Tag: TV advertising

  • Indian OTT/VOD  will not impact cable TV and DTH: Edelweiss Capital

    Indian OTT/VOD will not impact cable TV and DTH: Edelweiss Capital

    MUMBAI: Financial services firm Edelweiss Capital’s research division’s latest report on the impact of OTT on television in India is surely going to delight the cockles of executives in broadcasting companies and probably raise the hackles of those in the video on demand space. The report says that, even as consumers are bound to increase their spends and time spent on video – either on handheld devices or on their smart TVs or their laptops, this will have a negligible impact on traditional linear TV’s fortunes.

    Cord cutting or cord shaving which has been rampant in the US as cable TV and DTH viewers shift from their expensive services to cheaper VOD options or to cheaper TV packages is not something that is going to pop up in a hurry in India, says the Edelweiss report. The Indian cable TV and DTH segments are marked by low monthly rentals of Rs 300-450 as compared to the US where DTH and cable TV fees have soared.

    “The Indian OTT market is at a nascent stage and is quite like the US was seven years ago,” it points out.

    However, it is optimistic about the growth of the OTT sector. Currently, the challenge is broadband speed, the report points out, with the average home clocking 3.5 mbps, which is not enough to offer lag-free HD video streaming. It reveals that this will change with cheaper data and broadband options fueling VOD and OTT taking consumption of video content up from 3.5 hours to five hours daily.

    Consumers are going to open their wallets and spend Rs 600-700 per month from the current Rs 300-450 per month to view video content across various platforms in the next five years, the report says. “In the case of India, it is largely a single-TV home market where not everyone in the family gets to watch what they want during prime time which will aid the OTT space,” the report adds.

    But, VOD and OTT is only going to complement traditional television and not erode it is the report’s guidance.

    The brokerage house is quite clear that TV advertising is also going to hold its ground because its viewership is going to continue to be steady. And, there is going to be no loss in revenues on account of VOD/OTT and the heady growths in digital video consumption and digital advertising.

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • IDOS 2016: OTT  advertising vs TV advertising

    IDOS 2016: OTT advertising vs TV advertising

    GOA: Is Online Video (read: OTT) advertising eating into TV’s share? That was the question posed  by the final session of IDOS 2016 held in Goa’s Leela Hotel. The obvious consensus answer from the panelists was a big “no” – and it does not take a genius to reach that conclusion.

    On the panel were IPG Media brands CEO Shashi Sinha, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) digital head Uday Sodhi, Starcom India Group CEO, Mallikarjun “Malli”  Das and Eros Now business head Zulfiqar ‘Zulfi’ Khan.

    “Digital advertising accounts for about eight to nine per cent of total ad spends,”  said Malli. “Most of this goes towards Google, Facebook. Two to three per cent is going towards digital video, and that too most of it is going towards You Tube.  It’s early days yet for the OTT players to have any revenues of significance.”

    “Google has played a pioneering role –  the educational and evangelizing approach that it along with YouTube took visiting advertisers and agencies to explain to them the efficacy of using it  platform,” said Zulfi. “The OTT industry is too nascent and new, and has a lot of work to do.”

    Sinha pointed out that the disparity in CPMs between television and online IP video is drastic. “Television is being sold on a cost per rating point (CPRP) basis in India today. In most countries, it is on a CPMs,” he said. “The CPMs even for TV are very low, and for online video, even lower. Airtime on television has become a commodity as there is plenty of inventory, but networks have large enough audiences to present to advertisers.”

    public://IMG_5444.jpg

    Added Malli: “Television also has a reliable currency – BARC – to measure what’s happening to their spends – the reach, the viewership. Which makes all of us in the media and advertising community secure. We can buy across a network and aggregate audience.”

    The panelists agreed even though the OTT players are providing very specific – in fact a surfeit of data, enough confidence has yet to be built in among the advertisers. “There’s fragmentation in the OTT community. There are too many platforms,” said Sinha. “And you can’t aggregate enough audiences of significance to allow us to take CPMs up here.”

    Sodhi agreed that OTT video platforms had managed to build an active audience of about 70 million. He said: “China’s tipping point for OTT to significantly impact TV ad spends came when the number of users crossed 200 million.  India has to grow. SonyLiv has around around 10 million. Good and stable bandwidth and right pricing  of data are the issues to be dealt with to expand the OTT user base,” Sodhi said.

