ITV

Tag: UTV Stars

  • Prashant Madan bags Piyush Pandey Scholarship for Creative Leadership

    MUMBAI: Disney-UTV India creative director – marketing and on-air promotion Prashant Madan has been awarded the Piyush Pandey Scholarship for Creative Leadership.

    He will receive full tuition support in the amount of €53,000 to participate in the Berlin School of Creative Leadership EMBA Program starting in March 2013.

    Ogilvy & Mather India chairman Piyush Pandey said, “I am delighted that Prashant Madan has been selected by the Berlin School for the Scholarship. It was a very keenly contested process and it was extremely difficult to make the choice. It was Berlin School‘s robust procedure that made the final decision. I wish Prashant great success at the Berlin School. Make India proud boy!”

    The scholarship, which was only eligible to candidates of Indian descent and currently residing in India, was an opportunity established to honour Pandey‘s service and support of the Berlin School. The scholarship was designed to help support leadership in the creative industries in India and emphasises the importance that effective leadership has in achieving creative excellence.

    Berlin School Director Sheridan Johns said, “We‘re thrilled to welcome Prashant to the Berlin School. As the first EMBA program participant from India Prashant will add to the diversity of the global Berlin School community as well as provide a wealth of experience and exciting ideas that will enrich the learning experience for the whole class.”

    According to the official statement, this is the first scholarship the Berlin School has offered specifically aimed at the Indian creative industries.

    Madan has over 12 years in on-air promotion and original content creation in genres including Youth Entertainment, Reality Television, English and Hindu movies, Business News, Events, Game Shows and Sports. He has been responsible for the launch and on-air branding of entertainment channels like Sony PIX, UTV Bindass, UTV Stars, UTV Action and UTV Movies.

    “I am honored and delighted to have won a scholarship instituted in honor of Piyush Pandey, a leading light in India and a huge inspiration for all creative leaders. Attending the Berlin School will offer me a tremendous opportunity to sharpen my skills for leading creative communication and strategy change in India, and ultimately across the globe,” Madan said.

    Madan will begin his EMBA program studies in Berlin on 10 March 2013, joining participants from over 45 countries as they complete five specially designed interdisciplinary two-week modules held in Asia, Europe and North America.

  • ETV Marathi awards creative mandate to Rickshaw Communication

    Mumbai: Rickshaw Communication & Design has bagged the creative mandate of ETV Marathi following a multi-agency pitch.

    They have been awarded this business on their strategy and creative strengths which were innovative and compelling, according to a statement.

    The agency will be responsible for devising campaigns for ETV Marathi that will cover outdoor, print and radio. It has already started work on a 360 degree marketing campaign for two new non fictions shows that will soon launch on ETV Marathi.

    Rickshaw Communication & Design founder and creative partner Suhas Parab said, “This win is going to be a challenge and equally good opportunity for the team at Rickshaw to explore the creative lengths for the pioneers of Marathi general entertainment. This account gives us an opportunity to get closer to the consumer of this genre and design campaigns that are more personal, effective and captivating. This is just the sort of work that we at Rickshaw enjoy doing.”

    Some of the other brands that Rickshaw Communication & Design has worked on are Mahindra Automobiles, UTV Stars, UTV Bindaas and Phoenix – Palladium Mall.

  • ‘BCCI rights great opportunity to build Star’s sports biz’ : Star India CEO Uday Shankar

    ‘BCCI rights great opportunity to build Star’s sports biz’ : Star India CEO Uday Shankar

    Just over a year old, UTV Stars is banking on revenue growth from advertising, syndication and distribution to achieve operational break even this fiscal.

     

    The launch of UTV Stars last August has expanded the Bollywood lifestyle TV genre, created by Zoom and E24. The core target audience of the channel is upscale youth in the age group of 15-24 years.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Javed Farooqui, UTV Stars business head Nikhil Gandhi talks about the channel‘s progress, its differentiated content and the challenges in the space.

     

    Excerpts:
     

    Does UTV Stars get a competitive advantage by being the child of Disney-UTV?
    We definitely have an edge as we have got a thriving motion pictures business. This allows us to do that much more compared to our competitors. Our access to the big Bollywood stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor or a Hrithik Roshan is much easier. If you see the kind of news content that we create, we are credible.

     
    Since UTV Stars‘ sister arm also produces movies, doesn‘t that also present a conflict of interest while covering Bollywood news?
    Once you have established yourself as a credible player in the space, I don‘t think any star or film producer would think that there is a conflict of interest. They, in fact, would want to promote their films that much more. Moreover, our editor is Manish Dubey who was with Aaj Tak and has credible bondage with the movie stars. Also, our correspondents as well as special features editors have professional relationships with all the big superstars.

