Tag: VOOT

Gaurav Gandhi to head Amazon Prime Video India

MUMBAI: The man behind building Viacom18’s digital venture Voot into a giant OTT platform in India is all set to head rival international player Amazon Prime Video as its director and country manager, India. A source tells Indiantelevision.com that Gandhi, who was on the top priority list, will be taking up the charge very soon.

When Nitesh Kripalani quit in mid-2017, the position, which Gandhi will now fill, was empty and Vijay Subramaniam was roped in for the interim period.

Gandhi was with Viacom18 for eight years in various roles. He joined Viacom18 in 2010 as COO and, within 11 months, he became the head of distribution and international business. After this, he was COO of Sun18 North before moving to IndiaCast Media Distribution (a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom18. Gandhi’s mandate was to monetise all channel and content assets across media, platforms and geographies.

He is credited with growing its franchise overseas, establishing a strong distribution business at IndiaCast and leading the commercial function during the early days of the organisation.

Before joining Viacom18, Gandhi was with NDTV Imagine as executive VP of business operations and content sales and Star Group as VP commercial and business planning.

Also Read:

Sunil Rupani joins Hathway to head regional ops

Starcom CEO Mallikarjun Das quits

Hinduja Ventures appoints Ashok Mansukhani as MD; net profit remains flat

March 13, 2018
Gaurav Gandhi leaves Viacom18

MUMBAI: After serving the organisation in various roles for eight years, Gaurav Gandhi, the chief operating officer of Viacom18 Digital Ventures, has decided to move on.

Gandhi joined Viacom18 in 2010. During his tenure, he contributed significantly to Viacom18 in several capacities. Prior to his current role, he did a commendable job in growing the company’s franchise overseas, establishing a strong distribution business at IndiaCast and leading the commercial function during the early days of the organisation.

Commenting on the development, Viacom18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “Gaurav has contributed significantly to Viacom18’s growth journey. He has led an extremely capable team to make Voot a brand that is loved by its consumers. Gaurav has been a passionate and driven colleague whose counsel I have always valued. On behalf of all of us at Viacom18, I would like to thank Gaurav for his contribution and wish him the very best for his future endeavours.”

In a very short period of time, Gandhi has led Voot to become one of the frontrunners in the Indian online video space. Viacom18 is expected to announce his replacement in due course.

Gandhi couldn’t be reached for a comment.

As the group COO for IndiaCast Media Distribution (a joint venture between TV 18 and Viacom18), Gandhi’s mandate was to monetise all channels and content assets across media, platforms and geographies. His responsibilities included maximising both revenue and reach for content and services across both domestic and overseas markets.

Gandhi joined Viacom18 as the chief commercial officer in March 2010. Within 11 months, he became the head of distribution and international business at the company. After plying his for more than two years, Gandhi was elevated as the COO of Sun18 – North, a company formed by Viacom18 and TV18. In May 2012, he was given the role of group COO at IndiaCast Media Distribution, which is a venture between Viacom18 and TV18.

Before joining Viacom18, Gandhi spent around three years working with NDTV Imagine Ltd as executive VP of business operations and content sales. He also worked with Star India between October 2003 and March 2007 as VP commercial and business planning.

Also Read:

Sunil Rupani joins Hathway to head regional ops

Starcom CEO Mallikarjun Das quits

Hinduja Ventures appoints Ashok Mansukhani as MD; net profit remains flat

March 12, 2018
Localised content the way forward for Netflix in India

MUMBAI: Global to local seems to be the key strategy of Netflix to spread its wings in India. ‘Netflix and Chill’ is the popular term across the OTT ecosystem but the number of Indian consumers chilling with Netflix’s high-quality content dwarfs in comparison to users in other markets. However, it is adapting to Indian tastes and modifying its pure international content line-up. Will this shift drive the growth for Netflix?

Netflix launched in India in January 2016 and has since created a niche for itself for high-quality TV series and Hollywood movie content for the English-speaking audience in the country but it is far behind other OTT players in terms of subscribers. Currently, it is the fifth largest player in India, behind players such as Hotstar, Voot and Amazon, according to the Counterpoint Technology Market Research report.

With the rollout of 4G internet services by the top telecom providers, especially Reliance Jio, streaming in India has taken a giant leap forward. In the year 2017, Netflix acquired more subscribers than local cable connections in the US (according to data from Statista and Leichtman Research Group). However, even after spending two years in India, things aren’t quite as rosy for the company as in the US. On average, the Indian consumer would spend around $32 dollar (close to Rs 2200) per year on entertainment, whereas in the US, people spend around $2260 (close to Rs 1.5 lakh) annually, according to global entertainment and media outlook 2017-2021 report by PWC.

How does Netflix aim to take over the minds of India when cable connections give you 100-150 channels at just Rs 1100-200? Netflix subscriptions can vary from Rs 500-800 a month. An annual plan can range from Rs 6000-9600.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings believes that the amount that an Indian consumer pays for cable services, on a global level, is very low, which keeps the industry smaller than it should be. Speaking at an event, he had said that Netflix’s strategy is to build up local and global content. Though he admitted that Netflix’s rates were higher than cable TV, they were significantly lower than movie tickets and other entertainment experiences. Hastings is aligning the OTT player as competition to the bigger entertainment options and not the idiot box.

So far, Netflix has focussed on pushing its global content such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Master of None, Stranger Things, Narcos and Daredevil to Indian subscribers. While it has made significant progress in adding regional content, it still has a lot of ground to make up.

Now, Netflix sees a potential of adding a massive 100 million Indian customers. According to Hastings, Netflix has around 120 million subscribers in over 190 countries who consume over 140 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, and about 60 million are from the US. However, in the price sensitive market of India, Netflix banks on close to 1.5 million subscribers.

How does Netflix aim to break the ice? The answer is local content. Hence, instead of price, Hasting suggested that Netflix wants to be sensitive to great local stories and content and be able to invest in them. So, the strategy will be to build up the local content that includes regional stories as well.

But will producing local content be enough for Netflix to chill in India? Commenting on the same, PwC partner & leader, media & entertainment Frank D’Souza says, “Growing smartphone and internet penetration across the country has created a wide range of opportunities for OTT players. Focus on creating and producing regional content should be of utmost importance considering the fact that India is a multilingual country. A ‘one size fits all’ approach would not work for the country with over 22 official languages.”

OTT platforms have realised the power that regional content has over the dissected Indian audiences. Amazon Prime was one of the first to take the plunge followed by Zee5, Hotstar, ALTBalaji, Voot, Viu etc.

