That’s a question on the minds of quite a few in the media industry. NP Singh, CEO of Multi Screen Media, talks to us about his strategy to revamp SET, and why he is betting on the factual entertainment space and sports
BY SIMRAN SABHERWAL
Sony Entertainment Television (SET) - the flagship channel of Multi Screen Media (MSM) - which was a strong Number 2 on the ratings charts until 2012 end, has faced more than its share of challenges over the last couple of years. Skewed towards urban audiences and known for its out-of-the-box content, SET’s ratings fell post the inclusion of markets with population of less than one lakh (LC1) in the TAM universe at the start of 2013. Since then, the ratings have been on a steady decline. While other channels of the MSM network are doing reasonably well, the question before NP Singh, CEO of MSM, is whether he can pull a magic formula out of his bag and strategize the re-entry of SET to the upper rungs of the ratings ladder.
MSM has just completed 20 years of operations in India, during which time it expanded its portfolio to include SET, SET HD, Max, Max 2, SAB TV, Pix, Pix HD, AXN, AXN HD, Mix, Six, Six HD, Sony Kix, Aath, Pal and digital entertainment channel Sony Liv in its fold. As MSM enters its third decade, NP Singh, who took over the mantle of CEO close to two years ago, has his agenda firmly cut out in front of him – to revive SET and grow the network.
Q & A: ‘My priority No. 1 is the turnaround of our flagship channel’
THE RATINGS GAME: GET, SET, GO...
One of Singh’s main mandates when he took charge of MSM was to turn around the fortunes of SET. One of the earliest entrants in the Hindi General Entertainment space, SET has to its credit some innovative and path-breaking programming. The channel played the first ever large-scale event, a live performance by Lata Mangeshkar, twice and followed it up with an Asha Bhosale concert. The trend of airing blockbuster movies was also started by SET, with airing of Sholay, and soon movies became a part of every channel’s programming strategy.
This experimentation continued with other innovations like the trivia-based Extraa Shots, or getting the star cast to come and promote a movie. Other innovations traced back to the network include the first dance show, Boogie Woogie, the detective series CID, which has been running without a break for the last 18 years, the first competitive voice talent hunt show Indian Idol (which pioneered SMS voting for television viewers of the contest), and the first daily soap which ran for a 1,000 episodes (Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka) among others. In addition, MSM also repositioned SAB as the first family humour channel with daily comedy strips to appeal to the entire family. However, despite these highs, the focus today is to get SET back in the reckoning.
In an interview with IMPACT just after he took over as CEO, Singh had said, “One big change in programming for us on Sony would be to try and make it more inclusive.” While this may not have worked as well as expected, the game-plan now is to retain its core essence which appeals to the urban viewer and consolidate that viewership while using the early prime time to air shows that make the channel more appealing to the smaller towns. So, to attract semi-urban and rural audiences on weekdays, SET has lined up mythological and historical shows like Bharat ka Veer Putra Maharana Pratap and Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman. Singh says the appeal of these shows cuts across markets and Target Groups (TGs), and have done well for the channel. On weekends, its long running shows CID and Crime Patrol continue to deliver on the ratings. The channel is also placing its bets on the second season of Parvarish and a reality show, Power Couples, with celebrity couple Malaika and Arbaaz Khan which will hit screens soon. The strategy here is clear - strengthen the weekends further while bringing in new shows from Monday to Friday.
COURSE CORRECTION
The recent course correction has also seen a revamp at SET, with the entire team being restructured. Danish Khan has been brought in from Star Plus, as the head of SET in place of Nachiket Pantvaidya. Khan, who earlier used to be the Marketing Head of SET, has a new team under him for content, communication, on-air promotions, research and strategy, marketing, etc.
Says Singh, “We have brought in a new business head for the channel and augmented his team with a newly recruited Marketing head, on air promotion (OAP) head as well as creative directors. Moreover, we have also moved the Head of strategy, scheduling and research from within the network to SET. A team of highly competent people who understand the DNA of the channel as well as creativity and communication have come together. The content that this team is putting together is going to resonate with our core audiences and I am confident that over a period of time, SET will regain its position as one of the top GECs.”
While these efforts will take time to bear fruit, just now the inclusion of rural India in audience measurement has hit the channel further in the ratings game. The latest BARC rating, for Week 43: Saturday, 24th October 2015 to Friday, 30th October 2015, HSM (Urban +Rural): NCCS All : 4+ Individuals has SET at No. 9. When asked to comment on this, Singh states, “Each of our channels has its own unique positioning in the minds of the viewer and therefore commands a loyal TG. Yes, we need to make our brands a bit more accessible so that the rural markets can also relate with them, but that does not mean moving away from the well-entrenched brand positioning. We will continue to consolidate our viewership for all channels within our network and also try and get fresh viewership from the rural markets.”
PLAYING IT RIGHT WITH IPL
Elsewhere within MSM, the biggest prize is undoubtedly telecast rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL). Despite the negative news flow surrounding the T-20 league, IPL viewership and reach in Season 7 and 8 have grown year-on-year. Singh believes that the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) sorting out key issues now will have a positive impact on IPL and further improve its viewership in 2016. In 2015, MSM experimented with regional language commentary in Tamil and Telugu and in 2016, the network is evaluating the possibility of ad-targeting in the regional space. Singh says, “Our sales team is making pitches for the next season of IPL and post the festival season, we will evaluate whether it makes sense for us to get into regional advertising on the regional language feeds or not.”
But will Sony be an aggressive bidder when the telecast rights of IPL are up for bidding in 2017? Singh says, “IPL has done extremely well for us. We took on IPL at a time when it was a brand new property with few believers. We believed in it and with collective efforts between BCCI, us and the teams, IPL has become a strong sports property and we will certainly work to retain the rights with us.”
