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  • For FIFA coverage, ESPN’s perfect assist to Sony

    For FIFA coverage, ESPN’s perfect assist to Sony

    MUMBAI: The 2018 FIFA World Cup has been quite a show already. For fans, the tournament’s been nothing short of a thrill-a-minute ride with sheer drama and constant surprises on offer. The steady state of suspense during key matches has enabled Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India, the event’s official broadcaster in India, rake up its viewership numbers. What’s also helped is SPN’s partnership with ESPN India that has brought fans as close to the action as possible.

    Apart from telecasting the Malayalam regional feed of the showpiece event, ESPN is also leveraging its digital platforms to increase the viewers’ engagement through wrap around shows for the tournament. 

    Despite it being a non-rights player, ESPN has more than 150 people covering the event in Russia. 

    ESPN India’s head of television initiatives Jasdeep Pannu says, “With the studio facility in Moscow, all of that is coming back to help our partners in various parts of the world including Sony in their coverage.” 

    ESPN has rolled out a holistic set of content programming which includes a unique country-wide sports-travel show ‘The Last Train to Russia’ on Sony TEN (HD/SD), a daily match day analysis show called ‘Free Kick’ which is presented by ESPN anchors.

    ESPN’s Moscow is providing content for 17 hours a day via four feeds that can transmit simultaneously. The feeds are also helping fuel ESPN’s partners’ coverage across the globe, including Africa (Kwese), China (Tencent), India (Sony) and the Philippines (TV 5).

    ESPN has also launched the ESPN FC Match Predictor – the first truly global game, created in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) across 13 global editions of ESPN.com – it gives fans a chance to pick the winners for each World Cup round.

    On the deal with Sony, Pannu said, “It’s a fantastic collaboration with a lot of synergy between the two brands. Sony has been very intelligent with their rights management and acquisition. They have got the biggest ongoing show in the world.”

    The challenge ESPN faces pertains to delivering the relevant content to keep the fans engaged as the mass audience gravitates towards all the sports right owners.

    However, Pannu believes that event rights are not the only way forward.

    “The rights guys are too busy focusing on the rights to look at non-rights content like we do,” he says.

    ESPN has also seen strong growth on the digital front across the sub-continent. 

    In terms of unique visitors between January to September 2017, ESPN’s digital platform witnessed a 24 per cent growth y-o-y. In India, 78 per cent of the traffic to ESPN digital (sites+app) comes from mobile devices which has growth at 150 per cent y-o-y.

    ESPN’s digital platform is also planning to target a larger group going forward by increasing its reach to the Hindi speaking audience, along with some regional languages like Tamil and Bengali.

  • Zee Anmol retains leadership in GEC (U+R) in BARC’s week 25 data

    Zee Anmol retains leadership in GEC (U+R) in BARC’s week 25 data

    MUMBAI: Zee Anmol retained its leadership position in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for week 25 of 2018 in the Hindi GEC (U+R) market. While  Rishtey and Star Utsav swapped their third and fourth positions in the rural market,  Zee TV and Star Plus exchanged second and third positions in the urban segment.

    Hindi GEC (U+R)

    Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Zee TV, Star Bharat and Colors retained their first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions with with 745706 impressions (000s) sum, 599068 impressions (000s) sum, 572708 impressions (000s) sum, 568791 impressions (000s) sum and 556889 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Star Utsav and Rishtey and Star Plus stood at sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively with 491102 impressions (000s) sum, 487121 impressions (000s) sum and 462775 impressions (000s) sum.

    Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television retained their ninth and tenth positions with 355389 impressions (000s) sum and 312771 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Hindi Rural GEC

    Zee Anmol and Sony Pal continued to dominate up top with 570351 impressions (000s) sum and 419831 impressions (000s) sum respectively. Rishtey and Star Utsav swapped their third and fourth positions with 349403 impressions (000s) sum and 342804 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Star Bharat, Zee TV Dangal TV, Big Magic Colors and Star Plus retained fifth, sixth, seventh, eight, ninth and tenth positions with 279594 impressions (000s) sum, 211475 impressions (000s) sum, 291958, 210536 impressions (000s) sum, 170893 impressions (000s) sum,136029 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Hindi Urban GEC

    In urban GEC, Colors retained first position this week with 385996 impressions (000s) sum. Zee TV and Star Plus exchanged second and third positions respectively with 350607 impressions (000s) sum and 326745 impressions (000s) sum.