    Malli believed that the audience of 70 million is large enough. “The Times of India has a seven and a half million readership and there is thousands of crores going into the paper.”

    Both Malli and Sinha stated that agencies have started presenting media plans which, include TV plus and online video. “That’s a great improvement over earlier. We are putting in money behind online video. But it’s left to the OTT- owner – the broadcaster – to show it as OTT ad spend or TV ad spend. However, to be fair, the sector will grow when FMCGs start putting in their faith behind digital online video,” revealed Sinha.

    Then what is holding the ecosystem back? “Most of the robust OTT platforms are backed by the broadcasters,” revealed Sinha. “The leadership is fearful their targeted revenue objectives from television might get impacted if they start shifting the focus more toward digital video advertising. This leadership has to take a hard call.”

    He pointed out that BARC – of which he is a technical committee member – is gearing up to measure online video consumption and become the second country in the world to do so.

    “We are ready to launch online video measurement  by March 2017. Relevant data is going to be provided by some of our partners in the ecosystem to allow us to provide effective measurement numbers. However, the signal has to come from the broadcast community,”  he quipped.

    Zulfi pointed out that Eros Now has around a  million subscribers – split between India and overseas – paying Rs 49 a month for its Bollywood movie service.

    However, his view that today snacking was the primary form of consumption of digital video, was countered by Sodhi, who stated  that the SonyLiv audience was sticking around for  around for 16-22 minutes per session.

    They all agreed that there is a bright future for digital video advertising. But, none wanted to hazard a guess as to when will it happen. “I have no clue when will the inflection point come,” Sinha said. “It is now.”

    Malli too said that he had no clue about it. “Although the stage is set, I can’t predict when a significant migration to digital will happen — in one, two or three years from now.”

    Sodhi revealed that almost 70 million users are being added to the digital video consumers pie every year. “Within two to two and a half years we will have 200 million users,” he predicted. “And that will be a number no one will want to ignore. The advertising tap will flow and flow then.”

  • IDOS 2016: OTT  advertising vs TV advertising

    IDOS 2016: OTT advertising vs TV advertising

    GOA: Is Online Video (read: OTT) advertising eating into TV’s share? That was the question posed  by the final session of IDOS 2016 held in Goa’s Leela Hotel. The obvious consensus answer from the panelists was a big “no” – and it does not take a genius to reach that conclusion.

    On the panel were IPG Media brands CEO Shashi Sinha, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) digital head Uday Sodhi, Starcom India Group CEO, Mallikarjun “Malli”  Das and Eros Now business head Zulfiqar ‘Zulfi’ Khan.

    “Digital advertising accounts for about eight to nine per cent of total ad spends,”  said Malli. “Most of this goes towards Google, Facebook. Two to three per cent is going towards digital video, and that too most of it is going towards You Tube.  It’s early days yet for the OTT players to have any revenues of significance.”

    “Google has played a pioneering role –  the educational and evangelizing approach that it along with YouTube took visiting advertisers and agencies to explain to them the efficacy of using it  platform,” said Zulfi. “The OTT industry is too nascent and new, and has a lot of work to do.”

    Sinha pointed out that the disparity in CPMs between television and online IP video is drastic. “Television is being sold on a cost per rating point (CPRP) basis in India today. In most countries, it is on a CPMs,” he said. “The CPMs even for TV are very low, and for online video, even lower. Airtime on television has become a commodity as there is plenty of inventory, but networks have large enough audiences to present to advertisers.”

    public://IMG_5444.jpg

    Added Malli: “Television also has a reliable currency – BARC – to measure what’s happening to their spends – the reach, the viewership. Which makes all of us in the media and advertising community secure. We can buy across a network and aggregate audience.”

    The panelists agreed even though the OTT players are providing very specific – in fact a surfeit of data, enough confidence has yet to be built in among the advertisers. “There’s fragmentation in the OTT community. There are too many platforms,” said Sinha. “And you can’t aggregate enough audiences of significance to allow us to take CPMs up here.”

    Sodhi agreed that OTT video platforms had managed to build an active audience of about 70 million. He said: “China’s tipping point for OTT to significantly impact TV ad spends came when the number of users crossed 200 million.  India has to grow. SonyLiv has around around 10 million. Good and stable bandwidth and right pricing  of data are the issues to be dealt with to expand the OTT user base,” Sodhi said.

    Malli believed that the audience of 70 million is large enough. “The Times of India has a seven and a half million readership and there is thousands of crores going into the paper.”

