The Hindu Business Line : Channel [V] to extend brand to merchandise

IF the fact that the youth made up 60 per cent of the electorate in Elections 2004 is any indication of market potential, then Star India is looking to tap just that. . And Channel [V], the broadcasting company's music and youth channel, is gearing up to carve out a major portion of the youth market.

Mr Peter Mukerjea, CEO, Star India, says, ``We are planning to tap the youth segment through Channel [V] in a big way. The channel delivers music and our aim is to make it a youngster's preferred destination. We want to take the brand value and extend it to other products.''

On the cards are plans to extend the brand to cafes, post cards, merchandise, apparel, and may be even a youth magazine. The channel hit the jackpot by successfully completing two talent hunt contests - Pop Stars I and II. And each year the channel plans to make this hunt bigger.

However, extending the brand to other youth products could help the broadcasting company generate additional revenues. ``The broadcaster would have to put in a lot of marketing effort to make these branded products a success,'' said a Mumbai-based media planner.

Earlier MTV too had launched MTV Style Clothing and Accessories and co-branded cards with AirTel and Citibank. These however, have not taken off on a big way.

The music channels currently have just two per cent share of the total advertising revenues, generating about Rs 80 crore of advertising revenue. The market, itself has a number of players with MTV leading the pack with over 35 per cent share followed by Channel [V], ETC Music, B4U Music, CMM and Zee Music. According to AdEX India, since music channels attract different audiences, the categories of advertisers also vary.

``Categories like footwear and writing instruments, which do not rank high amongst all TV channel advertisers, are big spenders on music channels while categories such as corporate/brand image and shampoos, which are top categories on all TV advertising (segments), are ranked much lower here,'' AdEX study indicated.

Media planners, meanwhile, said that music channels have really not been able to dent into the viewership of mass entertainment channels. ``Even though a large population in India belong to the youth segment, the viewership is not very high and therefore the advertising rates still remain very low,'' said a Mumbai-based media planner.