ITV

Tag: Kappa TV

  • Mathrubhumi’s Naveen Sreenivasan aims to build new revenue streams, expand client base

    Mathrubhumi’s Naveen Sreenivasan aims to build new revenue streams, expand client base

    NEW DELHI: As the industry steps into the crucial revival phase post several months of Covid2019-induced downturn, Naveen Sreenivasan has taken charge as the new head of Mathrubhumi Group’s media solutions team for the group’s TV channels — Mathrubhumi News and Kappa TV, its radio brand Club FM, as well as all of its digital business. 

    Sreenivasan is visibly excited about his new role and is positive that the market will only grow in the coming months. He said, “The business environment in Kerala started bouncing back quite quickly post an initial couple of months of the pandemic and advertising picked up during Onam. Now, with the national festive season starting, we see the momentum carrying on. Interest in advertising is definitely alive and we have been seeing active advertising from a wide range of verticals including automobile, NBFCs, FMCGs, jewellery, and education. We have also witnessed substantial activity from local businesses especially in Club FM, which clearly indicates that the local markets are alive.”

    He noted that while the market conditions are on an upward trajectory, challenges still persist. “This is an opportunity for us to dig deep, double down on our efforts smartly, build new revenue streams and expand our client base. My experience of working with the print business will definitely hold me in good stead in leveraging synergies between our media verticals.”

    The festive season has opened up the gates of opportunities across sectors in the state, as a result of which the group is slowly getting back to its pre-Covid advertising rates, he added.

    Speaking about his strategy and initial plans, Sreenivasan said that he is looking forward to leveraging synergies amongst the group’s assets and the team’s deep understanding of the Kerala market to deliver value for various clients.

    He added, “On digital, where the market is evolving the fastest, we are looking at very aggressive growth by building on our strengths and tapping into new revenue streams. We already have a news ecosystem which delivers 100 million page views and 10 million monthly unique visitors and a social media ecosystem with five million followers. Among our other digital products, we have industry-specific offerings – like FindHome, our real estate portal.”

  • Mathrubhumi’s Kappa TV perks up Malayalam youth TV market

    Mathrubhumi’s Kappa TV perks up Malayalam youth TV market

    It‘s more than a cuppa coffee that most youth hold in their hands while they lounge about in Café Coffee Days or BruCafes. Kappa TV – the youth focused music channel promoted by the Kozhikode-based Mathrubhumi media group – has chosen to be different from others of its ilk – it has a programming mix in English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. And this, from a group which has its origins in Kerala where Malayalam and English are the main spoken languages. As compared to this, mainline youth channels MTV, UTV Bindass, Channel V, 9XM have been sticking to one lingo – Hinglish.

    Mathrubhumi media group‘s Kappa TV adds some zing to its content with a host of English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil programming

    Mathrubhumi TV CEO Mohan Nair says this is but natural and expected from south India‘s first youth centric channel. He explains: “In south India, young viewers are very much into popular cultures which are represented by Hollywood, Bollywood, Mollywood, and Kollywood. Tamil and Malayali youth also tune into English and Hindi songs from Sony Mix, MTV, UTV Bindaas and 9XM. Hence, we decided to have an amalgam of these languages along with Malayalam and Tamil in our programming mix whether it is in the form of music videos we play or the language that is spoken.”

    Estimates are that the Malayalam TV ad market is around Rs 675 crore; while the reach of all Malayalam channels put together is 8.1 million households.

    Music Mojo on Kappa TV is a Malayalam me-too of MTV Unplugged and Coke Studio

    As for the ad rates for Kappa TV, sources say, they hover around Rs 850-Rs 1000 per 10-second spot.

    On the content front, Nair reveals that the channel has six to seven hours of original non-fiction content in Malayalam and English on air daily, with shows being repeated twice. Kappa TV is primarily programmed in Malayalam with 60 per cent being back-to-back music videos rolling out in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English, and 40 per cent being non-fiction shows.

    Among the music-based shows, the channel airs Music Mojo, a Malayalam me-too of MTV Unplugged and Coke Studio; Awesome Covers, a remix of songs of different languages; Mood Tapes, a show which captures the mood of the day and invites people across neighbourhoods to sing and compose songs; Bindaas Bollywood, which showcases Bollywood‘s best; and International Chart Busters.