    Both Malli and Sinha stated that agencies have started presenting media plans which, include TV plus and online video. “That’s a great improvement over earlier. We are putting in money behind online video. But it’s left to the OTT- owner – the broadcaster – to show it as OTT ad spend or TV ad spend. However, to be fair, the sector will grow when FMCGs start putting in their faith behind digital online video,” revealed Sinha.

    Then what is holding the ecosystem back? “Most of the robust OTT platforms are backed by the broadcasters,” revealed Sinha. “The leadership is fearful their targeted revenue objectives from television might get impacted if they start shifting the focus more toward digital video advertising. This leadership has to take a hard call.”

    He pointed out that BARC – of which he is a technical committee member – is gearing up to measure online video consumption and become the second country in the world to do so.

    “We are ready to launch online video measurement  by March 2017. Relevant data is going to be provided by some of our partners in the ecosystem to allow us to provide effective measurement numbers. However, the signal has to come from the broadcast community,”  he quipped.

    Zulfi pointed out that Eros Now has around a  million subscribers – split between India and overseas – paying Rs 49 a month for its Bollywood movie service.

    However, his view that today snacking was the primary form of consumption of digital video, was countered by Sodhi, who stated  that the SonyLiv audience was sticking around for  around for 16-22 minutes per session.

    They all agreed that there is a bright future for digital video advertising. But, none wanted to hazard a guess as to when will it happen. “I have no clue when will the inflection point come,” Sinha said. “It is now.”

    Malli too said that he had no clue about it. “Although the stage is set, I can’t predict when a significant migration to digital will happen — in one, two or three years from now.”

    Sodhi revealed that almost 70 million users are being added to the digital video consumers pie every year. “Within two to two and a half years we will have 200 million users,” he predicted. “And that will be a number no one will want to ignore. The advertising tap will flow and flow then.”

  • Brands’ website traffic has direct correlation with TV advertising: study

    Brands’ website traffic has direct correlation with TV advertising: study

    NEW DELHI: A study shows that website traffic rises and falls in direct correlation with TV advertising for majority of call-to-action brands, which depend on immediate results from marketing efforts. 

     
    The Video Advertising Bureau’s (VAB) study Ignition Point: The TV-Traffic Correlation for Call-to-Action Brands came to this finding after studying 125 brands in six categories (restaurants, retail, travel, telecommunications & location-based mobile apps, financial and insurance) representing more than $30 billion in TV advertising in 2014.
     

    The brands studied were a cross-section – large, midsized, smaller, national, regional and local – with more than 100,000 unique visitors per month as measured by comScore. All results are from the February 2014 to March 2015 period. 

     
    A total of 82 per cent of these brands showed a direct correlation between TV advertising and website traffic. Of the 85 brands with unique visitor increases, 87 per cent had increased TV spending – an average of 22 per cent increase in spending and 24 per cent increase in visitors. Of the 40 brands with unique visitor decreases, 70 per cent had lowered TV spending – an average of 10 per cent less TV spending and nine per cent decrease in visitors.
     

    VAB CEO Sean Cunningham said, “TV is the great activator in Internet commerce. A majority of brands with the most on the line for big sales now see their website traffic follow the curve of their investment in TV advertising. TV advertising does more than generate awareness; it triggers the most important action at a time when the Internet functions as a brand’s storefront to the world.”

     
    While the specific ratios of advertising to traffic vary, the pattern is predominant and consistent. On a category level, 72 per cent of travel brands showed a direct correlation between TV advertising and website traffic, versus 76 per cent of restaurants, 82 per cent of retail, 85 per cent of insurance, 86 per cent of financial, and 100 per cent of telco/apps.
     

    This is the second report in the VAB’s commitment to illustrate critical effects of TV advertising that are hidden by the silo nature of syndicated data. Last year, it looked at the correlation between TV advertising and website traffic for 75 pure-play Internet companies, and found 85 per cent showed a direct correlation between TV spending and website traffic.

  • Internet advertising to surpass TV by 2018: PwC report

    Internet advertising to surpass TV by 2018: PwC report

    MUMBAI: With laptops, smartphones and tablets becoming a part and parcel of people’s lives today; internet is bound to become an integral part of advertising and marketing.

