William Roedy, Vice Chairman, MTV Networks

William Roedy, better known as Bill Roedy, was appointed Vice Chairman, MTV Networks, in March 2005. He oversees all of MTV Networks' growing international multimedia business operations for the brands: Music Television (MTV), Nickelodeon, VH1, VIVA, The Music Factory (TMF), FLUX, Game One, Comedy Central and Paramount Comedy. He reports to Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks.

Roedy was the architect of MTVNI's successful localisation model, where significant commercial and artistic autonomy is devolved to individual channels. With 137 cable, satellite and terrestrial TV channels reaching a potential global audience of 1.5 billion, over 100 of those channels have been established under Roedy's leadership.

Under his leadership, MTV Networks International (MTVNI) has produced award-winning HIV and AIDS-related documentaries, concerts, discussion programmes and public service announcements. In April 2005, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him as Chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) Leadership Committee. Roedy has also addressed the United Nations General Assembly on three occasions.

He joined MTV Networks International in 1989 as the Chief Executive and Managing Director of MTV Europe. He was promoted to Chairman, MTV Networks Europe in 1994, and between 1995 and 2006 he also held the post of President, MTVNI. With a television career that spans over 25 years, Roedy’s experience spans nearly every aspect of television operations. In this interview with exchange4media’s Noor Fathima Warsia, Roedy talks about his perceptions of the Indian television market, trends, and the Viacom joint venture with TV 18. Excerpts:

Q. But at least in India, digital is still at a nascent stage...

... Even better! It starts like that in every market. We can bring our experience in other markets to India. These are the very early days for digital but gone are the days when you can be successful by only being a broadcaster. You have to be so much more and when you are playing at a global level, it also allows you to bring in your expertise from different markets to a particular market. You know what your channel would be. We feel we have a wonderful opportunity to be unique and we are going to compete aggressively. Watch out, we are coming.

Feels just right! This is not the first time we have done this. We have had similar examples in the UK, Australia and Japan, and in the case of Japan, we have consolidated our position and bought out the JV. Strategic alliances are really the most important driver today when you want to grow and it comes with a package. There are numerous advantages that a partner like TV 18 brings. Typically, partners help us grow the business and in this case, it is the extreme. TV 18 is so powerful that they can really help us in management of sales, distribution -- they are really a gold standard as far as strategic alliance goes. This was a very deliberate move and we are really happy with it.

On a priority basis, it is people and other aspects like infrastructure, but really a lot in the content, because that is what will differentiate the better from the best.

Right now, the most important thing to us is the GEC. The other thing is that we are going to look at all of our brands across the world. There are so many MTV channels, like MTV Rock, Spike, TV Land -- all our channels in the comedy genre, and we are now looking at all those brands for this market. Then there may be other brands that we may not even have had and we are excited about that too. There can be a situation where something can be launched in India and then taken to other parts of the world.

To be the No. 1 media company in India, and before you ask, I am not going to predict a time because I am notorious in that! But we are going to be the leaders and no question about that.

At the time, when localisation was undertaken as a strategy, content really was the key that not just meant differentiation, but giving the audience what they want. You have to always do that -- if you don't give the viewer what they want, then why would they come to you? The ways of doing it is different, and today everyone is getting into localisation. So you have to now think of how you differentiate in that, keeping your brand values intact.

India is not in the top five or something like that now, but that is where the future is. The country has huge potential and I know it would be in the top markets very soon. More importantly, it is a priority market. We are focussing here in terms of investments; India has a great growth rate and it is a resource already for us. We use content, programming and other ideas from India in other markets and we are doing that for a long time. As far as I am concerned, India is very important for the future.

It really is a lot of things -- the importance of the market, the kind of partner you can get, and the rate of growth you are looking at. In the case of India, the reason we have done this is because we have to be much bigger at a much faster pace. When we say bigger, it is a very competitive market. But in many ways, it is the most important priority we have around the world right now. In order to achieve what we wanted, we had to join forces with a strong partner and TV 18 fit the bill.

I don't think there is a problem in that, though of course, everything would be channelled through Viacom 18. You must understand that we have been working on this plan for a year now and exploring different ways of growing. With this JV, we have a much-focussed approach and are committed to it in the long term, which is why whatever we do now in India would be through this JV.

I have been in the business for a long time and each time someone says too cluttered, it explodes some more. There are 500 channels on my system in England and 600 channels in the US. I can remember a long time ago when before Fox was launched in the US, people were saying that there is no more room for GEC. But look at what happened -- it has done wonderfully.

I think this is the perfect time for India to launch more channels, even though it may seem too many channels are already there. There is an insatiable demand for the information and entertainment via the electronic media. I have never seen a demand completely satiated anywhere in the world. So I think it is the right time in India to add some more channels in that space.

It has to be! That is the only way we approach all our brands now -- a totally holistic way. Particularly when you are talking to a younger audience, you have to be everywhere where there are. The good thing about younger audiences is that that is where the world is going. The youth population in India is larger than that of China! Whatever is done here will impact not only India, but also the whole world. We are connected to this audience with our young brands. Connecting with them better would take us to a very enviable position and we are placing our bet on this young population and our relation with them, to take us to that next level.

We actually have more digital products than we have channels -- we have 135 channels and 150 broadband websites -- because we have to connect with this audience.

.... I am really not commenting on that...