    I Personally, which focuses on celebrity interviews is past of the channel‘s non-fiction portfolio

    Kappa TV‘s non-fiction portfolio includes: I Personally, which focuses on celebrity interviews; Film Lounge, a film review and recommendation show;Creative Chef and Simply Naadan – cookery shows, Street Magic, a magic show and Candid Camera which features celeb photo shoots and style tips from fashion experts. “We have chefs from hotel chain giants like Vivanta by Taj , Crowne Plaza,Holiday Innu and Le Meridien for our show Creative Chef,” informs Nair.

    A large number of celebrities from the south have already featured on I Personally. These include, Kavya Madhavan, Padmapriya, Rima Kallingal, Swathy Reddy, Mahesh Narayanan, Krish, Haricharan, Rashid Ali, Vijay Yesudas, Shyamaprasad, Kamal, Prathap Pothen , Sibi Malayil and also popular directors like Siddhique Prashant Pillai, Mohanlal and Mammootty.

    Creative Chef features some of the chefs from hotel chain giants like Vivanta by Taj, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Innu and Le Meridien

    The channel has also roped in celebrities to host its shows. The show Simply Naadan is hosted by Vishnu; Meghna Nair hosts Tales and Tunes and Sanjeev Nair anchors the show Filmography.

    Despite an array of shows in the kitty, Nair is quick to acknowledge that he needs more to push the bar as far as content is concerned. “We are mulling over experimenting with standup comedy shows, music video festivals, reality shows, short films and a series which would track the career of the top artistes or film personalities,” he notes.

    With a moving target such as the fickle youth whose attention span is hard to retain, Kappa TV has had to go the whole hog: continuous promotion, whether it is print or TV, or the outdoors or direct consumer engagement – both offline and online. It helps that it has very successful publications in-house for print communications and advertising in the shape of the Mathrubhumi newspaper – both in English and Malayalam.

    “We have allocated around 25-30 per cent of our budget each for print and television, 30 per cent for OOH mediums and the rest for digital,” says Nair.

    The channel‘s ad agency Maitri also helps out with its promotional activities and brand integrations. Promos and standups, posters and tent cards for shows likeMusic Mojo, Film Lounge and Ragaramiyer can be regularly spotted in railway stations, cinema halls, coffee shops, ice-cream parlours like Baskin Robbins. “We have also tied up with certain Kerala online portals like Metro Matinee for advertising about our channel,” informs Nair. And he also narrates with pride how Music Mojo‘s popularity has seen a spinoff being played out on Club FM – an in-house radio station.

    Mathrubhumi director – marketing & electronic media Shreyams Kumar says the
    channel has ignited the imagination 
    of the young crowd, within months
    of its launch

    “International brands like Lulu, Perfetti, Baskin Robbins and national brands like ITC and Kalyan Jewellers are our current advertisers,” says Nair. “We also have a host of local advertisers like Kalyan Silks,Bhima Jewellers and Pothys Silks under our roof. We are in final negotiation with a whole host of brands including Idea Cellular and Nestle for brand tieups,” affirms Nair.

    The channel is available in almost four million cable & satellite TV homes in Kerala, on DEN, Asianet, Siticable and on select cable TV networks in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. This apart, it is in the process of signing up with almost all the DTH providers nationally, which Nair expects will be done before Onam. It is also available internationally in north America and Europe on IPTV platforms, while it can be seen in the Gulf courtesy E-Vision.

    Kappa TV has also started pushing its content out digitally on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Video views on YouTube tot up to about 1.5 million, with some 9,550 odd Twitter followers. Facebook likes add up to some 15,000 plus.

    Definitely not something to crow about, but Nair says the digital push has been on for only four months and is helping build offline traction. “Viewers from India, United Arab Emirates, US, Saudi Arabia, UK, Qatar, Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Singapore, Oman, Bahrain, New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia and Ireland have been watching online versions of our music shows on YouTube. Videos of all our popular shows are updated daily on our YouTube channel”, he reveals.

