ITV

Tag: Prem Kamath

  • ‘No advertiser or competitor can ignore the disruption we have created in the marketplace’ : Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath

    ‘No advertiser or competitor can ignore the disruption we have created in the marketplace’ : Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath

    For Channel [V], the radical moment has arrived. The reinvention process it started in 2009 as music channelsfailed to create differentiated content and had to settle for low revenues. Making the shift, the Star group channel has decided to discontinue all the music slots in its programming lineup effective 1 July.

     

    The new avatar will do away with Bollywood music as it searches for youth audiences that are monetisable. The positioning that it will take is a complete youth entertainment channel with 100 per cent content customised for this target segment. 

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Gaurav Laghate, Channel [V] EVP GM Prem Kamath talks about the channel‘s growth plans.

     

    Excerpts:

    Doing away with music is definitely a bold step. But what about the trailers that channel [V] airs?
    Trailers will continue as they are a source of revenue. We sell them as any other spot for promotions. But we won’t be airing any Bollywood music as part of our programming lineup.

    So from where did this idea come from? Do you see a lacuna in youth-targeted programming?
    The “Youth channel” word has become a misnomer in the Indian context with music channels calling themselves as youth channels. Unless you are creating youth content, you cannot be a youth channel.

    Music is as youth as a movie channel or a news channel or a sports channel is for that matter because if you see demographically with over 60 per cent of youth population, all the channels have youth as their main TG.

    So how is Channel [V] differentiated?
    We are very clear that we don’t want to be a commodity channel playing just music. If you see, all the music channels are in the same GRP (gross rating point) bracket and the content is identical.

    On the other hand, we offer 100 per cent customised youth content. And all our shows have worked really well and today ratings wise, we are two-and-a-half times of these channels.

    As you said, all channels have majority of their audience as youth. Why will an advertiser select Channel [V]?
    We are delivering to a youth audience, which is exclusive and substantial in number. This has made Channel [V] a vehicle through which the advertisers can target the said audience.
    ‘There is a risk in adding original content and not having anything to fall back on (like music) in case the shows don’t work‘

    So when did you finalise on shedding the Bollywood music completely?
    When we relaunched in June 2009, the plan was ready then. We were focussed on increasing the original content.

    In 2009, we had 75 per cent music content while 25 per cent was original content. And we gradually and consciously reversed that order. Since the last six months, we have been airing only three hours of music in a day.

    But don’t you think creating original content will increase the operational cost?
    Substantially, but we were clear that youth centric shows per hour cost a lot more than the usual music that runs on these kind of channels. We, therefore, built slot by slot.

    Today, we have 10 hours of original content per week. We have three successful fiction shows and will add on to have weekday primetime from 6-8.30 pm. And on Saturdays and Sundays, we will be airing a one-hour show at the 7 pm slot.

    Isn‘t one of your shows picked up by Star Plus?
    Yes, Gumraah, our weekly show, which we are changing to a daily. It is being aired on Star Plus at 8 pm as a repeat on Saturdays and Sundays. This also shows the strength of our content.

    Once you stop music, how will you fill up the slots?
    We will air all our shows three times a day. It suits our viewers also as India is predominantly a single TV householdand parents are in charge of the remote. So our TG can catch up on the show during the repeats. Also, colleges here operate in morning and afternoon shifts, so having three repeats will help in that case.

    If you see all the music channels, the main TRPs come from the morning band where you also were playing music. Don’t you think that removing music will affect badly on the ratings?
    Our channel is viewed by over 25 million people and we average over 50 GRPs week on week, which is a proof that our viewers are watching shows and not music.

    Moreover, as you pointed out, most of the GRPs on the music channels come from morning bands, which is ad free. So even if it helps in getting the ratings, it may not necessarily be monetisable.

    But these are safe GRPs?
    I agree that there is a risk in adding original content and not having anything to fall back on (like music) in case the shows don’t work. However, we are extremely confident about our content.

    Our break TVR is four times that of other channels. This goes to show the strength of our content – that is sticky and engaging. In case of music, people tend to change the channel the moment ad begins. Even our show to break conversion is as high as 80 per cent.

