Multi Screen Media (formerly Sony EntertainmentTelevision India) is beginning to enjoy a remarkable turnaround story. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has surfaced as cricket‘s most lucrative property, Sony Entertainment Television has climbed to the No. 2 position in the Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel) space andSab has grown beyond its flanking channel status.
The other channels have also moved up the hierarchy. English movie channel Pix has raced past HBO and AXN has protected its turf quite strongly. Mix, the pure music channel, has had a good start. Being the only channel in that space that has network strength, it has taken up the challenge to grow the market and ramp up revenues.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Sibabrata Das, MSM president network sales, licensing & telephony Rohit Gupta talks about how the company is going to end this fiscal with a 40 per cent ad revenue growth and a 25 per cent growth in FY‘13. Excerpts: |
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MSM raked in Rs 9 billion in ad revenue from the IPL last year. But is growth slowing down for the property due to a fall in ratings in the previous edition of the T20 tournament? |
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Are we looking at a below double-digit growth as is evident from the deals that you have locked in so far? |
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So has IPL as a property matured? |
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Hasn‘t it been a tough sell so far as by this time normally you manage to close almost 80 per cent of your ad inventory?
The IPL TV rights are with us for another five years and it is our biggest property; we can‘t afford to discount its current value. T20 continues to grow in popularity; the formats that are not doing so well are the Tests and the ODIs. |
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So the new BCCI tender for international cricket played in India will not be as valuable as it was when Nimbus held the TV rights a few years back? Will that be the calculation when Sony bids this time? |
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When Sony launches a sports channel, it will have to acquire other cricket rights than just the IPL and New Zealand board. Can ad rates be driven further up to support aggressive bids at higher acquisition costs for cricketing properties than their current value? |
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Are we seeing some categories of advertisers retrenching from the sport due to the current tough economic environment? |
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When will MSM‘s ad revenues touch the Rs 20 billion mark? |
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How far has SET contributed to this growth?
Fiction is what we had missed out for the last 3-4 years. But it has started doing well. We have an upscale, urban skew; our male viewership is also very strong. Advertisers chase this segment and our fitment is the best. |
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Will SET launch an afternoon band to create a new revenue stream or still have a primetime overhang? |
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Does Sab still play the role of a flanking channel or it has grown beyond? It is not anymore just a flanking channel; it is a proper GEC, has a strong viewership and, as a family comedy channel, is uniquely positioned. Sab has helped our network revenues to grow. |
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Has the Hindi GEC ad revenue market expanded this fiscal and will we see more channel launches in this space? It (Hindi GEC space) has now become a game for the big boys. There is an entry barrier for new players as the cost of running a Hindi GEC is as high as Rs 5-6 billion. Which new player has that appetite after a few of them have severely burnt their fingers? This has helped us even as our own channels have grown. Even in a digital environment, it will be tough for a new player. Segmentation is not possible because GECs have to be mass and can‘t be niche due to the huge costs involved to run it. |
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Is Max under pressure due to steep acquisition costs for Hindi movies?
There is bound to be a price correction in movie buying. Though Star went overboard last year, that strategy won‘t work every year. Some broadcasters are looking at launching action movie channels keeping digitalisation in mind. We have no such plans, at least not this year. We will wait to see how digitalisation evolves. Like GECs, the consumption of Hindi movies is more mass. |
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Why did MSM decide to launch a music channel when the market is too crowded? Though the ad size is around Rs 2 billion at this stage, it is a good genre to be in. Mix‘s positioning of capturing the various moods during the day has got accepted and we believe that we will be the leader. As a pure music channel, we are here to grow the market. MTV and Channel [V] have taken a different route and focus on reality shows as their growth drivers. While other players in this pure music space have a standalone presence, we are the only one to have the network strength and will be able to ramp up revenues. |
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Isn‘t the English entertainment space getting spoilt with new launches? The genre is growing and is still undersold. It is an important space to be in and is sold not on ratings but on perception. AXN stands out in this genre. As digitisation grows, we will see more launches. |
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MSM doesn‘t have a footprint in regional-language broadcasting that is growing the fastest. Was letting TV18 Group acquire ETV a missed opportunity? The acquisition has to come at the right price. We are not desperate to launch channels. We do not believe in width that does not give us profits. |
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