag: FICCI Frames

  • MTV charts a Viacom growth path for India

    MTV charts a Viacom growth path for India

    MUMBAI: Freeing of cash flow and focus. That primarily is what the split of Viacom into two entities at the beginning of the year means in practical terms for the MTV Networks India team headed by Amit Jain.

    What Jain has before him is a five-year growth plan that sees India contributing “significantly” to the global revenues of Viacom Inc. That Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston is an “Indophile” seems to be a huge plus as far as Jain is concerned, particularly because India, South America and Europe (in that order) are seen as the key growth markets for the media conglomerate over the next five years.Questioned as to how and where he saw revenues coming considering that music channels have been steadily losing share of voice and mind in the broadcast space, Jain had this to offer.

    According to Jain, broadcast would remain the key revenue source for his network in India but its share would go down to two thirds in the course of the next five years. The remaining one third revenues will come from new media platforms like mobile and broadband and also from the movies business (Paramount’s acquisition of Dreamworks will mean significant ramp ups on the animation side as well, particularly as India is seen as a strong outsource hub).
    MTV BRAND TO BE LEVERAGED

    The three channels that MTV has launched in India will pretty much set the template as far as the network’s broadcast script unfolds.

    First there is Brand MTV, which will be at the centre of a slew of undertakings ranging from market activation, creative solutions, youth understanding, client branding. The central premise of all this is that “Viacom brand solutions can be devised and tailored to unique brand needs”.

    NICK TO GET MAJOR PUSH

    From a long term channel growth perspective, it is Nick that will provide the momentum, not MTV. And while Jain admits that the kids channel in his network, despite early mover advantage, has singularly failed to make an impact, he believes that is all about to change. And sooner rather than later.

    The first task, according to Jain, is to get back to the basics and get the programming, scheduling, packaging and distribution on track. Once these issues have been sorted out and “cleaned up”, then budgets for driving the channel forward will not be an issue, he asserts.

    The fact of the matter though is that a home grown channel like UTV’s Hungama and an international powerhouse like Disney, despite having entered the Indian market years after Nick first made its debut, have all gone ahead. So its going to require a committed and sustained effort for Nick to be anywhere in the reckoning. Whether Viacom will seriously show Nick the money is the moot point.

    VH1 WILL ULTIMATELY BE A DTH STORY

    It’s been 18 months since international lifestyle and music channel Vh1, which targets an older TG, launched in India and the management is more than satisfied with its performance, asserts Jain. Vh1 is on target both as regards advertising and distribution revenues, he points out. “By the end of the year (Viacom has a January to December fiscal) Vh1 will hit break even,” says Jain.

    But Jain does admit that Vh1 and other niche offerings from the MTV Networks stable like Comedy Central, CMT: Country Music Television, Spike TV and the like can only offer any real returns if they are on addressable platforms. For these channels therefore, it will be the rollout of DTH in the country that will likely determine their arrival.

    MOVIES AND NEW MEDIA

    Jain’s reference to the movies ties in with what Freston had to say while speaking at the Ficci Frames media convention in Mumbai earlier this year. Which was that Viacom was looking to co-produce films in India instead of merely exporting its films in to the country through its partner United International Pictures (UIP).

    The India movies picture remains a hazy one at present though, considering that about the only products of note have been the spoofs dished out by MTV’s movie making unit (and aptly titled) Fully Faltoo Films. Its most recent offering Ghoom, which was a spoof on last year’s action hit Dhoom from the Yash Raj Films banner, only serves to emphasise the quirky nature of MTV India’s movie offerings.

    As for mobile and broadband, it will depend again on bandwidth capacities that telecom players in particular will be able to roll out.

    While MTV Asia Pacific has been able to enter into a collaboration with Korean multimedia developer Wizmax to launch a customizable on-demand music and entertainment broadband and mobile community platform in Korea called MTV BoomBox, something similar in India looks to be a while away.

