ITV

Tag: Mayank Bhatnagar

  • Despite viewership growth, DD needs to overcome content, advertising challenges

    Despite viewership growth, DD needs to overcome content, advertising challenges

    MUMBAI: India’s public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, is one of the largest public broadcasters in the world. It got a big boost with DD Free Dish that enabled it to reach into the interior parts of the country where pay channels didn’t have much headway. In 2019, Prasar Bharati added 11 regional channels on DD Free Dish to expand its reach, gaining 16 per cent more viewership over the previous year (2018). Half of its viewership comes from Hindi channels and the other half from regional language channels.

    Among the 24 DD channels measured by BARC India, the viewership of its English news channel DD India grew 63 per cent over the previous year, while that of DD Kisan gained 48 per cent. Notably, in the English news space, DD India contributes to 22 per cent of the entire genre viewership.

    Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi S Vempati says, “Doordarshan is not just a broadcaster; it is an institution that has helped germinate, build and popularise television in India. In the dynamic broadcast sector, Doordarshan, too, is transforming itself to keep in sync with its core mandate of public service broadcasting as well as meet audience expectations.”

    He further says, “Towards this, we rely on data and insights from BARC India to help target and deliver our content in a more effective manner. BARC India has done a great job in building the world’s largest TV viewership measurement system. As a key stakeholder of BARC India, we continue to engage and collaborate with the industry body as it consolidates and expands its services further.”

    Recently, the pubcaster revived two of its shows Ramayan and Mahabharat during the covid-19 crisis. Although it no longer enjoys a monopoly position, Doordarshan continues to have its dedicated audience and exercises its specific responsibility of public service and socially-relevant broadcasting.

    Joel Multimedia founder & CEO Varghese Thomas says, “India's public broadcaster was the one and only destination for television advertisers three decades ago. DD National, DD Metro and about 15 regional channels used to feature in all TV plans until the late 1990s. The public broadcaster has gifted a lot of good shows to the Indian television Industry such as Mahabharat, Ramayan, Surbhi, Rangoli, Chitrahaar, Superhit Muqabla, Shanti, Swabhiman etc. (Some of them were privately produced). The Friday and Saturday Hindi feature films were bumper hits among advertisers. Has anyone thought of creating a fantastic show out of a morning time band at 7 am on Sundays with a show like Rangoli? That was the power of Doordarshan during those days.”

    Thomas believes that after the entrance of satellite TV channels, pubcasters could not withstand the fast-changing trends and lost audience to private channels. He says, “Today, the HSM market has 57 per cent penetration of TV in the urban+rural markets. The proliferation of satellite channels with deep pockets and focus on innovative content has changed the way TV is consumed in India.  From fiction to sitcoms to reality shows, satellite channels have all that to entertain the ever-hungry TV audience. As the audience moved, advertisers have also moved to satellite channels as it was offering multi-dimensional opportunities for the brand rather than just buying a TV spot of 30 seconds.”

    Thomas, however, believes that though people in metros prefer satellite channels over public broadcasters only due to the programming, it would be a good idea to consider the public broadcaster for smaller towns and villages. “The terrestrial reach of the broadcaster is exclusive and no other broadcaster caters to that space which is very important. DD Free Dish is another superhit with 35 million connections and it's a great platform for even FTA satellite channels for distribution. Last year, the public broadcaster has generated revenue of Rs 500+ crore only by striking distribution deals with private channels.”

    According to the 2nd edition of BARC India- What India Watched 2019, the total viewership on DD grew to 573 billion viewing minutes in 2019 from 492 billion viewing minutes in 2018. The viewing minutes on DD's GEC channels grew by 19 per cent from 355 billion viewing minutes in 2018 to 424 billion viewing minutes in 2019.

    News genre witnessed five per cent growth in 2019 at 25 billion viewing minutes from 24 billion viewing minutes in 2018. Sports grew by four per cent at 101 billion viewing minutes in 2019 from 98 billion viewing minutes in 2018 and niche/others genre grew by 48 per cent at 23 billion viewing minutes in 2019 from 16 billion viewing minutes in 2018.