Netflix recently announced three Indian original productions Ghoul, Leila and Crocodile apart from four productions already under works which include Sacred Games, Selection Day, Again, and Bard of Blood. On Valentine’s Day, Netflix released its first India original Love Per Square Foot by Ronnie Screwvala.

Where the platform is likely to get cold feet is in growing in tier II and III cities and the rural audiences. Commenting on the same, D’Souza says, “These are price sensitive segments of the Indian market. Considering the fact that OTT requires one to incur additional costs like that of internet subscription, it is important for players such as Netflix to have value added services or bundled services to penetrate these markets. Tying up with internet service providers and telecom operators in rural markets would give them an early mover advantage.”

Netflix has one more interesting feature to bet on—sharing the subscription package among people. Many networks limit the number of people who can watch programming at the same time. Netflix allows two to four simultaneous streams per subscription, depending on the plan, and charges more for the higher number of streams. So, the premium plan can be shared among four people or in a family of four.

By focussing on producing more local content from India, Netflix is betting on product over pricing when it comes to adding the next 100 million users. As a part of its future strategies, it should create movies and TV shows that Indians will be ready to die for while also keeping in mind the various languages.

Also Read :

2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

Indians among top commute streamers for Netflix

Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

February 28, 2018
Bollywood actors hit their stride in web series

MUMBAI: Film actors have found a new cosy space to snuggle into–over-the-top (OTT) platforms. OTT shows till now encouraged unknown faces to be stars but the real Bollywood stars are now taking over.

Digital platforms experimented with Bollywood actors in 2017 and the trend is set to continue this year, too. Platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Voot, ALTBalaji and Viu featured popular actors in their web series like Rana Daggubati in Social, Rajkummar Rao in Bose Dead/Alive, Vivek Oberoi and Richa Chadha in Inside Edge, R Madhavan and Amit Sadh in Breathe, Swara Bhaskar in It’s Not That Simple, Lisa Haydon in The Trip and Nimrat Kaur in The Test Case.

Voot EVP and head content Monika Shergill believes that digital is the way to go across the world. She says, “The opportunity to explore acting in roles that are coming up in digital are phenomenal, the kind of storytelling and performing opportunity that artists are getting are exceptional.”

Amazon Prime India has seen the most popular faces in its shows. Says director content Vijay Subramaniam: “It always starts with the story. All our casting is driven by what does the story demands. It depends on the character requirement.”

ALTBalaji CMO Manav Sethi agrees with Subramaniam saying, “We don’t sign actors because of their one-shot success or one-time failure. While scripting, we scout for talents to suit a character. We as a creative shop and storytellers, don’t go behind celebrities, we go behind actors.”

The ease of restrictions is probably the most alluring part of the digital business. But does a web series work only on the name and fame of a popular actor? Shergill doesn’t agree and says, “Digital is not about faces, it is about high concept stories, disruptive and eye catchy short stories that bring curiosity and serious commitment in viewers to dedicate their 8-10 hours and watch it. An interesting face can bring people to the first episode but after it’s your content that hooks them.”

However, Shergill feels that digital is extremely challenging in comparison to the cinema because you are just a tap and click away from disappointing viewers. Casting is a very thorough thought process and a big face may not deliver in the continuity of consumption. “We have to convince viewers a 30-60 second trailer that the actor justifies the character.”

The web is a great kick-starter of careers, feels Subramanium. “To tell fantastic stories, highly compelling with a variety of things and great quality, the web is a great opportunity. The creative talent, both in front and behind the camera, they all recognise this opportunity too. They believe it is a great option to add to their versatility and add one more dimension to their acting, directing, writing or judging talent. Digital is the new way of consumption of entertainment and Bollywood recognises that and want to be a part of it,” he says.

But does a bigger face need a higher amount of marketing spends? The answer is yes. “When you have a big cast, it works both ways. The name pulls some audience in but because of the name, we also feel to push it out more. So, it is a symbiotic process, the name gives you purchase and you push it more also,” reveals Shergill.

The pay scale of movies is significantly higher than a web series but these actors have been paid significantly well. However, the payment also depends on the days of working and the schedule. An industry source reported that actors have been paid in the range of Rs 50 lakh to 1.5 crore for a series and far more in the case of A-list actors.

According to Sethi, signing a known face instead of fresh is more convenient. “It increases the ability to reach to millions of people requiring significantly less effort in terms of marketing and communication, though it increases the cost of production. The difference of cost of production ranges from 25 per cent to 50 per cent after signing a known face,” he reveals.

It may seem like the actors have no agenda in picking web series but Shergill opines that movie actors go to television either to promote their movies or to host a reality show. She said that web series is like a windfall for them. There are large gaps between their films and they keep twiddling their thumbs until the next film. But, shooting a digital series is a continuous schedule of 40-50 days at maximum and an actor is required to dedicate less than a month sometimes to complete his role. At times, the actors are signed up for multiple seasons of the same show.

In the year 2018, some popular actors will be seen in great series like Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte in Sacred Games of Netflix, Swara Bhaskar in It’s Not That Simple S2, Vivek Oberoi in The Family, Irfan Khan in The Ministry at Amazon Prime Video. Khan has previously starred with AIB in several web videos. Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment partnered with Netflix to produce eight-episode political espionage series Bard of Blood.

However, the international digital market is ahead of India. The international actors or the A category actors are not only helming digital series but are also becoming executive producers and producers like in the case of Issa Rae, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Kevin Spacey.

Web series allow actors to stay in the minds of their audience during gaps between movie assignments while also compensating them well. It’s about time more actors got themselves knee deep into this budding content arena.

Also Read :

2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

February 26, 2018
Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

MUMBAI: Edgy and fresh, web content has made its mark in India, breaking free from staid television formats and rules. No time frames, no censorship issues, and women don’t turn into snakes. The west has been bingeing on shows on the internet for long, whereas India has just woken up to the concept recently, thanks to better connectivity and high-resolution video streaming. But, has launching all the episodes, together, caught on as a trend? The answer is both yes and no.

One of the most talked about series under binge watching section is Amazon Prime Video’s first India original Inside Edge. The Bollywood-cricket web series garnered a tremendous buzz before and after its launch. The most amusing thing is the staggering figure of Rs 40 crore spent by Amazon on the show, speculated as half of it for marketing and the rest for production.

Amazon Prime Video India director content Vijay Subramaniam said, “When we launched a little over a year ago, we realised there is a clear expectation and desire from our customers to have access to gripping storytelling, high-quality and compelling content. With the customer being at the center of everything we do, we are committed to bringing the best of content for our audiences, supported by immensely talented content creators matched by the most innovative ways to bring them to our audiences.”

