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Tag: Richard Branson

  • ‘Our aim is to come up with total telecom solutions’ : Rajiv Agarwal – Essar Telecom Retail

    ‘Our aim is to come up with total telecom solutions’ : Rajiv Agarwal – Essar Telecom Retail

    The mobile retailing space is hotting up in India. Essar Telecom Retail, an Essar group company has entered mobile retailing in India with the launch of its “The MobileStore” outlets across the country. The basic aim is to be a complete telecom solutions provider.

     

    It has tied up with global media firm Virgin to provide the backend solutions like customer care. This marks Virgin’s entry into India’s burgeoning mobile sector. Virgin founder Richard Branson believes that this is an opportunity for the two parties to fundamentally change the face of mobile retailing in India.

     

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Essar Telecom Retail CEO Rajiv Agarwal for a quick chat on the plans.

     

    Excerpts:

    Could you give me an overview of Essar’s mobile retailing initiative?
    This is a chain of retail stores that will serve as one stop shop for the needs of the mobile consumer. We are looking to fill a void that is present in the retail market. Today we have international players on the operators side, on the manufacturers side. But on the retail side we do not have an organised player. The customer is the most important element as all these people are working for him/her.

    As the number of mobile subscribers, users becomes more and more the market is becoming more complicated, which has created a void. Our aim is to come up with total telecom solutions for the customer.

    What are the different products and services being offered?
    One can buy cell phones, get repair services, do bill collection. We also have value added services like ringtones. We have media services like games, DTH connections, ipods, cameras. All are fast moving.

    What is the synergy that the group has in setting up telecom retail?
    Essar has decided to be in retailing in all their core businesses. We have been in telecom over the last 12 years. Our aim is to get closer to the customer. We have knowledge and awareness about telecom.

    As per research, what does the mobile user expect from a mobile retail chain and how is Essar going about fulfilling his/her needs?
    The mobile customer is looking for a range of products that he can touch and feel. He/she wants a store that is next to his house. He wants value for money, after sales service.

    Why did you decide against going the franchise route for your stores?
    There would have been the risk of our brand value being diluted. Also you have to manage many entrepreneurs if you walk down that road. This is a business where you cannot allow your service proposition to get diluted.

    The franchise route would have meant that there would have been no difference between us and any other mobile store.
    ‘We have media services like games, DTH connections, ipods, cameras. All are fast moving‘

    Given that Indians are an extremely price sensitive won’t it be difficult for mobile retail to make a margin and have sustained revenue?
    That is the case for any product. We have developed our business model keeping this in mind.

    What is the investment being made and how many stores are being set up?
    In the next three years we are setting up 2,500 stores at an investment of Rs 1,250 crores (Rs 12.5 billion) across 600 cities.

    Over 70 stores have already been launched in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad. In the next six to eight weeks we will have opened up another 100 stores. In the next six months we would be operating 700 stores.

    The stores are in three formats – large (1,000-1,500 sq ft), medium (800-1,000 sq ft) and compact (200-500 sq ft). The ratio being identified is 20:60:20 across large, medium and compact stores respectively.

    We are looking at a breakeven of three years for the business. The stores will cost between Rs 500,000 – Rs 5 million each to set up.

    What are the factors looked at to select each location?
    You look at places where customer footfalls are high. This could be in a mall or on a busy street. We will have the shop in shop concept to a certain extent going forward. Around 15-20 per cent of the stores will be in Metros.

    In terms of revenue how much comes in from where and who are the companies you have tie-ups with?
    Handsets contribute to 75 per cent of our revenues. We have tie-ups with all the major manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola, Sony. Mobile repairs are our core area. We have trained people in our stores who can look after the problem. We have straight tie-ups with the manufacturers and operators.

    We have a tie-up with Mauj Telecom for mobile games. For DTH there is Tata Sky, Dish TV. There are also opportunities for in-store advertising and merchandising.

    Could you talk about the back end solutions that have been put in place?
    We have a tie-up with Virgin. They bring retail knowledge in terms of softer skills in terms of customer relationship management. The deal is for brand licensing, technical and consultancy services.
    Virgin will provide their expertise in the areas of branding, marketing, customer care, store operations and staff training.