    “In spite of an increase in viewership, the number of advertisers in 2019 reduced by eight to10 per cent. In terms of spends there was growth in 2018 but in 2019 overall spends across DD network dropped by 30-35 per cent. Large CPG brands have also reduced spends on the DD channels in 2019,” informs Carat India executive VP Mayank Bhatnagar.

    He, too, agrees that the network has a vast untapped potential in the rural belt of the country. “The government has taken several steps to improve the quality of content and added new content to attract viewers. The viewership growth is exceptional, driven by the quality of the content and audience connect via increased presence on social media platforms. However, currently facing immense pressure from other FTA channels, DD needs to invest in the right content which is relatable and relevant to audiences,” he opines.

    Havas Media Group CEO India and South East Asia Anita Nayyar believe that if the public broadcaster is able to help advertisers with an attractive number of eyeballs and quality reach through innovative programming, it can get more investments.

    Nayyar says, “Depending upon the kind of audience and the markets it caters to and reaches, the investments follow. Advertisers are interested in reach and that too quality reach. With reach, the focus should be on quality of programming and that will get quality advertisers. As long as the same is delivered it should automatically attract advertisers and investments.”

    She further opines, “Unfortunately, the perception of public broadcasters in spite of the reach is not up to the mark and perceived to be low quality on both the audience and content fronts. With so many options available to view and great quality content available all across they have tough competition and will need to rise to the occasion.”

    There was some negative growth as well in some of the languages like Gujarati and Punjabi. Gujarati witnessed a fall of 5 per cent, the viewing minutes decreased to 9 billion in 2019 from 9.3 billion in 2018. Punjabi witnessed a 13 per cent fall in viewing minutes from 49 billion viewing minutes from 43 billion viewing minutes in 2018. 

  • Regional GECs on an upward growth trajectory

    Regional GECs on an upward growth trajectory

    MUMBAI: In the last four to five years, the regional television market witnessed a significant growth in viewership. Even the ad spend in the regional market has grown by 20 to 25 per cent in 2019 with more and more brands aiming to reach specific audiences. So how has the ROI improved for the regional channels? National broadcasters are expanding their footprints and businesses in the regional market by investing more on regional content and even brands are focussing more on the regional channels to reach specific markets.

    Carat India executive VP Mayank Bhatnagar says, “The overall growth of regional channels is healthy and all the key regional channels have grown. In fact, some of them have witnessed a healthy growth in ad revenue. The overall ad spends this year (2019) on regional channels have increased by 20 to 25 per cent.”

    As per BARC data, over a period of four years, regional viewership has grown to 30 – 35 per cent for languages such as Marathi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Odiya and Assamese. South continued to grow at around 9 to 10 per cent on an average. Hindi grew at about 7 to 8 per cent.

    Viacom18 Regional TV Network head Ravish Kumar says, “Regional channels have always offered great value to their advertisers and prioritised innovation, fresh concepts and new talent while perfecting the art of great storytelling. With their rich repository of theatre, literature, culture and music, regional content is making waves across mediums, screens and languages. So, the ROI on regional channels continues to be as strong as ever earning it an outperform rating in today’s value-seeking markets.”

    He further says: “Brands today have understood the reach a regional channel can give them. In addition to regional brands seeing value in our offerings, national advertisers too are understanding the importance of regional markets. While FMCG, auto, handset manufacturers continue to invest, there are newly emerging sectors such as education and gaming which are ramping up their advertising spends.”

    Joel Multimedia founder-CEO Varghese Thomas, however, believes that all regional players are not breaking even as content acquisition is an expensive affair and it takes time to recover the cost incurred in a highly competitive market environment like today.

    Regional channels also help brands to get the reach within a lower budget. “If we want to do a small campaign, these regional channels will help to drive efficiency. Regional will continue to grow as it is more efficient and help us to build the reach at much lesser cost as compared to HSM,” says Bhatnagar.

    Other major reasons for the growth of regional content are enhanced data bandwidth, cheap tariff and increased smartphone penetration that has resulted in digital explosion and accelerated digital adoption by audience due to which they started consuming content across screens. This resulted in regionalisation of the content from both production and consumption perspectives.

