This is a good time to launch a television channel. To quote GroupM global president Dominic Procter, who was speaking at Ficci Frames 2013 held earlier this month, India is a content powerhouse, with the biggest movie productions, a massive digitisation process under way and 169 days of live cricket. While cricket is going through a global resurgence, India needs to start investing in non-cricketing sports and the early signs of their success can already be seen, he had said.
Broadcast company Star India?s new sports channel has debuted at the right time then. ESPN Star Sports, part of the Star network, has launched a new channel Star Sports 2 to tap the growing audience for different kind of sports in India. The new channel, which went on air on March 11, is showcasing live and non-live events across sporting categories such as cricket, soccer, tennis, motor racing and golf, the company said in a statement. Star India?s chief operating officer Sanjay Gupta asserted that the broadcaster’s vision is to expand sports viewership in the country. This would allow the network to broadcast a wide array of sports content across channels and to cater to multiple live events simultaneously. This is the second major launch for the network, after the recent launch of Bengali movie channel Jalsha Movies.
ESPN Software India?s chief operating officer Vijay Rajput said that in the last 2-3 years, the network has shopped for some of the best sporting properties and the new channel will monetise on those. These include the rights for BCCI-conducted national and domestic cricket conducted by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for six years, rights for Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A and English FA Cup. This is in addition to the existing portfolio which includes rights to Cricket Australia, English Cricket Board, International Cricket Council matches, Barclays Premier League soccer, Formula One, tennis Grand Slam tournaments, golf majors among others. Star Sports 2 will cover tournaments such as Serie A and La Liga soccer, Nascar racing and prime tennis action from the ATP World Tour for men amongst others. The distribution team is in the process of finalising deals with leading multi system operators (MSOs) and direct-to-home (DTH) companies.
Rajput believes that with digitisation, individual preferences will play a key role and Star, as a network, is prepared for that. ?We believe that with our superior content line-up extending for the next few years across sporting genres, all our channels will be the top choice of sports fans in India and South Asia. Our endeavour thus will always be to acquire the best of sporting content across media and consistently aim to provide the sports fan with quality entertainment round the clock,? he said.
Star is not the only one that aims to make hay while the digital sun shines. Sensing the opportunity, there’s a long list of new channels that have debuted in the past few months. HBO Asia and Eros International Media have announced the launch of HBO Defined and HBO Hits channels on Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV.
These are two premium, advertisement-free movie channels in India and will showcase the best of Hollywood and Bollywood content. ?The launch of HBO Defined and HBO Hits on Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV will reach out to a wide network of subscribers all over India,? said Jonathan Spink, CEO of HBO Asia. ?Subscribers in India will be able to enjoy a first-class cinema experience that is 100% advertising-free in the comfort of their own home.? With these two channels launching, there will be a lot more of HBO original programming coming in such as Veep, Game of Thrones, True Blood and Boardwalk Empire as they premiere closer to the dates they are aired in the US. In addition, dual language options of either English or Hindi are available for selected Hollywood blockbusters.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) introduced its learning plus entertainment channel ZeeQ recently and if media buyers are to be believed, one other major broadcaster is looking to launch an education based channel. Print major Mathrubhumi announced its entry into the satellite television space recently with Mathrubhumi News and a speciality channel called Kappa. The second channel Kappa is an entertainment, music and lifestyle channel. Both the channels are free-to-air and will be available on multiple DTH platforms. Shreyams Kumar, director at Mathrubhumi was contacted for comments but did not revert till the time of filing this story.
Viacom 18 group chief executive Sudhanshu Vats in a recent interview with Brandwagon had said that there could be space for a second general entertainment channel (GEC) from the group. Exploring options for a second GEC via Rishtey, which is already available in the United Kingdom is very much on the cards, as per Vats. India will also see the launch of a matrimonial channel christened Shagun by Vertent Media Soft and Park Media this year. The news genre is also set to see a lot of new launches. Media reports say that Arvind Kejriwal?s Aam Aadmi party is planning to launch a television channel that will focus on public issues. As per media executives, nearly 75 news channels are awaiting clearance from the ministry of information and broadcasting to launch their services in India. Many of these are targeting the 2014 general election.
