Under her watch, the English movies channel has only grown from strength to strength. Before taking charge as MD, HBO India, Monica Tata worked with Turner International India, quitting as General Manager, Entertainment Networks, South Asia, in 2012. Tata has nearly two and a half decades’ experience in the media and entertainment industry, and spent most of her formative years at Star India before moving on to Turner.
Indiantelevision.com was more than happy to have Tata over as Guest Editor for a day and play fly-on-the-wall even as she grilled Tata Sky chief commercial officer Vikram Mehra about the association with HBO and more…Excerpts of the conversation between the two:
Monica: What is the business model for providing the ‘HBO On Demand’ service?
Vikram: The way we are looking at it right now, which is also in sync with our philosophy at Tata Sky is that apart from offering television channels which customers are used to, providing those channels with great picture quality and better customer service is our lookout.
We are also very keen to try out unconventional products and services, which customers haven’t tried out till now and give them a flavour of that. Whether it’s trying out varied services like Karaoke which nobody ever thought could be offered on a television-based platform, which is a global first for us. On our partnership with HBO, where customers are showing interest in watching premium content like HBO Defined and HBO Hits. Not only are they getting to watch 100 per cent ad-free content, but also older seasons that they would not have been exposed to otherwise.
So, somebody who has never been exposed to say, a Game of Thrones, and is keen to watch season four, what with so much publicity around it, need not bother with downloading bad quality content from Torrentz or buying it from the pirated market. Our partnership with HBO is such that any customer subscribing to its premium offering would also get a free entitlement to watch back seasons of all leading shows on VOD.
Monica: So will this be available to everybody or only to HBO premium subscribers?
Vikram: This will be available only to HBO premium customers. This content is offered only as a free value-add to people who have decided to go out and subscribe to the HBO premium service. Conventionally, what used to happen; people would pay for a channel and just get that. But with HBO, for the first time in India, when you pay for the channel, you will not only get the channel but also the free VOD entitlements along with it.
Monica: Please share your views on the genesis of this unique partnership. For the first time, ‘HBO On Demand’ has been brought into the country. Where did it begin and how was the experience?
Vikram: Not only the ‘HBO On Demand’ part but also HBO channels are a complete breakthrough in this country. Nobody else has been able to come out with their high-profile channel which shows you great movies in great picture quality and ad-free. Nobody has that kind of service in the country today.
For us, it is a very big experiment that we genuinely believe in. We have been getting fabulous response from customers about these two channels. And our constant endeavour is to keep thinking what more can we bring to customers.
We have a very well established VOD service today with over 3,000 video titles that we typically sell on a transaction basis or a subscription basis. But you cannot get this content unless you go out and subscribe to the television channels of HBO premium.
We are already getting a large number of calls at our call centres and people want to know more about it. If you check twitter, there are people tweeting about how Tata Sky has brought in a great initiative and we are extremely excited about it.
Monica: What has the response been like and how excited is Tata Sky about the season 4 premiere of the HBO Original Series, Game of Thrones, on HBO Defined?
Vikram: I am a huge fan of Game of Thrones and we are pretty excited about it. It will be an absolutely new audience that we can open up in this country for a Game of Thrones kind of high quality production. I am yet to see anything of this kind of production quality to be put on television. It’s mind-blowing and a new generation, a new kind of crowd is going to open up to this show.
Hence, we are very clear that when we promote season four, it will not be limited to just larger towns but also mid-size and small-size ones. And our communication will say, “Don’t worry if you have missed the first three seasons, why don’t you download from VOD and check it out!”
Monica: Do you think that the dual language proposition is an interesting one and is working well?
Vikram: It is working quite well. Our endeavour is not only limited to people in Mumbai or Delhi. It’s a huge mental block for people in smaller towns who think they won’t be able to catch the accent. The moment they understand that there is a provision to shift to Hindi, it’s a huge comfort to them.
So, ever since we have started promoting the dual-programming concept with HBO, we have seen absolutely fresh households opening up to the entire concept. We have seen a substantial increase in the subscription of the service.
Monica: What do you expect further from this Tata Sky-HBO partnership?
Vikram: Our endeavour is to keep on doing newer things. As a company, we take pride in the fact that we are not just a digital TV service provider. I think there has to be newer things brought to this market, which India has never seen and some of the things globally have never been out here. We believe that in HBO, we have a partner with whom we can go and try these things out. So, we are very excited about making the life of Tata Sky people more ‘Jinga Lala’ with HBO.
