The Hindu Business Line : Wake up and smell the `kapi'

The television-viewing world of South India is an entity by itself. A fact well known to the broadcasting industry as is evident in the number of South-specific channels.

When Southern Spice Music (SS Music) was launched three years ago as a multi-lingual music channel to televise film and pop songs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, English and Hindi, it was a niche that none of the established players had entered.

Today that very genre is a much sought after slot. Why would any broadcaster miss the opportunity to offer this segment of viewers to advertisers?

Some time ago, the buzz was that MTV Networks was in talks with SS Music to acquire a stake. The talks did not end in anything conclusive but they proved SS Music's mettle. If MTV chose to look for a stake in SS Music, ETC Networks — a subsidiary of Zee Telefilms — is looking at launching a similar channel in the South.

Although the deal did not go through, MTV feels that SS Music is a perfect fit for itself. Jagjit Singh Kohli, CEO, ETC Networks, thinks a music channel catering to South Indian viewers makes good business sense. "If there can be four music channels in the West and the North, South can accommodate two channels," he says.

Surely, the promoters of SS Music are smiling.

At SS Music, the focus has been on innovative programming, says Bryan Peppin, Head - Programming and Production. "There were comments that SS Music is a clone of MTV. Our benchmark was MTV, in that sense it was a good comment. But we needed to find our own individuality. Therefore, whatever we do, we do it innovatively," he says.

The channel currently has two unique interactive programmes — Virtual Request and Connect. "For Virtual Request SS Music has tied up with RPG's Music World. We have placed kiosks in four Music World outlets in four cities from where we get requests for song," says Peppin.

On an average the channel gets about 200 requests daily and the best 12 are filtered out. Virtual Request is gaining huge popularity and has emerged as the number two show among the channel's top 10.

Connect, a relatively new show, is another request programme that encourages interactivity with viewers through video-conferencing. "This is being done through a tie-up with Sify iWay," says Peppin.

SS Music is often surprised by its own popularity. When it organised a VJ hunt through its VJ Factor across four Southern cities, it received 18,000 registrations, of which 650 were selected for audition, 22 were short-listed and finally three were selected.

It is currently in the middle of a talent hunt across several cities in the South. "The response in Chennai and Coimbatore has been good. More importantly, we have discovered good talent through this hunt," says Peppin. For SS Music, it is not merely the discovery of talent but also the voice hunt that makes for interesting reality programming. "We do get good ratings for these shows," says Peppin.

SS Music is at present in 95 per cent of cable and satellite homes in the South. Much of its programming is done in-house. What helps the channel stand apart from other Southern channels is the opportunity it offers celebrities to be noticed as part of a music channel.

Although the channel is not hard up for revenue inflow, as is evident from the number of brands on it, SS Music has not been able to bite into South Indian film promos, which form the bulk of revenues for other music channels.

Kohli of ETC Networks also acknowledges this fact. He agrees that the revenue model for his South music channel, whenever it is launched, would be different from etc Music, which gets a bulk of its earnings from Hindi film promos.

If SS Music hit off showcasing South Indian music, film promos may not be far behind.

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