Ashish Pherwani, partner at management consulting firm Ernst & Young said that the matrimonial channel and the HBO ad-free channels were just the kind of launches that were expected in a digital environment. ?A lot of channels that wanted to launch, could not do so in an analogue regime because the cost of distribution was too high. In contrast, new channels are not limited by bandwidth constraints in a digital backdrop. The business models are viable ? they are not handicapped by high placement fees. In fact it could be entirely subscription led,? Pherwani said. He added that many more interesting content could come up with the advent of new channels. The sub-text is that it should be interesting enough. ?You could even have a cool channel for bike racing and the Harley Davidson fans of the world would be interested,? said Pherwani. The digital era is set to be a regime where content is really the king. Pherwani says that the term ?GEC? will be redundant when the country is 100% digitised. ?The term ?GEC? belongs to the analogue era and we are moving past it. There will be more of programme loyalty than channel loyalty. Good content will thrive,? he said.
Star?s Jalsha Movies has already had a smooth run in the Bengali language space in the three months since its launch. Kevin Vaz, president ? ad sales at Star India said that movies were big in Bengal, but cinema halls were scarce. Therein lay the business opportunity. ?Television becomes the only option for viewers to watch big, and also recent, Bengali titles. This gap along with a strong library gave us the obvious opportunity to launch an exclusive Bengali movie channel,? he said. Star says that Jalsha Movies opened with a gross rating point (GRP) of 154, the highest opening score for any channel launched in Bengal. Star Jalsha, the Bengali GEC had opened at 92 GRP and Zee Bangla Cinema had opened at 102 GRP. The channel also boasts of the highest share of male viewers. It has more than 400 Bengali films in its library and Star says that digitisation will only make the dynamics stronger.
?With digitisation, there has been a visible growth of 6% in the Bengali TV space. Though people now have more options in channels, Jalsha and Jalsha Movies viewers have preferred to stick to their preferred channels. Thanks to digitisation, viewers are enjoying an enhanced viewing experience with Star, culminating in viewers? loyalty,? said Vaz.
When the Zee group launched ZeeQ in October, the fact that the country is moving to 100% digitally addressable systems where niche genres such as education would find patronage, was certainly in the minds of the Zee honchos. ?If the audience has an option to pick and choose what it wants to watch and pay for that content only, the demand for niche channels is likely to increase. Education could in fact be a genre that grows with digitisation,? said Subhadarshi Tripathy, business head at ZeeQ, adding that the revenue model will be largely subscription based. Since the channel is based on content which is right for children, only a selected few products will be considered for commercials.?We are committed to helping children achieve their full potential. ZeeQ finds new ways of engaging children through the day fulfilling their natural curiosity,? added Tripathy.
The furious pace of growth for the Indian TV industry will only spawn new channels and genres: Advisory firm KPMG in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(Ficci) in its recent report said that the media and entertainment industry is expected to grow by over 81% from the current level of R91,700 crore to R1,66,000 crore by 2017. In 2012, the television segment accounted for 45% of the R83,100 crore market. Its share is likely to go up to 50% by 2017, touching R84,760 crore. The report said that digitisation will bring in greater sophistication and segmentation in content. TV digitisation is likely to be a great catalyst for greater diversity and niche television programming. Digitisation is expected to improve broadcast economics significantly which, in turn, could drive more investments in production quality, niche and targeted genres of content/packaging in the medium term, said the report.
Satyajit Sen, chief executive at Zenith Optimedia, Publicis Groupe said that with digitisation, new psychographics come into play. ?A wider choice is being exercised in digital TV homes and many homes have more than one television. We are moving beyond the traditional TV fare,? he said.
Sen said that the television business is a lot more viable in India than in other parts of the world. ?The world at large is still recovering from recession. We, on the other hand, are moving to 100% digitally addressable systems, and are still growing. It?s a lot more lucrative to launch channels in India, than in many other parts of the world.?
Sen says that he expects an exponential growth in international channels with digitisation. English entertainment should do exceedingly well with viewers exercising more choices, he said. India is likely to mirror other markets in the world which offer a galaxy of channels, across the most niche of genres.
Sen is especially upbeat about HBO?s two new channels, HBO Defined and HBO Hits. ?If you ask me, the HBO brand has been built already in India. Anything new will be a carry forward. HBO is already distributed well and therefore these two channels from the same stable will also find access into people?s homes.?
Sen says that the ad-free models of these channels is certainly workable in a digitised India. A lot of channels in the world are solely around subscription models and are doing pretty well. They address a smaller subset of audiences and are distributed only among those audiences. The new HBO movie channels may see a longer gestation period in India, but certainly have the potential for growth, said Sen. There could also be opportunities for select sponsorships.