    Omnicom Media Group India Investment & Enterprise national head Yatin Balyan says, “For a national broadcaster mainline Hindi GEC continues to drive maximum business. However, regional channels are contributing more towards business growth for the network. Networks try to increase volume share with Hindi GEC as well as grow the business on the back of regional channels. National broadcasters investing in regional content also have to create a content bank for their respective OTT platforms.”

    He also believes that regional channels have seen a gradual increase in business coming from regional or retail advertisers. He says, “There is a prominent shift in how regional channels are being considered from a campaign planning perspective. Campaigns for regional markets are being planned with far more focus as advertisers started considering all these markets as mini India within one Big India.”

    Thomas is of the view that regional retail advertisers used to be the largest contributors of advertising revenue for the regional channels. But post demonetisation, the ad spends by retail business is on a downward trend and it has been really challenging to balance the revenue. Some of the players have come up with non-FCT ideas to cope with the challenges and it's paying off to an extent.

    When broadcasters look at expanding their footprint and diversifying into non-core areas of business, regional markets emerge as an option to explore. Though most of the regions are already flooded with a bunch of players, broadcasters are exploring the possibility of adding another channel to their basket in order to be part of the regional success story. It is interesting to know that some of the recently-entered regional players are doing extremely well and they have already made their position in the top 5 channels and started contributing to the growth of the network.

    Thomas says, “It's challenging for broadcasters to approach these markets with an innovative programming strategy. So, at times, they do an adaptation of their successful shows from their national channels. They also have an option to dub some of their super hit shows in to the regional languages where they are present.”

    Balyan, however, believes that Hindi GEC still commands the maximum business share within a broadcaster networks and it would be incorrect to assume that Hindi GEC has come to a level of saturation. TV penetration in the Hindi hinterland, which is still not at 100 per cent, is primarily driven by Hindi GECs. I see scope of further growth in Hindi GEC business with increased scope of audience measurement.”

    According to Kumar, from a macro perspective, 2019 was a challenging year for the entire broadcast industry, including regional, due to the impact of the new tariff order as well as the weak advertising and investing climate. However, he believes things are settling down now, and hopefully, this year will see a lot more buoyancy coming back in.

    He says, “I believe that regional markets offer more opportunities than the challenges they present. Regional audiences have become increasingly aware and hence content that is being presented to them needs to be more relatable, rooted and relevant. There is a growing demand for disruptive content, both in fiction and non-fiction spaces. Viewers are looking for fresh content experiences and stories which have believable characters. This is a great opportunity for storytellers like us.”

    Regional channels contribute significantly towards the overall growth and this will only continue to increase.

  • Sony TV rides on ‘brandwagon’

    Sony TV rides on ‘brandwagon’

    MUMBAI: Normally, viewership plays an important role for broadcasters because that is what tells them whether viewers liked them or not. But, viewership may not be the sole determining factor in creating a brand perception among people, if the recent announcement of the ‘most desired brands 2020’ by Trust Research Advisory (TRA) is an indication. The weekly data of BARC India ratings put Sony Entertainment Television (SET) at the fourth or fifth position. However, the channel has entered the TRA’s top 20 India’s most desired brand 2020 at fourth position.

    TRA’s ‘most desired brands’ is a measure of the consumer’s perception of their expressed desire about brands they love. It lists those brands which have striven hard to woo their customers with a long-term relationship in their minds and hearts.

    The TRA’s report says: “At fourth rank is Sony TV with a small 7 per cent DI (Desire Index) difference from its predecessor. Sony TV, a Hindi GEC, makes a dramatic entry with massive jump of 594 ranks over the previous report. One of the country’s earliest Hindi TV channels, Sony TV has stayed relevant to the audience by evoking with their entertainment offering and a differentiated palette to maintain freshness.”

    TRA research director Sachin Bhosle said: "It is the first time that we have included 50 per cent housewives and 50 per cent working women in our women's sample. And we saw a great change in top brands. You have Sony TV entering the top 10, which was never the case earlier.”

