Anirudha
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MUMBAI: Making a mark with its distinct positioning, Romedy Now will have to define its business proposition in 2014. The challenge will be to fill in the ad inventory, kick in subscription revenues and set out to achieve the target of breaking even in three years. The first part of the business plan is in place. Audiences in the metro cities have started loving Romedy Now with its hybrid model of movies and television shows that focus on the human emotions of love and laughter. Times Television Network (TTN) will now have to make Romedy Now available in more cities, bring in larger audiences, and entice advertisers to buy more space on the channel. “We are confident of the channel making strides this year and managing to achieve breakeven in three years,” TTN CEO English entertainment channels Trigunayat told TelevisionPost.com.
The Distribution Push
Trigunayat’s plan in 2014 is to grow distribution beyond the eight metros to the 1 million+ cities in the coming months.Romedy Now, which is distributed in-house unlike its sibling Movies Now which is handled by TheOneAlliance, is reaching out to 4.5 per cent of cable and satellite TV homes. The goal is to take this up to 7.5 per cent homes. The challenge is to balance subscription revenue with carriage fees. Right now fees are much more but Trigunayat expects subscription revenues to kick in a serious manner in a couple of years’ time. To save costs, the channel is not focusing on analogue areas and is foregoing viewership that would have come from there. “In the initial stages, we faced distribution issues. We were only present in 0.25 per cent of homes. We have pushed that up now. Our aim is to appeal to a larger audience and have a growth in reach and time spent,” said Trigunayat. Romedy Now is present in all DTH platforms except for Tata Sky. It is also present with the multi-system operators (MSOs). “Tata Sky will take some time but we will be present there sooner rather than later,”Trigunayat said.
The Content Plan
Till December only movies were being shown on Romedy Now. That will change significantly this year and at least 14 shows will air on the channel, providing a mix of current and library content. The movie library is also being ramped and is already 375-titles strong, up from 225. One of the big properties being cultivated is the TV show ‘Friends With Better Lives’ which kicks off on 1 April and will air every Monday at 9 pm. “Going forward, you will see shows like ‘Back in the Game’ and ‘1600 Penn’. We will have eight shows by the end of April. Another six will be added by September. After that shows will be aired depending on what is shown at the LA screenings in May,” said Trigunayat. Building tent-pole properties is key. Romedy Now has created a property for Sunday called ‘Sunny Sundays’. Another property is called ‘TGIF’ (‘Thank God It’s Friday’). “Five more properties will be launched in the next quarter and the channel will be packaged accordingly. But we are doing things in a steady manner. We understand that it f we rush into it, then there might be a comprehension issue,” explained Trigunayat. Being content agnostic helps. There is no hard and fast rule in terms of the split between movies and TV shows. “Viewers are not bothered about whether a TV show or a movie is going on. They want content that is about love and laughter,” averred Trigunayat. Romedy Now has deals with Warner, Fox and Monarchy. “We have smaller deals with NBC Universal, Disney, Paramount and Sony. After their JV in India split, CBS spoke to everybody about content. We haven’t fructified a deal with them,” stated Trigunayat. Content costs are climbing and is an area of concern. Trigunayat said that on the series side, costs have risen by about 50 per cent in the past four years. “Inflation is not as bad on the TV series front as it is on the movies side. There it has risen by 150 per cent in the last two and a half years. The exchange rate also went up by 33.33 per cent. This is a sore subject but it happens in business cycles.” While current shows are twice as expensive to acquire compared to library shows, they also give much more viewership. “That is why Comedy Central is struggling with viewership as they only have library shows,” said Trigunayat.
Viewership Trends
Kolkata and Mumbai are the markets where the channel gets the most viewership. “This is followed by Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Viewership in Ahmedabad is sporadic but we are not distributed by GTPL. Chennai will also take time as we are not on SCV’s analogue platform. We have a strong digital presence. But in markets where analogue is still strong, we have decided to sacrifice that as being distributed there will come at a very high cost. At this stage money saved is money earned.” Trigunayat expects the volatility in ratings to continue for some time. “In a normal year volatility was five to seven per cent. Now it is 30–35 per cent. Even during January–March 2014 it was high. Sometimes this goes in our favour and sometimes it does not.” Will BARC solve the problem? “I sincerely hope so. BARC is expected to roll out in October. But this will be a new system. There will be a beta phase of six to 12 months for it to settle down. Broadcasters and advertisers have to acknowledge that this is a transition period for the industry”, he said.
