In a freewheeling interview to The Financial Express, Mr Raizada said: "Our marketing plan in India has a 360 degree dimension. We touch the life of youth everywhere they turn to-be it home, college, office or hang-outs. Our aim is to provide topical content which the youth in India wants. We are fairly successful in this attempt, without compromising our identity as a music channel," he said.

He said MTV has positioned itself as a complete entertainment solution for youth with innovations like morning music, MTV dressing for colleges and offices, a Web site to browse through during working hours, MTV hang-outs for the evenings and back to the channel in the night. "With these, we have a complete gamut of things that touch the life of youth 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year", Mr Raizada said.

He said the channel has been successfully promoted by an all-round marketing strategy with topical event-based programmes on the ground supported by promos in print and other media. "This helps us to be seen around the ground and finally we have the channel that beams the events," he said adding: "our aim is to make the Indian youth participate in the event and identify with the channel."

He said it is with this in mind that the channel has been hosting events and shows like Dirt Busters, Bacardi Blast and War of the DJs. He said Dirt Busters was a good example of how the interests of youth can be brought to bear on social and environmental issues. "Majority of the Indian youth are not concerned about issues like ozone depletion. But, if you can communicate with them in their language against the issues of concerns, they will sure respond to it. Dirt Busters have proved this point unequivocally", Mr Raizada said.

He said the rating of the channel picked up significantly once it recast the content from a typical European one to 70:30 formula, where 70 per cent content is based on Indian themes and topics. "This has made a significant improvement in the rating of the channel. This pushed us to top slot in the segment and with our quality and topical content we are not worried about competition", he said.