    We chose Virgin as that brand stands for good quality, brilliant customer service, innovation, fun and good value.

    Finally what marketing activities are being done to create awareness?
    We are airing ads during the broadcast of the cricket World Cup. A large portion of mobile users will be watching the event. We will also be doing a lot of print and outdoor activities.
  • NBC’s Sci Fi channel inks multimedia deal with Virgin Comics

    NBC’s Sci Fi channel inks multimedia deal with Virgin Comics

    MUMBAI: Sci Fi Channel, an NBC Universal network, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Comics to create a co-branded multimedia partnership called Sci Fi/Virgin Comics.

    With five new comic book titles serving as a jumping off point, Sci Fi/Virgin Comics will develop fresh properties that integrate the spirit and vitality of both brands. Delivering innovative, multi-platform projects, original concepts will be considered across all mediums from publishing, film and television to digital and gaming.

    The announcement was made today by, Sci Fi Executive Vice President and general manager Dave Howe and Virgin Comics CEO and publisher Sharad Devarajan at New York Comic Con, the season’s pop culture and comic book event.

    The first Sci Fi/Virgin titles, distributed by Diamond Comics, can be expected to hit shelves later this year, informs an official release.

    “Virgin Comics and I are delighted to collaborate with Sci Fi and the rest of the NBC Universal family,” said Sir Richard Branson, “to create stories that will inspire a new generation of thinkers and dreamers throughout the world.”

    “Sci Fi/Virgin Comics marks an important step in our strategy to extend the Sci Fi brand into new cross-media platforms. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Virgin Comics to create exciting new titles, characters and stories that can live beyond the pages of the comic book,” added Howe. “Virgin is the perfect brand to help us connect with the youth audience around the world.”

    “With Sci Fi we are changing the face of the comic book industry – seamlessly developing characters and stories for books, television, online and other media,” said Devarajan. “Together we are creating stories as innovative as the ways consumers will get to experience them.”

    Utilizing the global creative and synergistic resources that exist both at Sci Fi Channel and Virgin Comics, the partnership will aim to attract some of the biggest names and talent from the worlds of comic books, television and movies. Sci Fi and Virgin Comics will bring together a multimedia, creative editorial board with members representing comic books, television, movies, digital, gaming, licensing and merchandising.

  • Fever FM to launch in Mumbai on 15 January

    Fever FM to launch in Mumbai on 15 January

    MUMBAI: It’s all systems go as the newest entrant on the FM block in Mumbai, Fever 104 FM, readies itself for a 15 January launch.

    The FM station is a technical collaboration between Hindustan Times and Richard Branson’s Virgin Radio International. Virgin Radio International has also set up radio stations in Bangkok, Johannesburg, Malayasia and Paris.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the no-frills format of Fever FM, Mumbai station head Sajjad Chunawala says, “Most radio stations follow the norm of block radio in programming. So you have the morning, afternoon, late night segments all chalked out. Our positioning of Fever 104 FM is more music, less talk. With a format driven content radio channel, we have defined our target audience as ranging between 25 and 34 years and this is the audience we want to cater to.”

    The station has researched thousands of titles in the past two months to identify the kind of contemporary music which will appeal to its listeners. Said Chunawala, “The content of music will be 80 per cent Hindi and 20 per cent international music taken from the post 1980’s period. Of course, the music content will be tweaked to appeal to the local masses. So in Delhi, the music is influenced by Bhangra beats; in Mumbai it’s likely to have more of a Bollywood influence.”

    When asked if he fears losing a particular segment of his audience in the already fragmented listenership on radio space, Chunawala is very clear when he says, “We can’t satisfy everyone and we know that. Not everbody is likely to enjoy our format we understand that as well. We have identified our core listener who likes his music without the incessant jabber of an RJ and this is where we are focused.”

    No recipes, no agony aunts, no silly jokes and no astrologers – only music. That’s the line taken by the FM station. Over the next few days, the station promises a wide variety of on ground promotional activities. To kick off the activity, the station will have people with their mouths sealed stationed at various points across the city to give a sense of ‘less talk’.

    The first Fever FM station was launched in Delhi in October last year. Two more stations in Kolkata and Bangalore are slated to go on air by the end of this month although no official date has been set for them.