The Ad Scene
The challenge has been convincing advertisers who are used to advertising either on TV shows or on movies to focus on a channel that is segmented according to audience needs. So far 30 per cent of inventory has been filled with over 50 clients and the aim is to have 85 per cent of inventory filled in the next six months. Trigunayat said that it has taken four months for the channel to start earning ad revenue. “But we were prepared to do that. As of last month, we had over 50 clients. We have 30 per cent inventory utilisation. We would like to do a 100 per cent this year but realistically we hope to reach 85 per cent in six months’ time. “ The ad sales is handled separately from Movies Now apart from the South where there is a common sales team. Trigunayat said that in the past couple of months, there has been a shift in advertiser interest. “Advertisers are kicked about the channel but in terms of the buying cycle, it has become a little more difficult for them. Their conversation revolves around whether the channel is about movies or TV series. It is taking some time for them to accept a channel that is about consumer segmentation and focus. Initially, the sales team had a very tough task and they have been a missionary force in the market.” For the current fiscal ended 31 March 2014, a soft target was set for Romedy Now. “The next fiscal is where we want to catch up with Star World. In the 2016 fiscal, we want to do better than them. Our first target is to do the right inventory fills. Star World does 4.5 million seconds of inventory per annum. We target four million seconds for the next fiscal but we would also be happy with 3.5 million seconds.” For Trigunayat, the bigger issue is that ad revenue in this genre has stagnated. “The current fiscal has been tough for the genre. The English movies and entertainment category took a hit. It hasn’t de-grown but it has stagnated. Due to increased competition effective rates have come down across channels. While viewership for the genre has grown by 98 per cent in three years, revenue has only grown by an average of 27 per cent. These are the challenges in the marketplace.”
Fewer players
In recent times, BBC Worldwide and Big CBS have left the English entertainment space. Trigunayat said that in both cases, targets were not being met. “BBC invested a lot of money. Obviously, it was not going as planned. For them the priority in India is news. The BBC does a 10-year plan and they probably felt that if things in India were not going to settle down, then it would be better to pull the plug rather than keep making losses for a decade.” With Big CBS too things did not go as planned. “CBS is a very aggressive company. They are also a lean company and have had the same management for years. They are the No. 1 US network. They do a three-year business plan. In three years time, the business did not hit the target and they had the choice to either continue or pull out. Though they chose to pull out, I am sure that they will come back to the country at a later stage,” he said.
Read at: Romedy Now set to define business proposition in 2014 | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
The Distribution Push
Trigunayat’s plan in 2014 is to grow distribution beyond the eight metros to the 1 million+ cities in the coming months.Romedy Now, which is distributed in-house unlike its sibling Movies Now which is handled by TheOneAlliance, is reaching out to 4.5 per cent of cable and satellite TV homes. The goal is to take this up to 7.5 per cent homes. The challenge is to balance subscription revenue with carriage fees. Right now fees are much more but Trigunayat expects subscription revenues to kick in a serious manner in a couple of years’ time. To save costs, the channel is not focusing on analogue areas and is foregoing viewership that would have come from there. “In the initial stages, we faced distribution issues. We were only present in 0.25 per cent of homes. We have pushed that up now. Our aim is to appeal to a larger audience and have a growth in reach and time spent,” said Trigunayat. Romedy Now is present in all DTH platforms except for Tata Sky. It is also present with the multi-system operators (MSOs). “Tata Sky will take some time but we will be present there sooner rather than later,”Trigunayat said.