    But still when you say Channel [V] or MTV, the first image that comes to mind is that of a music channel. The legacy factor is there. Won‘t that get affected?
    Numbers are absolute truth and perception is not. And we have numbers to substantiate.

    How do you see current competition coming from music and youth channels?
    The disruption that we have created is so wide that it can’t be ignored by the advertisers or competitors. The current problem with music channels is that no advertiser is going to pay a premium, unless you have a differentiated offering.

    Having said that, top players will be profitable, albeit small. There will be a time when some of these players will have to relook on their business models.

    Earlier you had said that monetising the music content is difficult. How?
    Exactly. Today the same music is available on not just the music channels but also on multiple platforms like internet, mobiles and tablets. And consumption of music videos is very high on high-end mobiles and tablets.

    Anything that can get monetised on a television channel is loyalty. And that can‘t happen with the same content. That is why we decided to offer customised youth content.

    Everyone is bullish on digital today. What future role Channel [V] will have on the digital front?
    Everyone is trying to figure out the answer to this question. How and up to what extent digital entertainment will affect TV is yet to be seen. Having said that, if you understand your audience well and create content for them, it will work.

    Moreover, digital as a medium changes very fast, which adds further complexities. There are some myths,though, that are busting – like on internet only short form content works. Today, YouTube plays full length feature films and long format is also working well.

    Talking about our website, for now it will be an extension of the channel adding ancillary programming for TV.

    Unlike some of your competitors, you are not much into licensing and merchandising. Why?
    L&M for us is not making bags or T-shirts. It is not a marketing stunt and our belief is that L&M should be strongly differentiated and have big potential. So we have two properties – [V] Spots and IndiaFest.

    We have seen phenomenal success with [V] Spots. Both Saket (New Delhi) and Gurgaon outlets have broken even within a month of launch. We will soon be launching in Pune and by the end of our next fiscal (June 2013), we will have 10 [V] Spots across India. We are looking at Chandigarh and Bengaluru as potential markets.

    IndiaFest is one of its kind youth festival, which we organise in Goa every year. It is also growing year-on-year.
  • Channel [V] opens its 2nd café in Gurgaon

    Channel [V] opens its 2nd café in Gurgaon

    MUMBAI: In line with its plans of opening 30 outlets over five years, yuth entertainment channel, Channel [V], has opened the second outlet of its café, ‘[V] Spot Café + Bar‘, in Gurgaon.

    The first outlet was launched last year in Saket, New Delhi.

    Pune and Bangalore will be the next stop. Said Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath, “Gurgaon is the second among the 30 outlets that have been planned over the next 5 years. Pune and Bangalore will be up in the next three months. While it serves as a great on–ground presence for the brand, it is also proving to be a very robust revenue generator. The Gurgaon outlet is being launched with a 3 day ‘I Love Gurgaon’ festival where local talent will get a chance to perform with established professionals.”

    The café not only offers budding artists on air coverage but also gives its customers a chance to record video message for anyone on the Video wall shown later on Channel [V].

    “It’s time to say goodbye to the dreary long drives to Delhi in search of entertainment, as [v] Spot Café+Bar is now in Gurgaon!! It’s time to hit the Spot in your very own neighbourhood,” [v] Spot Café+Bar leisure streak hospitality master franchisee director Devdeep Singh said.

    Youth preferences in music, style, products, food, technology and entertainment have all been kept in mind while working on the offerings of the café. Each element in the café gets its inspiration from various themes associated with Channel [V], the channel said.

  • Music channels face uncertainty

    Music channels face uncertainty

    Year 2010 saw major changes in the music and youth TV channel genre. Firstly, the space got further cluttered with the launch of a new player – Mastiii. Secondly, at least three channels – MTV, UTV Bindass and 9XM – were fighting week-on-week to know who is first among the equals. And thirdly, the focus of the channels shifted – some went for pure music and others for pure youth.

    The 13-odd channels in the genre (as per Tam) are locked in a rat race. From January –December 2010, in the C&S 15+ age group of Hindi speaking Market (HSM), MTV and 9XM were leading the pack with a 14 per cent average market share. UTV Bindass was, however, in hot pursuit with 13.9 per cent.

