ITV

Tag: FPC

  • ETV Marathi: Changing the rules of the game : Anuj Poddar EVP Viacom18 and Business Head, Marathi

    ETV Marathi: Changing the rules of the game : Anuj Poddar EVP Viacom18 and Business Head, Marathi

    ETV Marathi has been one of the pioneers in regional entertainment and to our credit, we’ve been visionaries.

    The way I see it there have been three phases of content. The first was the evolution of content. ETV Marathi, when it started out, was not on par with national TV channels but it was locally unique and culturally closer. The next phase was when Star Pravah came into being, and the quality and nature of programming took a leap. The third phase is what ETV Marathi has done since Viacom 18 came into the picture. We’ve taken the current entertainment to its next phase.

    KHMC gets a lot more visibility and helps signify that change at multiple levels such as scale of programming, quality, production values or benchmark impacts the kind of audiences we draw.

    Kon Hoyil Marathi Crorepati (KHMC) was one of the first steps to signify that. The kind of shows we were doing before and after KHMC signify the extent of change in the genre.

    KHMC gets a lot more visibility and helps signify that change at multiple levels such as scale of programming, quality, production values or benchmark impacts the kind of audiences we draw.

    The kind of programming that we have lined up is going to bring in more audiences from outside the genre. These are audiences that were not watching much of our Marathi programming but because of the quality and diversity, they would be looking at it. These are the younger audiences or more contemporary and educated in English or Hindi medium schools and therefore, are not watching regional Marathi entertainment. So it has to be the language and content that has to appeal to them. The content more than the emotional attachment to their language should pull them in.

    ETV Marathi’s legacy is very strong but we were stuck in the past where it pulled in a certain kind of audience. We are now bringing in content that is far more vibrant, younger, contemporary and fresh in order to pull in a whole new segment of audiences to Marathi GEC.

    We had to change our FPC (Fixed Point Chart) but we didn’t have the luxury to create content and wait because it was a running channel. We started replacing shows in a certain priority. We started by replacing some fiction shows. We brought contemporary drama on the channel. We created a completely original show called Vivah Bandhan while another was a remake of the popular show Uttaran called Asawa Sundar Swapnache Bandhan. We thought of taking something that worked nationally and serving it in a regional language with a setting that’s closer home.

    Post that, we worked on the fiction vs. nonfiction mix. Previously, E TV Marathi had nonfiction during a late night time band post 9:30 pm or 10:00 pm, which we pulled to the 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm band. We launched three shows; one was Natya Rang, another was Comedy Expressthat we reworked on and third was another popular ETV Marathi show called Crime Diary that we brought back in a new avatar.

    E TV’s legacy is very strong but we were stuck in the past where it pulled in a certain kind of audience. 

    Traditionally, ETV Marathi was not known for marketing. Now we have changed that and there is cross-channel marketing; outdoor, print, ground activities-pretty much 360 degree. We used KHMC to amplify our marketing because in a GEC space, a channel is never marketed, the show is. We did many on-ground activities for KHMC. We had vans going from city to town and organising a game play on the ‘hot seat’. So people in a small town would gather and get an opportunity to answer five questions and get the feel of it. So we did a lot of these things that may not ultimately give an ROI on a specific show but will help to create a lot of buzz for the channel. KHMC did manage to shake people up as it came as a disrupter.

    Incidentally, KHMC is just about 20 per cent of our ratings while the rest comes from our other shows.

    We’ve not only started doing a lot of marketing but we started just letting people know that ETV Marathi was undergoing a change.

    The consumer would take time to realise a change was happening. After carrying out some changes till March, we launched KHMC in May as our flagship program. That brought us a lot more visibility. What we have noticed is that every new show’s launch has beaten the record of the previous show’s launch. We brought on board better quality and differentiated nonfiction programs this year. The channel now has something for everybody.

