Post its rebranding and demerger, SABGroup has listed two new entities and is betting big on its digital play. Vice-Chairman and MD Markand Adhikari is upbeat as the company gears up to launch a new GEC, Happii and consolidate its regional TV and film business
By Simran Sabherwal
There’s a lot happening at the seven-storeyed building that houses the offices of the Sri Adhikari Brothers Group (SABGroup), in the suburbs of Andheri. Helmed by brothers Gautam and Markand Adhikari, the company now sports a new identity – SABGroup - and is positioning itself as a media conglomerate with a presence across content, broadcast, digital, film, studios and publications. SABGroup recently restructured and demerged its business, listing two new companies - TV Vision Limited and SAB Events & Governance Now Media Limited — on the bourses, in addition to its existing entity Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Limited (SABTNL). On the company’s stated agenda is growing to a 10-channel network, up from the current five, scaling up on the film front as well as greater focus on the digital space.
DEMERGER, LISTING AND REBRANDING
Started in 1985, SABGroup’s journey from a production house to a broadcaster began in 2000, with the launch of the comedy channel, SAB TV. Brand SAB TV and part of its content library was sold to Sony Entertainment Television (now Sony Pictures Networks India) in 2005 for $13 million (approximately Rs 60 crore). Post this, SABGroup has steadily been building its portfolio. Looking back at the last five years, Markand Adhikari, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, SABGroup, says, “In the last five years, we have consolidated our position. We launched five channels, and are happy that all of them are profitable and doing very well. Last year (FY16), our topline was Rs 250 crore (television accounted for Rs 140 crore and Sri Adhikari Brothers Rs 110 crore). With the demerger and three verticals now separated, we expect an impressive growth this year.”
Talking about the demerger and listing process, Adhikari explains that earlier, the entire business was consolidated in Sri Adhikari Brothers or in the 100% subsidiaries, i.e., TV Vision Limited and SAB Events & Governance Now, which were assets of Sri Adhikari Brothers. Post the demerger, the company listed two new companies - TV Vision Limited and SAB Events & Governance Now Media Ltd — on the stock exchanges on September 15, 2016. Says Adhikari, “We now have three listed companies - Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd., TV Vision Limited and SAB Events & Governance Now Media Limited. With this move, each business vertical is now clearly defined. This listing will unlock value for our shareholders and they will get multifold returns.” Post the listing, SABGroup is a Rs 2,000 crore company, and has sharpened its focus by clearly demarcating what each vertical handles.
SABTNL now holds all content and production including IPs, digital, movie production & distribution, studios and Katalyst Creates - the creative services arm of SABTNL. The five existing TV channels - Mastiii (Hindi music), Dabangg (Bhojpuri), Maiboli (Marathi), Dhamaal Gujarat (Gujarati) and Dillagi (Hindi entertainment channel for towns with less than 1 lakh population) - are now housed under TV Vision Ltd, and all new channels launched will also be under it. Meanwhile, SAB Events & Governance Now Media Ltd has under it the publication division, including the fortnightly magazine Governance Now, which focuses on governance issues and policy, and the events division.
The group has also undertaken a rebranding exercise and carved a new corporate identity which encapsulates all three identities as one. Explaining the rationale behind the rebranding, Manav Dhanda, the company’s Group CEO, says, “In order to establish the new and the old entities in the market and synergize our look with that of the parent company, we decided to redesign the logo for the group along with each of its channels and related business verticals. Given our vision for rapid expansion, we would want to create one reference point and a spoken identity for all the three entities together. That’s how SABGroup has come into the picture and will act as the umbrella brand for all three entities.” The rebranding and the new logos also seek to reflect SABGroup’s positioning as a vibrant, contemporary, energetic and youthful brand.
REGIONAL FOCUS PAYS DIVIDENDS
Looking at the company’s TV channels, Mastiii, the music and youth channel launched in September 2010, has done extremely well for the network, particularly on the ratings front. Operating in a highly competitive and cluttered space, what sets Mastiii apart is the understanding of the consumer and the right mix of content, which has come to be appreciated, says Adhikari. Asked about the intense competition, with Channel V & MTV Beats entering the arena in the recent past, Adhikari says that the loyalty Mastiii enjoys won’t make it easy for others to dislodge it from the viewer’s top choice position.
SABGroup was among the early movers in the regional space with channels specifically focused at certain geographies. It launched Dabangg to cater to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, with the channel adopting a regional focused ‘MultipliCity’ programming strategy. Talking about the gains, Adhikari says, “There was a vacuum in the regional space which we fulfilled at the right time. Bringing local flavour into the content has paid dividends.” The other regional market that SABGroup focuses on is Maharashtra, with its Marathi channel Maiboli. What’s heartening for the genre, Adhikari says, is that with the consolidation of viewership in the Marathi genre, there has been an increase in the number of viewers of Marathi channels. SABGroup also operates in the relatively smaller market of Gujarat through its youth channel, Dhamaal Gujarat, and has a tie-up with Radio City wherein the radio shows are replicated on the television screen. Looking for opportunities, SABGroup launched Dillagi- specially targeted at LC1 (areas with a population of 1 lakh and below) markets. “We thought of Dillagi before BARC came in. This channel is especially for LC1 and rural markets, and we will not take this to the urban markets. We knew that when BARC starts capturing data from this region, this market will become important. You cannot call LC1 and rural markets regional, it’s a territory in itself,” observes Adhikari.
