N P Singh, COO, Multi Screen Media, one of the leading television channels operators in India which comprises Sony, MAX, SAB and PIX, speaks about why Sony is not affected much by Colors’ amazing success
Sony has two creative heads for fiction and reality shows respectively. Why have you brought in a programming head now?
Gurdip Bhangoo who is our new programming head will look after the programming vision, strategy, scheduling and operations of Sony. Sanjay Upadhyay who is the creative head of fiction and Albert Almeida who is the business head and also looks after reality shows will work in coordination with the new programming head for Sony’s future growth. Gurdip is an experienced hand in programming. He has worked with BBC for 15 years. As an executive producer and head of BBC Asian programming unit, he was responsible for overseeing the development of ideas, content production and onscreen talent for Asian programming unit. He has an insight into Indian viewer’s programming preferences. In today’s global village, where great ideas travel across borders, Gurdip is well-poised to exploit this phenomenon and is a great addition to our already strong creative team in India.
Colors has surprised everyone. It’s amazing success has caused significant erosion in the relative share and GRPs of well-entrenched old GE channels. How are you planning to fight competition?
Competition has affected everyone. But if you look at the ratings and GRPs of the top two players, it is very obvious that competition has affected Star Plus and Zee the most. While Sony’s GRPs are stable, Star and Zee continue to be under bigger threat of losing their share further. We have launched three new shows and will be launching a few more in the coming months. This is a phase of consolidation for us and we are confident that we will move ahead from here on.
But why did you fail to arrest the decline for over two years?
Actually the decline was sharp and some of our plans to stem the tide didn’t work. There was an increase in the non-fiction quotient on our channel which probably caused a shift in viewership. Then we brought in a balance between fiction and non-fiction and tried giving stability to the channel. But then television business is cyclical and some shows work while others don’t. Today some of our properties are doing well while others are doing just about average. As viewer’s taste evolves there is bound to be bouts of volatility in ratings.
New channels, particularly Colors, have added more bouts of volatility. When do you think things will settle down and a clear order will emerge?
It takes some time for the dust to settle down. New players create disturbance and change the order. But once they are done with their initial marketing and promotional campaigns things stabilise. Some of the new channels launched quite some time back created the buzz and changed the order for some time and went down from the number three to fifth and sixth slots. Television in India is entering an interesting phase now and we are not far away from the scenario that exists in the GE space in the US. May be in a year’s time no channel will enjoy a huge lead over the second or third player. Like in the US, the top three or four channels will be neck-to-neck in viewership share and GRPs.
What’s your plan of action to gear up for the new order?
The magic is in reinventing and investing in strong content that will resonate and cause traction. We are strongly focused on a strategy to create good content that will bring in mass viewership on a sustained basis.
Often it takes one good show to create disturbance in existing viewership pattern. Why has Sony failed to get one disruptive property in two years?
I would like to congratulate our competitors for the same but do not want to go back into history. 10 Ka Dum was a very strong property that delivered good result for us. Indian Idol is another strong show that continues to grow from season to season. Indian Idol 4 is doing well in the current season. Our recent launches Aathwan Vachan and Hum Ladkiyan hold a lot of promise and have started on a sound footing. We are proud of Sujata and Babul. We have brought back viewer’s confidence and from here on we are confident of marching ahead.
There are about nine GE channels. Do you think the market is big enough for all of them to exist or a shakeout will happen and the weaker ones will close shop?
In any industry shakeout is inevitable. It has already happened once in the mid-90s when some channels didn’t survive beyond a few years. One can’t put a time frame but another shakeout will happen for various reasons, both internal and external. India is a large market and television households are growing. After the shakeout and consolidation, five to six players will survive with three to four at the top.
Do you think television business is becoming tough and highly competitive with regional and niche channels offering alternative choices and causing fragmentation in viewership?
It was never easy, except for a few years here and there. Lot of activity has happened and new channels have come and gone. Competition has resulted in higher cost and pressure on talent. With more channels in the fray, the cost of talent and content has multiplied.
Has higher cost of talent and content put pressure on your margins?
Some channels will face problems of margins. But we are safe because of the robust investment we have made in properties like Indian Idol, 10 Ka Dum, IPL, Jhalak and so on
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