By SIMRAN SABHERWAL
For a people who swore by home-cooked food (many still do) and media that was only about occasional recipes, India has come a long way. Here’s our bit at charting out what’s been a delicious year for restaurateurs, print-walas, TV programmers and of course, the foodie within all of us
Toward the end of Ratatouille, perhaps the finest contemporary film on the topic of food, Anton Ego, the fastidious restaurant critic eats his words about having disdained the motto of ‘anyone can cook’. After having what was the greatest dish of his life (apologies for spoilers here), he admits in his review that whilst not everyone can become a great artist, a great artist can come from anywhere.
In circa 2013, with a food culture more layered than ever before, with every other ‘foodie’ thinking of himself or herself as Anton Ego and a multi crore F&B industry, India is replete with food artists, and they are coming from everywhere.
THE SMILING GRAND DADDY OF FOOD PROGRAMMING
THE FOOD REVOLUTION WON’T BE TELEVISED
Always perceived as a distinctive characteristic of every sub-culture and carrying with it a plethora of emotions, food in India is serious business. But we’re talking about it more seriously now than ever before because it has long ceased being a kitchen topic. In the past decade or so, it has emerged in the entertainment and media space as a genre in itself. From multiple TV channels dedicated to 24x7 food programming, dozens of magazines reaching out to women and men alike and the new young order taking to smart phones to connect with other seekers of gastronomic delights, there’s been a hefty, frothy brew of the food business in India.
DEEPER POCKETS, HUNGRIER MINDS
Vinod Dua, one of the early names to be associated with food programming and the host of Zaika India Ka on NDTV India, explains, “People have more purchasing power now, they like to go out and celebrate. There is free availability of different kinds of food in our cities. Earlier, we used to only eat home-cooked food but newer generations have changed their habits.”
Walk about central districts of any metro and you’d know what ‘change’ he’s talking of – there are more eateries serving cuisines that were hitherto only thought of as ‘exotic’. For television, that’s been a buzzword and a range of food programming is now well received by the more open-minded, well-travelled Indian.
International food celebrities such as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain are no longer alien names. Programming has moved on from behind-the-stove (with gentle sitar background scores!) to more daring, dramatic content. ‘Food infotainment’ now attracts entire families, and just as us conservative Indians are experimenting in real lives, the idiot box too is reflecting the sense of adventure and emotion.
A HEALTHY HELPING OF EYEBALLS
So what has this potpourri of programs done to the media? Well, for starters, the wider demographics are bringing in advertisers and the custom-made programming is raking in the eyeballs.
Surf down your set top box channel list for instance. While the food programming surely sees women centric promotions, a wide array of marketers have arrived to target men and young adults. Even a men only brand such as Gillette, (for the show Man v/s Food) finds itself part of the advertising mix. On ground, the change has been more palpable with diverse cuisines making their way into our preferred eat-out lists. Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish and French eateries are propping up in metros while Tier II towns too aren’t afraid to try some. This has given an acceptable ring of celeb-dom to professionals in the F&B sector, and particularly ‘the Chef’ has shed inhibitions. Frequent media mentions of high-end restaurants have made chefs such as Ritu Dalmia and Vicky Ratnani known faces, flaunting their own TV shows and book deals.
Aneesha Baig, host of Will travel for Food on NDTV 24X7 , says, The food scene has never been more exciting and as a result food programming too is following suit. I’d like to think both are feeding of each other.”
B-towns such as a Baroda or Chandigarh, whose food cultures are deeply rooted to their regions, have long attached the ‘gourmet’ side-car to their ride. Print magazines are helping this other India be a part of the changing ethos and their readers are responding actively. It’s not uncommon to spot a Marwari housewife trying an Au Gratin or Nutella pancakes after reading about them!
Paresh Nath, Editor and Publisher of Delhi Press, which publishes magazines across regional languages tells us, “Whenever we give out recipes of food whose ingredients are not easily available, we are flooded with queries about their availability! Also, presentation and variety have never assumed this much importance.”
And before you think regional Indian cuisine might be going to the backburner, we’d like to tell you the contrary. Shibani Sharma Khanna, Channel Director, NDTV Good Times and Creative Head, NDTV Lifestyle explains, “Food shows share a unique casual equation with the way India cooks and eats, and now people have quicker access to flavours they were unfamiliar with. This holds true for regional Indian food too.” Rediscovery is the word, we say. Your granny would be proud.
The silent explosion of activity however, has been on the internet. It is now flaunting restaurant reviews, menus, videos and even ways to stock up oils and pulses in your kitchen.
