Executive Dossier

“Other music channels are copying our formula” : Pradeep Dixit

Published

23 years ago

December 16, 2002

Our astrological show Kahani Kismat Ki will complete 1000 episodes over the course of this month. The success of the half hour daily show at 10:30 pm proves that people have an insatiable appetite for that which they cannot see. Our predictions which get posted on the site www.entertainmenttv.com get an appreciable number of hits.

Will the channel be going in for a new look to get in more viewers?
We constantly try to innovate as an improved look is the surest way of sustaining eyeballs. When you talk about a channel’s look, you are basically referring to the quality of the programmes, which have to change and adapt to viewers’ habits and the changing environment. The channel runs the risk of looking stale if this does not happen. This kind of planning and implementation cannot be achieved in one day.

“We recently went in for an increase in ad rates… other channels are not even thinking along these lines, they are slashing their rates citing decline in the advertising pie. Our pitch to the advertising community is that our content offers excellent intrinsic value to viewers”

Are you planning to change the programming mix or the channel profile in any manner?
No. When other music channels are following us and copying our formula of religious based programmes and Hindi songs, which are invigorating to listen to, why should we shift tracks and change the trend? When you have a winning combination as a trendsetter, you simply have to make sure that the distance between you and your nearest competitor is substantial.

What is etc’s channel share at present vis-a-vis rivals MTV, Channel V, B4U Music? What is its USP?
There is quite a big gap between etc and the other channels. As per TAM data for music channels share for all cable and satellite homes from 23-29 June, etc’s share was 41 per cent. The nearest channel B4U Music is languishing behind with a 22 per cent share. MTV’s share is 16 per cent and Channel V’s is 11 per cent. In the Hindi speaking markets, our share is in fact slightly better at 43 per cent. B4U Music’s is 24 per cent, MTV’s is 12 per cent while Channel V’s share is nine per cent. We have taken figures for viewing time of over 15 minutes. A time period shorter than that merely implies channel surfing.

Our USP is firstly excellent distribution. We reach 80 per cent of all cable and satellite homes in the country. So, in fact, there is no need for us to set any targets in this area. Secondly, we function as the bridge between Bollywood and the people. Thirdly, we make constant efforts to improve on our look with a team of over 150 people looking after etc and etc Punjabi.

“When you have a winning combination as a trendsetter, you simply have to make sure that the distance between you and your nearest competitor is substantial”
	Film actor Manoj Bajpai in an etc show

How is the channel faring on the advertising front?
Just this year, we succeeded in attracting over a dozen new brands notwithstanding the market recession. Companies include Nokia, Kelloggs, Intel, Brittania and ITC. In fact, Coke too had no hesitation in signing on for our show Sun n Dance Hour which launched last month. The unusual zest of remix songs from old and new films fits in well with the soft drink manufacturers personality. In April, for the first time we went in for an increase in our ad rates. The hikes range from 20 to as much as 120 per cent, depending on the slot the advertiser is targeting. I would like to point out that other channels are not even thinking along these lines. In fact, they are slashing their rates citing decline in the advertising pie. Our pitch to the advertising community is that our content offers excellent intrinsic value to viewers. So the price the advertisers pay must be commensurate with the value they get from product reach.

Is the channel planning to form tie-ups with corporates for cross promotions relating to programmes?
On 1 July, we entered into an SMS arrangement with Positive Comsol for our initiative Bollywood Birthmarks where the viewers can wish their favourite stars on their birthdays. In the first week of implementation, we received 10,000 entries. This month, our star lineup includes Kajol and Johnny Lever. Viewers just need to type in etcbmn , key in their message and then SMS it to 303. We have also started organising music events in a bid to strengthen the etc brand in viewers’ mindspace. The Global Fusion For Peace that was held in Mumbai on 26 July, will be aired in August on the channel. Our next concert, which will take place within the next couple of months, will also focus on classical and fusion music. We are taking advantage of the fact that classical music in particular is completely ignored by other music channels who mostly rely on forgettable pop music for concerts and events.

	“We are taking advantage of the fact that classical music in particular is completely ignored by other music channels who mostly rely on forgettable pop music for concerts and events”
Gagar Mein Sagar, one of etc’s novel shows on alternative healing

What revenue targets have you set for the year?
We have targeted revenues of Rs 48 crores (Rs 480 million) and are right on track, having achieved figures of Rs 12 crores (Rs 120 million) in the Q1 2002-03.

Will etc continue to air music promos in the light of the fact that music companies are complaining overexposure on the tube is affecting sales?
We have a substantial library from where we source content. The issue does not affect us as the music companies pay for all content. Hence, in any case, they will be conservative both in terms of expenditure and the amount of exposure songs from a particular film get. They also keep in mind viewers’ choice and preferences. On our part, we are satisfied with our programming mix and do not foresee any drastic change in the existing programming model.

When Zee acquired a stake in etc, an advantage claimed was that the Gurbani programming would help in distribution for etc Punjabi and etc music in the US, UK, Canada? What is the progress on this front?
We are relying on the excellent distribution network and infrastructure the Zee Network has in place to give us the required numbers. Of course, the overseas markets are lucrative as they are in the pay TV segment.

Besides Gurbani, what else do viewers have to look forward to on etc Punjabi? How is it faring?
Every month, the channel organises a special event in Punjab. Popular Punjabi singers are invited and an elaborate stage is set up for concert performances. We also conduct interviews with Punjabi artistes and tap into the different dialects of the state. The result is that when we do a show around them it sounds authentic. We have tied up with Spice Telecom for Saada, a top ten show in which viewers can SMS the channel with their choice songs. In terms of share, etc Punjabi and Alpha Punjabi account for 84 per cent market share. etc’s contribution to this is 62 per cent. The TAM figure refers to the weekly channel share of all competitive Punjabi channels from 28 April to 16 June in Punjab.

Executive Dossier

Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star

Published

1 month ago

January 27, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.

Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.

Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.

Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.

Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.

With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.

Digital

SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform

Published

3 months ago

December 3, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.

The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.

Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.

Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.

Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.

Executive Dossier

Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention

Published

3 months ago

November 28, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.

In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.

On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8.

Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability.

On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns.

LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives.

About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes.

Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement.

• Automotive | Renault Triber

For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.

• FMCG | Namaste India

In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift.

• Real Estate

For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.

On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.

As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.

On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium.

LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception.

On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.

OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence.

About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors.

LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:

• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.

• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.

• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.

• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.

These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable.

On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact.

Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.