New Delhi: Television in India is dominated—in terms of advertising and viewership—by general entertainment channels (GECs).
According to television audience research agency TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd, advertising on Hindi GECs accounted for 8% of the total ad volumes on Indian television in 2008. A recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that in 2008 firms spent Rs8,420 crore on TV advertising. And for a one-month period ended 25 July, all the top 10 programmes by viewership on Indian television were on these channels.
There have been several changes in such channels this year.
Prime time television has been moved up by 30 minutes to 7.30pm, reality shows that were earlier restricted to weekends are now a part of weekday prime time programming, investments in research and marketing for shows have grown by at least 50% from last year, and dealings with advertisers are being tweaked, giving companies coping with the slowdown more flexibility to spend on advertising.
With competition increasing in the space, Mint spoke to senior executives of the top five GECs on their formula for staying ahead of the competition, key trends and strategies for combating the slowdown. Edited excerpts:
Keertan Adyanthaya
Executive vice-president and general manager
Star India Pvt Ltd (Star Plus)
What are the trends you see in the GEC space?
Hindi general entertainment is going through a seismic shift right now. There is a lot of choice available to the audiences in the fiction space as well as in the non-fiction space. In fiction, viewers are embracing shows which have high levels of emotional drama. There are also shows which have significant localization and are set in the regional milieu that have captured the imagination of viewers. In the non-fiction space, you have shows which transcend genres that are successful.
Keertan Adyanthaya.
What would you identify as the growth drivers for your channel today? Have these changed since last year?
The growth drivers for us are our fiction shows. We have shed the legacy shows of the past and are creating an entire line-up of fresh shows in the fiction space that are made up of taut stories, mega scale, grandeur and heightened drama. In addition to this, we have a whole roster of non-fiction shows which do not walk the beaten path, the first of which is ‘Sach Ka Saamna’.
Competition always leads to path-breaking new ideas in various product categories and industries, and ours is no different. At Star, we have always seen a need to innovate but the difference now is that after many years of success, we feel there is a need for change and this has been brought about not just by competition building in this space but even by the changing habits of viewers. We are now looking at different styles of programming, especially in fiction.
I think 2009-10 will see even more of innovation and interesting programming.
What impact has the economic slowdown had on your channel?