    Bhosle explained that the TRPs are made of tangible things that are measured. Brand trust or desirability is based on intangible sides of the brand. “It is how it communicates with the audience, the way it creates aspirational value, the way it has a rationale behind it, and what is the aspirational value it is trying to create. That's all what is probably more important."

    Sony Entertainment Television Business Planning and Communication head Amit Raisinghani says: “We are pleased to see Sony Entertainment Television placed at fourth position amongst the Top brands in the recently released list of TRA’s most desired brands 2020. Perhaps, the clarity that we have with respect to the purpose of the brand and for whom the brand is meant for has helped us drive relevance, engagement and desire amongst our viewers. Our brand is a manifestation of our people, culture, relentless consumer focus and the premium that we put on creative talent. We hope to continue our relentless pursuit to delight our viewers with compelling content.”

    “There is a brand perception in the market that comes from what is its brand value. In case of Sony, when the channel aired KBC and Indian Idol, they did well in the BARC data. Brand perception and viewership is different; one is the brand love and trust and the second is the viewership, i.e. from the rating perspective which is as per the kind of content the channel is playing. There is a lot that Sony as channel does from the audience’s responsibility perspective which also plays a big role in brand perception. Sony as a channel cares and connects itself to social responsibility and that itself plays from the brand perception’s perspective,” opines Havas Media Group CEO India and South East Asia Anita Nayyar.

    Carat India executive VP Mayank Bhatnagar says: “Congratulations to Team Sony! It is great to see a TV channel brand scores the fourth position and gets featured in top 50. Viewers’ behaviour, habit and preference have evolved and this has resulted in a major shift in the way people consume content. Consumers today want to consume relatable and relevant content. Sony TV has got the mix right and it has helped them build a strong connect with urban viewers.”

    Bhatnagar, however, believes that this will not help the channel in attracting more advertisements as the media planners will continue to evaluate channel performance on the basis of viewership data.

    He says: “The Sony TV viewer profile is more skewed towards higher NCCS and urban. If we see the trends for the past few weeks, their viewership and ranking at All India and Urban market level has stayed consistent. The channel has built an unwavering trust through varied content. It's important to be consistent and innovative. This will help them further strengthen the brand and go from strength to strength.”

    Joel Multimedia founder-CEO Varghese Thomas comments: “Sony TV is the favourite choice of many advertisers and agencies irrespective of the numbers being delivered by the channel. In a media plan, the channel really helps to build reach in a big way. It's dominance in the male-oriented programmes is also commendable.  So, it really does not matter whether the channel has featured in the top ranking or not. Also, beyond numbers, the channel's intend to continuously invest in new shows tells us that they are serious about what has been offered to the television viewers across all genres. This announcement about the channel being featured on the fourth rank of TRA's most desired brands is a great achievement as far as the brand is concerned and will have a chance to attract more business.”

  • Agencies, advertisers weigh in on BARC India filtering out outlier data

    Agencies, advertisers weigh in on BARC India filtering out outlier data

    MUMBAI: Recently, The Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) announced that it is reverting to its earlier process of treatment of landing pages and filtering out outliers from the data as it released its week 23 ratings. This came just a week after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) verdict allowing broadcasters and distributors of television channels to place registered satellite television channels (whose TV rating was measured by BARC India) on the landing page or boot up screen.

    This frequent change in the measurement module might have led to some confusion within the advertising community that relies heavily on BARC data for its marketing planning on television. Marketers Indiantelevision.com spoke to said that they prefer this data filtered out.

    MediaCom general manager Sudipto Chatterjee explained that any sudden spike in the reach or viewership of a channel is termed as an outlier. Citing an example of English news channels, which have comparatively lesser sampling than any other news channels, he elaborated, “Let’s say it has a base of 1000 subscribers and even if 150-250 more people view it, the range will look like it has shot up greatly, thus being counted as an outlier.”

    Placing channels on the landing page may lead to such outlier spikes but the viewership might not follow since it depends on the content that a channel features and that’s what media planners and marketers look at while strategising their plans.