SABGroup continues to bet big on the regional space, but according to Adhikari, the concept of ‘regional’ and ‘national’ will cease to exist once the digitization process is fully completed. “Post digitization, there will be no such thing as a regional or national channel - there will only be a platform. As distribution is area-focused, you call it regional and even on the DTH platform, the demarcation for regional is language. With time, the geographical demarcation will go away,” he elaborates. “Opportunities are present in the regional space and our investments will therefore keep increasing. What will happen at the national level is that the entry level will keep getting higher.”
THE FULL-FLEDGED ‘HAPPII’ UMBRELLA
It may well be said that comedy and humour are synonymous with SABGroup, courtesy SAB TV, which was India’s first GEC focused on comedy. SABGroup now aims to draw on this legacy and become India’s biggest multi-platform comedy brand. In line with this, the company will be launching Happii, a full-fledged Hindi GEC in the comedy space, by the end of 2016, thereby marking SABGroup’s re-entry into the national GEC play. Looking at the Hindi GEC space, many channels have bitten the dust here and Happii will be the nth player in the space. However, Adhikari says that experience will hold them in good stead and the strategy will be to leverage this experience. At launch, the channel will be free-to-air (FTA) and could turn pay, depending on the progress of digitization.
The Happii brand will be also extended across multiple platforms through its digital initiative, Happii-Fi, and will be take the on-ground and activations route with Happii-G. In addition, Happii-Me will look at the audio-only mobile entertainment space, with special content being created for mobile and targeted at the media dark markets. Elaborating on the digital initiatives, Adhikari says that Happii-Fi will be a platform agnostic original content creator and aggregator, with content being produced exclusively for the digital medium. SABGroup will be working with other content creators too, and the content will be distributed across all platforms through strategic tie-ups with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), over-the-top (OTT) players and telecom operators.
Interesting, SABGroup has decided to take a totally different route as far as its content strategy for Digital is concerned. While all the other GEC broadcasters have launched their own OTT platforms, with the bulk of their programming being catch-up TV and some original programming, Happii-Fi will focus only on original content. There are no immediate plans to launch an OTT platform and the content strategy for Happii and Happii-Fi will be different, with short-format content being available online. Despite a huge archival library, there are no plans to make this content and the content played on Happii available on the digital platform. With mass being the mantra and the focus on reaching the majority of the Indian audience, it is not surprising that most of the content will be in Hindi. Unlike the current original digital content which is aimed at the metro audience, SABGroup’s endeavour is to target Tier II and Tier III markets. With the anticipated fall in 4G rates and rise in video consumption, the company could be a huge benefactor. However, monetization still remains a challenge on the digital front, Adhikari says, “People still haven’t worked out the revenue model for the digital platform and this will take time. It will take five more years for our business plans for revenue and until then, the situation is quite fluid.”
FILMI CHAKKAR: TO TREAD WITH CAUTION
SABGroup forayed into the film business by distributing ‘Pyar ka Punchnama -2’ worldwide. The movie struck box office gold with good response and was an extremely successful initiative for the company. Sri Adhikari Brothers also co-produced 'Great Grand Masti' with Anand Pandit, ALT Entertainment and Maruti International. On the experience, Adhikari says, “Great Grand Masti didn’t do that well, but as a company, we earned profit by selling it. Our experience so far has been positive in films. We will do corporate tie-ups as films are also about risk-sharing. We have four more projects scheduled for 2017, but we are very cautious about the movie business. We won’t go into a mad rush because we value our shareholders’ money and will take very calculated steps in the film business.” As part of this strategy, SABGroup is looking at an economically sound business model and will produce small to mid-budget films with content being “king”. To expand the film business, the company is constructing two state-of-the-art studios - one at Charkop and the other near the Sahar International airport - which will generate additional revenue.
As one of the early production houses, programming for the national broadcaster Doordarshan meant that the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of content created by it has remained with the group. Adhikari says that he understands the “value” of IPR as today the group has about 5,000 hours of content in its library. Leveraging its IPR, SABGroup is syndicating its content, formats and remake rights globally, and is also venturing into joint productions.
PUBLICATION VERTICAL FOCUSES ON GOVERNANCE
SABGroup has big plans for its publication and events vertical. With governance being the buzzword, its fortnightly magazine Governance Now deals with policy and governance issues across all social, political and economic sectors. Plans are afoot to take Governance Now to the digital platform next year. As for the events segment, the aim is to organize about four events, in metros and Tier II and Tier III cities, every month, with focus on governance and policies.
WAY AHEAD: EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION
In the immediate future, SABGroup will launch two new television channels. First up is Se7en (read as Seven), a channel focused on the seven North-eastern States, slated for launch around Diwali. Se7en will showcase English and international music along with promoting local content and independent music from the region. This will be followed by Happii. In 2017, SABGroup will launch two to three channels, again targeted at the regional space, making it a 10-channel network. The company is looking to invest about Rs 500 crore across all verticals, and this will be funded primarily through internal accruals, debt and equity. As SABGroup focuses on consolidation and expansion, the question one asks is, ‘Is there still an area that the group could explore in future?’ On a thoughtful note, Adhikari says, “The sports genre has been exploited and I don’t see any scope here for the next 5-10 years. The one thing that’s left is radio, which is untapped. We could think about it in the future, but right now there are no such plans.”
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