From soaps to soaps

?I have moved from a fast moving consumer goods industry, to a faster moving consumer business?

From selling soaps for one of the country’s largest consumer products maker to conjuring up ideas to entertain masses is quite a leap but Sudhanshu Vats seems as comfortable and keen about his new job as he was in the one he spent 19 years. Vats joined Viacom 18 in August last year as the group chief executive of Viacom18, the joint venture between homegrown broadcaster Network18 group and global media and entertainment behemoth Viacom. The Indian JV runs channels such as Hindi general entertainment channel Colors, Nick, Sonic and Nick Junior for children, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 besides producing films through Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Vats’s mandate is to boost Viacom’s media and entertainment interests in India. Given his track record at Hindustan Lever Ltd where was the vice president, South Asia for soaps and detergents segment leading many popular brands such as Surf Excel, Rin, Vim, Wheel, Lifebuoy, Lux, he seems most suited for the job.

Whether you are selling a soap or designing a programme for your audience, at the end of the day, it is about understanding the consumer, he told FE Brandwagon?s Anushree Chandran in a free-wheeling chat. There is a lot on his plate as of now ? from launching new channels, to managing profitable growth in an extremely competitive environment, dealing with sweeping digital changes and keeping with the new, multi-screen loving Indian consumer. Language content interests him, but sport does not and that should give us some clue on what’s in the offing. Edited excerpts.

Please tell us about your move from the consumer products business to media.

The transition has been fabulous. You’d be surprised to know that the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) business has quite a few things in common with the media business. The crux of it is, of course, consumer understanding. In the FMCG business, you do it for selling consumer products, here you do the same thing in order to entertain them. An advertisement can influence you into buying a product once. The second time, you will buy it only if the product is good. The same holds true for content. You can market your programme, but the programme will sustain only if the content is good.

There are several other similarities in the two businesses. Both require an understanding of the Indian landscape, consumers at the grass root level. Like in FMCG which has hordes of big and small retail outlets, the media business has thousands of local cable guys (60,000 plus) and a few organised multi system operators (MSOs) and direct to home (DTH) opera-tors. What’s not common is the following: Media is a far more gut-led industry. The product needs to be refreshed continuously. What you did yesterday will be stale tomorrow. FMCG, in contrast, is a lot more process oriented and decision making is multi-layered. The pace of change is faster in media. I tell people I have moved from a fast moving consumer goods industry, to a faster moving consumer business.

What is Viacom18?s current strategy for the Indian market?

There are four thrusts we have in Viacom. Our first thrust is sharper segmentation, which is essentially being able to give content according to individual tastes. As a society progresses, there are two broad dimensions that come into play. One is we or the family and the other one is the individual. The linkages to the family will always be there in India but we are also moving to a more individualistic society.

Most Indian homes today have multi-screens and 25% urban homes have more than one TV set. Even if you don?t have more than one television, many urban homes have computers or laptops. More and more young, urban Indians have notebooks, or iPads or smartphones. The external factors all point towards smarter segmentation.

How will segmentation play out?

We used to have one channel for kids called Nick (Nickelodeon) available in several languages for four- to 14 year-old kids. The country had 300 million kids.

What we have done now is to introduce Sonic, which is an action and animation oriented channel and targeted at children upwards of eight years. We?d like to call it a boys channel since it is more about action and adventure. We also recently brought in Nick Junior which is a pre-school channel ? for the two to six years age group. This channel is about play and learn. And Nick Junior at 7pm flips over to teen content? Nick Teen. Nick Teen is more for girls ?maybe 12 years upwards. So you can see how we have segmented the kids genre, both on psychographics and demographics.

What are your other areas of focus?

Apart from sharper segmentation, we want to build eco-systems. There is a lot that we are doing in live, or rather, experiential entertainment. Like live music concerts and awards. It could be comedy (theatre). This is especially true of our kids? channels; we find that kids have a deep relationship with the characters. With Dora the Explorer, we will have Dora furniture, Dora bedsheets, Dora bed, Dora frocks, Dora toys, etc. Globally, we have Turtle, which is a toys brand for boys. We also have an iconic youth brand MTV and a funky comedy brand called Comedy Central. With MTV, you have branded phones. Now MTV is coming out with adventure and high-end bikes with Firefox in connection to its Roadies property. With Comedy Central, we have a tie-up with Proline where we have come up with a lot of funky T-shirts based on our animated series South Park.

The fourth thrust that I am trying to bring in is I am trying to move media from being a purely gut-based industry to a gut-plus-insight industry. You may get ideas from the gut, but you need to make these powerful ideas through insight. Programmes based on powerful ideas are the ones that stay around longer.

Globally Viacom runs a lot of channels. CMT (country music), Spike (male action). TV land (content for people in their 40?s and 50?s). Given that we are moving to 100% addressable systems, which of these could potentially work in India?

We will be bringing in more of global Viacom channels when we think it?s the right time. It is difficult to say which one, because potentially, any of them could work in the Indian market. We?ve already demonstrated through Nick Junior that in a digitised world, we would be having room for sharply segmented and focused international stuff in the country. I promise that in the years to come, there will be more action. The plan is to get many of these channels in, but they need to be relevant to the Indian audience.

Why did your defer your plan of launching a Hindi movie channel?