However, Amazon Prime, while releasing its second India original, Breathe, experimented with a new strategy where half the series can be binge-watched and for the rest, you have to wait a week for every new release. The first four episodes of the series were out on 26 January and the remaining four will release every Friday until 23 February. Being a thriller, the strategy is to leave viewers in suspense at a certain point.

The marketing budget to promote Breathe is around Rs 20 crore. Amazon rolled out a robust, 360-degree campaign across India including highly engaging TVCs, print, digital, cinema, mobile, outdoor campaigns and activations for Breathe. Subramaniam called it a ‘path-breaking digital content in India’. Amazon is tight-lipped about the marketing plan for the last episode.

Interestingly, India beats the rest of the world in binge watching a series. 71 per cent Indians in 2017 watched more entertainment in a public place than year 2016, according to the study released by Netflix. It was one of the first platforms to start the concept of releasing all episodes at one time for binge watching and others like ALTBalaji, VB on the Web, Voot, SonyLiv etc, followed suit.

Binge watching has found popularity because Indians are alien to the idea of waiting a whole week for the next episode. They are ready to gulp their favourite series back to back, a trend that rose from the daily saas-bahu serials on TV too. Some OTT players allow paid subscribers to binge watch and unpaid ones have to wait a week. Viu released Spotlight 2 for binge watching, whereas all other series are released on weekly basis.

SurveyMonkey found that 52 per cent Indians binge watch most at cafes and restaurants, and 37 per cent in waiting in line. Indians binge watch in parks, on the way to work, while shopping and at the gym. The study says that Indians took three days to devour an entire TV series on average, while the global average is four days.

But the weekly episodic trend is also catching up. Since 2011, YouTube has worked with regional studios to help them get a wider distribution. In 2014, content creators from Mumbai including The Viral Fever (TVF) and AIB were making waves on YouTube and gaining traction while releasing episodes on weekly basis. TVF is said to be the pioneer of Indian web series and still release episodes on a weekly basis on their app TVF Play.

Despite the fact that binge watching or releasing all episodes at one go attracts more audiences, Amazon took a risk with Breathe. Although, releasing shows in parts have the chances and risk to lose the viewership but weekly releases enable the audiences to keep guessing. Which side will platforms sway in the near future will be an interesting scene to look out for.

Also Read :

Amazon Prime Video announces a new original series, Skulls and Roses

Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

February 14, 2018
Eleven years on, ‘Bigg Boss’ still bankable as ever

MUMBAI: Ever since its launch more than a decade ago, reality show Bigg Boss has never failed to be an entertainment proposition for audiences. The first edition, with Arshad Warsi as the host on Sony Entertainment Television, saw a TRP rating of 2.72. After shifting to Colors for the next 10 years, it got the highest TRP rating of 6.99.

Bigg Boss 11 got a rating of 6.35 TRPs and the finale garnered 8.93 TRPs. This year, the show was also streamed on the Viacom18’s OTT app Voot, giving it a big boost in terms of views. A large chunk of the app’s viewers were hooked to the reality show. Those who couldn’t catch the live show, had the option of watching it on MTV or Voot (where it was available the next day).

Season four and 11 have been the series with the highest ratings and both had Salman Khan as host. Season four got 5.10 TRPs and 6.90 during the finale. There was a struggle to keep viewers hooked in season 8. Starting off with 5.65 TRPs, it nosedived to between 3.72 and 3.42 TRPs when Farah Khan hosted the show for a few episodes. The finale then got back to 6.14 TRPs.

Reports state that about Rs 4-5 crore is spent per episode, and it is the most expensive show for Colors. In a media report, Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak stated that renewals have been on a 12-15 per cent increase and spot buys for advertisements are being given at the rate of Rs 3-4 lakh per second.

Season nine saw record low ratings when Prince Narula was the winner. The tenth season saw a good spike, most likely due to the addition of commoners in the show and Manveer Gurjar was the winner. It got average TRP ratings of 3.54.

Bigg Boss 11 was watched by more than 151 million viewers in the first four weeks of its launch and the finale garnered 10.6 million impressions with 3.9 TVRs making it the highest ever viewership for any episode of non-fiction or reality show across Hindi GECs in the last one year.

Though Colors has time and again proved its mettle, we must see how long it can sustain the Bigg Boss phenomenon raging through India.

Also read:

What viewers say about Bigg Boss: Chrome DM survey

Viacom18’s social expt ‘Bigg Boss’ has ‘Super Bowl’-like fandom, says Raj Nayak, Salman to play ‘peacemaker’

“You call ‘Bigg Boss’ scripted or non-scripted you will end up watching it”- Abhishek Rege

February 8, 2018
2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) services were undoubtedly the centre of attraction in 2017. The boom in India’s internet users, mainly aided by the growth of Reliance Jio, ensured that OTT players got the right reception and target audience. Not just mainstream TV broadcasters but even smaller players exponentially increased their consumer engagement on digital.

Viewership increased as data cost decreased. Consumers were entertained and content makers got a boost to create fresh stories. The online content library was flooded with genres like comedy, thriller, drama, romance, rom-com, suspense, action, humour, reality, etc.

Regional India was the focal point for 2017 and will continue to be in 2018. It also enabled new companies to take a risk in the OTT space. Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati languages have been pampered the most by the creators.

Comedy emerged as the ultimate king in 2017 along with the rise of stand-up comedy. Ideas increased and so did production cost due to competition. Movies jumped over TV to directly go for digital movie premieres. However, this turned out to be a costly affair for OTT players but a good bargain for producers.

Another trend was of creators holding IP rights for content instead of the platform.

There’s no shortage of OTT platforms now, just like the rising number of TV channels. Let’s take a look at how some of the main players performed last year.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime, which recently completed one year in India, hiked its annual subscription fee to Rs 999 from the initial annual subscription of Rs 499 in India. In its first month, Amazon had 5.82 million active users, according to data from app tracker App Annie. That number almost doubled by May to 9.57 million. Total engagement time tripled from 622 million minutes to 1,815 million minutes in the same period. In the month of August, Amazon India had a big fall when its director and country head, Nitesh Kripalani resigned, but then Vijay Subramaniam, who has been in the entertainment industry for 25 years, joined Amazon for the interim as content head in June 2017.

It launched the first original series Inside Edge in collaboration with Excel Media & Entertainment in July 2017, which is now available on Apple TV, Sony PlayStation and Vodafone along with the library of Amazon Prime. The OTT platform is expected to come up with four Indian originals series, i.e., Breathe, The Remix, Comicstaan and Mirzapur in 2018.

Amazon realised that kids content will play an important role. It tied up with Green Gold Animation for Chhota Bheem and its new series Kalari Kids. It also commissioned an animated version of mega-blockbuster Baahubali.

