MTunesHD to strike a higher note in 2013

Consolidating a year of presenting Bollywood music, MTunesHD is all set to welcome the new year reinforcing its promise to make audiences ‘Feel the music’.

The grand finale of the year was the ‘Bollywood Top 100 of 2012’, a countdown of the hit songs of Bollywood, airing 10 each day culminating in the top ten songs on December 31, 2012. Presented by Sony Vaio, the show was MTunesHD’s tribute to the year full of songs from blockbusters such as ‘Cocktail’, ‘Son of Sardaar’, ‘SOTY’, ‘Barfi’, and ‘Aiyyaa’, among others.

Keeping differentiation at the core of programming policy, Sunil Sahjwani, Group Creative Director of Pioneer Channel Factory stated, “2012 has been a creatively fulfilling year for us at MTunesHD. In ‘AlterNative’ - our segment dedicated to non-Bollywood hits, we aired ‘Gangnam Style’ exclusively in India. Launching with ‘Gangnam Style’, ‘On the Streets’ went on to make the common man have fun and dance to popular Bollywood tracks.”

Starting the year, MTunesHD introduced programming content such as ‘MConnect’, ‘MBox’, ‘Handmade’, ‘Kal Ka Superhits’, etc. The current proposition of ‘Feel the music’, a further extension to the philosophy of presenting ‘Music Like Never Seen Before’ comes alive with properties such as ‘MCut’, ‘AsliVoice’, ‘MOriginals’, ‘MFeatures’, ‘Trending20’, ‘On The Streets’, ‘Off The Record’, etc.

Commenting on the challenges of selling such a niche channel in a mixed market where even GECs play music, Bala Iyengar, Business Director of Helios Media said, “Acquiring a list of advertisers across key categories like FMCG, automobiles, beverages, accessories, electronics, mobile, and sportswear has been an uphill task. Carefully balancing the programming and business objectives was the major challenge. With innovative properties like ‘Trending20’ by Airtel, ‘MFeatures’ by Sony Bravia and most recently ‘Bollywood’s Top 100’ by Sony Vaio, we have established the perfect balance between inventory and concept selling. We will continue to lead with innovation in programming and the way it is sold, while reaching out to a wider audience in 2013.”

According to Saravanan P, CEO of Pioneer Channel Factory, 2012 was both satisfying and encouraging for MTunesHD. Savaranan also believes that with the right mix in programming and strategic selling, they have sustained pole position over few weeks among core TGs for music channels and seen higher inventory consumption than competitors. Extended reach, inclusion of global audiences, scaled up content library, digitisation, continued differentiated programming and several other enhancements lie ahead for MTunesHD in 2013 to make viewers and advertisers feel the music.