Noted food critic and author Rashmi Uday Singh sums up our gastronomical times well: “The food scene in India has never been more exciting than today. We are in the midst of ‘foodism’ and this is the best –ism!”
Artists do come from all corners and what better an art than food!
A NEW MAIN COURSE
Two dedicated food channels, primetime reality shows and a uniquely upmarket audience watching it all. Indian TV has cooked up a delicious offering for marketers but would this be a case of too many chefs and the broth?
Sometime in the latter half of the 90s when Indian TV audiences began watching ‘the other’ channel apart from Doordarshan, a rather stout man with an ever smiling face and not a strand of hair out of place began whipping up recipes in a kitchen studio. The ladies took immediate fancy to the concept, and the men couldn’t help but notice. After all, a man cooking on national television and that too with adequate charm sort of gave the programming a ring of legitimacy. He was India’s own Martha Stewart, and as history bears record, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor of Zee TV’s Khana Khazana kick-started a new era of food programming in India.
While Kapoor’s smiley recipes dominated the genre for years, more cable channels began to have their own shows. Soon after Discovery Channel began its India broadcast, introducing to us a whole new genre of programming, ‘lifestyle’. With it, came travelogues, adventures, shows that no longer remained in a studio.
In 2007, news giant NDTV called upon some Good Times and created shows such as Highway on my plate (HOMP) and Chak le India, garnering new eyeballs and a dedicated fan base. From there on, several general entertainment and news channels began taking food seriously, among them a pot-ly looking eater-of-all, Kunal Vijaykar creating his own niche on Times Now.
The next watershed moment in food programming came when the second season of the widely popular show Masterchef Australia was telecast on Star World, and with it came in another genre of programming, reality.
In December 2010, it was remarkably the Zee Group again that took the first step in launching India’s first 24-hour food channel, retaining the name of its first cookery show, Zee Khana Khazana. But still very much in the race was the man behind the brand, Kapoor, who launched his own food channel, Food Food in January 2011.
“Food was a side-dish in the entertainment space,” Kapoor tells us, “Today, with people eating out, more nuclear families and men also beginning to cook, food on television has become the centre of the plate. As entertainment mature, specialised content begins assuming more relevance.”
His insight is perhaps the map of the near future for this genre: “Food can never be niche, it is specialised content and specialized content will have better chance (at remaining popular) as there will eventually be a fatigue in GECs.”
WHIPPING UP AN APPETITE
It is no folly to claim that food and food-related programming on Indian TV has exploded and undergone its first major makeover. ‘Lifestyle programming’ is the key, the focus being on food but the approach going beyond conventional codes of a kitchen to streets, highways, foreign lands.
Kapoor explains, “We are positioned as ‘food and lifestyle’ and we entertain through food, using the power of emotion attached to it. As food is discussed, consumed and seen more out there, food on television is bound to attract more consumers.”
Rightly so, recipes and ‘how tos’ are not the only driving factors of channels such as Kapoor’s. The new x-factors are travelogues, which make a heady concoction of food, travel, drama and adventure. So while the former formats have their share of loyal viewers, travelogues and reality shows strike a chord with newer segments of viewers.
Shibani Sharma Khanna, Channel Director, NDTV Good Times and Creative Head, NDTV Lifestyle says, “Food programming as an idea was restrictive earlier, targeted just at homemakers. Food has a genre has come on its own only in the past five years.” She is proud that her channel helped pioneer this space in India by launching ‘Food+ Programming’. And we agree, shows such as French Connection (where French chef Alain Andre visits homes to help someone cook up a delectable surprise meal for a loved one), and Highway On my Plate (a lighthearted, heavy bellied journey along the highways of India) surely turned out to be unique properties.
For international lifestyle channels such as Fox International, the genre has become no less than a programming mainstay. Debarpita Banerjee, VP Marketing, admits “Fifty per cent of our shows belong to the ‘food plus travel’ series. We talk about a wide variety across all, locally as well as internationally.”
The best part of this story is that it’s not just food and lifestyle channels that are interested in the pie. General Entertainment Channels (GECs) and news channels are in it too, for the long haul.
With Zaika India Ka, an outdoorsy food show, veteran journalist Vinod Dua of NDTV India hit upon a new curve in his career which had been all about politics before that. “This was a kind of a backward integration for me. I knew it (the show) would be a people’s programme as I am not a ‘food critic’ or chef. I took people on a vicarious trip. The show is not scripted, nor an adaptation of a foreign format.” The lesson – spontaneity is an essential spice in food programming.