    To add on to the fierce competition, Sri Adhikari Brothers’ Mastiii, which launched in July, quickly climbed and captured a good 12.6 per cent average share.

    Meanwhile, Channel [V], Zoom (Bollywood and lifestyle channel), B4U Music, ETC and E24 (Bollywood news channel), which Tam puts in the same genre, followed with 9.1 per cent, 8.8 per cent, 7.7 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively of the overall pie.

    The also rans include Zing, Imagine Showbiz and Vh1.

    The question remains: How the music and youth channels will survive with such competition? Industry pundits peg the whole pie between Rs 2.5–3 billion yearly and believe the market is small while the players are too many. Some say that the music space has undergone tremendous transformation and today they all have the more or less same generic content – be it music or reality shows.

    But how true is it? Answers Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath, “TV is not the primary medium for music anymore as it is available everywhere. More importantly, the greatest monetisation in television comes from differentiation. The biggest limitation of the music television model has been that there is no scope whatsoever in differentiating the content of one channel from another. Every channel has access to the same pool of music and, hence, very little differentiates one channel from another.”

    And to counter this situation, Channel [V] has cut down its reliance on music drastically. The channel airs music only between 7-10 am band, which is a prime slot for music channels.

    However, at the same time, pure play music channels – 9XM and Mastiii – are doing great so far as ratings go. What is their success mantra?

    9XM programming head Amar Tidke says, “It’s all about how you package your content. Yes, you have to break through the clutter and for that we have animated characters.”

    Tidke believes that other “youth channels” have diluted the music proposition. And on the point that music is skewed towards Bollywood only, Tidke strongly replies that it is wholesome music. “Bollywood music contains all the forms of music including romantic, sad, sufi, bhajans, etc. So it is wrong to say that we are neglecting other forms of music,” he says.

    And while Channel [V] and Bindass are youth channels, through and through, MTV, the long standing undisputed leader of the genre, changed its positioning twice in the year.

    While MTV continued cutting down its music content to 20 per cent, in the later part of the year it backtracked and increased it to 50 per cent. Some rival channels executives believe the step taken by MTV is rather unfortunate. “The channel has lost its positioning. It had a head start with cult shows like Roadies. But they have spent a lot and the latest seasons of the shows did not perform well. The high cost may have been a reason behind going back,” one senior executive on condition of anonymity said.

    However, MTV India channel head Aditya Swamy said that the channel has adopted a new “Raw” identity. “MTV as a brand is much bigger than a TV channel,” Swamy said. “We felt that a good combination of music and reality is necessary, so we have increased the music content.”

    However, experts believe that pure music channels 9XM and Mastiii are forcing the older music channels to relook on their music content. “MTV and Channel [V] had taken steps to reduce their music content as they repositioned themselves as youth brand channels. MTV could now be trying to play a fine balance between their reality and music content,” says a media tracker.

    Meanwhile, on the reality content front, MTV’s reign is shaking as UTV Bindass has succeeded with bold homegrown reality shows like Emotional Attyachaar and Dadagiri. And Channel [V] also is upping the ante with new reality shows.

    Also, as per ad sales executives, a pure play music channel can have a revenue upside of Rs 600-650 million, if it leads the genre and buying music is not expensive. And that precisely is the opportunity Sri Adhikari Brothers’ saw while launching Mastiii.

    As might be the case with MTV, the reality content doesn’t come cheap. It increases your cost significantly, while results are not always that great. So is it not safe to play pure music? Kamath disagrees. “Music is very easy form of content to put on a channel, but then there is a limit to grow. Moreover, many pure play music channels are getting good ratings from retro songs, which are not sampled by youth,” he says. Channel [V] claims of targeting youth in the 15-34 year segment.

    Meanwhile, the year 2010 saw a slight increase in the whole genre, presumably because of the launch of a new channel and the combined effort of other channels to market their shows.

    However, 2011 will be a tougher year for the players. There is one more new player in Sony Entertainment waiting for licence to launch its music channel – Sony Mix. Imagine Showbiz has also changed ownership and is now in the hands of Anil Ambani. So wait for more uncertainty in the genre.
     

