Colors was the eleventh entrant into a market space that was already over-crowded and extremely competitive. Not only that, the battle for leadership in this market, which happened to be the Hindi general entertainment genre, the biggest segment in terms of both the viewership share as well as advertising revenue potential, on television had already been fought and won. The leader, Star Plus, the flagship channel of Rupert Murdoch?s Star Network in India, had been ruling the genre for almost a decade. Several concerted efforts by rivals to displace it from the top position had yielded a naught.
Those at the middle and the bottom rung were not in a comfortable zone either. The other close rivals, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television, had been fighting tooth and nail to claim the number two slot but none could hold it for too long. Most importantly, the industry response to some new entrants such as 9X and NDTV Imagine had not been too encouraging.
Colors? entry in this scenario did not seem like a sound business decision to most in the industry. The channel was launched by Viacom18, a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between the US-based global media conglomerate Viacom Inc and homegrown media network Network18 Group, on July 21, 2008 and most industry watchers wrote it off even before they switched it on.
A year later, however, this script stood completely changed (see chart). And 16 months after Colors? launch, here?s what the line-up of the Hindi GEC space on television looks like? having taken a lead of nearly 100 GRPs (or gross rating points, which are the sum total of television rating points, or TRPs, over a period of time. TRPs indicate the percentage of viewers watching a particular channel or a programme for a certain period of time) over Star Plus, Colors is the new number one player. The channel has consolidated its position on the top with around 350 GRPs and this is considered a feat of sorts by those industry players, who had dismissed it a year ago.
Colors? immediate predecessor NDTV Imagine is far from breaking into the top three exclusive club and other new entrants such as 9X and Real, launched by Alva Brothers, of Miditech fame (the television content production company behind popular shows such as Roadies) and Turner International are struggling to keep themselves going.
Meanwhile, here?s a quick look at what happened during the last 16 months. According to television audience measurement agency TAM Media research, four weeks prior to the launch of the channel, that is in June 2008, Star Plus was the clear leader with 351 GRPs, followed by Zee TV with 226 GRPs and Sony at number three with 102 GRPs. In July 2008, Colors broke into the number three slot with 115 GRPs. It crossed 200 GRPs in its 9th week and climbed up to the number two position in week 10. In 32nd week of 2008, it crossed the 300 GRP mark and became the number one channel by nudging out Star Plus for the first time in nine years and it managed this feat within nine months of its launch. This year, in week 37, it clocked in 325 GRPs, the highest ever record for a Hindi GEC. In week 41, it broke its own record and garnered 338 GRPs. And finally in week 43, it breached the 350 GRP mark, establishing itself as the undisputed victor in the Hindi GEC space.
?Colors? was an extremely well planned and coordinated launch. They also benefited from Star Plus? own lethargy towards taking quick action against the falling popularity of its K-serials (the family soaps produced by content production house Balaji Telefilms. Since the titles of most shows produced by the company began with letter, K, they were referred to as K-serials),? says a senior executive of a top media buying agency.
To be sure, every aspect of Colors? launch, be it the distribution, marketing or content had been well thought through. The channel started with only four hours of original programming but it got a competent viewership driver in the form of Khatron Ke Khiladi (KKK), which was hosted by Bollywood hottie Akshay Kumar. ?Akshay Kumar was at his prime at that time. Bringing him to the small screen was sure to bring in eyeballs. It was, therefore, a good programming strategy,? says the executive.
Once viewers came to the channel to sample KKK, they were cleverly steered to other shows being promoted during the shows ad breaks. And as the channels? CEO Rajesh Kamat puts it, ?the distinctive programming? caught viewers? fancy immediately. ?When we came in, the Hindi GEC space was dominated by saas-bahu serials. There was a discomforting sameness in the shows aired on most channels. And this, when there were clear signs that viewers? weren?t liking what was being dished out to them,? says Ashvini Yardi, Colors? programming head.
Achieving this feat, however, was not all that easy. ?We knew that there are no exit barriers for a channel. And that the lady of the house controls it with the remote and it doesn?t need money to go up and down on the remote,? says Kamat. ?This clearly meant the task for us was to make her keep the remote away and stick to us.?
Good programming aside, one of the toughest challenges was to establish a distinct identity for Colors in the cluttered market. ?How does one make audiences jump over to Colors from Star Plus, Zee TV or others,? was a big question before the team at Colors, says Rameet Singh Arora, head of marketing. ?Not only it was a crowded market place but it was also a marketplace which had a lot of sameness about it. There were rules that were established for the category by the erstwhile leader. So when we launched in many ways it was imperative for us to put our mix out and try and be different.?
Once the channel had its programming in place, the marketing team under Arora?s stewardship charted a strategy to build a buzz around the channel. ?We actually used a lot of frequency mediums to build the reach. We also used niche television a great deal.?
The team also tied up with the famous 250,000 dabbawallahs of Mumbai to plaster the channel?s and its various shows? logos and snapshots on the tiffin boxes that are distributed among people across the city.
Besides these, the channel also handled the distribution conundrum very well. ?Distribution, in fact, is the most crucial element to the success of a television channel in today?s time,? says a Delhi-based cable operator. ?A channel may have the best of content and it may burn a huge amount of money in promoting it, but if the channel doesn?t reach viewers, which means if the distribution is not in place, all these efforts will yield a naught.? Thanks to its sharp distribution plan, Colors reached 36.4 million viewers in its launch week. Today, it claims to have the maximum reach with 72.5 million viewers in the GEC space .
And once the product and its promotions and even the distribution had been put in place, then came the question of earning the bread and butter. In India, more than 80% of most television channels? revenues come from advertising. Colors was launched at a time when global economic downturn had already set in and it had begun to impact the Indian market as well. Advertisers had begun holding their purse strings tight. Yet, within weeks of its launch, the channel had most premium advertisers on board. One thing that the team at Colors responsible for raising advertising was clear about was: It would not sell its ad slots cheap even if it mean, not getting any advertising. ?From the very beginning we demanded a premium (for our ad slots). We held on to our rates even during tough times,? says Simran Hoon, head of sales. ?We actually went in with lower inventories and didn?t sign a deal till we got our price.?
Advertisers, in fact, go by the performance of the channel and they saw a winner in Colors. Says Shalin Desai, senior brand manager, Parle Products, ?When I take a channel I take the mix of cost per rating point , reach and premiumness and Colors has been delivering on all counts consistently.?
In the past, it has taken a channel six to nine years to break even. Colors, according to the industry watchers, will be breaking even by July 2010. Now that the channel has reached the top, has the journey come to an end? Far from it, says the team. ?Now, the biggest challenge is to consolidate our position on the top,? says Kamat.
Having won the domestic market, Colors is now gearing up to enter international markets and strengthen its distribution further. Over the next two months, it is planning to expand into the US, the UK, Middle East, Africa. ?We are close to signing up deals. I would say we are looking to expand into these four markets between January and March 2010,? says Kamat. Expansion into the international markets, should bring in additional revenues both from subscription as well as advertising.
The team also plans to develop more sources of income. The channel, according to Karthik Lakshminarayan, head, business planning and strategy, is considering venturing into merchandising over the next one year. It is already in talks with various retailers to develop products around some of its leading shows.