    Star Bharat and Sony Sab swapped their fourth and fifth positions with 276834 impressions (000s) sum, 274347 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Sony Entertainment Television, Sony Pal, Zee Anmol, Star Utsav and Rishtey retained their sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with  240238 impressions (000s) sum and 179237 impressions (000s) sum, 175355 impressions (000s) sum,148298 impressions (000s) sum and137718 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

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  • Infinite shows in demand due to storyline, viewership

    Infinite shows in demand due to storyline, viewership

    MUMBAI: As TV viewership habits changed over time, not only did producers develop but audiences also got demanding. This led to a slow withdrawal of the infinite daily soaps spanning more than 1000 episodes and the growth of finite format ones. But, even today, the viewership for the long versions hasn’t reduced drastically.

    Since the year 2000, Indian television has intermittently witnessed a convincing evolution of serials ending after a certain stage and returning with its new season. To be precise, it all started with the show Aahat, which began in 1995 and ended its first season in 2001 on Sony. The show had back to back six seasons, with its last show telecast in 2015 for about six months.

    A general pattern is observable. The first season gets rave reviews but subsequent ones get hardly any attention from audiences – maybe because of the gap in the launch or the new storyline or maybe because people have moved on to newer shows, especially in times when minds are so fickle.

    There was a time when Ekta Kapoor gave viewers the famous ‘K series’ that went on for years. Kasautii Zindagi Kay (1,423 episodes), Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki (1,661 episodes), Kyunki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu thi (1,833 episodes) and even BAG Network’s Kumkum, all ran for at least six years. After several years, Anil Kapoor’s 24, had just 24 episodes, Amitabh Bachchan’s Yudh continued for 20 episodes and the shows on Zindagi channel which were borrowed from our neighbour Pakistan were typically 20-23 episodes.

    On one hand you have Sony’s current offering Porus with 260 episodes, Prithvi Vallabh had 80 episodes and Zindagi ke Crossroads which will have just 39 episodes, while on the other hand shows such as Yeh Rishta kya Kehlata hai, Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, Yeh hai Mohabbatein and Kumkum Bhagya crossed 1000 episodes.

    Initially, Prithvi Vallabh was slotted for two seasons of 40 episodes each but as it failed to garner required viewership, the broadcaster is considering wrapping it up in just 45 episodes.

    Media experts spoke to Indiantelevision.com about the opinion that the only thing that matters for a show is viewership and not its length. In most cases, channels restrict shows to 80 episodes initially and extensions depend on traction. One expert feels that the demand for finite shows will continue to be in the future as well.

    In an earlier interaction, Zee TV deputy business head Deepak Rajadhyaksha said, “Zee hasn’t done finite shows with follow-ups intentionally except perhaps Chhoti Bahu, Punarvivaah (both of which had a second season but not launched as a finite series).”  He said that cost saving isn’t of utmost priority for a channel and a story will be told regardless.

    Sony Entertainment Television’s head of non-fiction Ashish Golwalkar said that when a writer is able to create a fresh story with old characters, channels give a thought to reinvigorating the show. “Whoever does a second season of any show, never considers cost as a criterion. There is an affinity towards the character that you build over time and once the story is over, you take a pause, wait for a while, redo the story and come back within a span with the same characters where the affinity of the show continues.”

    When it comes to Hindi GEC viewers, the channels and shows find it extremely difficult to break TV viewing habits. The genre works on appointment viewing and the viewer follows a routine in terms of shows they watch. It is not just the number of days of telecast, even the time-slot matters. Say, if for instance, Naagin was aired at the 5.30 pm time slot, it wouldn’t have done as great as it had been doing in its initial two seasons.

    Broadcasters are assured that Indian viewers are ardent followers of storylines regardless of how long a show extends. So it only makes sense for them to keep creating engaging stories that can maintain consistent viewership.

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    Sony takes audiences to the crossroads with new show

  • Sony increases its stake in Sony Financial

    Sony increases its stake in Sony Financial

    MUMBAI: Sony Corporation has raised its stake in Sony Financial Holdings from 63 per cent. The latter is the holding company for Sony’s financial services business. However, the total per cent of stake that Sony will now hold in its financial department is still unknown. 

    The company bought 9 million shares on Tuesday for 2,144 yen each in an off-market transaction. Sony Corporation already holds 274,050,000 shares in the company.