Hindi GEC Star Plus tasted success with MasterChef India, the second season drawing in even more viewers than the premiere season. However, and herein lies a heartening fact for audiences and marketers alike, it was Star’s English GEC, Star World that hit the jackpot with the telecast of the original version, MasterChef Australia.
According to Ajay Shah, Partner, Ernst & Young, “It received a 74 per cent market share in English GEC category. Evidently, people have developed a taste for international shows.” Rasika Tyagi, Senior VP, English Programming, Star India confirms, “MasterChef Australia this year delivered a cumulative reach of 2.06 million viewers in the original slot and there is an affirmative increase in men tuning in to watch the show.” Look up the social site Twitter when any episode is airing and you’d know the buzz around the show.
LOOK WHO’S WATCHING
There are about 125 food-related shows being telecast on 450-plus channels and this makes it obvious that it’s not only the women tuning in, neither are the GECs solely targeting them. Shah of E&Y explains, “If you see ratings of some shows on Zee Khana Khazana and MasterChef Australia, they have got really neat primetime ratings. Food programming has long moved in to the primetime, from a history of being in the afternoon band.”
While the afternoon segment does remain women-centric, the audience profile becomes gender neutral during primetime viewing. Banerjee of FOX International confirms this shift in viewer profile. “More men have tuned into primetime food shows over the year. One would want to credit their (the shows’) nature for this, which is now more about experience and travel.”
Mohit Joshi, MD, MPG India adds, “Basic numbers of some top Indian food channels indicate there is an overriding preference by women viewers, but the age profile, on the other hand, is broader, with interest levels from 15 to 55 years.” He also believes that as the content and measurability matures further, the profiles will sharpen as there would be contemporary shows that young women would watch while more traditional shows would be patronized by older age groups.
That said, the biggest demographic shift in viewership was witnessed by AXN. Traditionally positioned in the action-genre space, (targeting core audience male Sec A and B), the channel has successfully lured female audiences with shows such as Top Chef Series. According to Sunil Punjabi, Business Head, AXN India, “The audience profile for Top Chef Series is Sec A and B between the age group of 15-24 years and an older TG in some cases. The viewership is majorly skewed towards women, the female: male ratio about 55:45. Women of all age groups have taken a liking towards the series and interestingly, a considerable number of Sec A males of 15-55 years are sampling the show.” He boasts that Top Chef Series has seen a growth of viewership by about 50 per cent in a year.
THE ADVERTISERS’ PLAY
One party most excited about this surge in food-lifestyle programming is the advertisers, the simple reason being that most target audience segments (especially of lifestyle channels) are strong influencers, aware of market trends. Several brands today are vying for this TG’s mind space and are spending well to reach out to them.
These advertisers are present across channel genres such as lifestyle, infotainment, region-specific GECs, food channels, English entertainment and regional news channels. While the core advertiser profile leans more towards food and food-related products, ready to eat foods, juices, kitchen and home appliances and consumer durables, there is a larger set of brands targeting the same consumer. Shah of E&Y gives us the number. “The advertising spends on the entire food category is at least 14 per cent of the total TV ad pie. The interest in this cluster is likely to remain.”
While this may seem to be an impressive number, for major food advertisers, this forms a small percentage of their overall ad spends as the major chunk is still reserved for mass channels. Joshi of MPG India elaborates, “Today, food brands have to target a larger audience base which makes presence in general entertainment and other popular genres necessary. Though food as a genre is not very evolved in India, advertising on food content is very relevant to their brand and food brands do set aside anything between four to eight per cent of their budgets to clearly associate with such shows/ sites/ articles.”
Anupriya Acharya, Leader, Team Unilever South Asia, Mindshare concurs with this view, “While food shows attract more than the fair share of ‘food’ category advertisers, regular advertisers trying to also connect with that particular profile of TA are also advertising here. In fact, these advertisers could be form up to 70 per cent plus of the advertising.” And why not, viewers of ‘food’ content do have other interests too, right! In fact, their interests are more refined.
Acharya adds that a typical food advertiser will have 5 per cent or lesser of his kitty in food-related properties. Shivani Hegde, GM (Foods), Nestle India says, “Effective advertising has to create a balance between mass media and specialised genres. We consider food shows seriously whenever we find the content and quality of the show to be good, because the environment enhances the appeal and importance of ‘Good Food, Good Life’.”