Amazon Prime Video has bet big on Indian movies by releasing them on the platform before they leave theatres. It has signed a digital rights deal for five movies of Bollywood actor Salman Khan before it goes on to television for $10 million. Tubelight was the first and Salman’s next four movies, including Tiger Zinda Hai, will come to Prime first, television next. It has also bagged the streaming rights for the movies like Lipstick Under My Burkha, 2.0, Arjun Reddy and much more along with the streaming rights for the year’s most controversial movie – Padmavat.

Comedy is a big market in India, so Amazon went after it by associating with OML for 14 exclusive stand-up comedy specials and six new series created by stand-up comedians like Anuvab Pal, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Zakir Khan, Sumukhi Suresh and Varun Thakur.

Viu

Viu, the OTT video service by PCCW, focused on regional content in the year 2k17 and extended the library with over 3000 hours of compelling original content in Asia. As of October 2017, the global number of downloads was 26 million to which India contributes 9.5 million. Viu rolled out its first ad campaign titled ‘Kaaf feels Bro’ from 28 August. The company has appointed Times Network’s Shantanu Gangane as the head of marketing of Viu in January. It has also enrolled Eros International Media’s Sameer Gogate as distribution and monetisation head of Vuclip for converting certain costs in revenues through non-ad revenues.

In the beginning of the year, the platform promised to create long and short form regional original shows and started with Telugu as a region with shows such as Cinema Pichollu, Pelli Gola and PillA as well as Gehraiyaan, Spotlight, No. 1 Yaari, Munching with Mahathalli and Social. It also experimented with cricket comedy chat shows like What the Duck and Virender Sehwag’s micro-original Viru ke Funde. Viu also partnered with Nicotex for an adventure journey series I Can You Can. Apart from Indian languages, it has a big original content library of Korean language shows, which is now available for Indian audience. It inked a licensing deal with content house Shemaroo Entertainment to access a handpicked catalogue of Hindi movies.

Viu created a new trend of bilingual content in Telugu and Hindi like Social, which is the first such show. There will be more bilingual shows next year.

As a part of the global strategy, Viu has formed strong partnerships with Samsung, Micromax, Vikram Bhatt’s Loneranger Productions and Annapurna Studios for creating refreshing original localised content that keeps the viewers glued.

Amazon’s Fire TV streaming stick, which launched last month in India, has added Vuclip’s streaming service Viu as an app on its platform.

Hotstar

As an early entrant in the OTT space, Hotstar has been building a differentiated proposition for its free and premium users comprising local and international TV shows, movies and live sports, helping it cross 175 million downloads and 60 million users in January 2017. Hotstar continues to have the largest number of active users about 69 million in May, according to AppAnnie. Based on the November report, Hotstar topples the chart across all platforms with 15 billion minutes total time spent in the month.

Hotstar has appointed Punitha Arumugam as platform evangelist, with the mandate to showcase the power of the platform to India’s leading brands.

This year, Hotstar launched an original series in Tamil, in association with celebrated film director, Balaji Mohan, titled As I’m Suffering from Kadhal on 6 June. Apart from Tamil, the series was dubbed in Telugu,with English subtitles available for both languages. Hotstar brings back comedy show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai this year. It streamed Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad in stereoscopic 3D virtual reality. News platforms like Republic TV and ABP News were added to its live feed.

Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in December but before the acquisition could take place, Hotstar inked a multi-year SVOD deal with Disney India to showcase the studio’s hits exclusively on its premium offering in India which includes movies like Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney’s The Jungle Book and Moana, Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, Disney.Pixar’s Finding Dory amongst others.

The highly anticipated premiere of Game of Thrones Season 7 launched on the platform on 17 July, with the first episode available for viewing within minutes of its American telecast.

A new storytelling format, CinePlay, was launched under its originals banner that showcased classics and contemporary stories from the theatre world presented in a cinematic fashion. In April, Hotstar became the first ‘Made in India platform’ to cross 100 million downloads on Google Play Store and crossed more than 200 million downloads across Play Store, App store and other Android app stores.

Jio TV

The game changer of telecom and digital industry, Jio TV, has recently launched a web version of JioTV app which allows Jio users to access over 500 TV channels. This service was previously exclusive to mobile users via the app. Now with the support for web platform, users will be able to access TV channels through their web browser as well.

Reliance Jio offers a suite of apps which includes JioTV, JioCinema, JioMusic, and more. Jio’s suite of apps is free along with the Jio Prime membership and users can enjoy all the content on these apps for free. On the other hand, JioTV, an online version of cable TV, that’s free as of now, has partnerships with almost all national and regional channels, and allows users to stream content up to seven days old. It also has JioCinema, which is a free movie streaming service.

Jio had 42 million users in May and gained momentum in a short while with free data and free content service. Based on the November report by App Annie, Jio TV grabs the second position leaving behind all the OTT players with 8.8 billion minutes total time spent on the platform in the month.

Netflix

Netflix’s focus this year was entirely content, partnerships and technology to build a great experience in India. IT has announced six original productions in the country, namely Sacred Games, Selection Day, Again, Bard of Blood in association with Red Chillies Entertainment, our first kids original series from India, Mighty Little Bheem and Love Per Square Foot, the first mainstream film from India to be exclusively available on Netflix. Over 2017, Netflix tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Videocon and Vodafone to make it easier for Indian consumers to watch Netflix, whether on a set-top box or on a mobile.

Simran Sethi joined Netflix International Originals Production Group in August after leaving the position of SVP of scripted development at Disney’s Freeform to lead the creative Indian content. Netflix executive Nick Nelson moved to Ownzones Media Network as the new head of product innovation.

According to a Netflix survey, Indians are the second-highest public bingers in the world (88 per cent), just behind Mexico (89 per cent).

SonyLiv

SonyLiv played safe this year. It launched the first regional original series, in the Marathi language titled YOLO – You Only Live Once, conceptualised and developed by Indian Magic Eye. Later, it launched the first ever Gujarati rom-com web series titled Kacho Papad Pako Papad in May. SonyLIV and Jossbox have co-produced a web-series called House Proud. In the month of October, the platform came up with the second season of the home-grown originalLoveBytes 2 focussed primarily on youth issues. In association with Beyond Originals, SonyLiv served the last original of 2017 titled Black Coffee. Along with that, to see India fit-n-fine, in the beginning of the year, it launched health and wellness segment LIV Fit.