In the past, we were not clear on the differentiation factor and on the business case for a new movie channel. That?s why we didn?t launch it. Hindi movies genre is no doubt a huge space. But there are already four-five players operating in the movies space. One must ask some questions before launching a movie channel. Do consumers want to watch movies? Yes, they do. But is there a differentiated proposition in the space? Now, this an important one. In addition, will we have synergies? Will we have enough to build a library? Is there a business case that pays off in a reasonable period of time? In time, if we can answer these questions adequately, we will launch a movie channel. Else we won?t.

Star has a strong second general entertainment channel ?Life Ok. Sony has Sab as a second line GEC. Will Viacom also look to launch a second GEC in India?

We are constantly evaluating what can be done. Is there room for one more channel in the general entertainment space from Viacom? The answer to that is ?yes?. But when will it be, what will it be — I do not want to comment on it at this point.

But you already have a second GEC beaming in the UK market ? Rishtey. Operationally, you wouldn?t have to spend anything on the content, if Rishtey were to launch here?

Let me put it this way. Exploring opportunities for Rishtey is very much on the cards.

What about the regional space?

Language entertainment is an important strategic space. TV18 has a deal with ETV channels. There are a lot of options that we are looking at. But a lot of it is getting baked and I don?t want to specifically comment on it. Some of it is in the state where we need to go to the government for some permissions.

So Bigg Boss is airing on ETV now?

Bigg Boss is airing on ETV Kannada. This is a classic example of synergies across platforms and between companies. Now that TV18 is running the ETV channels, a few of our programmes can go there. Soon you will also have Jhalak Dikhla Jaa (Dancing with the Stars) going into ETV Bangla. And we will be doing more of this, going forward. Particularly in the case of Bigg Boss, it is a good idea because we will be using the same sets. You build one Bigg Boss, you can use that asset for other regions.

How is your movie business working out?

Last year was pretty good. We released about 11 films, and six of those did well. Pyar Ka Punchnama, Kahaani, Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2, Oh My God, Son of Sardar?all worked out well. This year?s going well too. We had Inkaar in January followed by Special 26. In March, we have had Sahib, Biwi and Gangster. And next we have David Dhawan?s Chasme Badoor coming up. The movie business is something I think we are getting our arms around. However, we?ve got to sharpen our business model around the movie business.

Does Viacom feel that there?s a need for a new audience measurement system?

There are two things about TAM ratings. The direction they give is invariably correct. So, if they say that your TRPs (television rating points) are going up, they are most certainly going up. And if they say that the ratings are going down, then most certainly you?re on a downward spiral. As far as accuracy is concerned, particularly in terms of week on week ratings and niche channels, that accuracy is a little suspect because of the sample size. As an industry, we need to ensure that our measurement of niche channels goes up. There are two ways we can do it. We can measure certain genres on a weekly basis, and others every month. Or we?ll have to boost the sample size considerably.

Indiacast has recently entered into a joint venture in distribution with Disney. Are these distribution JVs of any relevance, considering everything will be ala carte in the digital regime?

I expect more consolidation with digitisation. There will be consolidation at the broadcaster level and there will be consolidation at the MSO level. The role of us coming together and offering a bouquet does stay. It allows you to negotiate with a set party on the other side on a given number of channels. While media companies will consolidate, segmentation will happen as far as the consumers are concerned. The choice element will go up.

Three of your competitors ? Star, Sony and Zee ? are invested heavily in sports. Does this genre interest you?

In the near foreseeable future, I cannot see us as being interested in sports.

How has the going been for Colors?

Colors is doing very well. We are bringing in Anil Kapoor?s thriller-espionage series 24 into India before the end of the year. What is happening in the Hindi GEC space is that there is a set leading pack of channels. All the GECs are clubbed together which is great, frankly, because now, you?ll air stuff that is good for the consumer and not get too obsessed over the rating. On one hand, you?ll have good healthy ratings for advertisers to see and on the other hand, you will start doing more things right for the audience. You?ll express your point of view. With Colors, we have dialed up non-fiction and have innovated a good deal. If you look at Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, we were able to take the programme to the next level. With Bigg Boss Season 6, again, there were a lot of new elements that were added including our slogan was Alag Che. Our weekday programming is good – three out of the TAM top 10 programmes are invariably from Colors ? Balika Vadhu, Sasural Simar Ka and Madhubala. Madhubala is new and already doing 4-plus in rating. We have just launched Sanskaar which is based on Indians moving to the US, and the relationships there. Another show which is getting launched is Gurbani which is about the craze over marrying daughters off into NRI families. We?ve done a lot of research and then come up with this show.

Is it a conscious effort to focus on small towns while coming out with the programming?

We believe in doing things which are socially relevant. If the message is well thought out and researched, it resonates throughout the country. So it?s not really an urban-rural issue. We need to strengthen our distribution (in the interiors), however.

Could you talk about your integrated network solutions unit?

I spoke to you about all the four thrusts for the Viacom network – sharper segmentation, building eco systems, synergising across the network and moving from gut feel to programming based on insights. We are doing a lot of things at the backend to support all this. We have a data mining team that works on the insights. In order to build the eco system, we have a consumer products business led by Sandeep Dahiya. There is an integrated network solutions business that we have now put up under Jaideep Singh. The networks solutions business takes things from broadcast media into the live space. It could entail events, branded solutions. We understand the requirements of the client and what the brand needs to do. And then we offer a holistic branded solution to the client (advertiser).

At any juncture, do you see Viacom going solo in India?

We have a very strong partnership with Network18. I see this partnership remaining for a long, long time.