     
    Isn‘t differentiation very thin in this kind of genre?
    When we started, we positioned UTV Stars as the official channel of Bollywood. We were also known as being the intimate insider to Bollywood. We got all the big stars to endorse and that reflected in our launch campaign. We did a big chat show with Priety Zinta. We also did a show called ‘Live My Life‘ which is coming up for its second season after the channel‘s first anniversary on 19 August. Our channel is also available in High Definition, taking the viewing experience to a whole new level.

     
    How is your content mix different from other rival channels?
    On a daily basis, we have three and half hours of original content while the others offer three hours. So we have half-an-hour of additional content. This is largely because we have original long format shows, giving our channel a differentiated value. You won‘t see big ticket reality shows on other channels.

     

    We run Bollywood music and movies but news and shows form a large portion of our prime time content. We play music in non-prime time because the TG loves it and because Bollywood music lends itself well with the channel. 

     

    ‘On a daily basis, we have three and half hours of original content while the rival channels offer three hours. So we are half-an-hour of additional content‘
     

    How would you define your target group?
    We are in the youth space but have a definite skew towards Bollywood. In terms of demographics, our core target group is 15-24 SEC AB. Bollywood stars influence the youth of India a great deal. In that sense, the kind of content that we have created caters to the Indian youth. So even though Bollywood content cuts across age groups, we are going to focus on youth particularly after the kind of success that we have seen online.

     
    Could you elaborate on the online growth?
    We have almost half a million fans on Facebook. We are also the largest content provider for Bollywood content on YouTube and have already got 30 million views. We power the UTV group content engine on YouTube per se including UTV Motion Pictures. We have got 10,000 hours of content that we had shot last year. All this gives us a cutting edge.

     
    What is the break even period that you have set for yourself?
    We are looking at an operational break-even next year (FY‘ 13). With the kind of control that we have on our costs and if the markets start improving, we should be able to reach that milestone.
     

    What impact did ad slowdown have on your revenues?
    We experienced a bit of a volume loss but our big shows also get a premium. The advertising community is also appreciating the kind of content that we have been able to create and they are now talking to us for annual deals going forward.

      
    Who are your big advertisers?
    We have all the top advertisers that occupy the youth space. Like in FMCG, we have Hindustan Unilever, P&G and L‘Oreal. We run about 10 minutes of commercial in one hour of programming, which can go up to 12 minutes. 

     
    What are the major revenue streams for UTV Stars?
    Currently, ad revenues contribute 60-75 per cent of our overall revenues. But we would like to bring this down to 50-55 per cent and with digitisation we are hopeful that this shift will happen. We are also looking at syndication opportunities overseas as well as in India. We are already syndicating in-flight entertainment across big airlines. Our business model includes distribution, syndication, video on demand, ad revenue and on-ground events.

     
    You have been quite aggressive with on-ground properties?
    So far as ground connect goes, we have been able to rope in partners who are in the lifestyle and Bollywood space. So we had partnered People magazine to do the ‘People Best Dressed‘ show; we had also partnered Cosmopolitan to do ‘Free Fearless Awards‘. Besides, we also did ‘F1 After Parties‘ with Arjun Rampal.

     

    However, the biggest property we did was ‘Walk of the Stars‘ at Bandra Bandstand (Mumbai) where we had the biggest stars giving their hand impressions. It‘s like the Hollywood Walk of the Fame. We got the Walk of the Stars branded as UTV Walk of the Stars as a permanent structure and it has also got statues and benches of legendary stars from Raj Kapoor to Shammi Kapoor and now Rajesh Khanna. We are taking it to Delhi next year and it‘s going to be available at Kingdom of Dreams. We tied up with IIFA Awards this year and took this property to Singapore. 

     
    What big shows are on the anvil?
    There is ‘Nirma Lifestyle‘ season 2 that is coming up in the quarter beginning October. We have another show called ‘Gods of Style‘ coming up where we are going to showcase top 10 style icons in Bollywood. We have four more shows in the pipeline about which I can‘t reveal much at this stage.

     

  • UTV Stars assigns creative duties to Rickshaw

    UTV Stars assigns creative duties to Rickshaw

    MUMBAI: UTV Stars, the recently launched Bollywood entertainment channel, has appointed Rickshaw to manage the brand’s creative duties.


