Indian broadcasters are hoisting their flags in faraway markets such as Africa, Middle East, Europe, South America, US, UK & Canada. Besides the Indian diaspora, they are also trying to woo natives by dubbing content in local languages & launching exclusive channels for them.

Indian broadcasters have, for long, been making efforts to hoist their flags on the international entertainment platforms. The efforts clicked with the Indian diaspora that lapped up soaps, dramas, reality shows oozing local culture. The US, the UK and Canada that have a sizeable Indian population emerged as the big international markets for broadcasters in the past decade. Now, Indian broadcasters are entering newer markets with no or little Indian population and this is being done by ?re-purposing? the original content as per local tastes and dubbing or sub-titling content in languages understood by the local audiences.

Indian broadcasters are dropping their anchors in faraway lands such as Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Israel, Japan, countries in Africa, to woo local audiences. The idea is to open new revenue streams that have traditionally been restricted to advertising in India.

In 2012, Zee Entertainment entered China, considered to be an extremely difficult market, with the launch of a channel. It also launched two Arabic channels called Zee Alwan and Zee Aflam in the Middle East. Zee Americas, in partnership with Ethnic Channels Group (ECG), which is Canada?s largest distributor of third language television services, launched Zee Cinema, Zee Salaam and Zee Tamizh on Cogeco cable last year. Channel B4U also launched its movies and music channels in East Africa to cater?to the Asian community in Kenya, Uganda, Ethopia, Zambia and Sudan. Times Television launched three channels Times Now, ET Now and Zoom in the UAE. After the launch of Colors, Viacom 18 launched its second mass Hindi general entertainment channel called Rishtey in the United Kingdom and plans to take this channel to other parts of the globe as well.

Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL) took its channel Big Magic International to Canada in June last year; it has now launched it?in the US as well. The programming is a mix of daily sitcoms, socio-mytho programmes, crime shows, dramas, and religious shows and includes the best from its library in India.?New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has now launched three of its channels – English news channel NDTV 24X7, fashion and lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times and Hindi news channel NDTV India in Malaysia. FOODFOOD, a Hindi 24×7 Food lifestyle Channel, was launched in the UAE in September 2011.

To be sure, the Indian diaspora continues to be the bread winner in international markets. Indians residing abroad comprise the second largest diaspora in the world and that underscores the potential of this audience. To top it, these consumers are ready to pay top dollars for the content originating from their motherland. The result: average revenue per user (ARPU) goes up dramatically in comparison with what broadcasters earn back home. The fun part is broadcasters don?t have to invest massive monies to put content on their plate. In fact, the cost of delivery is bare minimum since it includes mainly re-purposing of the original content. ?There is no longer any expiry date on long running soaps,? says a media analyst. ?The old wine is being served in a newly re-packaged bottle and that too, at an impressive premium.?

The NRI-PIO population is anywhere between 25 million and 30 million people spread over 100 countries, says Gaurav Gandhi, chief operating officer of IndiaCast, the distribution arm of Viacom 18 and TV18. There are more than 25 countries with over 100,000 Indian population and close to 60 countries where the population is above 10,000 individuals. Indian broadcasters earn over Rs 1000 crore ($200 million) every year from subscription, ad revenues and content sale in these markets. This number has been steadily increasing over the last decade and is expected to grow.

Gandhi adds that for Indians staying outside of India, the emotional connect with content is very high as it links them to their cultural roots. ?Diaspora markets deliver a very attractive ARPU when compared with what Indian broadcasters are used to back home.? The license fee per channel – at least for the mainline general entertainment channels (GEC) in the UK, the US, Middle East – can range from $1 per subscriber to $7 per subscriber. This is in stark contrast with the local scenario where the consumer pays less than $4 for 80-100 channels and only a fraction of that gets passed on to broadcasters,? he says.

Viacom 18 states that a lot of its Indian shows are available dubbed or sub-titled in local languages in international markets such as Bosnia, Serbia, Russia, France, Croatia, Romania, Japan, Israel, Afghanistan and several African countries.