    Chatterjee added, “We need to understand that in overall media planning, the outliers might just amount for 5-10 per cent of investment. It will not add anything to the GRP or reach. It is based on your consumer affinity. For media planners like us, we do not really buy numbers. It is more about content and what kind of audience I am looking at. Nobody looks at the minimal up and down in the ratings.”

    RK Swamy BBDO president and director Sangeetha N also mentioned that the landing page strategy is generally adopted by channels with very low ratings and any surges, even due to calculation errors, on such low bases, will be insignificant.

    She said, “For how long can a channel with poor content but deep pockets hold viewer attention by forcing landing page viewing? Only good content will define where the target audience will move to.”

    Carat India SVP Mayank Bhatnagar also shared similar views as he noted, “I feel that landing page is a mechanism to get people to sample a channel. If the content is good, one will continue to watch the channel or else they will move on. It doesn’t matter if the channel has the landing page rights for a month or even a year. Content is the key to get the viewership.”

    Advertisers also share a similar view. Angel Broking chief marketing officer Prabhakar Tiwari shared, “In our view, landing page is a purely promotional exercise. As per some industry data, a channel may get an increased viewership between 4 to 18 per cent subject to target demographics of a particular cable operator by investing in landing page-based promotions. We also have our internal research to guide us, as we take channel-specific media calls. Media decisions are taken after a lot of deliberation and we measure all factors before coming to a decision.”

    Although the data, filtered or unfiltered, does not really impact the marketing strategies, experts prefer having filtered statistics at their hands as it is more transparent and reliable, and thus feel that BARC India’s decision is a welcome move.

    Sangeetha noted, “The resuming of outliers being filtered out – whether manually or through automation – will mean more meaningful data, closer to reality, and hence will be welcomed. By this method, no channel gets preference over another by getting the landing page rights through the purchase of the same, hence prima facie no channel can have an unfair advantage.”

    Bhatnagar said, “By eliminating the outlier data, all channels are now on the same platform and can have an end-to-end comparison. Now it all depends on content.”

  • Carat hires Mayank Bhatnagar & Vinita Pachisia for Mondelez

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network’s media agency Carat India has appointed Mayank Bhatnagar as the senior vice-president to lead the Mondelez business in India, and Vinita Pachisia as the vice-president who will look after buying for Mondelez.

    Bhatnagar has more than 16 years of experience in communication and media planning. He has worked extensively on large FMCG businesses across different markets such as India, Malaysia and Singapore. He has also worked across different functions of media agencies to build strong skills in strategy planning, media buying, implementation planning and new business development. He has managed large clients like Nestle, P&G, Tata Motors, Tata Indicom, Kellogg’s and Cadbury.

    Bhatnagar’s last assignment was with Mindshare Malaysia. There, he led the Nestle business and steered digital trading/investments across clients for the agency within the region. He has been instrumental in deploying new processes to improve productivity in Mindshare Malaysia, which led his team to win multiple awards at the local and regional level.

    Speaking on his appointment, he said, “The opportunity to lead Mondelez business in India and work on the portfolio of iconic brands will surely be very exciting.”

    Pachisia has worked across agencies such as Madison, Initiative, Havas and Mindshare. Armed with more than 18 years of experience, Pachisia has worked across a wide spectrum of brands like HSBC, Idea, Kellogg, Heinz and Parle to name a few.

    What differentiates Pachisia is her focus on creating and delivering brand initiatives on media like the highly recalled “IDEA Citizen Journalist” on CNN IBN, HSBC Making it Big, HSBC Green Heroes and Breakfast headlines for Kellogg’s. One of her latest initiatives was the Parle MTV Junkyard project, a progression of the Parle Anti-Litter campaign.

    Pachisia said, “Leading the Investment vertical of a portfolio that is growing and is a leader in the category is exciting. My efforts will be to maximise the returns on their media spends and achieve the objectives set by the client.”

    Carat managing director Kartik Iyer said, “Talent is truly what will create the big difference in the market. I am sure that while they would be working to deliver the cutting edge solutions for Mondelez, they would also enable an upskilling in Carat with their fine experience.”