     

    And if PwC’s Global entertainment and media outlook 2014-2018 (Outlook) is correct then the total entertainment and media spending on digital services is forecast to grow at a 12.2 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2013 and 2018 and accounts for 65 per cent of global entertainment and media spending growth, excluding spending on internet access.

     

    Advertising is leading the way; in 2018, 33 per cent of total advertising revenue is forecast to be digital, compared to 17 per cent of consumer revenue.

     

    However, profiting from the migration by increasing revenue from digital consumers will not just be about the application of digital technology. It will be about applying a ‘digital mindset’ to build the right behaviours, advancing from a digital strategy to a business strategy fit for a digital age, according to the report.

     

    PwC’s entertainment & media global leader Marcel Fenez said, “The bedrock of a strategy fit for the digital age is the digital mindset: getting even closer to the customer – across the entire organisation, and in everything it does. We now see that mindset embedded in many entertainment and media companies. But the industry needs to get even closer to the consumer and adopt more flexible business models. To do this, companies must exhibit three behaviours: forging trust with consumers; creating the confidence to move with speed and agility; and empowering innovation. This will be an important step in monetising the digital consumer.”

     

    Approaching a significant advertising tipping point

     

    Mobile internet penetration will reach 55 per cent in 2018, which will help drive digital advertising to increase its share of total advertising revenue to 33 per cent by 2018, up from 14 per cent in 2009. With internet advertising growing at a 10.7 per cent CAGR (compared to a total advertising CAGR of 4.4 per cent), the industry is approaching a significant tipping point: in 2018, internet advertising will be poised to surpass TV advertising. In 2009, TV advertising was double than that of internet advertising; in 2018, internet advertising will trail TV advertising by just $20billion. Mobile internet advertising is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 21.5 per cent.

     

    Monetising the digital consumer: challenge and opportunity

     

    Spending on digitally delivered content will account for only 17 per cent of total consumer spending in 2018 (excluding spending on internet access), compared to 33 per cent of total advertising spending. However, the growth of ‘24/7 access’ and micro-transactions suggest that the key to monetising the digital consumer is to adopt flexible business models that offer more choices and better experiences. Electronic home video over-the-top (OTT)/streaming and digital music streaming are two of the fastest-growing consumer sub-segments cited in the Outlook, set to rise at annual rates of 28.1 per cent and 13.4 per cent, respectively.

     

    Nine markets driving growth

     

    Nine high-growth markets are powering global entertainment and media revenue. China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina and Indonesia collectively are forecast to account for 21.7 per cent of global entertainment and media revenue in 2018, up from just 12.4 per cent in 2009. Also in 2018, China will overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest entertainment and media market, behind only the US. 

     

    Fenez added, “What all these markets have in common is a growing middle class boosting spending in entertainment and media. But the similarities stop there. Realising the revenue potential of these markets demands a deep understanding of the local context.Given their intimate local market knowledge, domestic organisations are in prime position to realise the opportunity of the emerging middle class. The optimal approach for international players will most certainly be to collaborate with local partners.”

     

    Advertising is spearheading the migration to digital as it follows eyeballs online:

     

    • Internet TV advertising will double its share of total TV advertising revenue in the next five years. Internet TV advertising revenue from traditional broadcasters will increase from $3.7bn in 2013 to $9.7bn in 2018, and more than double its share of total TV advertising from 2.2 per cent in 2013 to 4.5 per cent in 2018. Traditional broadcasters still dominate and are adapting to the internet video opportunity, creating a significant new revenue stream despite competition from internet rivals.

    • Mobile advertising will overtake classified internet advertising in 2014. Global mobile internet advertising revenue is forecast to leapfrog classified internet advertising to become the third-largest internet advertising channel with revenues of $18.9bn in 2014. But after four particularly strong years, driven by the launch of a range of tablets, the annual rate of mobile revenue growth is falling back to the levels seen prior to their introduction. Advertisers now must do more than simply migrate large-screen banners to handhelds to sustain such growth.

    • Digital consumer magazine advertising revenue is much larger than digital circulation. Global digital consumer magazine advertising revenue will be $12.4bn in 2018, rising at a 17.6 per cent CAGR; digital circulation revenue will be just $5.7bn in the same year. This compares to a decline of 3.9 per cent CAGR for consumer magazine print advertising revenue. Currently advertising is centered on magazine websites, but, as digital circulations increase, electronic editions will become increasingly popular for advertisers.

    • Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising revenue will see significant growth in fast-growth markets. DOOH advertising is driving overall OOH advertising growth globally at a CAGR of 16.2 per cent. However, in certain fast-growing markets, DOOH advertising revenue is forecast to grow even more rapidly, with CAGRs in excess of 30 per cent. China is set to become the largest DOOH advertising market in the world by 2017.

    Success in making money from the digital consumer can be found in offering choice and better experiences

    • Subscription TV will not be daunted by the rise of OTT as it grows across global markets. Global subscription TV revenues (excluding licence fees) will grow at a CAGR of 3.5 per cent over the next five years to $236bn in 2018. This growth demonstrates that subscription TV is in a healthy position, assisted by the initiatives it has implemented to counter the impact of OTT and other disruptive influences.

    •    Box office resilience underscores the continuing popularity of cinema. Global box office revenue will exceed revenue from physical home video in 2014 and grow to $45.9bn by 2018, from $36.1bn in 2013, a 4.9 per cent CAGR. In many growth markets, cinemas are being built to cater to the growing middle class.

    • Digital newspaper payments are taking off, but won’t prove transformational. Digital newspaper circulation revenue grew by 66.2 per cent through 2013. But although individual publishers report improved fortunes, few are hailing a transformation. Digital circulation will make up just 8 per cent of total circulation revenue globally by 2018.

    • Rising digital consumer revenue may be driven by 24/7 access. Two of the best-performing consumer sub-segments use a model in which consumers pay for round-the-clock access: digital music streaming revenue will grow at a 13.4 per cent CAGR, and electronic home video OTT/streaming will rise at a 28.1 per cent.These growth rates will not only offset a slow-moving non-digital consumer market, but may also point the way forward for other segments.

    • Global electronic home video revenue will exceed physical home video revenue in 2018. Globally, the total combined revenue from OTT/streaming services and broadcasters’ video on demand services will grow at a CAGR of 19.9 per cent. This will overtake physical home video revenue (the sale and rental of DVDs and Blu-ray discs) in 2018.

    • Digital recorded music revenue will surpass physical recorded revenue in 2014. Global total digital recorded music revenue of $10.18bn will exceed physical recorded music revenues of $10.17bn for the first time in 2014.  Greater service appeal for consumers will improve sales and by 2018, the year-on-year decline in total recorded music revenue will be just -0.1per cent.

    • All-you-can-read subscription services are yet to take off but will be transformational. While they are still to gain traction, users of subscription services and aggregators will soon reach critical mass. With growing magazine circulations will come rising circulation and advertising revenue.

    • Internet gaming is widening gaming participation and micro-transactions are helping to grow revenues. Internet gaming (including social gaming) has opened markets previously considered lost to piracy, with the business model enabling greater freedom and choice in how much gamers pay. China is the second-largest market for internet gaming ($4.2bn in 2013).In 2017, Russia will overtake Germany to become the seventh-largest market for internet gaming. Micro-transactions will help grow total video games revenues to $89.0bn (6.2 per cent CAGR) in 2018 and total console games revenues to $31.9bn (4.9 per cent CAGR) in 2018.

  • GroupM ESP to explore opportunities in Eastern India

    GroupM ESP to explore opportunities in Eastern India

    National: 2nd August 2013: GroupM ESP (Entertainment & Sports Partnerships), a specialist business unit of GroupM operating inthe field of Entertainment, Sports & Live, Celebrities and Content withexpertise in building clients businesses through strategic consulting and creative ideation, conducted a summit in Kolkata. Top brands like Emami, Manyavar, Linc Pens, Spencer’s Retail and Century Plyboards were amongst the attendees who were taken through the non-traditional media approaches and offerings by GroupM ESP

    With the recent impact of 10+2 luring on traditional TV advertising, GroupM ESP presented strategic insights on leveraging brands and their positioning through integration across entertainment, sports & live events, celebrity associations etc. The ideas shared in the summit were to introduce THE POWER OF INTERACTIVE MEDIA OVER INTERRUPTIVE MEDIA. With a paradigm shift in the way media is consumed, the summit focused on content’s movement from AIRING TO SHARING!

    The summit received an overwhelming response. While GroupM clients like Century Plyboards, Spencer’s Retail, Berger Paints, Microsec Capital and Dey’s Medical attended the summit; non-GroupM clients like Emami, Linc Pen & Plastics, Manyavar, Concast ISPAT, Eveready Industries, Khadim’s, Shree Cements and SRMB Steel also graced the occasion. The summit focused on the key areas of interest like activations and experiential marketing, celebrity procurement, in-film branding and brand integrations within live events like IIFA, SIIMA, GIMA etc. The industry experts from GroupM like GroupM ESP, Dialogue Factory, and GroupM Interaction presented their credentials in the summit.

