What triggered MSM to buy Channel 8 in Bengal, which has now been rechristened as Sony Aath?
We have long been interested in the regional language television market and the Bengali market is one of the fastest growing regional markets. Besides being an attractive growth market we invested in Aath (Channel 8) because it offered us a unique opportunity to buy the only Bengali film channel which, given the limited number of Bengali films produced, will limit competition in this genre.
Why did MSM take so long to enter the regional channel space?
We know we have been late getting into the regional space but believe the time is right for us to enter now both in terms of market development and the availability of acquisitions at realistic valuations. We have active plans to enter other regional markets.
Are you planning to launch/ acquire more channels in this space?
The markets we are focused on are the four southern markets and Gujarat.
Since you are a late entrant in this space what will be your strategy to combat competition?
We believe the regional markets are looking for contemporary programming that Sony has traditionally offered. We believe we can create our own audience in these markets and leverage the growth in these markets.
What would be the share of regional channels in the overall revenue of MSM?
We believe that the regional markets will be a significant part of our total revenue and will contribute more than 25% of our revenue in 5 years.
What are the challenges?
The challenge in the regional markets is that they must be handled very differently from the Hindi market particularly in terms of costs. There is a need to build local management to run the regional channels.