    Rickshaw is taking on the creative mandate of UTV Stars starting with the campaign of the channels two driver shows – Live My Life and Up, Close and Personal with PZ.


    UTV Broadcasting marketing head Kunal Mukherjee said: “To communicate this effectively, it was critical that we have a very strong creative communications strategy in place. Given the strong team and impressive track record, we believe Rickshaw is the right partner for the brand.”


    Rickshaw partner Shormishtha Mukherjee added, “Rickshaw is proud to partner UTV Stars. Apart from the fact that the channel is distinctly different from the run of the mill Bollywood channels in the sense that this is the definitive authority on Bollywood, it‘s also a great opportunity to work with the UTV Group. And a new launch is always ‘super exciting’; giving you a chance to do work that‘ll set the tone for time to come.”

  • ‘We have grown without showing gruesome reality shows’ : Zoom Entertainment Television CEO Avinash Kaul

    ‘We have grown without showing gruesome reality shows’ : Zoom Entertainment Television CEO Avinash Kaul

    Zoom, the youth channel with a lazar sharp focus on Bollywood, has found its space in a competitive genre that is waiting to see the launch of UTV Stars in mid-August.

    The channel has consciously stayed away from gruesome reality shows, protecting it from the volatile curve that its rivals like MTV and UTV Bindass are subject to.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Gaurav Laghate, Zoom Entertainment Television CEO Avinash Kaul talks about how this positioning has made the channel a safe proposition for advertisers and ensured its growth across the content pillars that it has built after reinventing twice.

    Excerpts:

    It‘s over a one and a half year now that you have taken charge at Zoom. What changes have you brought?
    There has been a lot of positive momentum that we have built at Zoom. For example, we have more than doubled our GRPs (gross rating points). We are now almost the genre leader.

    There were quite a bit of pieces that we have ironed out across the business. This includes content, distribution, marketing, and ad sales pillar… all the components of the business, as the dynamics of the business change every day. And it needs re-orientation of how to work things out.

    So that‘s what we were focussing on. And we have been successful in all the ventures that we have been in, so far. This is reflecting in the results (ratings) today. And the remarkable thing is that these results are without any reality shows, unlike other channels.

    Zoom is about wholesome inclusive family viewing entertainment, and we do not cater to any gruesome reality show. There are no beepers, no pixilation, and no grungy outlook towards life. We believe in the positive outlook.

    Define your market?
    We specifically target the 1 million + towns in the HSM, 15-24 SEC AB. If you look at the content mix of anybody else in this genre, more than 50 per cent of content comes from the reality shows. And they keep going up and down. A Roadies, for instance, will take them (MTV) to a high and once it is over, they will come back to right at the base.

    So basically, for 13 weeks in a year, you will see a high on some channels or the other. You have to look at consistency, which we offer, because we don‘t have such dramatic crests and dramatic troughs. So for an advertiser it‘s a safe proposition, technically.

    But for such shows, do advertisers pay a premium?
    Advertisers look at the cost-benefit ratio – the cost of making the content versus the returns that you are likely to get from the content. And not all of this is enviable to all of the advertisers. Because with a lot of content, many advertisers might want to associate, many might not to. So it‘s about the environment you create. We have not created any negative dissonances on the content front on the channel and we do not expect anything to change dramatically in the future to go into that zone.

    We have very carefully navigated ourselves out, staying away from that temptation. Demographically, we are aimed at youth but our focus has been Bollywood and we will keep that focus. Which is why today we see that you would see us as India‘s No.1 Bollywood channel, right because that‘s a statement we can obviously make.

    There is not too much competition also ?
    Well the way we look at the competition, we have various content pillars- we have Bollywood news, we have music, we have movies, we have countdowns and we have features. These are the kind of programming we do at Zoom today. So when I look at my review show, it performs better than any other on other channels including Hindi news. So as long as I am the best in every pillar that I am present in, I am in safe hands. Today my Bollywood news performs better than any other mainstream Hindi news channel‘s news flash.

    As far as standalone 15-24 HSM, 1 millionn+ is concerned in Bollywood news dissemination, Zoom is ahead. Of course, I do far more of it because I am a dedicated channel as opposed to say one bulletin on Aaj Tak or any other news channel.