"I always have my mother beside me and I think almost everything you learn in life has a little bit of your mother in it. Every aspect of life has her undertones."
"My mother is an inspiration to me and has always been. Her self-discipline, her high standards, her self-motivation are values that I really look up to and I have tried to inculcate these values in myself."
"The only memory that I have of my mother is of her dying in the hospital. I was very young when she passed away. She was in a lot of pain and we really couldn‘t do much for her. She used to write very good poetry depicting her pain. I still have those handwritten copies of her poetry. Today, all the writing skills and abilities that I have is all thanks to her. The way she expressed her pain in poetry… she is my inspiration."
"My mother has been my only inspiration and she still works harder than anybody else. She has been very loving, caring and has brought me up to be the independent woman which I am today. She hails from a small city Hardoi in UP and was a graduate even in those times but she is modern in the way she thinks. I was a laid back, lazy person but she encouraged me and pushed me to work harder and whatever I am today, its because of her."
"According to me, my mother is the world‘s best cook. I fondly remember the day my mother was experimenting while preparing a cake for me. We were so engrossed in talking to each other that the cake was on fire! She has always been there for me. She was the one who packed my bags when I was going to Oxford. I talk to her everyday on the phone. My mother is an integral part of my life."
"I always feel that the journey I am enjoying in life has been entirely because of her sacrifices, prayers and belief in God. God is rewarding her by keeping us healthy and happy. While a doctor does cut the umbilical cord between mother and child, in real life, the cord only gets stronger and stronger as we grow. My mom and I share the same bond and she is the heart of my body. We share a great bond like friends. We care, we respect, we love, we fight, we pray, we share."
"Every day I spend with my mother is special. I would not say I cherish Mother‘s Day specially, because for me, I love my mother each and every day and she is an integral part of my life. One of the most vivid memories from childhood with Mum is when she threw my entire collection of marbles out the window, quite literally. I used to love playing with marbles as a kid and I had a huge collection. I would start playing, and in the process create a racket with the marbles, in the morning. One day my Mum lost it. That was when she entered my room and just threw the entire bag away!"
"A mother is often the first example of unconditional love that a child experiences. For many mighty girls, their relationship with their mothers is a very special one, and my mom is a role model for me. She has been extremely influential and supportive throughout. I share a wonderful relationship with her… more like a friend than a daughter. I always call her ‘from Shakespeare to samosas‘, as she has done her master’s in English literature and has also sold samosas. She is a fantastic lady and I owe my success to her. My mother is a diligent and determined woman who has guided me with the right direction. More importantly, she has taught me to appreciate this life as a precious gift."
"Ever since my childhood, I have been greatly influenced by my mother. Right from childhood, my mother used to create plays at home and this is how I developed a love for this field. She holds a very strong and influential position in my life. She has motivated me a lot to act in plays in schools and colleges and that has helped me in building my career today to this success. There are many special moments and memories I have spent with her and it is very difficult to pin-point any one. My mother actually is an ordinary woman but in her tiny appearance lies an extraordinary fortitude, perseverance, an altruistic soul and a very kind heart."
"When I was growing up in Uttar Pradesh in the seventies and eighties we didn‘t know of a thing called Mothers Day, but we practised it by giving her the day off on her birthday. My dad , my sister and I would pamper her and the day would end with us taking her out for a meal. Incidentally, my mother‘s birthday is on teacher‘s day, so it was very poignant. The current tradition of Mothers Day is a great one as it brings our dear moms in the spotlight and they deserve this extra day of being serenaded. May be we should have more mothers‘ days in a year. Happy Mother‘s Day Amma !"
"Whatever I am now, I owe it all to her. She used to narrate a lot of stories to me in my childhood and that has helped me become a good ‘storyteller‘. When she would narrate stories to me, the very next day I used to narrate them to my school mates and soon I became a popular ‘storyteller’. Since the past five years I have the same caller tune dedicated to my parents. She has always guided me to the right path in every step of my life. She has taught me discipline, manners, and the sense of duty towards others in the family and in society."
"At 93, she is a fountain of Wisdom, wit and positive energy… My biggest inspiration #unconditionalLove #Mother" (on his facebook profile)