SonyLiv partnered with Web Talkies, Pocket Aces (for Filter Copy and Gobble) and Fanform Mediaworks for originals content. It bet long on short films from the catalogue of Pocket Films by including 50 award-winning shorts in its bouquet. It joined hands with super chef Sanjeev Kapoor and food YouTubers like Rajshri Foods, Varun Inamdar and Ruchi Bharani to expand its unique food content library.

SonyLiv has appointed Times Internet’s regional head Maruti Indoria as national sales head for its sports division in February.

To expand the reach, it has signed deals with Videocon d2h, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV to enable customers to access a seamless broad selection of content available on SonyLIV app.

Voot

Viacom18’s digital venture Voot was a complete package of fun without pay. However, they unlike others, it planned a significant regional line-up for the next year. It launched several web series back to back this year which includes Time Out, Yo Ke Hua Bro, Stupid Man Smart Phone and Untag.

Voot has also put the spotlight on the kids section and rolled out a hi-decibel TVC campaign to promote it Voot Kids in Hindi, Kannada and Marathi. It has included various internationally acclaimed characters in its kitty and aims to expand their kids library with 30 plus shows in the year 2018. In association with HDFC, Voot has launched digital talent hunt show for kids in the mid of the year.

In its partnership with Google, Voot has turned its mobile website into a Progressive Web App (PWA) and won the coveted International Broadcasting Convention 2017 (IBC2017) Innovation Award for Content Distribution for its Progressive Web App (PWA) product – Voot Lite, in Amsterdam on 17 September. Next year, it is experimenting with making video available offline on its PWA.

The key strategy of streaming Bigg Boss has awarded the platform with 550 million views till date and 60 minutes average time spent per viewer per day. However, shows like Splitsvilla, which is watched 52 per cent by males, has also added 150 million views.

In 2017, Voot has gained 32 million monthly active users, six million plus daily active users and 50 minutes time spent per viewer per day. Their daily time spent has taken it to the second position after Netflix, according to App Annie November report. Also, it has secured third position with 7.5 billion minutes total time spent on the platform across all OTT platforms, followed by Hotstar and Jio TV, reported by App Annie.

ALTBalaji

ALTBalaji, the ad-free subscription-based platform that launched this year on 16 April with seven originals, today has 12+ original shows available on the platform apart from original regional stand-up comedy in languages like Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati and content for kids. ALTBalaji recently launched the first Bengali original show Dhimaner Dinkaal and also has a Tamil original Maya Thirrai on the app and the website. It launched a big bunch of Hindi web series including Romil & Jugal, Bewafaa sii Wafaa, Boygiri, Class of 2017, CyberSquad, Pammi Aunty, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat Season 1, Dev DD, Ragini MMS Returns and BOSE: Dead/Alive.

ALT’s kid’s kitty is full with twelve shows including Get Crafty With Rob, Ding Dong Bell L-O-L, Moe Doe, Happy Lucky ki Katti Batti, Mademoiselle Zazie, Ratz, Nursery Rhymes and many more.

Last year, Nachiket Pantvaidya was promoted to Group COO of Balaji Telefilms. In his current role as the Group COO and CEO ALTBalaji, Nachiket has additional responsibilities at Balaji Telefilms across the television and movie business.

Within six months of its launch, ALTBalaji has been ranked amongst the top three revenue-grossing video streaming apps in the country, as per ‘State of Video Streaming Apps in India’ report compiled by App Annie Intelligence.

ALT will begin 2018 with its Urdu language original series title Haq Se along with three Hindi originals The Test Case, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat Season 2 and Mangalyaan.

ZEE5, Ozee & Ditto TV

The year was quite low key for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (Zeel) already existing digital platforms Ozee and DittoTV. In the mid of the year, Zeel announced the launch of its new digital entertainment platform ZEE5. Existing platforms Ozee and DittoTV will be defunct and merge into the new platform Zee5, and the subscribers of both the existing platforms will be auto-upgraded. On Zeel’s 25th anniversary celebration, it launched the new logo of ZEE5.

Yupp TV

YuppTV, this year, added a new category of original series to its bouquet of offerings. It partnered various directors and production houses to provide original video content. Mid-year, it launched its first series, Endukila, written and directed by Laxman Karya. Later in November, YuppTV along with prominent producer Swapna Dutt, Vijayanthi Movies has launched another new web original Mana Mugguri Love story.

YuppTV partners with leading production house, Yash Raj Films, to offer premium Hindi cinema to its subscribers on YuppFlix. Vodafone has also joined hands with YuppTV to expand its Vodafone Play service. It collaborated with cab aggregator Ola for its connected car platform for ridesharing, Ola Play.

YuppTV, recently received funding from Emerald Media, a Pan-Asian platform established by leading global investment firm KKR for investing in the media and entertainment sector, wherein Emerald Media acquired a significant minority stake in the company for US$50mn. YuppTV had earlier raised its Series A round of funding from Poarch Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama.

Sun NXT

Sun TV Network launched its digital content app compatible with every screen format, ranging from smartphones to living room TV called Sun NXT. The platform has a movie library of over 4000 titles, over 40 channels streaming live and catch-up TV programmes in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The company claimed that the app had already crossed more than 1.1 million downloads, within four days from its launch.

Hoichoi

Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), a media and entertainment company of West Bengal, launched the first ever Bengali digital platform Hoichoi in September. In the last few months, the platform has released ten originals – Hello, Cartoon, Holy Faak, Dupur Thakurpo, Byomkesh, Bouma Detective, Paranoia Series, Bhootoorey and Stand Up across multiple genres like drama, detective, adult comedy, rom-com, thriller and non-fiction. The platform is aiming to expand the reach by launching on Amazon Fire TV, Roku TV and Apple TV in January 2018.

January 4, 2018
MIB has no data on OTTs; not under regulation: Minister

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday while admitting it has no official data relating to OTT industry, including number of players and subscribers, said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) doesn’t regulate internet-based video services.

“MIB does not regulate paid streaming and video-on-demand services provided over the internet. However, there are enough safeguards available under the Information Technology Act, 2000, which is administered by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), for content appearing on paid streaming and video-on-demand services,” MIB junior minister Rajyavardhan Rathore informed Indian Parliament’s Lower House or Lok Sabha.

The government stand is significant because increasingly voices of criticism were being heard from the conservative section of society questioning edgy content on OTT platforms that technically don’t have to follow any content code like done by linear TV, which also broadly follows guidelines on content as enumerated in the Cable TV Act 1997, apart from imposing self-regulations administered by industry bodies like NBA and IBF.

With original shows and serials on OTT platforms operating in India increasing by the day — egged on by global and domestic players like Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, VOOT and Arre — the fledgling industry segment has given content producers a platform where out-of-the-box themes are being tested and tried.