    The ¥19.3 billion (around 170 Million) acquisition will boost net income for Sony’s shareholders with the goal of raising corporate value for both the Sony Group and Sony Financial.

    The company also said that it’s desirable for Sony Financial to maintain its listed status, and secure transparent management and independent financing

    The Financial division which was founded in 2004 is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and owns and oversees the operation of Sony Life Insurance, AEGON Sony Life Insurance (50 per cent joint venture with Aegon N.V.), SA Reinsurance Ltd. (50 per cent joint venture with Aegon; British Bermuda), Sony Life Singapore, Sony Assurance, Sony Bank, Sony Payment Services, SmartLink Network Hong Kong Limited, Sony Lifecare and Lifecare Design. 
     

  • Zee Anmol retains lead in GEC (U+R) in BARC’s week 24 data

    Zee Anmol retains lead in GEC (U+R) in BARC’s week 24 data

    MUMBAI: Zee Anmol retained its top spot in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for week 24 in the Hindi GEC (U+R) market. While Star Utsav and Rishtey swapped their third and fourth positions in the rural market, Star Plus and Zee TV exchanged second and third positions in the urban segment.

    Hindi GEC (U+R)

    Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Zee TV, Star Bharat and Colors maintained first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions with with 772625 impressions (000s) sum, 616233 impressions (000s) sum, 552159 impressions (000s) sum, 544769 impressions (000s) sum and 529007 impressions (000s) sum respectively. 

    Star climbed to sixth position from eighth as compared to the previous week with 504957 impressions (000s) sum. Star Utsav and Rishtey stood at seventh and eighth positions respectively with 474052 impressions (000s) sum and 463939 impressions (000s) sum. 

    Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television retained their ninth and tenth positions with with 358727 impressions (000s) sum and 317129 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Hindi Rural GEC

    Zee Anmol and Sony Pal continued to dominate up top with 597016 impressions (000s) sum and 416989 impressions (000s) sum respectively. Star Utsav and Rishtey swapped their third and fourth positions with 330413 impressions (000s) sum and 329890 impressions (000s) sum respectively. 

    Star Bharat and Zee TV retained fifth and sixth positions with 279594 impressions (000s) sum and 211475 impressions (000s) sum respectively. 

    Dangal TV and Big Magic exchanged their seventh and eighth positions with 206229 impressions (000s) sum and 192924 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Colors andf Star Plus swapped their ninth and tenth positions with 158490 impressions (000s) sum and 151865 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Hindi Urban GEC

    In urban GEC, Colors retained first position this week with 370516 impressions (000s) sum. Star Plus and Zee TV exchanged second and third positions respectively with 353092 impressions (000s) sum and 340684 impressions (000s) sum. 

    Sony Sab, Star Bharat, Sony Entertainment Television, Sony Pal, Zee Anmol, Star Utsav and Rishtey retained their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with   270493 impressions (000s) sum and 265175 impressions (000s) sum, 245915 impressions (000s) sum, 199244 impressions (000s) sum, 175610 impressions (000s) sum, 143638 impressions (000s) sum and 134048 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

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  • DEN aims to convert 10% of SD subscribers to HD in a year

    DEN aims to convert 10% of SD subscribers to HD in a year

    MUMBAI: DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma has set a target of converting 10 per cent of its standard definition (SD) subscribers to high definition (HD) within a year.

    Sharma, speaking on an analysts call, said that DEN currently has 7.4 million paid digital subscribers, but only about 100,000 of those view HD transmissions.

    He further noted that the price of HD set top boxes (STBs) has seen a decline from Rs 4,000-5,000 to Rs 1,500-1,600 and that should help in increasing the HD penetration.

    Reports said that DEN has locked in content deals with most broadcasters with the increase being less than 15 per cent. The MSO’s content deals are valid till April 2019 barring that of Star which will come up for renewal in nine months by January. DEN has also resolved its dispute with ZEEL. 

    “All these deals have been signed up and are firmly in the place. The content cost increase is in the range of less than 15 per cent,” Sharma said.

    He also said that all the deals will come up for renewal next year as agreements with Sony and IndiaCast will expire in March 2019. Star and Zee are now signing only one-year deals. 

    “So as of now our content deals are all frozen till March and April next year. By then all of them become due for renewal,” he noted.

    The deals with broadcasters are consolidated and include both standard definition (SD) and HD channels.

    Currently, the DEN strategy is to replace older STBs as they run out of warranty, as well as to use new HD STBs as the cable network expands into new areas.

