Turner-Miditech's Planned Launch of 'Real' Channel in India:Will it Succeed?

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Turner-Miditech's Planned Launch of 'Real' Channel in India:Will it Succeed?

 

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Zee Entertainment Enterprises (earlier Zee Telefilms), was initially set up in October 1992 as a content supplier to the first Hindi satellite channel, Zee TV. Promoted by Subhash Chandra, one of the leading Indian entrepreneurs, Zee encompassed every component of the E&M value chain and took the lead in many aspects like content aggregation and distribution across different platforms like satellite, cable and Internet. It also strengthened its presence by broadcasting channels across different genres like general entertainment, news, movies, sports and music in English, Hindi and other regional languages. STARGroup’s termination of its business tieswithZeeTVand subsequent acquisition ofSTARPlus byNewsCorporation led to the relaunch of STAR Plus as a 24-hour Hindi GEC. Until then, STAR remained as an entertainment channel telecasting international content fromUS,UK andAustraliawhile Zee TV dominated theHindi speakingmarkets.Successful shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati and Nach Baliye, and family dramas like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki made STAR Plus India’s most watched and No.1 television channel since 2001.

Sony Entertainment Television (SET) was set up in October 1995 as a Hindi GEC and was owned by Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (MSM). MSM has a diversified presence in the Indian television market with channels across different genres like SET Max, SET Pix, AXN, Animax and SAB TV. Popular reality shows like Indian Idol, Bigg Boss 1, Boogie Woogie, Das ka Dum and fiction like Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin placed Sony among the top three channels in the Hindi GEC genre.

By the end of 2007, changing consumer tastes, demographics and lifestyles coupled with low barriers to content creation led to drastic increase in the number of channels not only in the GEC category but also in other genres from 161 channels in 2002 to 343 in 2007

In response to the growing competition in the Indian television market, many broadcasters either introduced new programmes or launched new channels. Reality shows primarily revolving around singing and dancing talent hunts, all within the Indian context began to gain momentum and every GEC had at least one or two reality shows. Apart from providing the thrill and excitement of live, unedited content, these shows involved audience participation through SMS voting or telephone calls. Roping in celebrities and film personalities – like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Shatrugan Sinha, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Jeetendra, Hema Malini, etc. – added to their popularity.

Siddhartha Basu, chairman andmanaging director of SynergyAdlabs, who has successful shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati to his credit, points out, “When the battle for eyeballs is as hot as it is right now, stars become the most coveted nukes in the arsenal of broadcasters. They help create the buzz, heat up the hype, bring in buyers and ensure sampling.”¹³ Albert Almeida, executive vice president and business head, SET also asserts, “Television is going to grow bigger than cinema and the gap between the two has reduced considerably. The reach and the repetitiveness of the medium make it attractive for stars.”¹⁴

However, the five major GECs – DD, STAR, Zee, SET and Sahara – accounted for only 35% of the annual TV advertising, while regional channels claimed 25%. All other genres to include everything from sports and wild life to lifestyle were left with the remaining 40%.¹⁵ This offered huge potential for the niche channels to thrive on, all at the cost of declining overall television viewership for GECs (Exhibit III). A Synovate (global market research company) study conducted for UTV also revealed that 30% of the selected group aged 15–34 years moved away from GECs towards news, lifestyle, Hindimovies and children’s channels.As a result, GEC’s share of television viewership population fell drastically from 48% during early 2000s to 28% by the end of 2007.¹⁶

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13]Subramanian Anusha, “Tinseltown in your living room”, http://businesstoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5619&issueid=42, June 11th 2008
14] Ibid.
15] Sangameshwaran Prasad, “How niche TV channels compete with giants”, http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/oct/30spec.htm, October 30th 2007
16] Patel Sheetal, “2008: Year of Hindi General Entertainment Channels”, http://www.televisionpoint.com/news2008/newsfullstory.php?id=1200742577, January 19th 2008