According to Rathore, who was answering a series of questions on the country’s OTT services, there were no official figures available with the ministry.

However, MIB quoted Frost & Sullivan to state it is estimated there were around 70 million unique connected viewers of which 1.3 million were paid video subscribers.

While not directly stating whether the government proposed any content regulations for OTT platforms, Rathore clarified that IT Ministry was empowered to block and/or censure content and its distributors on several grounds, including those relating to security of the country, foreign relations and pornography.

As of now OTT platforms in India could breathe easy as regulator TRAI, too, has not issued any guideline relating to OTT content preferring to restrict its diktat on the telecoms side of net neutrality. Still, many OTT platforms, some of which are digital extensions of traditional TV services owned by big broadcasting companies, prefer to do self-censorship on edgy content in shows like the Game of Thrones.

ALSO READ:

TRAI releases recommendations on net neutrality

Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

Can OTT players leverage market opportunities & rationalize rising content costs?

December 28, 2017
Guest column: Taking Indian content to the global market

The year 2017 has been a year of paradigm shifts in the wake of Digital India. Over the last couple of years, international OTT and VOD players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc, have been making inroads in the Indian market to unlock the true potential that our increasing digital-first audience provide. Telecom, print, broadcasting, FMCG, and virtually every industry has ventured into the digital space. India’s journey on the digital path saw a rise in the number of homegrown content streaming platforms, with some creating original content and some taking and distributing content from external creators. While it came as a boon to India’s digitally driven audience, there was still a paucity of locally relevant content creators and platforms. On the other hand, short length format shows/series soon began to launch in regional markets as well. Additionally, region specific OTT platforms took shape. These developments assured that not just millennials, but family audiences as well were fed entertaining content on digital that matched their tastes and preferences.

Internet penetration and adoption in India has been at an all-time high. As per the KPMG India – Indian M&E report 2017, currently there are 462 million internet users in the country out of which 82 per cent of them access the web through mobile devices. Competitive mobile data pricing and the overwhelming mass adoption of 4G led to a revolution of gigantic proportions for content creators in the digital space. It positively aided the growth of OTT/VOD platforms and thereby, short format content. However, while we continue to open windows for international players and brands to get more and more access to Indian audiences, either by placing our shows on their platforms or striking partnerships to deliver their content here, the most significant question for me is how far are we actually taking ourselves beyond India and Hollywood?

While India’s vision of digital continues to get served, how is that making a difference to the country’s economy? How far are we expanding our digital footprints beyond existing geographies by leveraging both homegrown and international OTT platforms? The year 2018 might well be a step in this direction which in turn would begin to provide the answers to us. A SWOT analysis for the possibility of this happening in the near future would give some key insights on the plan of action.

Focus on the strength – Content, the driving force

While we speak about the generalisation of Indian content across territories through OTT platforms, a similar example was already set this year. Dangal’s staggering success numbers in other countries and approx Rs 200 crore (fifth-highest earning non-English film in global box office history) in China speaks for itself. A similar fate followed for Secret Superstar. These examples prove the potential that lies for Indian content creators to venture into untapped regions beyond India. These mega movies clearly state that strategy plays a vital role in accomplishing the desired results. India is another key selling factor is the original content curated by every media and entertainment entity which brings a fresh perspective. With such great pool of data that lies with us, only selling it won’t serve the purpose. Where do you sell it and how is what will decide its best outcome.

Understand weaknesses

The major roadblock in venturing into other regions is the language barrier. Upon deciding the target regions, next thing to consider is the national language of the country and whether its audience prefers the global language. Analysing this would mean additions or modifications for dubbing or sub-titles in the content, such that it match the sensibilities of the audience across different languages and sensibilities.

Tap into the right opportunities

India’s rich content resonates well with the masses. We are fed with entertainment from across the world, likewise, there also exists a majority of Indian diaspora in regions where we haven’t made in-roads yet. Evaluating such regions helps tapping onto a ready audience base. In order to expand the reach further, it is very crucial to research about the consumption pattern of the region, the inclination towards short-format content, internet usage statistics, number of mobile device users in that region. The digitally savvy audience looks for great content, be it from any source. A populous region having an audience base with varied tastes automatically ensures effective penetration of content into a newer market.

Evaluate the threats – adapt a differentiated approach and have an evolving nature

The digital world in itself is quite vast with various existing and upcoming mediums that provide access to entertaining content making it widely available. A stark comparison would be between Asia’s first premium VOD service Hooq and the homegrown platform Voot. Hooq’s strong strategy reflects in its distinguished offering. It serves its customer with varied options to choose from Hollywood, local and regional shows across multiple platforms. On the other hand, Voot has tactfully planned its expansion across geographies in a short span of time. There is this agnostic nature of the players from other territories looking at a similar expansion plan that would increase the competition for Indian content creators to gain visibility overseas. Building a differentiated plan of action and being flexible is the key in such a scenario.

While we analyse the various means by which we can best cater to the potential markets across territories, the digital platforms and content creators should continue to maintain a strong foothold within India itself. Having a catalogue of rich content and effective reach pan-India will attract more international brands that look at reaching out to their TG in the country. This in turn will bring in more international buyers which will eventually pave way for homegrown content to have a global presence few years down the line without having to actually root for the expansion, the other way round. This indeed will be a game changer in taking Indian content to global markets.

The author is the CEO of Worldwide Media.The views expressed are personal and Indiatelevision.com may not subscribe to them.

December 28, 2017
Sudhanshu Vats on Viacom18’s growth strategy and why data analytics is key

He goes by many names. The Laundry Man and The Marathon Man being two of the more popular monikers. The second one is self-explanatory given his passion for running, especially marathons of many hues all over the globe. It’s the former one that makes people, sometimes, stop and give a quizzical look. Its origins, according to Unilever folklore, can be traced back to his days at the global FMCG company where he was at the helm of the laundry division in South Asia. But Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO of Viacom18, doesn’t mind the aliases; rather, he refers to them himself, at times—like he did in November at CASBAA Convention 2017 in Macau,where he was featured as a keynote speaker. At the time,Vats explained that running a marathon and running a company had lots in common as they taught one about the importance of planning and breaking down longer plans or goals into shorter milestones.

Five and a half years into his new role in one of the top media companies of India that is an equal JV between US’ Viacom and Reliance Industries-controlled Network18, Vats is considered a thought-leader within the complex maze of the Indian media and entertainment industryand in government circles. His social media savviness makes him articulate on a range of subjects from media to women empowerment to an individual’s role in the Clean India campaignto the importance of health and fitness.