  • James Murdoch lashes out at UK media regulatory body Ofcom

    James Murdoch lashes out at UK media regulatory body Ofcom

    MUMBAI: UK media scion James Murdoch at a conference held by Ofcom attacked the UK regulatory body.

    He argued that there should be more deregulation. His speech came at a time when Ofcom is looking into the legalities of Murdoch buying an 18 per cent in ITV, which is a rival of pay TV operator BSkyB that Murdoch heads. Murdoch’s move put paid to NTL’s aim of taking a stake. Entrepreneur Richard Branson owns a stake in NTL. Media reports indicate that in his speech Murdoch blamed what he terms as the ‘dead hand of history’ and specifically UK pubcaster the BBC and its founder, Lord Reith, for a fearful and backward-looking legacy that he said bred elitism and stifled creativity.

    “We should never forget that when broadcasting first came to this country in the 1920s, politicians and the British establishment were more fearful than excited by the new wireless service. They were aided by Lord Reith, who took a pretty firm view of the need to keep the lower classes in their place. He welcomed the transformation of the BBC into a state agency in 1929 and thereafter had no time for any kind of innovation, whether it was jazz – a ‘filthy product of modern culture,’ according to him – or indeed television itself.”

    He said that effective broadcasting regulation should be a compass by which a regulator and the players in a market can find true north in constantly shifting seas and warned the getting it wrong would open the way for tiresome and dysfunctional meddling that can shipwreck the regulatory process itself, not to mention business and their customers across the board.

    Murdoch argues that those who want continuing intervention in the industry are motivated by institutional or commercial self-interest.

    “That is, for example, why Channel 4 wrapped up its desire to be able to spend more of our money under the guise of public service competition to the BBC. Or indeed why the BBC favours digital terrestrial television even though it is an inferior technology in terms both of choice and functionality.”

    He hit out at the BBC for having what he calls a fantasy about creating a ‘British Google’” to be funded by the taxpayer. “This is not public service, it’s megalomania. Delusions of grandeur will flourish in the absence of proper accountability,” he said. Channel 4 CEO Andy Duncan offerd a rebuttal by saying that the broadcaster is an extremely good example of a blend of market intervention and commercial competence. “The quality of television in this country and the level of originated British programming, is directly a result of intervention (by the state).”

    Branson meanwhile says that Murdoch is scared of what will happen if NTL takes a stake in ITV. He says that Murdoch is terrified that a stake for NTL in ITV would mean competition for Sky. Branson adds that NTL would fight BSkyB’s prichase of the 18 per cent stake in ITV. He was quoted in reports saying, “The Murdoch empire was, I think, absolutely terrified at the idea of Virgin taking over, because we would have given Sky some real competition.

    “They responded by buying 20 per cent of ITV to thwart our takeover. We have gone to the competition authorities and said that a company that already controls most of Britain’s newspaper media plus has most of the sporting and film rights in the UK shouldn’t be also allowed to have such an undue influence over ITV.”

    The Office of Fair Trading is examining the case. Some politicians have even met the British government and have made an appeal that in the public’s interest Murdoch not be allowed to buy a stake in ITV.

  • Ntl:Telewest to acquire Virgin Mobile in $1.7 billion deal

    Ntl:Telewest to acquire Virgin Mobile in $1.7 billion deal

    MUMBAI: In another major buy out deal in the global telecom arena, UK cable company Ntl:Telewest has agreed to buy Virgin Mobile for 984.9 million pounds ($1.7 billion).

    The new company will operate under the Virgin brand following a 30 year licensing agreement.

    Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group owns 71.2 per cent of Virgin Mobile, has agreed to receive a mix of cash and Ntl:Telewest stock worth 378 pence per share for his stake, plus a licence fee for the Virgin brand worth about 9 million pounds a year.

    Reportedly, Branson will be the largest shareholder in the combined company with a stake of about 10 per cent, and he will have a representative on the Ntl:Telewest board.

    Virgin Mobile’s operating business will continue to be led by members of Virgin Mobile’s current management team, and it is intended that a marketing director from Virgin will join Ntl:Telewest, bringing Virgin’s brand expertise to the Ntl:Telewest management team.