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MUMBAI: Sony Wah has taken the free to air (FTA) Hindi movie channel genre by storm ever since its launch in June.
The channel has been topping the charts for rural Hindi-speaking market (HSM) week on week. It even surpassed Sony Pictures Networks India’s (SPNI) flagship Hindi movie channel Sony Max, which has been the No. 1 movie channel for Urban + Rural HSM, in Week 44.
While FTA movie channels from the three big networks saw a stupendous growth, what is it that clicked for Sony Wah?
For SPNI senior EVP and head of Hindi movie cluster Neeraj Vyas, some of the key factors for the channel’s success are as follows: 1) a good catalogue of movies, 2) simple yet impactful positioning, 3) understanding the viewer behaviour and 4) scheduling movies accordingly.
“Our catalogue has movies that the audience in that market has not seen before. Secondly, a lot went into understanding the patterns. We got it right in terms of scheduling by marrying right content to the right time band,” Vyas said, adding that the company launched the channel at the right time.
“Since the launch week, we haven’t looked back. It’s almost 19 weeks of leadership and a significantly big leadership. It’s a good 20–30% lead over our nearest competitor. A bulk of our viewership comes from UP, MP, Rajasthan and Bihar in that order.”
An analysis of BARC data for existing FTA movie channels reveals that weekends are extremely important for movie channels. “We also realised that there was huge gains to be had on weekends. So we had a weekend strategy. In fact, we had created a weekend slot even before the launch. We knew that weekend and particularly weekend afternoon would be critical,” he said.
The launch of Sony Wah was preceded by deep diving into BARC numbers to understand the viewing behaviour. “We had looked at time spent, day part and weekend versus weekday. Based on those findings, we played films at certain time bands. A lot of science went into it,” he stated.
One of the key findings about the FTA market is that the viewership begins to taper off by 9–9.30 pm and by 10–10.30 pm the viewership goes southwards. “We realised that never waste a good title beyond 9–9.30 pm. It is the collective understanding of the numbers, the packaging and scheduling of movies that have worked well for us,” Vyas noted.
He also mentioned that the simple positioning of the channel also played a big part in the channel’s dramatic rise. “Our positioning was also very simple. The ‘Wah’ in the channel name means fulfilment. It is easy to remember and it marries very well with the Sony brand name, which stands for quality,” he said.
He further stated that the tagline of the channel ‘Filmon Ka Mela’ was very relatable for the rural audiences. “The word ‘mela’ in the tagline is synonymous with that part of the country. Mela is kind of a get together occasion in the rural belt. So the philosophy of what we were trying to say also hit home in a very nice way,” he added.
Launching Sony Wah was one of the quickest decisions taken by SPNI. “It was one of the quickest decisions we have taken in this organisation. After looking at the viewership trends following the addition of rural homes by BARC, we knew that FTA would become fairly large,” he stated.
Sony, Vyas said, was the first to launch its pay Hindi music channel on Freedish, Doordarshan’s free DTH platform. “Three years back, we were the first ones to go on Freedish with Sony Mix. Even then we had seen the impact of the platform. Irrespective of whether or not it was measured, we knew that someday the reality of Freedish would come into play,” he said.
“With 51% weighting in BARC, rural is indeed a very large segment, and we wanted to cater to this very large segment, which was used to watching movies in a very haphazard way,” Vyas added.
Content strategy
Sony Wah doesn’t have a separate library. So a ‘Dilwale’, ‘Baahubali ‘or a ‘Three id*ots’, which worked well on Sony Max, have also rated well on Sony Wah.
Leaving aside very urban titles, Sony Wah airs movies that are there in the Sony library.
“We have seen little difference in ratings that movies get in the FTA world vis-a-vis in the pay world. There are certain films that do well irrespective of the platform. The Indian psyche doesn’t change beyond a point. However, elite cinema will never work in rural,” Vyas said.
Ad monetisation
While ad inventory is running full for Sony Wah, Vyas believes that there is a need to improve the ad rates for FTA movie channels.
The channel has several advertisers from key categories like FMCG, automobiles, telecom and BFSI. These include HUL, P&G, Cadbury’s, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS, MRF, Vodafone, Axis Bank and DHFL.
“We are sold out. We are airing 12 minutes every hour. By the end of next year, we will see realistic numbers as far as sales is concerned. We will go for a price increase around April,” Vyas said.
The industry is still coming to terms with the true valuation of these GRPs. However, it is early days for the FTA Hindi movie channels as they have barely completed six months.
On the pricing of ad spots, Vyas feels that all the broadcasters should tackle the issue with collective maturity. While stating that movie channels are highly under-monetised despite viewership and reach, Vyas added that the Hindi movie channels should seek rates commensurate with the delivery.
“The right price will be the true test for the FTA channels. This is the next collective decision all the broadcasters have to take. We shouldn’t make the mistake of underselling the genre that we made many years back. Historically we have been undersold and now we are struggling to get the right value. Correction takes a lot of time,” Vyas averred.
Distribution and research
The channel’s next objective is to ramp up its distribution and deep dive into research to understand the nuances of the market and the consumers.
Apart from Freedish, the channel is available on multi-system operators such as DEN Networks, InDigital, Fastway Transmission and GTPL.
“We are trying to ramp up our distribution. We are getting into the second stage of our distribution. UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, pockets of Rajasthan and MP are where we are focused on. We do have the deals with MSOs, but now the push will begin,” he noted.
Neeraj Vyas spells out Sony Wah’s success formula | TelevisionPost.com