Colors, for instance, is directly available in around 65 countries and with syndication, the footprint reaches almost 120 countries. Other markets that Viacom 18 will soon enter are Western Europe, Caribbean and South Africa. ?Colors is a successful service in the UK, but we are a pay channel there. The UK market, however, is showing some signs of change. The Pay TV market is slowing, free-to-air space is getting active and the ad pie is increasingly getting fragmented. We thought it was important for us to have an additional play in the free to air space and thus, we came up the idea of operating two brands in Hindi general entertainment.? It is a brand and service we created for the UK audience, and you will see us taking the service to the next level in the coming months,? says Gandhi.

English news channel NDTV 24X7 is today available in 18 million households across 80 different countries. Rohit Jaiswal, associate vice president, network distribution and affiliate sales at NDTV says that Malaysia was the network?s most recent stop, where it launched three channels. He said that it was too early to speculate on the success of the launches but Malyasia has over 2 million people of Indian origin and therefore, is a sizeable Indian content market. NDTV is exploring greater expansion into Europe and countries like France, Germany and Switzerland are on its radar. ?Most of the international markets have a healthy subscription pipeline and subscriptions account for 50%-60% of the total revenues,? says Jaiswal.

A white paper by consultancy and audit firm Ernst & Young says that established broadcasters such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), Star India Pvt. Ltd. (SIPL), Sun Network (Sun) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) have been distributing their channels in international markets for a long time. Now, new companies?such as Viacom 18, Reliance Broadcast and Times Television are also actively evaluating expansion of their global presence. Regional channels are being pushed internationally and are now available on various international networks. Domestic channels are being uplinked from India and are distributed into international markets through local distribution partners such as cable, IPTV and DTH. Expectedly, the paper says subscription forms the major part of revenues and main markets for Indian broadcasters are the UK, the US, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Broadcasters are also targeting new geographies such as Eastern Europe, China, South America and East Asia. Ashish Pherwani, managing partner at Ernst & Young said that Indian broadcasters are now launching local channels with differentiated content in key markets. Zee has already launched a wellness channel, Veria Living in the US market.

After launching its channels in the UAE, UTV plans to enhance its presence across the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, says the white paper.

Late entrants such as Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd are trying to chalk out newer ways of tapping these markets. ?Reliance Broadcast has studied the market very closely and has come up with a unique proposition of?creating a variety entertainment channel that ensures the perfect blend of varied entertainment, infotainment, and business news from India. The programming will feature entertainment shows from our extensive library and will include daily business news from Bloomberg TV India.

The programming on Big Magic International will have an eclectic mix of daily sitcoms, mythology, crime shows and religious shows picked from Big Magic India. The channel will also showcase popular televised award shows,? says Soumen G Choudhury, executive vice president, Reliance Broadcast Network. Zee on the other hand says that after Zee Aflam in the Middle East?a movie channel beaming Bollywood movies dubbed in Arabic?the network has now launched Alwan which will broadcast exclusive Arab serials, as well as dubbed Indian programmes.

Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, says:??As a part of our global strategy, Alwan is a step towards strengthening our presence in the Middle East. After the success of Zee Aflam, the new channel will help us further consolidate our share and enhance Zee?s reach.?

Star Plus also points out that it has seen a great deal of success in its international operations and in UK, it actually ranks in the top 12 of all pay channels. ?The big push has been the simultaneous broadcast of the channels worldwide, with the same content being shown same day, same time, globally.

This means that when conversations happen amongst families, no one is weeks or even days behind,? says Rajan Singh, executive vice president, Star International. ?Overseas Indians are increasingly participating in our local shows such as Master Chef, Just Dance, Survivor etc. We have created global feeds which provide simultaneous broadcast.?

The network is making gradual inroads in the markets such as Brazil, Suriname, Guyana and the Caribbean as well.

When asked about Star?s observations on what some of the newer broadcast companies were doing on the international front, with Indian content, Singh said that a lot of channels were being launched on the back of an advertising model.

The strategy has to be a combination of subscription and ad revenue, he says. ?Global players are closely monitoring the performance of Indian channels in their home market before launching them on their platform internationally. This also helps in determining commercial agreements.?

Jehil Thakkar, head, media & entertainment practice at?KPMG India says that it was only some of the bigger networks such as Zee that had been able to make a success of the international launches. There are various models in place with platform owners?revenue sharing, fixed fee etc?and not all of them give the best returns.