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Tag: Zee Turner Pvt Ltd

  • “If one has good content there is nothing to worry about, CAS or no CAS” : Anshuman Misra Turner International India MD

    “If one has good content there is nothing to worry about, CAS or no CAS” : Anshuman Misra Turner International India MD

    India is probably one market where BBC has a lead over CNN. It is also one of the few markets where Cartoon Network has been amply Indianised, which includes introduction of a Tamil language feed too. But as the managing director of Turner International India, part of the AOL Time Warner group, Anshuman Misra still has lot of work to do in this region. What‘s more, as the managing director of Zee Turner Pvt Ltd (a 74:26 per cent distribution joint venture between Zee Telefilms and Turner India), Misra also has to take care of about 17 channels which the JV company distributes.

     

    Misra, who also oversees the distribution and marketing of CNN International, Cartoon Network and Home Box Office (HBO) in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, successfully encrypted Cartoon Network/ TCM in India, and was responsible for the successful launch of HBO and the CNN South Asia feed.

     

    Now his mandate is to make all the channels ready for the digital age and be the leading content provider on all available platforms whether it is television, Internet or wireless.

     

    Prior to his current appointment, Misra was general manager of BBC World (India) where he managed the distribution and sales of the international news & current affairs channel. Before joining BBC, Misra was with Turner Broadcasting System in Atlanta in the licensing and merchandising division, Turner Home Entertainment (THE) and in 1994 he moved to New Delhi to establish Turner Home Entertainment in India.

     

    In this interview with indiantelevision.com‘s Anjan Mitra, Misra, educated in the US where he received a master‘s degree in business administration from University of Louisiana, discusses the state of the broadcasting industry in India and other issues related to his own company. Excerpts from the interview:

     

    How would you view the broadcasting and cable industry in India at this juncture ?

    The industry has been growing for a while and it has grown quite a lot over the last few years. This is evident from the fact that penetration of cable TV has increased in smaller cites of India too and more people have access to cable now in places which are not so urban. The advertising market too has grown, (economic) difficulties notwithstanding. The industry has been chugging along as also is the viewership. All this points to the fact that TV is no more a niche medium.

     

    Has the cable penetration in the country increased as fast as had been envisaged by the players concerned or has the growth been slow ? Growth in this industry has been more than anticipated and it has become a sophisticated medium. These are all signs that the industry is maturing and has matured a lot.

     

    “The advertising market too has grown, (economic) difficulties notwithstanding. The industry has been chugging along as also is the viewership. All this points to the fact that TV is no more a niche medium”
    __________________

     

    What would be the cable penetration figures for CNN and other Turner channels in India, considering that BBC still retains its leadership position as far as Indian viewers are concerned ? Has there been a slowdown in this after the channels were encrypted?

    The penetration figures for CNN are approximately 5.5 million cable homes, while those for HBO and Cartoon Network is 15 million homes each. I won‘t say that the penetration has dropped or slowed down after encryption. Cartoon Network signals were encrypted in the beginning of 1999, while HBO was launched as a pay channel in March 2000. The growth has been steady and is evident from the fact that even in smaller towns, these channels are available and seen.

     

    CNN‘s South Asia feed was started with much fanfare to cater to the Indian viewer with programmes which are aired at times more suited to Indians. Have tangible benefits accrued to the company in the form of ad revenues?

    The South Asia feed was launched in July 2000. The response from advertisers, since then, has been positive, and we have seen a year-on-year growth. Though I cannot reveal exact figures, we have attracted brands of worldwide caliber. This speaks of the power we have as a targeted medium and the trust in our advertising environment. Some of our advertisers include Alcatel, Samsung and Fiat and we are hopeful that in the future more big time advertisers from India and those targeting India will come on board.

     

    What is the current revenue mix and are you looking at pushing up any particular stream of revenue ?

    As a whole, Turner India‘s revenue mix (slightly skewered towards ad sales as compared to subscription) is 65:35 per cent. The way we look at it is to put our best foot forward and act as the market behaves. We realise that at the moment the market is growing and so there is no immediate need to change the strategy drastically.

     

    There have been talks of Turner launching CNN India to be more region specific and a senior CNN executive has also been quoted in the media saying that “we would be a fool to wait any longer to start CNN India.” Your comments.

    The Indian market is very important for us and we are looking at various ways to approach it (to maximize viewership and revenue). But if you ask me to tell you the specifics, then I cannot as we don‘t have anything specific on the table at the moment.

     

    Is CNN India or an Indian version of CNN on the radar screen or not?

    There is still a lot that can be done in this market and as I said there are several ways to approach it. It‘s been a while that media has been speculating (about CNN‘s newer moves), but we are looking at opportunities. We have talked to lots of players here.

     

    How is the Zee Turner distribution company performing ?

    It‘s quite an incredible story as we managed to bring together the company in a very short time, including the management and work responsibilities. The JV was announced in February 2002 and in this short time I can say a lot of work has been done. The bouquet of channels that we have (17-odd channels comprising Zee and Turner channels) brings not only value to the customer but also offers a variety of options and choices to cable operators. Both the partners have gained from this.

     

    “It‘s been a while that media has been speculating (about CNN‘s newer moves), but we are looking at opportunities. We have talked to lots of players here “
    __________________

     

    There have been talks about extending this relationship into other areas too. Is anything happening on that front?

    Primarily the relationship is that of a distribution company, and for other things we‘ll have to wait and see. The distribution JV is a growing venture and we‘ll have to see about adding more channels in future.

     

    Have talks been initiated to bring in other third-party channels into the bouquet?

    We have been talking to potential partners.

