Mumbai: Viacom18 Media has appointed Sudhanshu Vats as its group CEO.

Vats will join in August and report to the Viacom18 board. He will be responsible for growth of all Viacom18 brands/businesses including Colors, Comedy Central, MTV, Nick, Sonic, Vh1 and Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Vats is currently the vice president of Laundry, South Asia and Global Brand Radiant (Rin in India).

Network18 Group founder Raghav Bahl said, "Given Sudhanshu?s rich experience, his ability to lead large businesses and his acute understanding of the Indian diaspora, he is well poised to lead Viacom18 into its next phase of growth. Sudhanshu also brings with him an intense and interesting perspective on the entertainment business and that is sure to add a new dimension to Viacom18."

Network18 and TV18 group CEO Sai Kumar added, "Viacom18 comprises some of the most dynamic brands in the television and entertainment space that cater to a wide spectrum of audiences. Given Sudhanshu?s vast experience and an extremely successful track record with multi-brand portfolios, we?re confident of him driving each of the Viacom18 brands to its deserved place in the category."

"With Sudhanshu on board, we?re confident that Viacom18 will continue to redefine the many spaces it operates in," Viacom International Media Networks president and CEO Bob Bakish said.

Vats comes in with over 21 years of experience, including 19 years in Hindustan Unilever.

MUMBAI: Bollywood music is slowly losing its charm among the youth and music channels as it does not bring any exclusivity or premium value. The main reason: similar content is also available on multiple platforms.

So does that mean that the viewer is no longer looking for the feel of FM radio in the visual space? Is this the reason behind Channel [V]?s latest announcement of doing away with music content completely?

The answer is yes. Bollywood Music has become a commodity and the players are not making the moolah.

So has Channel [V] taken a wise decision to move away from Bollywood music? Answers Channel [V] EVP and GM Prem Kamath, ?We didn?t want to be a commodity channel. We were working on this strategy since over two-and-a-half years and we built it in phases as the cost of original content is too high compared to music. But yes, we are making good progress as the time spent on the channel is too high and all our shows are getting good numbers.?

Last year, the whole youth and music genre got divided into two categories? pure play music channels and youth channels. However, it seems that now there will be four. There will be pure music, gossipy and news-based (Zoom, UTV Stars, E24), youth channels which also air music content (MTV, Bindass), and youth content channels (Channel [V]).

Explains MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy, ?Music in itself has two different categories today. One is acquired music that is Bollywood and all the channels are just platform providers. The second is original music, upon which MTV is focusing more. With shows like Coke Studio, Sound Trippin, and Unplugged, we have created over 150 songs in the last one year. So there is definitely a market.?

These channels need to differentiate in a cluttered market. And by virtue of being a youth nation with 70 per cent youth population, all the channels have youth viewers. So the music channels claim to be youth channels in disguise, says a senior media executive.

Flarepath president Saurabh Kanwar, who has worked at both MTV and Channel [V], believes that music is harder to monetise as it is the same content. "It will, however, continue to survive on channels for some more time. What has changed today is that consumption of music videos has become an internet phenomenon. Ultimately, digital will change the way the channels air content in future. Having said that, original content is very expensive compared to music and it may work on branded platforms because of the legacy.?

But does that mean that music channels will not survive? 9X Media EVP Punit Pandey believes that there is enough market for both the genres to co-exist. ?Why then are so many pure play music channels launching if there is no scope? Our research shows that a viewer knows what he or she wants. If he wants music, he comes to music channels like ours. If he wants fiction or nonfiction shows, he goes to such channels. And monetisation is merely a reflection of performance.?

The genre has 19 players fighting over Rs 3.5-4 billion that they have to share amongst themselves a year as they generate 200-240 GRPs (gross rating points) on a weekly basis. This goes to explain their volatile nature.

Mumbai: MTV is launching the second season of its popular singing show Coke Studio@MTV in July.

In this season, the focus will be to showcase diversity and innovation through eight episodes, 12 producers and over 200 musicians.

As per the channel, the first season of CokeStudio@MTV had over 40 million viewers on MTV, seven lakh fans on Facebook, two million views on YouTube, 13,000 CDs and 15 live shows.

The first season of Coke Studio exemplified the melodious symphony of diverse genres of music ranging from famous Bollywood rhythms, traditional tunes and modern western to folk.

Says Coca-Cola India director ? Integrated marketing communications Wasim Basir, ?Season 2 promises to further amplify this magical experience for the music lovers by dwelling on ?pure? innovation to offer a musical concoction never heard before. Coke Studio is Coca-Cola?s unique point of view on music and an earnest endeavor to unite diverse musical genres, languages, artists and sounds, allowing the ?Happy? energy of Coca-Cola to bring people together. With the launch of the second season of Coke Studio in India, we continue with our quest to passionately refresh the world and ?Open Happiness? through the powerful platform of music."

Coke Studio@MTV Season 2 will see musicians from varied genres come together and collaborate to create original music.

The property will see independent, classical, folk EDM and popular artists combine their creative energies in a live performance. Every composition has been created exclusively for this project by experimental producers.

Says MTV India EVP and business head Aditya Swamy, ?Creating a platform to explore the many faces of music in India has been a truly rewarding experience for everyone involved and our desire is to bring India?s diverse music scene into the daily lives of young people. The most exciting part of this season is the making of over 40 original songs which has been a hugely creative and collaborative process."