In a free-wheeling chat with Indiantelevision.com’s consulting editor AnjanMitra and deputy managing editor Satyam Nagwekar, Vats speaks on a number of issues related to the M&E sector, including the necessity of regulation in India (he sometimes holds contrarian views to the general sectoral outlook of his peers) and why it’s important for a media company to be equally alive to data analytics to derivestrategies.

Edited excerpts from an interview that took place when he was few days away from completing hisannual tenure as the chairman of BARC India, a joint industry body entrusted with collating audience data in a highly fragmented and, at times, quirky Indian broadcast sector, wherein competition is cut-throat:

Q: What would be the three major changes in the industry that you have witnessed over the years in the complex M&E industry of India after your switch to the media sector from FMCG?

A: The first significant development is the entire digitisation of the cable. While digitisation of the signal has happened, allowing (the pipe) to carry more content, addressability needs to improve. Overall cable digitisation has enabled the pipe to carry more content and to improve the viewer experience. The second development is the rise of OTT services; delivering content on demand in addition to the existing linear delivery of content. The third development would be the increasing importance of live and experiential entertainment. The advent of quality multiplexes has certainly made a difference in viewing experience in cinemas. Similarly, in the sphere of live entertainment, experimentation with modern technology has dialed up consumer experience. We have also experimented with theatricals. What happens is that as kids develop a relationship with characters, it allows you to bring those characters alive in different forms outside of television. One can take them outside of television into theatricals, into experiential zones and merchandising.

I would add a fourth important development and that is the evolution of BARC India. I think the joint industry body that we formed to measure ‘what India watches’ is a significant development. It’s a unique feature that industry bodies have come together for audience measurement in India.

Q:Are Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) the largest contributors to the Viacom18 revenue pie?

A: Yes, they are.

“About 59-60 per cent of India communicates in regional languages, about 39-40 percent in Hindi, and the balance one per cent in English. This 59 per cent is still under-indexed in viewership. As the viewership catches up with actual consumption, so would monetisation opportunities.”

Q: Keeping in mind what you said, how do you see the market for Viacom18 going forward over the next couple of years?

A: The GECs will remain an important block (from the point of view of revenues), but I am very bullish on the regional piece, too. I personally feel that regional businesses are gaining traction and will continue to get dialed up significantly in the future. The reason for that is that in television, and arguably in all mediums of television, digital and films, the regional languages have been under-indexed from the point of viewership and monetisation.

In my opinion,the genesis of this lies in the fact that the erstwhile measurement system was a bit skewed towards the Hindi-speaking urban audiences; perhaps as it too developed along with the cable movement in India in the 1990s, which started with the Hindi-speaking regions. However, in the last decade, language programming in other parts of India, especially South India, has developed considerably. With BARC’s arrival, these markets are being better represented. As we go deeper into India, the regional language play will keep getting dialed up. About 59-60 per cent of India communicates in regional languages, about 39-40 percent in Hindi, and the balance one per cent in English. This 59 per cent is still under-indexed in viewership. As the viewership catches up with actual consumption, so would monetisation opportunities.

Why do I say this? There is an intuitive understanding — not entirely always incorrect — that the English consuming audience has a higher propensity to spend and that amongst the other language markets, Hindi-speaking markets (HSM), perhaps, have the highest propensity to spend. Equally importantly, regional markets like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh/ Telengana, Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat have higher per capita income (compared to India average) and would therefore have a higher propensity to consume advertising and brands. My hypothesis is that the affinity to one’s mother tongue will remain and India will continue to remain a multi lingual country (most Indians speak at least two languages and in some cases three or more). All three clusters of English, Hindi and regional will grow with regional leading the rate of growth for viewership and monetisation.

At Viacom18, we will continue to build our portfolio of services in all the three language-clusters mentioned above, while significantly dialing up our regional language clusters. To illustrate this, let me share how our dependence on our flagship Hindi channel Colors is systematically coming down. When I joined Viacom18, we used to get 80 per cent of our ad sales from Colors standard definition channel. That number now is 50 per cent or may be a little lower.

About 59-60 per cent of India communicates in regional languages, about 39-40 percent in Hindi, and the balance one per cent in English. This 59 per cent is still under-indexed in viewership. As the viewership catches up with actual consumption, so would monetisation opportunities.

Q: As Colors is the biggest revenue earner, a lot of strategising must be done forprogramming. How do you slice and dice programming for appointment viewing for different parts of India and the HSM?

A: Not just Colors, but for all our content engines we marry insight to gut in the way we strategise and develop content. At Viacom18, we started an ambitious data science project called Project Pi with the objective to provide information and insights to the users and establish one single version of truth in the company.

The second leg to this is a free-flowing discussion that we have recently started`Content PeCharcha’ (discussion over content), inspired by PM Modi’s now famous `Chai PeCharcha’ (discussion over tea), primarily with Raj (Nayak, COO, Viacom18), Manisha (Sharma, content head, Colors) and some more team members. These are open sessions where we have a qualitative and free-flowing discussion on both macro content trends and specific current and future programme story arcs.

Let me give you a couple of examples of how this works. When I joined people said mythologicals/historical dramas don’t work on Colors. But our research suggested that competitors were successfully running them and it was a white space that hadn’t been explored properly at our end. We came up with Ashoka and proved the naysayers wrong. In one of our early meetings, we figured comedy was a white space for us and we should actively explore it. While our first attempt didn’t work, the next one (Comedy Nights with Kapil) created history as it was based on our learning. We then experimented with the crime genre with shows like Code Red and Dev. A Hindi GEC is like a `thali’ (an Indian plate with a variety of food offerings): it needs to have a spread of flavor and taste. Balance, however, is the key to how your audiences perceive the spread to be.

Q: Has the rise of mythological and historical shows on Viacom18 channels, as well as on other TV channels, increased after 2014 or are we reading too much into it?

A: I am a firm believer—and I am keep saying it often—that the richness of the Indian culture is reflected a lot in some of our mythological and historical stories. Brilliant evergreen tales like `Ramayan’ and `Mahabharat’ can be told over and over again but there are so many other stories that need to be taken to the audiences. If you look at some of our mythological stories, India has long been telling superhero stories—both of superwomen and supermen. But to answer your question, yes there has been a definite rise in these stories (on TV channels) post 2014.

“My assumption is that over the next five years, India will follow China’s example and 10 per cent of all internet video consumers will move behind a pay wall. Once this happens, it will create both advertising and subscription economies at scale.”

Q: Hanuman probably was the first super hero and remains till day one. Agree?

A: Precisely. I personally feel that these are stories that lend themselves well to a variety of interpretations. Moving forward, production quality can make our stories richer and give the consumers a better experience.