    Also Read:

    Den Networks appoints Himanshu Jindal as CFO

    DEN expands broadband services; plans Rs 100 cr capex

  • Colors emerges leader in GEC urban in BARC’s week 23 data

    Colors emerges leader in GEC urban in BARC’s week 23 data

    MUMBAI: Viacom18’s free to air (FTA) channel Rishtey witnessed a drop of five places, from second to seventh, as compared to last week in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for week 23 of 2018 in the Hindi GEC (U+R) market. While Sony Pal and Rishtey exchanged their second and third positions in the rural market, Colors secured first position by overtaking Zee TV in the urban segment.

    Hindi GEC (U+R)

    Zee Anmol maintained its top spot with 803634 impressions (000s) sum. Sony Pal moved up from fourth to second with 651390 impressions (000s) sum, while Zee TV retained its third position with 599049 impressions (000s) sum.

    Star Bharat, Colors and Star Utsav were placed fourth, fifth and sixth with 555751 impressions (000s) sum, 547437 impressions (000s) sum and 520461 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Rishtey slipped to the seventh from second this week with 506821 impressions (000s) sum, with Star Plus in eighth position with 458688 impressions (000s) sum.

    Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television retained their ninth and tenth positions with with 385499 impressions (000s) sum, 344248 impressions (000s) sum respectively.
    Hindi Rural GEC

    Zee Anmol continued to dominate up top with 613371 impressions (000s) sum. Sony Pal and Rishtey exchanged their second and third positions with445464 impressions (000s) sum and 363250 impressions (000s) sum.

    Star Utsav, Star Bharat Zee TV, Big Magic and Dangal TV retained their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively with 362717impressions (000s) sum, 288306 impressions (000s) sum, 236887 impressions (000s) sum, 200328 impressions (000s) sum and 199370 impressions (000s) sum.

    Colors andf Star Plus swapped their ninth and tenth positions with 164420 impressions (000s) sum and 137157 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Hindi Urban GEC

    In urban GEC, Colors secured first position this week edging out Zee TV with 383017 impressions (000s) sum. Zee TV stood at the second position with 362163 impressions (000s) sum.

    Star Plus and Sony Sab were at third and fourth places with 321530 impressions (000s) sum and 287745 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Star Bharat and Sony Entertainment Television retained their fifth and sixth positions with 267446 impressions (000s) sum and 260522 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

    Sony Pal, Zee Anmol, Star Utsav and Rishtey were at seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 205926 impressions (000s), 190263 impressions (000s), 157744 impressions (000s) and 143572 impressions (000s)  respectively.

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  • Regional market contributes 22 per cent to Star’s IPL viewership

    Regional market contributes 22 per cent to Star’s IPL viewership

    MUMBAI: The recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) final, aired across 17 different channels on Star India’s bouquet in eight different languages was a smash hit. According to the  Broadcast  Audience Research Council (BARC) All India data 2+, the contest between MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) garnered 55.6 million impressions.

    The 2018 final witnessed a massive growth of 41 per cent as compared to the 2017 one between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) that generated 39.4 million impressions.

    The growth in numbers included the contribution from pubcaster DD Sports as well.

    The regional market contributing 22 per cent to the total viewership is bound to delight the broadcaster, encouraging it to penetrate deeper into this market next season. Not surprisingly, the Hindi market led with 54 per cent of the viewership share, while English contributed 24 per cent of the total pie.

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    The total impressions grew 15% from season 10 to 11. Sony Pictures Network with only five channels managed to garner 1.2 billion impressions, whereas Star India with 11 channels for the league matches and 17 channels for the final achieved 1.4 billion impressions.

    The top three contests this season were match number one, three and the final. The opening match with 35.9 million impressions saw a growth of 37 per cent compared to opening match of season 10 between SRH and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) which garnered 28.3 million impressions. The third match between RCB and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clocked 35.1 million impressions.

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    Star India’s strategy of focusing on regional feeds has worked in their favour. It now remains to be seen how the broadcaster ups the ante for next season of the cash-rich league.

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  • Zee Anmol retains leadership in GEC (U+R) for week 22

    Zee Anmol retains leadership in GEC (U+R) for week 22

    MUMBAI: Zee TV and Sony Pal swapped their third and fourth positions respectively in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for week 22 of 2018 in the Hindi GEC (U+R) market as compared to the prvious week. While there were no changes in the rural markets, Sony Sab and Colors exchanged their third and fourth positions in the GEC urban market this week. 

