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MTV to ramp up long-form and music content in 2016
Buoyed by the growth of shows like ‘Splitsvilla’ and ‘Roadies’, Viacom18’s youth GEC MTV will increase its investment in long-form content in 2016. Apart from creating more such content, the channel will step up its music offerings by launching more properties.
Viacom18 head of youth and English cluster Ferzad Palia said that MTV would give equal attention to both forms of content. “This year is about creating a lot more long-form content and building many more music properties. So it’s a clear step-up game for MTV,” Palia told TelevisionPost.com.
“The good thing about having a set number of properties is that you can focus on each of them and give them the due attention. So nothing gets lost,” he added.
MTV, which has shows like ‘India’s Next Top Model’, ‘Girls on Top’, ‘Love School’ and ‘Big F’ besides ‘Roadies’ and ‘Splitsvilla’, airs six hours of original content in a week. It plays 7–8 hours of music in the day part, while the rest of the airtime is consumed by long-form content including repeats. The channel is coming up with a new show called ‘Angels of Rock’ in July.
Palia asserted that long-form content is the driving force for MTV although music content is also an important component in the channel’s DNA. He also said that long-form content will only grow from here.
“We get a significant amount of viewership from our long-form content. We are so happy with the response that we are creating more. We will very clearly increase the amount of long-form content on MTV. It will only keep growing,” he stated.
Currently, the channel has about 60% of long-form content while music content makes up the rest, which includes shows like ‘Unplugged’, ‘Coke Studio’, ‘Sound Trippin’ and ‘Spoken Word’. Palia stressed that MTV will continue to strike a balance between long-form and music content. He also sought to distinguish the music programming on MTV from that on other channels.
“Bollywood music is one part of music programming. We are creating our own programming. There’s ‘Unplugged’, there’s ‘Coke Studio’, there’s ‘Spoken Word’, there’s ‘Sound Trippin’. These are all music-based properties. We have a significant amount of music in our DNA,” he averred.
He claimed that MTV’s ad revenue is double that of its competitor in the genre. “We have reaped the rewards over the years by investing in the brand and good new content. Currently, we would be roughly at least twice the size of our competitor in terms of ad revenue,” he stated.
Palia said that MTV continues to focus on urban youths across India, not in the just Hindi-speaking market (HSM). “MTV is focused on all urban areas, which just about keeps out rural. That’s a large base in any case. We are still talking about 80–90 million households,” he noted. While the genre looks at the HSM as their core market, MTV looks at all India since it also gets a lot of viewership from Southern India.
“We don’t look at just HSM; we look at all India as we get viewership from the South also. Audience in the South might not be consuming other channels in the genre because they play only Bollywood video songs. The long-form and music content that we create is widely watched in the South as well. It’s a misnomer when people just look at HSM,” he stated. The channel’s core TG comprises 15–25-year-olds. It has a 55:45 split between male and female audiences.
“The kind of content that we have cuts across. A show may be female-centric, but it has something for the guys as well. Maybe it’s guy-centric, but there will be something for the females. A lot of what we do is based on inter-personal relationships and that is what the youth like to see,” he said.
While Palia expects the category to grow further this year, he also pointed out that the commoditisation of content with most channels airing similar music content will make monetisation difficult.
“The category has grown a bit last year and it seems set to grow more this year. What’s actually happening is that because of the similarity between the content of all the music channels, they are not able to command a higher rate. Since everyone is playing the same content, why would an advertiser pay more? That’s the biggest problem for the genre. Till commoditisation changes, it’s going to be a bit hard,” he explained.
Read more at: MTV to ramp up long-form and music content in 2016 | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
Buoyed by the growth of shows like ‘Splitsvilla’ and ‘Roadies’, Viacom18’s youth GEC MTV will increase its investment in long-form content in 2016. Apart from creating more such content, the channel will step up its music offerings by launching more properties.
Viacom18 head of youth and English cluster Ferzad Palia said that MTV would give equal attention to both forms of content. “This year is about creating a lot more long-form content and building many more music properties. So it’s a clear step-up game for MTV,” Palia told TelevisionPost.com.
“The good thing about having a set number of properties is that you can focus on each of them and give them the due attention. So nothing gets lost,” he added.
MTV, which has shows like ‘India’s Next Top Model’, ‘Girls on Top’, ‘Love School’ and ‘Big F’ besides ‘Roadies’ and ‘Splitsvilla’, airs six hours of original content in a week. It plays 7–8 hours of music in the day part, while the rest of the airtime is consumed by long-form content including repeats. The channel is coming up with a new show called ‘Angels of Rock’ in July.
Palia asserted that long-form content is the driving force for MTV although music content is also an important component in the channel’s DNA. He also said that long-form content will only grow from here.
“We get a significant amount of viewership from our long-form content. We are so happy with the response that we are creating more. We will very clearly increase the amount of long-form content on MTV. It will only keep growing,” he stated.
Currently, the channel has about 60% of long-form content while music content makes up the rest, which includes shows like ‘Unplugged’, ‘Coke Studio’, ‘Sound Trippin’ and ‘Spoken Word’. Palia stressed that MTV will continue to strike a balance between long-form and music content. He also sought to distinguish the music programming on MTV from that on other channels.
“Bollywood music is one part of music programming. We are creating our own programming. There’s ‘Unplugged’, there’s ‘Coke Studio’, there’s ‘Spoken Word’, there’s ‘Sound Trippin’. These are all music-based properties. We have a significant amount of music in our DNA,” he averred.
He claimed that MTV’s ad revenue is double that of its competitor in the genre. “We have reaped the rewards over the years by investing in the brand and good new content. Currently, we would be roughly at least twice the size of our competitor in terms of ad revenue,” he stated.
Palia said that MTV continues to focus on urban youths across India, not in the just Hindi-speaking market (HSM). “MTV is focused on all urban areas, which just about keeps out rural. That’s a large base in any case. We are still talking about 80–90 million households,” he noted. While the genre looks at the HSM as their core market, MTV looks at all India since it also gets a lot of viewership from Southern India.
“We don’t look at just HSM; we look at all India as we get viewership from the South also. Audience in the South might not be consuming other channels in the genre because they play only Bollywood video songs. The long-form and music content that we create is widely watched in the South as well. It’s a misnomer when people just look at HSM,” he stated. The channel’s core TG comprises 15–25-year-olds. It has a 55:45 split between male and female audiences.
“The kind of content that we have cuts across. A show may be female-centric, but it has something for the guys as well. Maybe it’s guy-centric, but there will be something for the females. A lot of what we do is based on inter-personal relationships and that is what the youth like to see,” he said.
While Palia expects the category to grow further this year, he also pointed out that the commoditisation of content with most channels airing similar music content will make monetisation difficult.
“The category has grown a bit last year and it seems set to grow more this year. What’s actually happening is that because of the similarity between the content of all the music channels, they are not able to command a higher rate. Since everyone is playing the same content, why would an advertiser pay more? That’s the biggest problem for the genre. Till commoditisation changes, it’s going to be a bit hard,” he explained.
Read more at: MTV to ramp up long-form and music content in 2016 | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