    “With media landscape in a state of constant flux, we at GroupM ESP truly believe in the adage ‘Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can’. The underlying thought of this summit was to interact and present the opportunities available beyond the realms of traditional advertising to clients outside a ‘Mumbai’ or a ‘Delhi’. The icing on the cake was the overwhelming response that we received from the clients which reinstates our belief in the strength of non-traditional media” said Vinit Karnik-National Director- Sports and Live GroupM ESP

  • “The appeal for Indian content amongst Britasians in the UK is strong”: Business Head – FTA channels, mainstream sales head at Zee Network UK Archana Kanade

    “The appeal for Indian content amongst Britasians in the UK is strong”: Business Head – FTA channels, mainstream sales head at Zee Network UK Archana Kanade

    Archana Kanade is the young and dynamic head of free to air channels business of Zee UK. Her job: increase the cachet that the two channels she heads – Zing and Lamhe – have with Britasians in the UK. In addition, she has the added responsibility of looking after mainstream advertising sales for the network.

    Under her leadership, Zing has become the most watched Asian lifestyle channel in the UK. She has also been responsible for the launch of ‘Cloud 9‘ – the UK’s first Asian drama shot locally.

    Kanade’s background is from mainstream sales, wherein she pushed Zee TV’s shows and film catalogue to global clients. This apart she has had a three year stint in Mumbai with Applause Entertainment, a former Birla group company, involved in production of TV shows and films.

    She recently spearheaded the luanch of Lamhe in the UK, giving it a snazzy look and feel. Indiantelevision.com spoke to her to get her perspective on the potential for Lamhe and Zing in the UK in a short bite interview.

    Excerpts:

    How large is the market for Indian content in the UK? How big is the TV advertising market in the UK?

    South Asians are the largest ethnic group in the UK, with a population close to three million. The appeal for Indian content amongst this group is strong with a large number of channels catering to them. Zee is the largest and fastest growing network catering to this group and aims to distinguish its offerings and provide the best in the genre for them. The advertising expenditure of the UK market is close to US $7.5 billion.

    How many viewers do you currently cater to? How many of those belong to the South Asian and Indian community?

    Zee’s two free-to-air channels are available across the major platforms – Sky on DTH and Virgin Media on cable as well as on the mobile TV service Yamgo. Zee offers premium South Asian content to the South Asian community. Its shows and movies offer English subtitles, making it accessible to the UK’s mainstream communities too. The appeal of the Indian culture and especially Bollywood is widespread across ethnic boundaries, which extends the reach of Zee’s content.

    Furthermore, many of Zing’s shows are in English and the channel aims to be a platform targeted to the second and third generation British Asians in the UK. It is showcasingCloud 9, which represents a milestone in Asian entertainment as it is the very first daily soap-series to be produced in the UK, specifically catering to the UK Asian audiences. This soap highlights the British Asian lifestyle, drawing on themes relevant to their way of life. In a never-before-seen method, the soap showcases the British Asian community in its true form, taking away stereotype perceptions regarding the UK‘s largest ethnic group – the South Asians.

    How many viewers are you catering to currently?
    The channel is available to DTH provider Sky’s subscriber base of almost 11 million, as well as on the cable service Virgin Media’s M+ Pack.

    Lamhe gives viewers the opportunity to view some of the most popular and award-winning shows in the history of South-Asian entertainment

    How are you promoting Zee Lamhe in the UK?

    The promotional plan of the new channel is designed to target the UK’s South Asian audiences through a complete 360 degree marketing plan across outdoor, print, TV, radio and the digital space. The mediums have been carefully selected to target the key pockets of the South Asian population spread in the UK to reach the almost three million strong South Asian community.

    Since both Lamhe as well as Zing are free to air channels are you planning to take them pay anytime soon?

    Zee operates along two models – its pay products and free-to-air offerings – both with distinct offerings. The premium pay products are Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee Punjabi. Lamhe offers a free to air window into the GEC space; it is a platform to celebrate the best in the genre of South-Asian dramas and Bollywood Classics. Zing is the UK’s number 1 Asian Lifestyle channel, delivering the best variety of the glamour of Bollywood – music, movies and news. Both channels offer content not accessible on other channels in the UK, which is why we want maximum viewers to enjoy it for free, with no current plan on making the channels subscription based.