SEGMENTING TO EXPAND
A clear focus area for MSM is addressing each of the segments with different brands, thus leading to segmentation of markets.
Singh says, “I do believe that segmentation of markets is very important and each of the segments need to be addressed by different brands.”
With this objective, MSM launched its third Hindi GEC, Sony Pal, in September 2014. The channel did not perform as per expectations and original programming on the channel was pulled out within six months. But a quick course correction was seen and the channel was converted into a free-to-air (FTA) channel playing archived content from the library of both Sony TV and Sab TV. This move saw the ratings double and Singh says that he now has a blueprint ready for the channel. He explains, “We are scheduling many SET and SAB shows on Pal and this is attracting new viewers for the network. As I indicated, I have a blueprint for Pal. All I can say for now is that over the next few months, you will start to see some original content coming back on Pal.”
As for the future, Singh has big plans. “I am pursuing a path of aggressive growth for the network. With that in mind, we have evaluated the opportunities that exist.” The two big opportunities that MSM sees are in the factual entertainment and sports genres, borne out by its recent tie-ups with BBC and ESPN, announced in quick succession in October. Explains Singh, “When we thought about factual entertainment, the first name that came to mind was BBC Worldwide. They were also considering launch of BBC Earth in international markets. Therefore, we decided to form a joint venture and leverage each other’s strengths to create Sony BBC Earth.” As for the second long term partnership with ESPN, which is returning to the Indian market after three years, Singh comments, “When the opportunity of partnering with ESPN came our way, we thought it would be great to get two strong brands together to create assets that will be a sports fan’s delight. So, we decided to get into this long term partnership. Under the aegis of this partnership, we will launch co-branded television channels and also a co-branded multi-sport app for the domestic market here. Moreover, Sony KIX will be branded as Sony ESPN.”
Also on his to-do list is MSM’s long term plan of expanding and growing in the regional market, where MSM currently operates a Bangla movies channel, Sony Aath. But whether the growth will be organic or inorganic still remains to be seen, as Singh says, “As regards organic versus inorganic growth opportunities, there are not many inorganic opportunities available in the market at this stage. So, we are currently evaluating which are the markets we should get into and then we will look at the route we need to take to get there.”
Speaking about Sony Aath, which operates in a highly competitive space, Singh says that the channel “is doing reasonably well”. “When we acquired it, it was the only movies channel and after that others have also come in but despite that Sony Aath continues to be ahead of those channels,” he says. MSM has also been investing in content for this channel and has acquired a lot of animated content for it. Its recently produced film, Mayer Biye, will also be premiered on Sony Aath soon.
BANKING ON MOVIES & DIGITAL
MSM also ventured into movie production two years ago with the launch of MSM Motion Pictures. The movie studio released Hindi films Piku and Youngistan, which performed well, and Singh says the intent behind making films was to leverage their strength and also own them for use within the network. MSM Motion Pictures struck gold, in particular, with Piku – with a total production, prints and publicity cost of Rs 44 crore, it reportedly handed back to the producers a neat Rs 36.5 crore in profit. With the studio betting big on the co-production model, the next movie to hit the big screen from the MSM stable is Azhar, a co-production with Balaji Motion Pictures. MSM is focusing on script-led movies and will invest in a high budget film, if the script demands it.
On another front, MSM’s foray into the digital domain with Sony Liv – a video-on-demand service – two years ago was aimed at helping the network build a greater level of engagement with viewers, and this is an area where it appears MSM has ticked the right boxes. With original content on digital play being the buzzword, MSM tasted success with its first original series in the OTT space, #LoveBytes which in Singh’s words “crossed three million views in its 11th episode and has helped us grow our video views across the platform by about 300%”.
Its second signature series Tanlines has also managed to gain traction and there are more series in the pipeline. Singh says, “You will continue to see a lot of original series on Sony LIV. In addition, through our partnership with BBC Earth and with ESPN, we will get a lot of factual entertainment and sports content on Sony LIV. We are also looking at aggregating a lot of other third party content on Sony LIV.”
It will be interesting to see how MSM moves from here on. While its flagship channel may have its share of struggles, Singh seems determined to bring SET on track while expanding the broader network and translating opportunities into new avenues of growth. Hopefully, happier times ahead at MSM.
AS MSM REBRANDS INTO SPN
As it steps into its 21st year, Multi Screen Media (MSM) has rebranded itself into Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPN), involving both name as well as logo change, subject to regulatory approvals. “The strategic intent behind rebranding MSM into SPN is to align with our parent company and thereby accrue the benefit of global synergies. The new logo is our way of creating a picture from a pixel; a campaign from an idea and a revolution in progressive television entertainment. Going forward, SPN will steer its helm on three levers, namely - general entertainment, sports and digital. With a comprehensive bouquet of varied channels, we are equipped today to serve India’s population both in the urban and rural areas, as well as across geographies,” says NP Singh, CEO, MSM.
BETTING BIG ON SPORTS
MSM is betting big on sports. With three sports channels - Sony SIX, Sony SIX HD and Sony KIX - the intent is to focus on a host of emerging sports. MSM credits itself with bringing in international brands such as UFC and NFL to the Indian market. With basketball becoming very popular with the youth, it brought NBA exclusively to its network and has seen the viewership for NBA grow dramatically. In the last one year, MSM has aggressively aggregated a lot of football properties. It now offers its viewers prime football properties including FIFA 14, FIFA 18, Copa America, Euro 2016, FA Cup, Italian Series A, and La Liga. KIX, launched in April this year, carried IPL in Tamil and Telugu language commentary.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