  • The day the music died – Channel [V] GM Prem Kamath

    The day the music died – Channel [V] GM Prem Kamath

    One of the most frequent questions I am asked is why Channel [V] is abandoning music. It is probably a question that can be asked as equally of several other ‘music channels‘.

    On the face of it, it‘s a pretty relevant question – in large measure because channels like ours have built their reputation on playing music and a large part of our fan base tuned in to hear it. So if the average viewer is often left perplexed by why a music channel would suddenly start beaming a host of reality shows, their befuddlement is entirely understandable.

    A big part of the answer to that question lies in how music consumption itself has changed.

    Firstly, TV is no longer the primary medium for consuming music. Gone are the days when one would eagerly wait for the next episode of BPL Oye or Timex Timepass (for those of you old enough to remember these) to check out the latest in music. Today the newest track is a torrent away and the newest video, a youtube click. When one has such options of video-on-demand and personalised playlists, little reason why the classical music channel should be relevant anymore.

    Secondly, the dynamics on the Indian music industry are uniquely skewed against conventional music television. The Indian music scene is entirely dominated by Bollywood. This is at once a boon and a curse for the industry. On the plus side, Bollywood brings with it an almost unlimited demand for new music. All of it is pre-paid for and this minimises the risks for artists and musicians. However, on the flip side, it has become an 800-pound gorilla the might of whom few independent bands can stand up against. What this has led to is the commoditisation of content from a television perspective.

    As any television executive will tell you, the greatest monetisation in television comes from differentiation. The biggest limitation of the music television model has been that there is no scope whatsoever in differentiating the content of one channel from another. Every channel has access to the same pool of music and, hence, very little differentiates one channel from another.

    Finally, whether or not a channel restricts itself to music depends on what business they define themselves to be in. Channel [V] has always been iconic to the youth of this country. More than a music channel, we have always seen ourselves as a youth entertainment channel. Time was when music was the best way for a channel to connect with the youth of this country. That time has passed – probably for good.

    Youth entertainment tastes go well beyond music today and content has to follow suit. Testament is borne to this by the astounding success we have met with post our re-launch. Channel [V] has increased its share five-fold in a span of 12 months and today leads the youth entertainment genre. Over 80 per cent of our content today is non-music and we are much the richer for it. Music continues to be a not entirely insignificant 20 per cent still and will remain so as long as we believe that it is an integral youth hot-button. As we have often said, we are faithful to the viewer and not the genre. If youth entertainment tastes shift in this country, our content will shift along with it.Of course, to keep up with youth trends and remain a relevant and sought-after youth channel is easier said than done.

    Too much has been said about how India is a country of the young. Too little has been done about it.

    Few categories in the country have seen as much of a sea change as television has. A young and nascent industry by any standards, changes that took 50 years in the West have been compressed into just over a decade here. From DD to DTH, the changes have come in the form of newer technology, global exposure and exploding choice. And the young consumers of this country have been at the very epicenter of this whirl-wind. Whereas most marketers, including the TV industry, have ironically been on the outside looking in.

    The trouble with marketing to the young is that those doing the marketing are far from young. It‘s a problem that the gaming industry in the West recognised very early on – after all over 90 per cent of its sales were to people below 20 years of age. Their solution was to hire their prospective customers – as consultants, game-testers, designers and evangelists. They rightly believed that to create a game that truly captured the imagination of a 14-year-old, you need a 14-year-old to tell you how.

    But unlike gaming, the challenge of programming television for the young goes beyond just understanding their needs. Youth Television‘s challenge is a lot more fundamental – it is to stay relevant to a generation of digital natives who are increasingly gratifying their entertainment needs from a variety of sources outside TV.

    Television is no longer the young, sexy and alluring medium it once was. Sure, it‘s still the largest and most cost effective medium to reach out to any segment of the population including the young. And yes, in sheer numbers, the quantum of reach it offers is truly staggering. But it is in its role as an agent of change, as a definer of trends and as a lighthouse to the young that TV has been lagging of late.

    From being the only window that beamed in those wonderfully hypnotizing images from all around the world, it is now so ubiquitous and so ingrained into our lives as to be often taken for granted and overlooked. For the young who have grown up with television, it holds hardly any charm as a lifestyle medium – after all they haven‘t known or seen a world without it.