    With the current line-up of shows that you have to offer, are you also looking at including more shows and if so, which ones?

    Lamhe gives viewers the opportunity to view some of the most popular and award-winning shows in the history of South-Asian entertainment, including classics such as:

    • Astitva – a popular series, winning many awards in 2005, focusing on the strength and courage of women’s identity.
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    • Amanat – one of the most popular Hindi television shows of its time that received the highest television ratings among many of 2000’s Hindi language shows in India.
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    • Hasratein – one of the most popular television shows of the 1990s, looking at the bold topic of extra-marital relationships.
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    • Kasamh Se – among the top shows in India in 2008, featuring the trials and tribulations of three sisters.

    The channel will also highlight the magnanimity of Bollywood with classic movies, featuring the best of evergreen stars such as Rishi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar, plus a Raj Kapoor special season at the weekends. We are delighted to already receive great enthusiasm towards this content, with many requests for other classics that people are eager to watch again. We will be monitoring this in line with the remit of presenting the best of South Asian entertainment.

    We will be monitoring the feedback, researching and accordingly selecting the content that would connect with the audiences for Lamhe

    Since Zing is targeted at the youth and Lamhe is bringing back memories from the times passed, which is the target audience group that you are looking at?

    Lamhe is targeted at an audience that will enjoy the best in the genre of dramas and classic movies. Its content is relevant to both younger and older viewers due to the nature of the topics explored by the selected shows and also the treatment of the programming. The selected shows portray topics that were ahead of their times when they were first aired. They focus on strong storylines and their edit patterns mean they are more real to life, compared to many of today’s shows, which holds for an appeal to an international audience.

    Lamhe also endeavours to bring back memories of the time when Zee TV was the only Asian channel in the UK enthralling viewers and Zee was their home away from home. With Lamhe, we want to gift our viewers an opportunity to experience those beautiful memories once again.

    What kind of content would you like to showcase in the coming months? Any movie rights acquisition going forward?

    Lamhe’s content will be driven by what the viewers want to watch. We will be monitoring the feedback, researching and accordingly selecting the content that would connect with the audiences.

  • SodaStream criticises ad censorship by UK ad body

    MUMBAI: SodaStream International was informed by Clearcast that the company‘s new global ad campaign had been pulled from transmission and would not be permitted to air in the UK market.

    Clearcast is the organisation that pre-approves UK TV advertising and is jointly funded by the UK‘s major broadcasters.

    The last minute decision came just ahead of the television commercial‘s planned UK premiere on 22 November, during the prime time scheduling of the ‘I‘m a Celebrity‘ programme on Britain‘s ITV1 channel.

    The ad shows different scenes of soda bottles disappearing instantaneously as people use the SodaStream soda maker, delivering a powerful message about waste and sustainability. The spot closes with commentary of ‘with SodaStream you can save 1000 bottles per year.‘ Despite already airing successfully in the US, Sweden and Australia, it has been deemed inappropriate for UK audiences.

    Clearcast offered the following reasoning for the decision: “The majority decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream. We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market.”

    SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum said, “This decision is absurd, and the explanation given is totally unreasonable. Are we really being censored for helping to save the environment? This might be the first time in the world when an environmental approach has been shut down by the media to protect a traditional industry. Of course we‘re competing with bottled beverages, but why is offering a game-changing approach denigrating? It is like saying that iPod ads denigrate the Walkman or that car ads denigrated the horse and buggy. Clearcast‘s decision is disappointing and disturbing for any democratic society.”

    “This decision appears to put the sensitivities of the world‘s soft drink giants ahead of concern for the environment. We will continue to push Clearcast to reverse their decision and let the British consumer decide. Meanwhile, I invite UK consumers to watch “The SodaStream Effect” on YouTube and form their own opinion on it.” youtube.com/sodastream.

    According to Euromonitor, there are 629 billion bottles and cans manufactured every year. “With global recycling rates estimated to be less than 30%, more than 1 billion of those bottles and cans are dumped as waste across parks, oceans and landfills every single day. Our ad confronts the beverage industry and its arguably outdated business model by showing people that there exists a smarter way to enjoy soft drinks, empowering them to get the bubbles without the bottles” concludes Birnbaum.