At a point when television programming was saturated with Saas-Bahu sagas, reality shows like Fear Factor and Bigg Boss produced by Endemol India brought a whiff of fresh air to television. From introducing stand-up comedy shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, for the first time on Indian television, to eventually venturing into the fiction space with shows like Sabki Laadli Bebo, the Netherlands-based television production company has come a long way. The local subsidiary of the company that was started in 2006 has completed three years in India. In a chat with FE?s Sagorika Dasgupta, Deepak Dhar, country head, Endemol India, talks about the company?s foray in various lucrative spaces like regional, sports and gaming sectors. Excerpts:
Endemol has completed three years, what are your future plans in India?
Our main focus will be getting a lot of international property into the country. There are a lot of titles like Wipeout and Estate of Panic that we are bringing this year. The other major area of focus would be a lot of scripted production. We are currently doing shows like Sabki Laadli Bebo and Mile Jab Hum Tum for Star Plus and Star One respectively. Since India has a great appetite for scripted shows, we at Endemol are really going to cash in on that front. We have already achieved a lot of success through the first few shows. So scripted formats will be a huge focus for us this year. The next area of focus for us will be regional television.
What are the potential markets for regional content?
Regional content is making a big wave in the television sector. Currently, we are experiencing a lot of traction in this sphere. We are planning to capture a lot of share down south and a lot of Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali spaces as well. Regional markets are waking up to a lot of differentiated content, which is where we have a lot of properties. We are taking a lot of our formats, some of which are big ticket properties, like game shows, reality shows down south. We are closing deals with broadcasters and exploring hardcore extreme reality shows.
Apart from mainstream Hindi channels and regional content, Endemol is said to be even venturing into content for sports channels…
There has been a lot of progress in the sports area since it is a genre that is very interesting. Entertainment is something that we are already good at, sports is something that we will roll out in another month or two. So we will be looking at a lot of action in the sports space and produce a lot of sports entertainment kind of formats.
Will that entail reality shows based around sport?
Yes, the formats will involve reality shows based around sport. We do have a lot of formats in our catalogue like The Match, wherein a cricket team takes on the legends of cricket. So we are exploring that aspect and since we have seen so much traction in IPL, we will obviously tutor and tailor the format to a very T20 kind of a format. We are looking at selling the show to one of the IPL franchisees and getting them on board and taking them to the masses as well.
The show is an international format based on the concept of soccer. But in India we will be using cricket to take the match forward.
Will you also be venturing into the gaming space?
Yes, a lot of our international properties like Fear Factor, Big Brother and game shows like Deal or No Deal and 1 Vs100 come with a lot of ingrained gaming element, which is a great ancillary revenue for us. We are already exploring a gaming option for Fear Factor in the next season. We will be taking the show from just being a television property to something that will have a lot more interactivity. A lot of properties come with a potential of being converted into great games, through mobile or computer downloads.
What is the potential of the gaming sector for a production house like Endemol?
The potential of the gaming business is something that we are still exploring. I don?t want to restrict any Endemol property just to television.
What about radio? Will Endemol also produce content for the radio?
No radio is something that we are not yet ready to venture into. We are very busy with television content. But I am sure we will have ideas and look into the medium in future.
You also produced ad-funded programming for Doordarshan called Fair and Lovely Choo Lo Aasman. Can we expect more such programming in the coming years?
Broadcasters are innovating. So, as content developers and producers we are also talking to advertisers, agencies, to try new things. A lot of people want branded content and advertisers? content.We have already done three properties in the last two years. There are also a lot of our properties that can be tailored into the branded content space for a lot of brands. So we are pushing that side of our business really hard as well.