Chapter 1 Indian Television: Reading its History 1 1.1 Television Industry in India- Today The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report for 2014, jointly published by the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry (FICCI) and KPMG, indicates the estimated Indian television industry, worth 370 billion rupee (Dh21.79bn) in 2013 year, is expected to grow at 18 per cent over the five years through 2017, to reach 88 billion rupees. India has the third largest TV households globally, second to only China and the US. However, the digital TV penetration in India is very low at 36% as compared to more than 90% in countries such as Finland, Spain, UK, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Regional GECs (General Entertainment Channels) have emerged as key focus areas for most of the players. This is because of it’s connect with Non-Hindi Speaking Market audiences. The number of operational regional GECs is four times of national GECs. Regional channels are attractive for advertisers due to lower cost of connect with the right audience. Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi are the key languages in the regional GEC space. Sun TV Networks has been a leading TV broadcaster in the South Indian television market. Infotainment channels like National Geographic and discovery launched Telugu and Tamil feeds National broadcasters are increasing their presence in the regional market while the regional players are increasing their penetration through niche channels. 1.2 SWOT analysis for the TV Industry in India Strength . Media and Entertainment is one of the most booming sectors in India due to its vast viewership reach. The industry like television has a large customer base. Change in the lifestyle and spending patterns of the Indian masses on entertainment. 2 . Technological innovations like online distribution channels, web-stores, and multi and mega-plexes are complementing the ongoing revolution and the growth of the sector. The low cost of production and high revenues ensure a good return on investment for Indian Television Industry. The growing middle class with higher disposable income has become the strength of the Media and Entertainment Industry. Weaknesses . Among the weakness in the industry, a current weakness maybe the inability to adhere to ethical standards in the industry which has led to the lawsuits filed against some media industries. The industry also has been slow in its growth only picking up in the recent past, thus its innovation and marketing strategies maybe not competitive on the global arena. The lack of efforts for media penetration in lower socio-economic classes where the media penetration is low. Highly fragmented. Lack of cohesive production and distribution infrastructure. Opportunities . The industry still has room to expand within India as the market is wide and can increase its market share. The high technological innovation which is happening everyday also presents a good opportunity for the television industry to utilize the latest technology in expanding its production mix or improving the existing ones hence increasing the market. The increasing interest of the global investors in the sector. Rapid de-regulation in the industry. Rise in the viewership and the advertising expenditure. Creating new distribution channels. Threats . Though India can be said to be stable politically, the country is known for frequent changes in government administration and instability in some regions or states, this issue negatively affects the television industry and the threat to media. 3 . Piracy, violation of intellectual property rights poses a major threat to the media and the television industry or any other media industries for that matter. Lack of quality content has emerged as a major concern because of the 'quick-buck' route being followed in the industry. With technological innovations taking place so rapidly, the television industry is facing considerably uncertainty about success in the market place. Television industry in India is on a transformation path. Multiple channels in each genre competing with each other for TRP, increasing pay TV penetration, expanding yet fragmented local as well as overseas viewership of Indian channels, demand for more specific content – clearly set the stage for the next level of growth and transition for players across the television value chain. Content creators and broadcasters need to be cognizant of the ever increasing demand for differentiated content. While on one hand, new digital content distribution platforms are emerging; on the other hand, new formats of entertainment - computers, mobiles and other handheld devices are gaining importance. Monetization of content through these new opportunities in existing platforms and new media platforms are going to be key focus areas for the content owners. 1.3 Some key trends and challenges that lie ahead . Digitalization of the TV distribution: DTH is leading the race for digitalization of the distribution system. Digitalization is not only expected to help the players in the value chain to realize the true potential of their content, but also to cater to the unique and diverse needs of the viewer when it comes to entertainment. HD and 3D TV: LED and LCD Televisions are outselling the conventional televisions. Technology led new opportunities: New platforms for reaching consumers and new technologies in content management are providing unique opportunities to increase the shelf life of the content . Consolidation in TV distribution 4 . Need for improved measurement tools: An effective measurement system is the backbone of advertising dependent industry . Evolving viewer interests: The viewer today is not only looking for new-fangled content but is also very quality conscious. From new movie broadcasts to reality shows with more and more celebrity appearances, from IPL to EPL – the need for differentiated and fresh content is on an all-time high. 1.4 Rural India and Indian Television Close to 344 million Indians have been watching television in rural areas for the last few years but no one had an idea what exactly they were watching. This changed in 2013, when Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), an industry body to design, commission, supervise and own an accurate reliable and timely television audience measurement system for India was set up. From the day the first rural data from BARC came out in October 2015 till today, with close to 16 months of measurement, the data from 76 million TV households is robust enough to initiate a strategy change for all the stakeholders. Take the advertising industry. A number of things changed. We have seen a 13% rise in the number of advertisers on rural focused channels. The biggest spike was seen in Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM) channels. A huge spike was also observed across the Free to Air (FTA) channels. From a 31% share of total advertising, FTA share rose to 39%.Some of the larger beneficiaries were Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Zee Anmol, DD Rajasthan, DD Madhya Pradesh among others. The top three categories which have significantly increased advertising on TV were auto tyres (81% growth), DTH service providers (44%) and detergent cakes / bars (34%). Some of the top brands which increased their Free Commercial Time (FCT) on the top four FTA GECs were Ponds India, Reckitt Benkiser, and Dabur, Godrej Consumer products Ltd, ITC and Nestle. The above data gave a deep insight into an area which is critically important to the advertising community, especially the FMCG sector who are heavily dependent on rural consumption. One of the new factors that BARC brought in was the NCCS (New consumer classification system) as a basis of measurement. And as much as 38 million of the 76 million households of the rural population form the affluent base (NCCS A & B 5 individuals). So any premium / high end product, targeting need not be limited to urban anymore. The stupendous numbers that sports like the Pro-Kabaddi League (PKL), Pro Wrestling League (PEL) and even the Indian Soccer League (ISL) have been enjoying is because of the eyeballs that come from rural India. The PKL and PWL get as much as 65% and 64% of total viewership from rural India. Even soccer ISL gets nearly half (49%) of its viewership from rural India. For those investing in growing these leagues and sports as well as broadcasters and advertisers, this data came as quite a shocker. No one had expected these numbers because no one had been measuring rural India viewership so far. While sports has been the game changer, the GEC's viewership perspective is also different from urban viewing. While rural viewers love their daily dose of soaps the only show that goes as a hit across rural and urban is Naagin from the Colors stable while the romance of Jodha and Akbar from Zee also woos the eyeballs, the family value centric Saath Nibhana Saathia from Star Utsav has hit a home run. Even the children's program Bal Veer from Sony Pal has attracted some good numbers from children News watching is pretty active in rural India giving a spike in numbers for the news channels. For example, news viewership spiked by 54% during demonetisation week. In terms of daily TV viewing, rural India, in fact spends around close to three hours and 10 minutes watching TV daily. Rural South tops the list with audiences in Andhra Pradesh watching about 4 hours 4 minutes of daily TV viewing the highest so far. If there is one thing that binds both urban and rural it is cinema. So a Salman Khan or Shahrukh Khan film, be it Prem Ratan Dhan Payo or Dilwale, or the magnum opus Bahubali, each was viewed by as many as 24 million in rural India making the three the biggest hits across rural markets. More people watch one TV set in rural India as compared to urban India where there could be more than one TV set in a single house.