The Hindu Business Line : Creating sound content

The genre continues to be niche, audiences remain the youth, differentiation remains a tough call, and competition keeps getting increasingly cut-throat. Catalyst examines the business of music channels.

THE notes are ringing sharper.

The noise created by the big fight between music channels staking their claim to grab the viewer's attention is getting louder. The four key contenders for the top slot are Channel [V], MTV, Zee Music and B4U Music. Add to that a sprinkling of regional channels that also dish out music, 24 hours, in local languages.

Amar K. Deb, Head, Channel [V] India, is categorical that Star India's Channel [V] is head and shoulders above the competition. "We are the clear `Number One' among music channels. There is no dispute about that. There has been a huge widening of the gap between us and the competition," asserts Deb.

However, MTV officials maintain that the channel has been in "leadership position" for five years now.

Yogesh Radhakrishnan, Business Head, Zee Music and Zee Cinema, says that Zee Music is the `Number One' channel in Hindi-speaking markets. "In fact, in the launch week, we were No. 1 in the all-India market," adds Radhakrishnan.

He does not divulge numbers. "Zee Music was relaunched just a couple of months ago. We are yet to do impressive figures that we can speak about, but definitely, the channel will be settled by February as far as revenues are concerned," says Radhakrishnan.

For all that noise, music channels remain comparatively small in terms of viewership. According to the TAM Peoplemeter system, the share of music channels across six metros among cable & satellite homes was 1.88, compared to two during the same period the previous year.

According to AdEx India, the share of music channels in terms of ad revenues for the period January-October 2003 was 1.4 per cent, in comparison to 1.3 per cent over the same period last year.

Observes Atul Phadnis, Director, S Group, TAM Media Research: "Music channel shares remain pretty low. So, the only way they can go is up. The category went without excitement for some time. But the spurt in remixes and Indipop has led to a revival of sorts."

Music channel representatives say drawing comparisons to popular genres of channels does not present the real picture.

As Radhakrishnan says: "Firstly, music channels are only advertised on when a client looks for frequency, or if the product is youth-oriented. Coming to patterns, the clients look at more innovations or, say, sponsoring a road show or a live show."

And according to Channel V's Deb, it was the Pop Stars show that brought in new categories of advertisers for Channel [V]. "Education and insurance have come on to the channel after Pop Stars. Typically, otherwise, we had primarily fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies advertising on our channel," he observes.

And, as Phadnis adds, advertising boundaries are gradually getting breached on niche channels — whether it's sports, news or music.

Now the other big debate: Do loyalties really exist for music channels? Besides, how different can the content be when the content pool is the same — songs from Bollywood films and Indipop, some English numbers thrown in, and an occasional throwback to the black-and-white era. Says a Delhi-based media planner on the condition of anonymity: "If you leave out one or two shows, all music channels look and sound the same to us. Frankly, the single largest differentiating factor is the rates on offer. If the rates suit me and my client, I buy time on the channel."

According to Sandip Tarkas, President, South Asia, MPG, some amount of differentiation is now happening on the kind of content dished out by the channels. "For a music channel, innovation and building specific associations is key. If a media planner and client want numbers, they would go to, say, a Star Plus," explains Tarkas. Adds Phadnis, "Constant innovation is what is required."

The channel representatives, meanwhile, insist that differentiation happens in the form of packaging, presentation styles, VJs and non-music shows such as challenges and contests, and travel-related programmes.

Channel [V]'s big differentiator came in the form of Pop Stars, points out Deb. "The show was our Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC)," he says. He admits that while `bite viewing' (or snack-time kind of limited viewing) was the trend before Pop Stars happened, after the Pop Stars phase, viewership on Channel [V] is now by appointment. Other shows that the channel claims have being doing well include Crush and P.O.V., both of which, according to Star officials, have helped in broadbasing viewership beyond the conventional 15-34 age group. Among Channel [V]'s forthcoming new shows, scheduled to hit the tube early next year, will be V on the Run akin to a road journey and Get Gorgeous on the lines of a hunt for fresh faces.

Data by TAM Media Research for the period between September 20 and October 18, 2003, is in favour of Channel [V]. According to it, Channel [V] has been consistently outperforming competition. It adds that among the 15-34 age-group viewers in C&S ABC households across six cities, the time spent on Channel [V] has grown over 150 per cent between 2001 and 2003, while MTV has registered a fall of 25 per cent.

However, while the period after August placed Channel [V] in the No. 1 slot, viewership dropped relatively over the following months, specifically in Chennai and Kolkata. The channel officials attribute the drop to the implementation of CAS in Chennai.

Meanwhile, Zee's Radhakrishnan maintains that what differentiates Zee Music from the others is "more music and less bak bak.

"The biggest asset that Zee Music has is that we play full songs, unlike other music channels which survive on 30- and 60-seconder clips serviced by the producer or the music company for forthcoming movies," he says. Zee Music's plans for the forthcoming year include new programming, ground events and marketing activities, say channel officials, even as they decline to divulge further details.

As for stickiness and loyalties, Radhakrishnan says that while brand loyalties exist within music channels, these build up over a long period of time.

MTV says it differentiates through shows such as MTV Youth Icon, Lycra MTV Style Awards, Roadies, and now, the IMMIES. As for VJs, MTV, of course, has the clear edge here, thanks to its star VJ Cyrus Broacha.

MTV's competitors admit the appeal of Cyrus as a VJ, but say that their VJs are as good. "Our VJs are young — our objective is to maintain a constant youth connect with our audiences," points out Deb.

Music to the ears, in times to come, will obviously depend on innovation.

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