The Content Plan
Till December only movies were being shown on Romedy Now. That will change significantly this year and at least 14 shows will air on the channel, providing a mix of current and library content. The movie library is also being ramped and is already 375-titles strong, up from 225. One of the big properties being cultivated is the TV show ‘Friends With Better Lives’ which kicks off on 1 April and will air every Monday at 9 pm. “Going forward, you will see shows like ‘Back in the Game’ and ‘1600 Penn’. We will have eight shows by the end of April. Another six will be added by September. After that shows will be aired depending on what is shown at the LA screenings in May,” said Trigunayat. Building tent-pole properties is key. Romedy Now has created a property for Sunday called ‘Sunny Sundays’. Another property is called ‘TGIF’ (‘Thank God It’s Friday’). “Five more properties will be launched in the next quarter and the channel will be packaged accordingly. But we are doing things in a steady manner. We understand that it f we rush into it, then there might be a comprehension issue,” explained Trigunayat. Being content agnostic helps. There is no hard and fast rule in terms of the split between movies and TV shows. “Viewers are not bothered about whether a TV show or a movie is going on. They want content that is about love and laughter,” averred Trigunayat. Romedy Now has deals with Warner, Fox and Monarchy. “We have smaller deals with NBC Universal, Disney, Paramount and Sony. After their JV in India split, CBS spoke to everybody about content. We haven’t fructified a deal with them,” stated Trigunayat. Content costs are climbing and is an area of concern. Trigunayat said that on the series side, costs have risen by about 50 per cent in the past four years. “Inflation is not as bad on the TV series front as it is on the movies side. There it has risen by 150 per cent in the last two and a half years. The exchange rate also went up by 33.33 per cent. This is a sore subject but it happens in business cycles.” While current shows are twice as expensive to acquire compared to library shows, they also give much more viewership. “That is why Comedy Central is struggling with viewership as they only have library shows,” said Trigunayat.
Viewership Trends
Kolkata and Mumbai are the markets where the channel gets the most viewership. “This is followed by Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Viewership in Ahmedabad is sporadic but we are not distributed by GTPL. Chennai will also take time as we are not on SCV’s analogue platform. We have a strong digital presence. But in markets where analogue is still strong, we have decided to sacrifice that as being distributed there will come at a very high cost. At this stage money saved is money earned.” Trigunayat expects the volatility in ratings to continue for some time. “In a normal year volatility was five to seven per cent. Now it is 30–35 per cent. Even during January–March 2014 it was high. Sometimes this goes in our favour and sometimes it does not.” Will BARC solve the problem? “I sincerely hope so. BARC is expected to roll out in October. But this will be a new system. There will be a beta phase of six to 12 months for it to settle down. Broadcasters and advertisers have to acknowledge that this is a transition period for the industry”, he said.
The Ad Scene
The challenge has been convincing advertisers who are used to advertising either on TV shows or on movies to focus on a channel that is segmented according to audience needs. So far 30 per cent of inventory has been filled with over 50 clients and the aim is to have 85 per cent of inventory filled in the next six months. Trigunayat said that it has taken four months for the channel to start earning ad revenue. “But we were prepared to do that. As of last month, we had over 50 clients. We have 30 per cent inventory utilisation. We would like to do a 100 per cent this year but realistically we hope to reach 85 per cent in six months’ time. “ The ad sales is handled separately from Movies Now apart from the South where there is a common sales team. Trigunayat said that in the past couple of months, there has been a shift in advertiser interest. “Advertisers are kicked about the channel but in terms of the buying cycle, it has become a little more difficult for them. Their conversation revolves around whether the channel is about movies or TV series. It is taking some time for them to accept a channel that is about consumer segmentation and focus. Initially, the sales team had a very tough task and they have been a missionary force in the market.” For the current fiscal ended 31 March 2014, a soft target was set for Romedy Now. “The next fiscal is where we want to catch up with Star World. In the 2016 fiscal, we want to do better than them. Our first target is to do the right inventory fills. Star World does 4.5 million seconds of inventory per annum. We target four million seconds for the next fiscal but we would also be happy with 3.5 million seconds.” For Trigunayat, the bigger issue is that ad revenue in this genre has stagnated. “The current fiscal has been tough for the genre. The English movies and entertainment category took a hit. It hasn’t de-grown but it has stagnated. Due to increased competition effective rates have come down across channels. While viewership for the genre has grown by 98 per cent in three years, revenue has only grown by an average of 27 per cent. These are the challenges in the marketplace.”
Fewer players
In recent times, BBC Worldwide and Big CBS have left the English entertainment space. Trigunayat said that in both cases, targets were not being met. “BBC invested a lot of money. Obviously, it was not going as planned. For them the priority in India is news. The BBC does a 10-year plan and they probably felt that if things in India were not going to settle down, then it would be better to pull the plug rather than keep making losses for a decade.” With Big CBS too things did not go as planned. “CBS is a very aggressive company. They are also a lean company and have had the same management for years. They are the No. 1 US network. They do a three-year business plan. In three years time, the business did not hit the target and they had the choice to either continue or pull out. Though they chose to pull out, I am sure that they will come back to the country at a later stage,” he said.
Read at: Romedy Now set to define business proposition in 2014 | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