    Hindi GEC (U+R)

    Zee Anmol and Rishtey retained their first and second positions with 821672 impressions (000s) and 665332 impressions (000s) respectively. Zee TV and Sony Pal swapped their third and fourth positions with 592858 impressions (000s) and 577214 impressions (000s) respectively.  

    Star Bharat, Star Utsav, Star Plus, Colors, Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television retained their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with with 536573 impressions (000s), 490206 impressions (000s), 447354 impressions (000s), 391757 impressions (000s), 387189 impressions (000s) and 340834 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Hindi Rural GEC

    Zee Anmol, Rishtey, Sony Pal, Star Utsav and Star Bharat retained their first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions with 634042 impressions (000s), 468313 impressions (000s), 383447 impressions (000s), 346348 impressions (000s) and 275830 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Zee TV, Big Magic, Dangal TV, Star Plus and Colors also retained their sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 234207 impressions (000s), 222990 impressions (000s) and 207825 impressions (000s), 135826 impressions (000s), 110321 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Hindi Urban GEC

    In urban GEC, Zee TV and Star Plus retained their first and second positions with 358650 impressions (000s) and 311527 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Sony Sab and Colors exchanged their third and fourth positions with 287594 impressions (000s) and 281435 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Star Bharat and Sony Entertainment Television retained their fifth and sixth positions respectively with 260743 impressions (000s) and 258833impressions (000s).

    Rishtey, Sony Pal, Zee Anmol and Star Utsav stood at seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively with 197019 impressions (000s), 193766impressions (000s), 187629 impressions (000s) and 143857 impressions (000s).

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  • Sony bets big on 2018 FIFA World Cup

    Sony bets big on 2018 FIFA World Cup

    MUMBAI: With the 2018 FIFA World Cup set to kick off on June 14, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) is gearing up for the company’s most-anticipated event of the year. Banking on the rising popularity of football in India, the formidable FIFA brand and a viral ad campaign, the sports cluster of Sony Pictures is aiming to double up its viewership this year.

    While the football viewership in India on the rise, FIFA events tend to enjoy a further spike in the television rating as they draw both fans and fringe-viewers to the screens. In a bid to heighten the excitement around this edition of the World Cup, Sony has opted for a fan-centric campaign instead of a player-centric one.

    “When we looked at data, we saw that there is a football audience and there is a FIFA audience, wherein the FIFA audience is far greater than football audience. People follow FIFA since we don’t have our own country’s participation it and it was a challenge to drive communication around it,” says Sony Pictures Networks senior VP of marketing and OAP of sports Kedar Teny.

    Titled ‘Meri Doosri Country’, the campaign aims to encourage Indian fans to cheer for an ‘adopted’ country. The campaign idea took shape over a cup of coffee between Sony and agency Culture Machine. Sony was clear about what it wanted – a campaign that goes beyond clichés of football to make it relevant for the fans.

    While Sony was part of the creative process, it did not interfere with the creative freedom of the agency.

    The campaign was shot at various locations in Mumbai, Kolkata and Goa and an enormous cast of over 800+ actors. Interestingly, the last (closing) shot itself featured over 300 people.

    The campaign has adopted a 360-degree approach and is spread across TV, digital, print, and radio and will be telecasted in English, Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam.

    The world feed in English will be on SONY TEN 2 SD and HD channels, the Hindi feed will be aired on SONY TEN 3 SD and HD channels while Bengali and Malayalam feed will be available on SONY ESPN SD channel.

    The company is aggressively advertising and marketing the tournament on television and various digital platforms. Soon after launching the first campaign, Sony has launched a series of short format content on television and digital.

    Sony’s partnership with FIFA has been a successful one, claims the network. Some of their previous collaborations with the world football’s governing body include the 2014 FIFA World Cup, FIFA U-17 WC India, FIFA Confederates Cup, FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup.

    “The association with FIFA has been good for business for Sony Pictures Networks. Our viewership numbers have exceeded our expectations in all events and we are extremely proud of our association,” highlights Sony Pictures Sports Networks president of sales and distribution Rajesh Kaul.

    Sony is confident of having a successful tournament. Given the instant success of its promotional campaign, one cannot fault the management for being in a buoyant mood ahead of the showpiece event. Now, all they can hope for is an exciting tournament that will keep the fans glued to their television sets.