    As a channel, for us, it is important to know what is happening in every age group. We track that by age or by SEC. Every single age group is showing growth in reach and time spent on ETV Marathi . We want to make sure that a lot of our old and loyal audiences have reason to stay on the channel as well as the younger audiences come back to the channel because our audiences don’t sit in Mumbai and Pune. So we target the rest of Maharashtra in both ground activities and print.

  • NDTV readies for Profit relaunch

    NDTV readies for Profit relaunch

    MUMBAI: When things are going ok, you still need to fix them to make them fabulous, is an adage some business executives believe in. And that’s exactly what the folks at newscaster NDTV group’s NDTV Profit are doing. On the cards, is a total rejig of the business channel’s FPC – the only thing it will happen post 4 p.m. when business prime time and coverage of the stock market ends.

     

    Says NDTV Group CEO Vikram Chandra: “We have been thinking of revamping NDTV Profit for a while. Though it is good to have business shows during the day, there isn’t much interest in the channel, once business prime time ends at 4 p.m.”

     

    Most business news channels air magazine programming which is related to technology, property and automobiles. And Chandra wants NDTV to refrain from doing just that, he wants programming in the entertainment space to be added on. One show that will continue to be on the channel is The Property Show.

        
    Sources indicate that external and independent TV producers are being called in to pitch in with ideas for programming the late evening slots. Among the business models being considered is the airtime barter model wherein producers and brands can buy time slots and get advertising time in exchange for programming, something which channels like DD and Sun TV have been doing rather profitably. Sources have also said that some programs will also be commissioned for the new channel.

     

    The ‘NDTV Profit’ name is also likely to give way to another moniker. A date has not been set yet, but Chandra says that in the next three or four months, a brand new channel should be up and running. Though he refrained from giving specific details he did say “It will be a completely new channel in the evening. It will stay as a business channel during the day time.”

     

    Some changes have already taken place. For instance, NDTV Profit has over the past months or so put together a special band from 9 to 11 p.m. calling it NDTV Classics. The best episodes of some of its old shows such as The World This Week, 24 hours, Ravish ki Report and Reality Bites are being featured under NDTV Classics.

     

    Chandra says that the reason for telecasting them are two-fold: provide an interim base for the transition process as well as celebrate the completion of 25 years of the NDTV group. “A lot of people have been requesting us to air our old content. It serves two purposes this way,” he says. What he has not mentioned is that it is helping keeping the channel’s costs lower and possibly improving its bottomline. That’s profitable thinking.

  • ‘We have helped in the democratisation of the business news market space’ : CNBC Awaaz editor-in-chief Sanjay pugalia

    ‘We have helped in the democratisation of the business news market space’ : CNBC Awaaz editor-in-chief Sanjay pugalia

    Five years and counting big. CNBC Awaaz dominates the Hindi business news segment, leaving counterpart Zee Business behind, and even marching ahead of elder sibling CNBC TV18 in terms of audience reach.

     

    CNBC Awaaz has become more interactive along the way and has shaped up as a well-defined channel with a clear focus on utility news. It treats news with the aim of helping viewers take informed positions on investments.

     

    The fundamental challenge that CNBC Awaaz faces is in scaling up revenues. The cost restructuring will, however, help the channel in improving its profitability.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Gaurav Laghate, CNBC Awaaz editor-in-chief Sanajay Pugalia talks about the channel‘s growth in the last five years and the path ahead in terms of content that would guide viewers in the verticals of stock, tax planning, commodity and SMEs.

     

    Excerpts:
     
     
    CNBC Awaaz has completed 5 years. How has the Hindi business news market shaped up?
    Five years back there was no Hindi business news channel. Today, with just two channels in this segment, there are close to 38 million Hindi business news viewers and we command a 70 per cent market share in this.

     

    If you take the total viewership of the business news channels, it was close to 10 million five years back. Within two years of our launch, the pie grew to 30 million. Today, the combined viewership base for English and Hindi business news stands at almost 55 million.
     

     
    How come the Hindi viewership base is higher from just two channels while the revenue is much lower?