Ritu Trivedi, Media Director, Lodestar UM says that while seven out of 10 brands may be women-oriented, other brands are also venturing in this genre. On ad spends, she says, “For a large national client, it could actually be a fraction of the overall spend, considering the channels are niche and hence the pricing. For a local brand, it could well be a large chunk of their ad budget.”
Though advertisers have shown interest in the newer formats, it’s fair that they seek to park their money on shows that give them best return on their investments and deliver TRPs. In most cases, the format of the show does assume secondary importance. However, a striking advantage food shows have over other shows is the high level of viewer stickiness. What are the chances of your wife or mother jumping channels while a recipe is on?
Sushma Jhaveri, Chief Operating Officer at Madison Media Infinity brings in a macro perspective. “From an advertisers’ point of view, there are very few options as you have three slots of food programs. The first, your very basic regional programs, what ETV plays in the afternoon. The second rung is Food Food which deals with serious food and attracts food brands for whom being on food shows is part of strategy. These brands include dals and salts right down to utensils and kitchen appliances. The third are lifestyle channels such as NDTV Good Times and TLC which are really high end and attract lifestyle brands from shoes to phones.” She also agrees that though advertising on food shows creates an impact for food brands and is relevant, it is unlikely for this to grab a large part of the advertisers’ kitty.
Expectedly, ad rates for these shows are also comparatively lesser when compared to those on GECs across all time-slots. The audience watching foods shows on GECs, scheduled in the afternoon time slot, are considered niche and the ratings are also lower than those of afternoon soaps. However a reality show such as MasterChef India manages to attract a premium rate. Trivedi sums up, “If a food show is converted to a reality show which has the blend of reality + cookery + celeb+ talent hunt and becomes like a rider property, it attracts a premium rate due to the heavy marketing and promotion blitzkrieg.”
She also says, “Niche platforms are in an era of ‘fixed shows’ in primetime as opposed to just selling RODP. These fixed slots or ‘tent poles’ as they may be called are sold at a premium irrespective of the channel rate of it being a food show or otherwise. Finally, it’s a demand-supply situation, so if the show does well, it starts attracting a premium.”
For advertisers, besides the comparatively lower ad rates, an association with a food show is an attractive proposition on the cost front. As production costs (usually between Rs two lakhs to 10 lakhs) are contained, it is not an expensive bet when compared to other shows. The only exception is MasterChef India, which is an expensive property to be associated with. Acharya says, “Properties such as Masterchef are exceptions and are as good as mainline programming in terms of their ability to attract eyeballs. Food brands playing a major part here, like Amul, tend to have a much higher percentage of their budgets on ‘food’ shows.”
WHAT’S COOKING IN THE FUTURE?
Broadcasters see digitisation as a game-changer for niche channels; it is expected to be a win-win situation for all the stakeholders - broadcasters, consumers and advertisers. Banerjee of FOX International Channel says, “In the earlier analogue regime, due to limited bandwidth and high carriage costs, it was not always possible to have your channel seeded everywhere. Now, with the ability of platforms to carry more channels, it will be possible to be available to wider audiences, which will help boost viewership, especially in cases of niche channels.”
Higher viewership is likely to have a healthy impact on content which will become more diverse.
Regional cuisine is likely to take off in a big way and the first bite has already been taken here. Dua reveals that his Zaika journey is all set to reach rural lands. As an appetiser, he wants the viewer to get a taste of Bundelkhandi, Orchha and Khajuraho food. Mayur Sharma, of the popular duo of Rocky & Mayur (of HOMP) says his team has many ideas but not as much funding. “In America, investments are made upfront as they understand if something has to become bigger and better, they need to spend. You need to put money where the mouth is. Hopefully, with digitisation and the move to a subscription-based model will aid future programming decisions. The future holds immense possibilities immense and we have not yet scratched the surface!” Amen to that!
IS THERE SPACE FOR MORE?
Currently, there are two dedicated food channels in India, (Food Food and Zee Khana Khazana) besides the other genres, and the question is to be asked is, is there space for more or have broadcasters bitten more than they can chew?
Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media answers,” At the moment, the market seems saturated, as food content is available across GECs and infotainment channels besides the dedicated food channels.” Shah of E&Y believes that the market still has to evolve to take in more entertainment pegged along with food shows. “The sustainability of food shows or food channels has to be looked at. The interest level is high but people are still assessing the viability of these channels.” However, the first mover in this space, Zee has a contrarian view, “In mature television markets, there are three to four dedicated food channels so we are bullish about this genre and feel that there is space for at least a couple more players. With digitization and greater monetization for niche offerings, food channels should grow exponentially”, a spokesperson tells us.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
