The Hindu Business Line : Vh1 ropes in IMRB for audience analysis

INTERNATIONAL music and lifestyle channel Vh1 has commissioned IMRB International to analyse the profile of its viewers and to understand the consumption and imagery of the channel. Instead of relying exclusively on TAM data to give a picture of the reach and rating of its programmes, the niche channel has decided to resort to the research agency to figure out what is working for its channel.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Keertan Adyanthaya, Vice-President and General Manager, Vh1 India, said, "We were not getting the insights with the current data. Although we do refer to the TAM data, we have commissioned IMRB to help filter the audience with respect to all the English speaking channels and analyse the data in a better way.''

IMRB has created a sample size of 800 participants across five metros to figure out the awareness and perception levels of the channel.

The research also throws up numbers on the product ownership of its viewers to help showcase the data to the channel's potential advertisers.

Mr Adyanthaya added, "Being a new channel we have to keep checking where we are. With the channel completing a year, its image is getting established and we would like to be the first channel to be associated with English entertainment.''

Marketing its programmes to lure audiences, Vh1 has been holding contests on air and thereby rewarding its winners with free tickets to watch the live shows of international artists.

"Indian audiences for our programmes have rarely watched artists perform live shows. With a simple question on our shows we have been sending people abroad month after month to watch such shows,'' he said.

In the recent past, the channel, through its Ticket 2 Ride contest, sent its winners to watch the U2 contest in Manchester.

Launched in January last year, the channel did face distribution hurdles initially. "The initial days were difficult since our distribution was not in place. The pipeline is tight since the bandwidth does not support so many channels and it was a fight to get to the households."

Today the channel is being distributed through Zee Turner and is also available on Dish TV, the DTH platform.

Reaching out to 12.7 million viewers in the country, Vh1 intends covering 16.5 million households by 2006.

Catering primarily to youth, the 24-hour pay channel has tweaked its programming to suit Indian audiences.

"We pick and choose our shows from what is already available in our libraries. In India it is hip- hop and rock that is preferred," Mr Adyanthaya said.

Building its brand through on-ground events is also an ongoing exercise to connect with its target audience.

"We are looking at on-ground opportunities and have been also bringing in international artists to perform at night clubs, campuses and theatres," he said.

The MTV networks channel continues to rely on ad sales and subscription sales for its revenues.

"It is primarily ad sales and subscription that are the revenue earners for the channel and we are expecting a 200 per cent growth from ad sales and hope to break even in the third year of our existence," stated Mr Adyanthaya.

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