    On a mass basis, our appeal is larger then even CNBC TV18. Our viewers include small investors, consumers and businessmen. So in a way we have helped in the democratisation of the business news market space.

     

    On the revenue front, even some English business news channels can‘t command the kind of advertising rates we do. But yes, it is also true that the dynamics of the market is that English business channels get higher rates.

     
     
    So is it true that Hindi business news channels do not have a scalable model?
    There is a myth that Hindi is not so upmarket. But if you do an affluent audience profiling, we are as good as that of CNBC TV18. And if you see our viewership pattern, most of them come from Mumbai and Delhi, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra.

     

    It is pertinent to note that the initial five years were a build-up stage. We will see much faster growth from now on.

     
     
    What made you edge out Zee Business when both were launched around the same time?
    The focus of our channel is in outlining the utility of news. There might be 10 important stories in a day, but how many are affecting our viewers? We decode such news in a manner that helps them understand the implications.

     

    We will be covering other news as well, but our main emphasis will be user-centric. We focus on helping our viewer make the right investments to increase their wealth. Take real estate as an example. Our focus stories will be on the ground realities the sector faces rather than talking about how to improve the policies on real estate. Our object will be how to help viewers decide on which property to buy and we will suggest the rates and other things there.

     
     
    Going forward, do you see space for more channel launches in this segment?
    Business news viewership will definitely increase with time. With more and more people getting capital to invest and more awareness spreading on personal finance management, this market segment is set to grow.

     

    Our estimate is that out of every 100 new consumers, two-thirds will come from the Hindi speaking belt, so you can imagine the future that the Hindi business news genre has.

     

    I would say there is scope for new channels, but the success will depend on the strength of the network and how much credibility they can build. It won‘t be easy for new players.
     

     
    Recently TV18 went through a cost restructuring and 12 per cent permanent jobs were cut. How effective has the move been in achieving profitability?
    Cost rationalization is a necessity for any business. But you will not see any change in the editorial content. I can‘t share the absolute numbers, but very few editorial jobs have been cut.
     
     

    ‘The focus of our channel is in outlining the utility of news. There might be 10 important stories in a day, but how many are affecting our viewers? We decode such news in a manner that helps them understand the implications‘
     
     

    So do you mean to say there was flab?
    No. There were different growth plans during the bull run. We were focusing on extended news gathering. Now the market scenario has changed. We also have sensed that the news gathering needs are different. You see, the market dynamics are changing very fast and we have to change our FPC as per viewer‘s needs.

     

    So we have reduced the number of shows but consolidated the information in them. We have also increased the coverage on commodity, personal finance, stocks and property.
     
     

    How has the channel evolved over time?
    Along with time, we have become more interactive; we promote direct involvement and grievance redressals. The treatment towards the stories has changed – and we are now positioned as an innovative business news channel.

     

    We are catering to the specific needs of our viewers. I get more then 6000 SMSes and emails daily. And we try to reply to most of the queries. We are not just a business news channel; we run more like a campaign or a movement.
     
     

    So what will the future focus be?
    As I said earlier, the focus will predominantly be on the markets, SMEs, commodity and tax planning.

     

    We will also continue to reach to our consumers on-ground with our activations and award properties.

     

    The way India is progressing, there will be lot more new and young entrepreneurs. Our one-year focus is to organize more of financial literacy campaigns, help SMEs to grow, and cover miraculous entrepreneurial stories from different places.

     
     
    And what about hard news?
    I am not missing out on news. News hour shows are sacrosanct. But we need to have other strong offerings.

     
     
    Hindi general news channels are into sensationalising content for gaining TRPs. Do you also see such a need for the business news segment?

    I do not think there is any need to sensationalise. I am not against presenting news in an interesting and stylish way, but there is no need or room to sensationalise. 

     

     So how will you define your channel?

    To sum it up in one sentence, we help viewers in spotting opportunities to prosper.