After getting a boost in gross rating points courtesy the fifth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati , Multi Screen Media, the owner of channels like Sony and MAX , is now actively looking at venturing into new genres, including music and sports, along with an entry into the regional space with more channels.
Speaking to Business Line , Mr N.P Singh, Chief Operating Officer, MSM said, “Our parent company, Sony Pictures, has already acquired a Bengali channel (Aath) two years ago, and today, we are seriously looking at the regional space as the regional market has been growing faster than the mainstream market in terms of total viewership and advertising.”
Ad revenue up
For instance, regional advertising revenue in certain markets has been growing at almost 18 per cent while the normal growth in advertising revenues continues to hover between 14 and 15 per cent. “Today we are looking at both organic and inorganic options and are working on multiple options to make an entry into the regional space,” Mr Singh said. Recent media reports have suggested that MSM is eyeing the Eenadu group for its regional channels strategy.
Citing the success of Aath (previously known as Channel 8) , Mr Singh said, “Our Bengali channel is already in fourth place among the Bengali channels, after the general entertainment channels — Star Jalsa, Zee Bangla and ETV Bangla — in terms of GRPs.” With more regional channels expected to come under its fold in future, MSM expects to complete its regional portfolio to match that of its competitors like Star and Zee who already have full-fledged regional bouquets. Besides, sports and music are expected to be the other two genres that would complete the bouquet for MSM. “We are already getting the right content in terms of premier properties for our sports channel. Once we have another tent pole property like the IPL, we will be ready to launch our sports channel and after that even the IPL, which is currently on Max, will get aired on that new channel,” Mr Singh said.
Bollywood Music is another genre that would be launched on September 1 through a new channel – Mix. “We would be adding a fourth pillar to our already existing offerings in the GEC (Sony), movies (PIX) and comedy (SABTV) genres. Considering that some of the music channels have moved away to reality programming for the youth, we believe this target audience is still being under-served. We would also be adding a secondary target audience as well in the 25 to 44 age group,'' said Mr Singh.
With access to nearly 750 titles across film libraries like YRF and T Series, MSM would also take the help of its sister company (Sony Music) to unleash Bollywood music on its target audience.
“Today, the range of revenues for music channels is between Rs 25 crore and Rs 70 crore in a year. While any new channel has to work hard at establishing itself, we believe the market still needs a pure Bollywood music channel,” added Mr Singh.
Meanwhile, KBC's return on Sony has helped it climb up to the number two position in the highly dynamic Hindi GEC genre. SET (Sony Entertainment Television) has beaten Colors and Zee to gather 245 GRPs — inching closer to Star Plus with its 297 GRPs for the Week 35, according to TAM data.