Q. Is the digital venture VOOT making money?

A: If you are asking if we are monetising VOOT, then yes we do have a fair number of advertising brands on VOOT. But having said that, I’d say we, like most consumer digital businesses, have substantial distance to cover in our monetisation journey.

The digital VoD space is one that requires an extended gestation period for investment. Today there are300 million Indians consuming video on the internet. That number is poised to touch 600-700 million in the next three to five years time.Further, my assumption is that over the next five years, India will follow China’s example and 10 per cent of all internet video consumers will move behind a pay wall. Once this happens, it will create both advertising and subscription economies at scale.

Q: So, is VOOT targeting 10 per cent of subs behind a pay wall in, say, three years’ time?

A: Absolutely. Maybe, even more. We are planning to launch the subscription service of VOOT early next fiscal.

India is a price sensitive market and, unlike the West, we do not have the price arbitrage advantage between cable and VoD. In the US, Netflix disrupted the market with its offering at USD8-10 versus a monthly cable bill of USD80-100. In India, we still get 300 channels at Rs 200-250 making linear television the economical entertainment option. But having said that, I believe the right pricing for data and content will continue to drive VoD in India. I think, it is fair to assume that the range of pricing for subscription VoDin India lies between USD 1-3 to begin with.

Q: So you are working on a price model that is between USD 1-3/sub/month in India?

A: Yes. If you want to look at large numbers, you need to keep prices competitive in India.USD 3 is approximately Rs 200, but it will also depend on how many people you want at what price and that will be determined on the price volume elasticity study underway.

Q: Does it help for a content owner and producer like Viacom18 to also have a group company like Reliance Jio, which is a platform that is practically giving data free to consumers?

A: There are clear synergies and we complement each other.

Q: Have you ruled out sports altogether?

A: The business of sports,particularly cricket,is a high-investment and long-gestation game. In our current scheme of things,such an investment can be better utilised in a host of other opportunities and, hence, we are not looking at sports as of now.

Q: What are your views on the evolution of BARC India and that some of the audience data and methodology has been questioned by some industry players?

A: BARC has made a promising start. The measurement is clearly more robust, transparent and objective. The sample size has already been dialed up to 32k (almost four times the size of the erstwhile measurement system). We plan to further grow the sample size to 40k by next year and even further in the years to come.

The sample has also become broader,holistic and reflects more accurately what India watches. Even rural consumption and regional languages are getting represented in a better way. The fidelity of data has improved considerably and tent-pole events on television — from a big TV channel launch to a new program introduction and all the way to an important news break event in an hour — are captured and show up with a very prominent spike. The areas where more work needs to be done by all stakeholders are the measurement of niche channels by BARC and management of volatility as high fidelity brings high volatility.

The initiatives like return path data and premium panel will help improve the measurement of niche channels.

Q: When is BARC likely to rollout digital measurement?

A: BARC is in the process of getting all stakeholders aligned for rollout of digital measurement. There are debates around all digital players being a part of the measurement, equitable methods/process used for data capturing from all players and the more holistic India stack/dmp for representation and publishing of the data. All the stakeholders at BARC are debating these issues and the timeframe of publishing digital data will depend on the speed of alignment and approach taken by the stakeholders. Until these issues are resolved, it would be premature to commit to a timeline.

Q: What is your take on net neutrality?

A: It is quite a nuanced subject. My broad take is that NN is essential and net should be as neutral as possible because that’s in the best interest of a functional democracy. Essential services, depending upon the evolution of our society, will need to be looked at differently. In years to come, the internet would be a basic requirement for day to day life and therefore net neutrality is an imperative to offer equal opportunity to everybody.

Q: What about legal and illegal content as the latter results in revenue losses for content owners like Viacom18?

A: The issue of piracy is entirely different, and another elaborate subject on its own. Illegal content is a big challenge for any content owner. Piracy is a complex topic where different stakeholders need to play a part. My view is clear: illegal content should not be made available, but then enforcement is not always that easy. Having said that, consumers too are not clear on legal and illegal content when it comes to the digital world, at times. In my view piracy should be tackled through a three-pronged approach of legislation, enforcement and consumer awareness. In addition, if content is made available to consumers at competitive price points, it would be a big deterrent to piracy and, business models permitting, arguably the most effective way to tackle this menace.

“Technology is causing disruptions almost daily and resultantly the very definition of a media company is changing. For any regulator anywhere in the world or any government, it is a challenge to keep abreast or even keep pace with such changes. As we move forward, we will need to evolve a mechanism where there is greater participation from all stakeholders.”

Q. Do you think powerful lobbies like global video-streaming services can have a bearing on legislations relating to NN? How do you see that playing out?

A: I would not like to specifically comment on this. But there are two fundamental considerations here. The first is that every player will have its point of view and arguments on the subject. Second is that considering the width and complexity of these arguments, the government is best placed to examine in detail and take an overarching view after wide-ranging discussions with every stakeholder.

Q: You are head of the CII entertainment committee, part of the IBF board, associated with BARC and also head one of the largest media networks in the country. What are your views on the regulatory regime in India as it’s considered a challenging market?

A: I think the tricky piece, or rather the interesting piece, is that media and entertainment as an industry, both in India and globally, is evolving at a rapid pace. Technology is causing disruptions almost daily and resultantly the very definition of a media company is changing. For any regulator anywhere in the world or any government, it is a challenge to keep abreast or even keep pace with such changes. As we move forward, we will need to evolve a mechanism where there is greater participation from all stakeholders. As one cannot operate in isolation, there is a need for some regulatory framework that is akin to the ground rules of a game, if one wishes the industry to flourish. So, yes, in my opinion, light touch regulation always works well.

What are your views on FTA vs pay TV considering many popular TV channels are on DD’s free-to-air DTH service FreeDish, taking advantage of DD’s reach and making money on advertising?

A: I am a firm believer that India is an ‘and’ market. So, I don’t think it’s an `and’ ‘or’ equation between FTA and pay TV. Both will continue to flourish as there is significant headroom for growth for both. Now, coming to DD FreeDish, you’re right in identifying it as a platform as it is a means to carry content to the consumer and represents a very affordable option. Admittedly, it is a rapidly growing platform where many private channels are also present. However, all other platforms are cognizant of the opportunity that a low priced FTA channel bouquet provides. It is quite likely that alternate platform options will emerge if DD FreeDish decides to bar privately owned channels.

ALSO READ:

Viacom18 celebrations: Mukesh Ambani sets the roadmap for next 10 years

Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats: Indian media’s growth will be similar to China

Viacom18 showcases strong women characters content: Ajit Andhare, buys Mithali biopic rights

Viacom18 & govt announce anti-piracy partnership

December 26, 2017