    Nor is TV the beacon of information it once was. That space has quickly and irrevocably been usurped by the Internet. Granted, the overall net penetration numbers in this country still remain abysmal. But among the young, the access rates are not only higher but also growing at a blistering pace. What‘s more, mobile phones are ensuring that the net is well and truly available to anyone who wishes to access it.

    TV once was the sole repository of everything cool and glamorous – from fashion to lifestyle to relationships. An entire generation of people looked up to it to tell them what to wear, how to look, how to speak and where to hang out. That‘s a position it has vacated over a period of time to various media – to a resurgent movie industry with its new-found urban acceptance, to one-for-every whim lifestyle magazines and even to newspapers in their dolled up page 3 avtaars.

    And finally to top it all, even in its most functional gratification, as a means for just killing time, the young are finding options that are newer, more alluring and certainly much cooler. Ask any teenager and he‘ll tell you how much more fun it is to while away at the mall than to be watching TV at home. Or how much cooler it is to be hanging out with friends at the local Barista than to be watching it on TV.

    So is TV doomed to exist as a once cool has been medium with as much relevance to youngsters as the blocky black telephone that still sits in the corner of some living rooms? Or is there really a way that TV can reinvent itself to once again be a central part of every teenagers and young adult‘s life?

    At Channel [V] we believe there is.

    The only way to counter change is paradoxically through change.

    When Apple decided to stray from its mainstay of computing and venture into the ultra competitive world of personal electronics, few gave them a chance against the might of giants like Sony. But the iPod has not only gone on to redefine the way people consume music, it has changed the very face of the music industry and its commerce for ever. It did so through some audacious imagination and some good, old-fashioned trend spotting.

    Exactly what television needs if it has to fire the imagination of the young again.

    The trends are all around us for anyone who cares to look.

    Today‘s youth are characterised by their ambition and their impatience. It‘s really an ‘AND‘ generation not an ‘OR‘ generation. It‘s career and personal life; it‘s work and fun, it‘s this and that. TV cannot buck this trend. We cannot expect people to choose between TV and hanging at the mall. We‘ll have to make both possible. It‘ll have to be TV at the mall, TV on the Internet, TV on the mobile and TV while driving. Thankfully, we have the technology today that makes this possible. What we now need is the mindset to see it through.

    This is also the ‘NOW‘ generation. When impatience is a virtue, attention spans can only be non-existent. Bollywood has recognised this and our movies are getting shorter. TV will need to reinvent its format too. Mobisodes have often been written about but not really been worked upon. If 30-minute episodes are the norm merely to aid commercial scheduling, I‘m afraid we‘ll get little sympathy from the viewer. We‘ll have to find ways of monetising formats that our consumer prefers rather than the other way round. Once again, streaming video on the net has been a step ahead of TV in this regard.

    Other signs and trends abound. The rise of user generated content, the voracious appetite for reality, the extreme need for self-expression and individuality, unbounded ambition, the increasingly transactional nature of relationships, friends being the new family, urban atomization – the list goes on.

    It is said that those in the midst of great change rarely recognise the momentous nature of it. India and its young are in the midst of exactly such a change. It is change that will leave very few things in its path untouched – including the way we buy, organise and consume our television. And there are untold spoils for those who recognise this and exploit it.

    To remain relevant and preferred, Youth TV will have to constantly reinvent and recharge itself.

    And oh, by the way, those who mourn the passing away of music channels would do well to not shed a tear. The music hasn‘t died. It has merely shifted screens.

  • ‘Star One is the number three GEC in the country in ratings’ : Prem Kamath – Star India VP marketing and Communication

    ‘Star One is the number three GEC in the country in ratings’ : Prem Kamath – Star India VP marketing and Communication

    A lot of flip-flop happening in the Hindi general entertainment channels. Yet Star Plus is the leader in the game, while Star One has consolidated its position on the back of new shows and re-positioning itself.

    In conversation with Indiantelevision’s Nasrin Sultana, Star India VP marketing and communication Prem Kamath talks about Star Plus and the kind of resurgence up on Star One.