    The digital initiative is handled by a four member team headed by Kappa TV director marketing and electronic media Shreyams Kumar.

    “Keralites and the wider Malayalee diaspora exposed to best in international entertainment was thirsting for an ethnic mélange. We at the Mathrubhumi sensed this opportunity, and this gave birth to Kappa, our specialty channel. With pulsating music, riotous humour, film review and intimate interviews, all tightly-edited, it has ignited the imagination of the young crowd, within months of launch”, says director – marketing & electronic media Shreyams Kumar.

    “This channel is a landmark achievement, since we have realised our long cherished goal of cross-media synergy. That this has occurred in our 90th anniversary year makes for reloaded pleasure.”

    The group already owns a news channel and a youth channel (both of which was launched in early 2013) under its umbrella. And it has two more licences approved by the ministry of information and broadcasting. One of these is for a general entertainment channel, which it has been planning to launch but has held back on it because of budgetary constraints. “But the desire to have at least one GEC is very much same like any other group,” discloses Nair.
    Mathrubhumi TV CEO Mohan Nair‘s Kappa TV is
    certainly serving some hot ‘cuppa‘ and has left the
    youth wanting for more

    To keep costs low, the group is using the same news channel infrastructure to roll out Kappa TV daily.

    Nair has the right pedigree to successfully steer the Mathrubhumi group‘s TV ambitions. For one, he has print media experience as bureau chief and senior editor of The Economic Times from 1988 to 1999. Then he has the requisite domestic and international TV experience, having worked for six years with Asianet Communications and with Maharaja TV in Sri Lanka before moving to Asianet Communications as COO for six years. He took up the challenge of steering a primarily print group into TV in 2010 and first off the blocks was the Mathrubhumi news channel, followed by Kappa TV.

    And his efforts have won some praise and even the attention of rivals.

    Leading Malayalam network Asianet has taken note of the success that Kappa TV has achieved. Plans are afoot to revamp one of its channels, Asianet Plus. “We are aware of the importance that a youth channel holds and that is why we are revamping Asianet plus for young viewers in the coming two months ,” affirms Asianet, business head, Anup Chandra Shekharan. Sources reveal that this revamp is going to see it emerge as an amalgam of Channel V and Life Ok

    The Sun TV group too has awakened to the potential. Music and movies channel Kiran TV has been converted into a movie channel called Kiran Movies. On the anvil, sources say, is another music channel which is quite likely to be under the Surya brand.

    Now what more could you ask for?

  • Mathrubhumi to invest Rs 500 mn in news and music channel

    Mathrubhumi to invest Rs 500 mn in news and music channel

    MUMBAI: Mathrubhumi TV, the television arm of Kerala’s Mathrubhumi Group, is planning to invest Rs 500 million in a Malayalam news channel and a multi-lingual music channel.

     

    Mathrubhumi News will launch on 23 January while Kappa TV, the music channel, will go on air from 1 February.

     

    The launch of these two channels will mark print major Mathrubhumi’s entry into Kerala’s competitive TV news broadcasting space dominated by News Corp-owned Asianet Communications, its print media competitor Manorama News, news agency IANS’ Reporter TV and India Vision News.
        

    Both the channels are free-to-air and have already secured carriage deals with most of the cable operators in the state including Asianet Cable Television, Kerala’s biggest multi-system operator (MSO). The company is also planning to launch the news channel in Gulf and in metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    Mathrubhumi TV chief executive officer Mohan Nair, who has earlier worked with Asianet Communications as COO and Sri Lankan media conglomerate Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation as CEO, believes that the television foray is a natural extension for the Mathrubhumi Group as it has interests in print through leading Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi and in radio courtesy Club FM.

     

    “We had diversified into radio some years back and so we saw a rightful extension in television,” Nair says.

     

    Mathrubhumi TV, which is also into content production, is a subsidiary of Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd. (MPPCL).

     

    For 2010-11, MPPCL reported a net profit of Rs 300.4 million on net sales of Rs 3.89 billion. For the nine months ended 31 December, 2012, the company reported a net profit of Rs 238.6 million on net revenues of Rs 3.28 billion.

