Consolidation, better monetisation & rise of regional to drive growth for TV biz in 2020

The year 2019 saw the broadcast industry rise to the occasion a number of times on account of landmark decisions like the implementation of TRAI’s New Tariff Order to issues surrounding Landing Page. Among the big-ticket events for the TV business were the Indian Premier League, ICC World Cup 2019 and the General Elections.

 While these mega events brought some cheer for the industry, it also had to grapple with the economic slowdown. 

Now as we are set to welcome 2020, industry experts say the year ahead will surely bring good times for the industry with some key developments like consolidation driving growth for the sector. 

 Talking of consolidations, according to news reports, Sony Pictures Network India is in talks with Viacom18 and plans to acquire a 51 per cent stake in the company. Meanwhile, there have been reports about a consolidation between Airtel Digital TV- DTH arm of Airtel- and Dish TV.  

Navin Khemka, CEO, Mediacom South Asia, says: “Consolidation of TV networks into 4-5 networks dominating viewership and value share will be among the key trends driving growth in 2020.”

 Among other trends, he highlighted will be the emergence of High Definition (HD) as a segmented offering for premium audiences. “Consolidation of viewership during high-ticket events and breaking news, rationalization of channels especially catering to digital-first audiences and stabilization of distribution revenue for networks, and emergence of distribution revenue led channels with less dependence on advertising led revenues will be the key drivers for the upcoming year,” Khemka added.

Sharing more insights, BARC India CEO Sunil Lulla said TV will continue to be the strongest medium to establish reach and engagement with the audiences. Talking about measurement science being at the heart of BARC, Lulla said: “In 2020, we will rapidly augment our protocols and process to capture contemporary changes in TV and in the audio visual sector. BARC will complete its sample size to 50,000 homes, undertake Broadcast India 2020 to update the TV universe estimate, and introduce more business tools to enable channels, advertisers, and agencies to be able to drive more value to their stakeholders.”

Speaking to exchange4media, Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network India, said while 2019 was a challenging year for the broadcast industry, things will get better in 2020. “The growth definitely seems to be coming from standardization and the DTH and cable platforms stabilising. There will be a creation of content and programmes that will work well across platforms - TV and digital.” 

However, he added that the struggle for niche channels is likely to continue in the coming year. Regional has been driving growth for most of the networks and will continue to play an important role in 2020 as well. 

“Overall, we expect TV to grow around 10 per cent over 2019,” Bhadkamkar said.

According to Rohit Gupta, Chief Revenue Officer - Ad Sales & International Business, Sony Pictures Network, “Growth depends on the economy. If the economy moves up post budget, consumer spending will start and probably be better this year.” He further said TV will still be a strong medium for brands. “It’s not about a specific genre driving the growth, everybody needs to contribute to grow. TV is for mass advertising and the reach it delivers is huge. It will be the economic turnaround that will make the difference.”

9X Media Chief Revenue Officer Pawan Jailkhani believes a number of channels were not able to monetise post NTO due to the economic slowdown but that will change now. “The viewership and the market have settled down and economic conditions are improving. The industry is in recovery mode.”

Another trend Jailkhani mentioned was about TV channels reinventing in terms of programming. “The content change will happen in 2020. Digital has taken a big leap in terms of content, but TV will take the content to new innovations now.”

Jailkhani is hopeful that an online rating mechanism will help TV networks that own both TV and OTT for better monetization.  

 With the overall sentiment being one of cheer, it remains to be seen the heights to which the TV industry will reach in the coming year.