    When I am playing music, I am the No. 1 in the music band. As long as you are successful in all the pillars, your proposition is entirely secured.
    ‘We have various content pillars- Bollywood news, music, movies, countdowns and features. As long as I am the best in every pillar that I am present in, I am in safe hands‘

    So how do you see Zoom poised today?
    Today, Zoom is India‘s No. 1 Bollywood channel, and technically, I would rather go to the extent of saying that we are the world‘s No. 1 Bollywood destination. Because as a network (Times Television Network), we are available in 18 countries, out of which Zoom is in over 15 countries. Now that is again the Bollywood connect spreading out.

    So we reach out and fulfil their daily dose of Bollywood. If I give you some statistics, we are today the No. 2 channel on YouTube in India and 18th in entertainment in the world. Today, as we talk, we have over 420 million views on YouTube and every week, we get 5 million hits on an average. Now that‘s massive consumption.

    Our Facebook page has around 700,000 followers. And as per tracking sites are concerned, we are No. 2 or No. 3 page in India on Facebook among the media channels‘ pages. As far as interactivity is concerned, we get around 20 million impressions every week on Facebook. This is because the interactivity element that we have built is far more superior. Every post of ours gets over 5000 responses in terms of likes and comments.

    We also syndicate our content internationally to various channels, and locally to regional channels here. As a result, the cumulative exposure to the content created by Zoom gets magnified at every level.

    So what all are your revenue streams?
    Digital is a very important component for us. As we have specialised content, our realisation from digital is very healthy. Branded content is another significant part and we also have got syndication as a model.

    So these are the three big chunks. Then we are a pay channel, so we get international and domestic subscription revenues. That balances our portfolio pretty decently; it‘s a well diversified, well matured business.

    Coming to your programming mix, how do you justify having movies on your channels?
    Our choice of movies is something very contemporary, very youth. We will stretch the envelop to go for those kinds of movies that may not be top grossers but give you ratings.

    We are looking at contemporary Bollywood movies which are aimed at youth so that there is a better opportunity to weave it…Fashion for example, would find a way on our channel.

    So how is your content mix at present?
    If you consider the 18 hours cycle of Zoom, you will get 40-45 per cent of music, which is all contemporary; 15-18 per cent is movies, 20 per cent is from news fillers and the balance is from features and countdown shows.

    So far there was no competition for Zoom in a true sense. Now UTV is launching UTV Stars, which will be in similar space. How do you see competition brewing?
    So we hear, but honestly, very little to comment till we see the actual product on air. Anything else can be a ‘me too‘.

    We have had competition; E24 launched, but hasn‘t really been able to cut much ice. There are so many channel launches every day.

    But don‘t you think that UTV Stars will have an advantage as it is also into production of movies?
    Well I would argue that not having a studio is beneficial for us because we are agnostic. We have no vested interest in Bollywood.

    Today, our business is well diversified. It is not just a TV channel; it‘s a Bollywood ecosystem that we have created over the years. So honestly, we do not see any immediate threat.

    A party which is neutral, which has consistency of business, consistency of investing in the business and which is serious about the business, will only succeed.

    As a group, whatever we stand by, we commit; we invest, we build, we grow…and that too profitably. So that‘s the key operating word for us. We are not in business for the sake of business, we are in business for profitability.

    How many new clients do you have advertising on your channel?
    Technically, the highest client count on the genre is with us. It is around 230-240 clients active in a year. In terms of volumes, we are right among the top, if not the top.

    We have a better value proposition for the advertisers in the sense that we, for example, have not been able to crack the HUL business for a while now. Until and unless the client sees the value proposition, we are not going out of the way to seek their business.

    As far as the business is concerned, I have no reason to believe that we are any less than the top in the particular segment. Yes, certain tent pole properties might give an edge, only to say a channel like MTV, but not to anybody else.

    So as far as the pure vanilla advertising business coming from advertisers is concerned, I would probably put up as a strong competitor. Purely talking about the advertiser lead business.

    So what all new shows are coming?
    We are looking at a healthy mix of new shows. There will be shows related to Bollywood and fashion. We are looking at properties which could probably like a Style-cop. We are also looking at a show which will bring in the advent of Bollywood stars on television, Telly Talk. The view primarily is to look at the cross-border pollination that has happened and focus on that angle on what‘s happening in the Bollywood space.

    We have just launched Big Story and, yes, there will be some shows which will be built for appointment viewing, but not with beeps and pixels. We will be unveiling them shortly.

    We will also be shortly announcing Bollywood Summit.

    Your comments on the genre you are in?
    The genre is very dynamic; audience is fickle, every year 10 per cent of audience moves out and a new set of audience comes in. It is just 9 years old and the attention span is small. So we go all out to tap that audience.