     

    The TV News foray

     

    Launching a news channel was a no-brainer for the Malayalam media company as it complements Mathrubhumi’s print media business. The 90-year-old Mathrubhumi newspaper is the flagship brand of the company and competes with Malayala Manorama which incidentally also runs a news channel, Manorama News.

     

    Nair, who has also served as the chief of bureau of Economic Times in Mumbai, believes that the news channel’s USP will be its HD technology, talented team of journalists, and independent coverage.

     

    The last bit is important as Kerala has political party backed news channels namely Congress’ Jaihind TV and CPI (M)’s People TV.

     

    “There are only four to five pure news channels in Kerala. Our USP is that we will be an independent news channel,” avers Nair.

     

    News broadcasters in Kerala, like in the rest of the country, are heavily dependent on ad revenue, which is estimated to be in the region of Rs 1 billion.

     

    The news channel will have Unni Krishnan as the Chief of News with a team of 250 journalists assisting him. Mathrubhumi News will have a bureau in every district of Kerala which will give it an edge in covering locally relevant issues.

     

    Outside Kerala, the channel will also have bureaus in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai.

     

    Although news channels have a skew towards male audience, Mathrubhumi News will have programming that targets women and youth. “The idea is to have a complete news channel which offers something to everyone,” asserts Nair.

     

    The channel is being promoted primarily through Mathrubhumi’s print and radio platform apart from outdoor ads.

     

    Kappa TV to follow 9XM model

     

    The Mathrubhumi Group is also betting big on its speciality channel Kappa TV that will air music and humour content. The company will follow the 9XM model which has a mix of music and animated content.

     

    Kappa TV will air Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English songs in order to cater to the diverse taste of the state’s youth population.

     

    However, Malayalam music will continue to be the driver content for the channel. The channel is targeted at 18-35 age group.

     

    The Malayalam music genre currently has only two serious players in Asianet Plus and Raj Musix Malayalam.

     

    “With Kappa TV, we intend to bring elements of radio on television,” says Nair.

  • Kappa TV asks viewers to shoot an idea

    Kappa TV asks viewers to shoot an idea

    MUMBAI: First, it dared to go off the beaten track with a programming mix in four languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and English. And now, Kerala Mathrubhumi Group’s youth-centric music channel – Kappa TV – will telecast a new contest show for a month starting end-November.  

    The contest is about being creative with your mobile gadgets and though a date and time hasn’t been fixed yet, it will be a half an hour show with 24 minutes of content and 6 minutes of advertising during prime time from Monday to Friday with repeats over the weekend.

    Participants will be required to click/record a short film or photo gallery/music album and submit online to the channel, with entries of not more than 3 minutes’ duration. The second level will see 30 people selected from each category, whittled down to 10 each. Three winners will be chosen from each category in the third and final level, with prizes worth Rs 3.5 lakh distributed among the nine winners, who will be featured on Kappa TV. Of the three levels, the first has no particular theme while the second and third rounds will be more specific.

    “We want to see to what extent people can extend their imagination,” says Mathrubhumi TV CEO Mohan Nair, who is helming the eight-strong in-house team producing the show.

    What about the authenticity of the clips being received? Nair says they won’t know in the first round but for the next two rounds, a separate team will monitor the participants.

    While the show host and three judges are being finalised, it is certain they will be popular local personalities. Each episode, shot in Malayalam at the Mathrubhumi TV Studio, will feature six people demonstrating not only their creativity but also delving into their work, family and aspirations.

    Promotions are on since 22 October, and will go on till 21 November, involving the Mathrubhumi Group’s strong media line up of news and radio channels, newspapers and website, as also outdoor hoardings and college activities in the form of game shows.

    “The contest is open to all but we are getting the youth involved because they are very much in tune with mobile phones and they are also keen to be involved with channels. Our research revealed that not just students but also parents are watching Kappa TV,” says Nair.

    Not surprisingly, Kappa TV has 22,773 subscribers on YouTube while its Facebook page boasts 31, 632 likes. In keeping with the concept of the show, Kappa has roped in Idea Cellular as on-ground and on-air sponsor.

    Hope this ‘idea’ works for Kappa TV gets in youngsters as well as elders to spin their creative ideas.