We truly believe in selling the ‘idea’, the medium comes later: Anil Uniyal, CEO, Bloomberg|Quint

Anil Uniyal, CEO, Bloomberg|Quint, on his business objectives, the reason behind pushing back the launch of the channel and more

Despite being in the business for barely eight months, there is no doubt that Bloomberg|Quint is marching ahead of several legacy players in the digital space. The digitally-led multi-platform media company has swiftly emerged as a formidable business brand in the digital space. Anil Uniyal, CEO, Bloomberg|Quint, speaks to exchange4media on his business objectives, the reason behind pushing back the launch of the channel and more. Edited excerpts:

The English News category, especially Biz News, is a highly competitive category. What is your strategy to remain ahead in this space?

It is true that there is a great degree of competition in the ‘English Business News’ category which has led to a huge commodisation effect and ‘similarity’ amongst news channels. Bloomberg Quint is seeking to re-establish it in content, formats, communication and monetisation through a truly premium “multi-platform, integrated play” across digital, TV and ground IPs. Bloomberg’s editorial network, global data insights, product know-how, synergy with the institutional terminal business is all coming into play. We aim at delivering an incisive, sharp take on business news to Indian leaders with a seamless experience across all mobile and tablet devices. Our product design is clean and clutter-free for optimal reading experience for consumers across devices.

Can you give us an indication of the business objectives that you have outlined for the coming years? Where do you expect to see BQ in terms of revenues and audience as it completes one year?

We have been in the business for eight months now and have engaged with 25 top brands spanning across key categories of BFSI, Enterprise tech, Auto, Real Estate, Premium durables from the likes of GE, Qualcomm, Dell, HP to Citigroup, Jaguar and American Express. In the coming year, we intend to work with the top 50 clients, who have a strong view and understand the power of content marketing. In terms of audience, currently we deliver 2.2 million active monthly users, and are working on increasing this base to 5-6 million ‘quality’ audience.

Digital is pulling away audience and ad revenues from traditional media. What are your thoughts on this and how do you plan to continue business growth in such a scenario?

Bloomberg Quint is a fully ‘integrated’ organization, with the same Editorial and Commercial teams operating across mediums. There is absolutely no distinction between digital and TV, the airtime and solution sales teams. We have hired a great mix of experience and youth, who have the ability to adapt across platforms. On the editorial front, we have focused on building a social-first, digital-first newsroom with huge focus on building shows through social lives, chats, polls. This is deeply embedded in the DNA of the organization. On the commercial side, we are looking at building deep partnerships and IPs with brands both on digital and broadcast. We truly believe in selling the ‘idea’, the medium comes later.

What further synergies can we expect between The Quint and Bloomberg Quint?

The synergies between The Quint and Bloomberg Quint already exist in terms of content and other integrations. The teams work closely with each other on various occasions. In addition to targeting the CXO community, policy makers, executives, entrepreneurs, investors, Bloomberg Quint is also looking at the 22+ corporates, decision makers and youth audience, which is also the core audience for The Quint.

The launch of the channel has been pushed back. What is the reason for this and what is the timeline for the launch now?
The TV channel launch has been pushed back due to pending regulatory approvals for the name change of our broadcast licence. In the meantime, we have gone ahead and launched BQ Live, India’s first LIVE streaming business news service, available on our site, the Bloomberg Terminal, on BQ social and top telecom platforms such as Vodafone Play, JIO LIVE and more are being added as we speak. We currently have LIVE programming for seven hours on BQ LIVE which will go up in the coming weeks. Have seen great response from the consumers with 1.2 million views in the first 20 days. With TV coming into play in few months, it will just add more value to the already existing set-up.