    Excerpts:

    How has 2007 been for Star India?
    I think it has been a good year of consolidation. Lots of changes have happened within the organisation and in the market as well. But I think the initiatives that we have undertaken had shaped quite well for consolidation.

    How is Star Plus taking the competition further, when Zee TV is edging close to it in terms of ratings?
    Zee TV saw an increase in the ratings post Sa Re Ga Ma Pa launch, which had narrowed the gap between Star Plus and Zee. Though there are a number of other things that have happened in Star Plus which have pushed the channel back to its place. Particularly the last four to five weeks’ data clearly say that Star Plus is considerably ahead of Zee. Several initiatives that we launched further strengthened our position. A weekly fiction based show called Sangam was launched in August. With Sangam, we extended our prime time to 7 pm, followed by Santan at 7:30 pm. Santan is doing extremely well in its time band with 2+ rating. Bidaai, which launched in the 9 pm slot is fetching good numbers. All the newly launched shows cumulatively have consolidated our position in the genre.

    What was the reason for extending prime time?
    Traditionally prime time was always considered to have started from 7:30 pm. But a regular viewer of TV generally gets near the TV around 7, so we thought why not extend our prime time. It sort of prepares the viewers for bigger shows lined up from 8:30 pm.

    Is it true that one of Star Plus’ big ticket shows – Kasautii Zindagii Kay – is going off air?
    Yes it is. It has reached its end. It was a mutual decision taken by both Star and Balaji. For further details you have to wait for a formal announcement.

    Star Plus poached Gajendrra Siingh and his whole team for Star Voice of India, yet it could not fetch the kind of business that Star Plus was looking forward to. What were the reasons that producers of an old and successful show like Sa Ra Ga Ma could not deliver so well on the Star platform?
    Any show’s success is attributed to three or four parameters. There is no direct comparison between the two yet there are some. Sa Re… is an eight to nine years old show, and Star VOI just debuted this year. I think for the first year it has fetched good TRPs. It has garnered 4 to 4.5 TRPs. Besides, it has been extremely consistent with ads. Above all, it has been able to give competition to an old and established show.

    Soon after VOI reached its finale, you had Chhote Ustaad to compete with Zee’s Li’l Champs on the same slot? Where is the differentiated programming?
    It was part of an intended move to retain viewership of the VOI slot. It enjoyed a TRP of 2.8 in its initial weeks. As far as reality shows are concerned, I think these kinds of shows build and develop a relationship with the contestants. The viewers come back on the same show for the bondage that they share with the participants.

    How has the story of Star One been shaping up now?
    What you see now in Star One gives you a feel of serious resurgence. Star One is the number three GEC in the country in ratings. In the last four to five weeks, we have been garnering about 76 GRPs in all day parts, which is about 49 per cent up as compared to the period four weeks before that. This is on the back of the four properties that we have launched recently.

    We launched Dil Mil Gaye, which has touched a TRP of 2, Annu ki hoi gaya Wah Bhai Wah, Choona Hain Aasman, we are launching Pari Hoon Main in the next week, which kind of completes our week day prime time. In the week end we have launched Bol Baby Bol which again has a TRP of 2. We have tasted fair success with Chak De Punjabi. There are lots of vacant time bands in Star One which has not been programmed. There are couple of other shows which will make Star One as the big player in the space.

    With so many launches are you reinventing Star One?
    Yes we are, I mean kind of. Star One was one of the most successful launches seen in the space. We had a great success story. But yes, somewhere down the line, we shifted focus for a variety of reasons. In terms of programming, Star One ended up becoming very similar to Star Plus. What we are doing now is to re-define Star One’s programming for a differentiated market.

    Star One is now completely redesigned, with a universal appeal, yet differentiated. If you take Bol Baby Bol, hosted by Adnan Sami. It is a reality format show, which has mass appeal, yet it is differentiated as it is a lyrics based show. This is a first of its kind show in India. This goes out for Annu ki…, Pari Hoon Main, Dil mil Gaye and Choona Hain Aasman.