    Having said that, it is MTV BoomBox that will serve as a model for customisable MTV platforms in the broadband and wireless content services arena in India as well.

  • Hollywood’s perception of Bollywood: Ashok Amritraj

    Hollywood’s perception of Bollywood: Ashok Amritraj

    MUMBAI: More than just a Q& A session, it turned out to be a live session of Koffee with Karan at the Ficci Frames. Except that, this time around there were no Bollywood stars on the show. Karan Johar, one of the most successful Bollywood Producers had his frothy Koffee with Ashok Amritraj, the most successful Indian producer to have made a mark in Hollywood.

    To begin with Johar got Amritraj talking about his initial struggle days in Hollywood. Taking the audience through his early days, this tennis star and now a Hollywood tycoon said, “In the early 1980s, I had gone to the U.S., to play tennis but I had always wanted to make movies. I soon realized that it was a very white world out there, and it wasn’t really multicultural as it is today.”

    And, with time Amritraj managed to break into the Hollywood circuit and has produced more than 80 films in the past 20 years. Currently, he is the chairman and CEO of Hyde Park entertainment and some of his best known films are Bandits, Bringing down the House and Raising Helen.

    Talking of how Hollywood perceives Bollwood, the film tycoon said, “There is a lot of hype being generated in the US about India as the country is slowly being recognized as a global economy. Also, there is a lot of curiosity about our culture and tradition, but, somehow that does not mean that Indian films are getting more eyeballs in America.”

    The discussion got more interesting as Johar queried Amritraj on how Indian film makers can penetrate the global markets and on the making of crossover films. “I think the European market is now more receptive to Indian movies, especially countries like Germany and France, but films like Parineeta , Kuch Kuch Hota could have been distributed better globally.” said Amritraj. “But, somehow for Hollywood, Bollywood films still don’t really exist. Americans are still not able to understand the ethos, emotions and drama which is the core of our movies.”

    On whether filmmakers need to make different kind of films for the international audience, Amritraj said, “”There is always a risk of losing out on the audiences back home. So, it is a clear choice which filmmakers have to make. One of solutions was maybe Indian producers need to have co-production treaties with the international studios for better distribution of Indian films globally.”

    The discussion turned to be not just informative, but, also brought home lessons for Indian filmmakers wanting to carve a niche in the international market.

  • ‘Create high impact content to unite audiences and then monetise’: Nair

    ‘Create high impact content to unite audiences and then monetise’: Nair

    MUMBAI: “Distraction is a one night stand, attraction is a marriage,” said Star Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair. Speaking at FICCI Frames on ‘Attraction in the age of distraction,’ Nair stressed on the fact that creating compelling content for an audience who is constantly on the move and has multiple choices available was of utmost importance.

    “Content will continue to remain king. A new generation of media consumers has risen who want and demand content delivered to them when they want it, how they want and where they want it. Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry,” Nair said.

    Nair stressed on the fact that the broadcasters required to create high impact content to unite audiences and then monetise the fragments over time, space and applications. Examples of these that Nair mentioned were The Simpsons, which gained popularity with the television series and also proved to be a rage in the U.S when it diversified into various areas like merchandising and T-Shirts. Also, another example was The Walt Disney Television International with its various divisions like theme parks, merchandising, publishing, licensing, television, theatre, television production and distribution.

    “The number of television channels in the country has also grown tremendously in the last few years. Almost a 100 channels were launched in the last four years,” Nair said.

    He also threw light on the different delivery platforms namely IPTV, DTH, broadband, mobile SMS, multiplexes, gaming, internet that more and more consumers were accessing increasingly.

    Some formats that have worked well for the Star India network are Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Nach Baliye and The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (TGILC). Star launched mobisodes around TGILC, went online with the KBC game on their website and garnered a huge response from the audiences around the shows. “The important thing is to use 360 degree communication in order to reach unified audiences in a fragmenting environment,” said Nair.