     

    Have talks been held with CNBC India and MTV too?

    CNBC India is part of the Sony bouquet at the moment and I can‘t comment on it. You see, there is no specific genre of channel that we are looking at. Talks are on and in due course of time maybe something will emerge.

    As a broadcaster are you opposed to conditional access system (CAS) ?

    As a concept, Turner is not opposed to CAS. Any system that brings about transparency and choice to the consumer is welcome and we are for it.

     

    Then why is CAS bothering the broadcasters so much and why are they lobbying against its implementation?

    As I said, as a concept, Turner is not opposed to CAS, but it has to be seen how it is implemented. Issues like piracy of signals and the technology for it do bother us. It all depends how it is implemented. Once our doubts are clarified, we‘ll be more than happy.

     

    Do you feel that if CAS is implemented, in the short term, the viewership of pay channels will dip ?

    I don‘t think there will be any problem on the viewership front. It‘s a huge market here. And at the end of the day, if one has good content there is nothing to worry about, CAS or no CAS.

  • Many issues covered, little by way of solutions at CETMA seminar on CAS

    Many issues covered, little by way of solutions at CETMA seminar on CAS

    Do the amendments being sought in the Cable TV (Networks) regulation Act, 1995 address the issue of subscriber management system? Will there be a penalty for under-declaration of subscriber base by cable operators? Who will invest in the upgradation of head-ends when conditional access is implemented? What should be the business model in a post-CAS era? What should be the ideal technical specifications – open architecture or proprietary technology?

    There were more questions and concerns than answers and solutions. That, in a nutshell, was the outcome of a seminar on conditional access systems (CAS) and pay TV channels that had been organised by the Consumer Electronics & TV Manufacturers’ Association (CETMA) in Delhi today.

    After the seminar, a chief executive of a joint venture cable distribution company admitted in private that “too may issues and concerns were voiced with almost no solutions offered.”

    If Shantanu Aditya, head of Sony Entertainment TV Discovery Pvt Ltd, a cable distribution company, felt that the amendments which have been proposed in the Cable TV (Networks) regulation Act, 1995, would not help India leapfrog where technology is concerned and also does not address the issue of under-reporting by cable operators, Vikki Choudhry, an independent cable operator in Delhi was of the opinion that the broadcasters, most of the time, do not take into account the problems of cable operators which include financial ones too. “In such a scenario, CAS is a good thing for the whole industry as it will bring about some transparency,” he added.

    However, the three major concerns, which CETMA will apprise the government of after collating facts from the seminar, amongst others, are the following:

    1. The cost factor: higher duties on set top boxes (STBs) which at present total up to about 58.6 per cent, must be reduced drastically. According to Rajeev Karwal, senior vice-president (consumer electronics) of Philips India Ltd, “If the government really wishes to popularise CAS through STBs, then the various duties on STBs need to be reduced.”

    2. Safeguard against unauthorised re-distribution of pay channels after CAS is implemented. Explained Sanjiv Kainth, general manager, digital products, Thomson Multimedia India Pvt. Ltd: “The government has to ensure that after CAS is implemented, nobody illegally redistributes pay channels. This is very important as it will defeat the whole purpose of CAS.”

    3. The analog vs digital STB issue: With confusion prevailing in the Indian market whether India should go in for anlaog or digital STBs, Thomson’s Kainth said that various lobbies be damned as market forces, based on economic factors of the region serviced by cable operators will decide whether it will be analog or digital STBs. “As I see it, in all probability, it will be a mix of both with cable operators servicing more affluent areas having the option to go in for digital STBs,” he added. But differing with Kainth on this issue was Aditya who felt that analog STBs would be a “step backward.”

    K. Jayaraman, managing director of Hathaway & Datacom Cable, felt that CAS may address the issue of piracy which results in loss of revenue for everybody, but added that some pilot projects undertaken by his company has shown that digital STBs don’t seem to work very well in India.

    But it was Thomson’s Kainth, airing CETMA’s overall view, who came out with a splendid presentation on CAS and pay channels which covered the whole gamut of issues from investments to the business models to the technical specifications. 

    According to Kainth, investment between Rs 25 million to Rs 100 million would be needed in a headend that is distributing 40-odd digital channels and “ultimately it would be the cable operator who owns the subscriber and the subscribers themselves who will have to bear a major share of the investment pie.” A point of view also voiced by Dayanidhi Maran, chief executive of the Sun-owned Sumangali Cable Vision cable distribution company.

    Sunil Khanna, chief executive of Zee Turner Pvt. Ltd, referred to the idea of “headend in the sky” which will drastically reduce the cost of physical implementation of CAS throughout the country in various phases. 

    Head in the sky concept involves forming a platform of broadcasters who uplink from a common place where all the signals are encrypted after the various channel signals are passed through a box and then uplinked again in that format. The cable operator then downlinks the encrypted bunch of signals, mixes the free to air channels and re-distributes to consumers according to their needs. 

    But, countered, a senior executive from a hardware manufacturing firm, headend-in-the-sky concept sounds very good theoretically, but will remain a fantasy as in this case the broadcasters have to decide first to come together which looks a remote possibility.

    Then, of course, consumer activist and columnist Pushpa Girimaji, presenting the consumers’ viewpoint said that CAS is fine but the way everything has been framed it seems to limit the consumer’s options rather make it flexible.

    “The Bill on CAS takes away the people’s right of choice and gives the power to the government to decide what they should see. It curtails consumers choice and nobody should decide how many channels people should see (or not see),” Girimaji said while referring to the CAS and the basic tier of free to air channels being proposed by the government.