    Shows of this kind have a lot of drama in them, yet they are differentiated. Context and sensibility makes them differentiated.
    ‘Nach Baliye grew so huge that it needed a bigger platform than Star One could afford to provide‘

    Do you think that at one point of time Star One was almost a shadow of Star Plus?
    Hmm, yes when more than a year back, when some of the shows of Star Plus were brought on Star One. Somewhere there had been a duplication of identity.

    But now Star One has defined itself and is certainly differentiated from Star Plus in all respects. Star Plus is a complete family entertainer while Star One’s TG is fixed at the 25-34 age in the top 20 cities.

    When Star One launched, it had set its TG as totally urban youth. Do you think the TG could not contribute anything to Star One’s success?
    What happened was, by default, whatever shows were on air were urban skewed. But some of the programmes did have universal appeal. Like Nach Baliye, which had a phenomenal success, had universal appeal. Same goes for The Great Indian Laughter Challenge.

    A flagship show like Nach Baliye, which has its contribution in putting Star One in the success grid was shifted to an already successful channel and Star One was left only with The Great Indian Laughter Challenge?
    Nach Baliye is a big show. With every year, it grew in volume and economies. It grew so huge that it needed a bigger platform than Star One could afford to provide. The show was so large that it needed a platform like Star Plus to do justice to it. The shift has also got some new shows infused in Star one. It is not that Nach Baliye was uprooted from Star One and nothing was done to Star One. We had a series of launches after it. The good news is that even when Star One does not have Nach Baliye, yet it is on the verge of becoming number three in the GEC space.

    Even The Great Indian Laughter Challenge has been taken off from Star One?
    It is only in its seasonal break. It will come back in a couple of months. There was fatigue after the three seasons were back-to-back.

    Did Comedy Circus on Sony contribute to the fatigue?
    I think Comedy Circus was after LC. It did not have any effect.
    Star One is re-running its popular show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai in its prime time at 9:30 pm. Why not bring it back with new episodes?
    Lots of people are asking for it. Logistically we are working out the possibilities.

    How do you shape up your marketing for the various properties that Star India has?
    We always get the consumer engaged and get the consumer to experience the brand. Many properties on Star Plus have been marketed well on ground activities. Our effort is to shift the focus from mass media to on ground, engaging one-to-one communication with the consumers. Information has to be transferred to the consumer without any barrier in between. That is what an on-ground activity does. It breaks the barrier.

    Properties have been marketed well, whether it’s the on-ground event, road show or a mega event. We are constantly getting more and more into it. It is what we call engagement model. It is nothing but to engage the viewers with the brand, so that they experience more of the brand. We have rounded off 16-20 cities. Before any launch, we actually do a variety of activities and events in these cities.
    Do you see the launch of NDTV Imagine as a threat, if not to Star Plus and Zee, then at least to the lower rung channels where competition is getting tougher?
    The space will get fragmented. Connection with the audience is the best way to beat the competition. Star plus has been doing it extremely well and it will continue to do so.

     

    Some of the major content providers like Hats Off, Sagar Arts and SOL are also working on the up-coming channels. Do you agree that is going to create some conflict?
    I agree that producers bring a lot to the table. With so many channels floating in the market, I do not think duplication of content can be at all avoided. A show being successful has many factors to it. First is the content, second is the platform it is on, and third is the relationship with it.

     

    Coming to Star World, you launched some TG specific shows in the middle of 2007. How has been the response?
    We introduced some familiar shows which got tremendous response, especially for the SEC A, which is the TG of the channel. Shows like Heroes and Desperate Housewives are working tremendously well. But we have to understand that the Star World universe is relatively very small.

     

    How does the story look like with Star Gold?
    It is faring well. It is after Set Max and neck and neck with Zee Cinema. There have been lots of other properties that Star Gold pioneered like Star Gold Sabse Favourite Kaun and Star Gold Comedy Honours.

     

    Earlier Star Gold had dubbed movies, now there are movies channels completly dedicated to dubbed content. Which markets do dubbed content work?
    It works all across all the markets. Some of the films really work. Films which have good action and thrills work well in this genre.

    What was new to Star Plus in 2007? What’s on the cards?
    What you see now is certainly some freshness in its content, with some new launches in the year- Bidaai, Jai Maa Durga. We will get periodic innovation in the channel as and when required. Nothing is to be changed now.