Shantonu Aditya, Executive Director, UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd, and, CEO, UTV Entertainment Television Ltd
It is not a business for the faint-hearted. Here, one has to go through a lot of highs and lows of the business; mainly lows initially, and a few highs. It involves a lot of attention to detail, so one has to be all charged up all the time and be nimble-footed. While identification of your target audience is very critical, you also have to remember that one should be able to monetise from the product because if you are not able to get your money from the advertiser or the subscriber, then you won't be able to sustain yourself in the long run. So, it's a roller-coaster ride and we here at UTV are enjoying every bit of it.
Prior to joining UTV, Shantonu was CEO of Sahara One Media & Entertainment Ltd, where he was instrumental in turning around the business. He launched Hindi movie channel Filmy, a channel with a completely wacky and irreverent approach to Bollywood. He was also involved in movie production through tie-ups with Ram Gopal Varma, Boney Kapoor and others. 'Page 3', 'Sarkar', 'No Entry', 'Malamaal Weekly', 'Corporate' and 'Dor' were some of the hits of 2005 and 2006.
Aditya also worked with Sony Entertainment Television from 2001 to 2005 as President and established SET Discovery Pvt Ltd (the One Alliance), the joint venture company of Sony and Discovery. He built the alliance to add the Viacom channels - MTV, Nick, NDTV News network and Ten Sports into the bouquet.
In a freewheeling interview with exchange4media's Tasneem Limbdiwala, Aditya speaks about GECs versus special interest channels, the issue of under-declaration and UTV's expansion plans.
Q. On a general note, what is your take on the present competitive dynamics in the broadcasting sector?
The dynamics are very competitive. The viewership pattern is changing and we believe that there is a bigger opportunity for special interest channels. That is why we are not launching another general entertainment channel, which we believe is getting a bit saturated. However, Bindass channel is a youth entertainment channel and has a specific target group.
Q. Could you chart the significant happenings on the distribution front in these last few months?
Well, distribution is a big challenge now. With so many channels launching, bandwidth is becoming a problem for the cable networks. So, people and the channels have to pay carriage fees to be on the network, and this situation can be corrected only by the implementation of CAS across the country. This is because when CAS comes in, the network will have to get digitised and once this happens, one can send more numbers of channels through the same pipeline, which cannot be done today. At the most, even if a TV set can take 200 channels, since the cable operators' system is analog, he can show you only about 60-70 channels. So, the new channels that are launching are not getting through the network. In that regard, the new channel has to replace somebody else and hence, there is a situation like an auction and, therefore, this has to be corrected. To overcome this, alternate technology has to come in; however, there is DTH, and now there are also talks about IPTV. But I feel this challenge will remain for sometime because the Government seems to be moving very slowly on the implementation of CAS.
Q. If you had to pick up one quality that a newcomer must have to enter the Indian broadcasting space – what would it be?
Well, the advice that I can give is that it is not a business for the faint-hearted. Here, one has to go through a lot of highs and lows of the business; mainly lows initially, and a few highs. It involves a lot of attention to detail, so one has to be all charged up all the time and be nimble-footed. While identification of your target audience is very critical, you also have to remember that one should be able to monetise from the product because if you are not able to get your money from the advertiser or the subscriber, then you won't be able to sustain yourself in the long run. So, it's a roller-coaster ride and we here at UTV are enjoying every bit of it.
Q. How do you plan to overcome the issue of under-declaration?
The strategy has to come from the Government's side, in that they have to announce CAS. Here the viewers are paying the money, but due to improper implementation, we are not being able to collect the correct revenues. There is huge under-declaration.
Q. We are aware that you travel a lot. How do you balance your personal and professional life?
One has to manage everything. This is a very fast changing business, so you must have that temperament for it, you must enjoy what you are doing and yet create time for yourself. Yes, this is very challenging, and to overcome this, one needs to be fit and healthy. I guess that is the only way which will help in taking some multi-million dollar decision. After all, health is wealth!
Q. What are the revenues you expect to garner from distribution?
Most of the new channels that are coming in are free-to-air (FTA) channels, except us. We are the only ones who are the paid ones and we are collecting money from the viewers. Currently, the figure is very small, but I hope to recover my carriage fees through the subscription revenues. But the model is currently skewed because of the same old problem of under-declaration.
We are now serious players in the broadcasting space. We started out with Hungama a few years ago, and now we have grown to four channels, with the fifth one expected soon. So, I think a substantial part of UTV Software's contribution to revenue and bottomline would come from the broadcasting business.
Q. What are the new developments in UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd?
We have launched four channels in the last five months, which I think is a record. I don't think anybody in the industry, especially in India, has launched four channels in five months. The recent channels that have been launched under the UTV umbrella include Bindass, Bindass Movies, World Movies and, now UTV Movies. We will also be launching a business news channel soon. We are certainly looking at other possibilities but it is too early to talk in this regard.
Q. Could you share some of your global expansion plans.
We are looking forward to having a strong base in the US. As far as Hindi movies are concerned, we are already present in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Japan, and would soon be in Australia. We are planning to foray into Singapore and the Middle-East by April 2008, and the US by the end of the year. By early next year, we plan to be present in Europe and the UK.
Q. UTV is launching a whole host of channels in different genres. What are your marketing and brand building strategies regarding these channels?
We aim to be among the top three movie channels in the Hindi movie genre. We are planning to build up an extensive library of films in the next six months. No other channel can boast of a 'Jodhaa Akbar' or a 'Race' under its belt. Unlike a GEC, where people have some affinity to a channel and the show, here the affinity is only towards the titles. So, once we get our distribution and marketing rights in the first three months, we are very confident that we would be able to count ourselves among the top three channels in 12 months' time.
Here at UTV, we have a very good team possessing collectively good experience in the Hindi movies genre and other channels, along with smart scheduling and the other bells and whistles that would help us achieve success.
Q. How are you placed in terms of ad rates?
The ad rates would be at par with the leader. We may be a new channel, but our titles are big. So, if we get the same connectivity as the leader, there is no reason to why we should charge less because the same number of people would watch us. But for a GEC to have different ad rates, that's a different issue since viewers have to get use to the shows of that particular channel. But here, if I'm showing a movie say 'Aap Ka Suroor', whether it is shown on channel A or B, the rate on my channel should be the same. Hence, we are pitching ourselves at premium rates.
Q. On a broader note, many people are terming the present times as a re-launch of sorts for Hindi GECs. With so many channels coming up – and UTV, too, has some contributions to that – what is your view on this?
The market is getting fragmented. There are different genres that are evincing interest, for instance kids watching their channel, men glued to the news/sports/ English movie channels. So yes, the market is getting fragmented and the classic GEC, those 6-7 of the channels would shrink and continue to shrink.
GEC viewership has come down to 30 per cent of the total viewership, which means two people out of three are not watching the daily soaps. Also, as people are now buying their second and third TV sets, the special interest market is becoming bigger.
We are now building the UTV network and we have already launched four channels. We believe that the international model, which is essentially big studios launching their own television channels, is something that the Indian market is ready to replicate. UTV Motion Pictures being the biggest Bollywood studio, it is only appropriate that we look at launching our own movie channel.
In fact, this year UTV Motion Pictures has got about 19 releases lined up. But that does not restrict us to only UTV's in-house production. We have also purchased a lot of titles like 'Aap Ka Suroor', 'Halla bol', 'Jab We Met' and many more from other producers. So, it's a pretty robust library.
