Ashish Bagga of the India Today Group talks about the group making significant gains on ratings after its coverage of Indian Army’s surgical strike on Pakistan. Kartikeya Sharma of ProSportify & iTV Network talks about the second season of the Pro Wrestling League
BEING ‘SABSE TEZ’ MAKES AAJ TAK THE NO. 1 NEWS CHANNEL: ASHISH BAGGA
Coverage of the recent surgical strike on Pakistan by the Indian Army saw Aaj Tak, the Hindi news channel from the India Today Group, make significant gains on the ratings front. Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group tells us more.
ON AAJ TAK’S DISTINCTIVE PROPOSITION: Staying true to being ‘Sabse Tez’ has helped establish Aaj Tak as the nation’s most trusted news channel. Audiences tune into Aaj Tak for any event of national significance and the surge in viewership during the surgical strikes is testimony to this as the channel broke all records. As per the latest BARC data, Aaj Tak was the No.1 TV channel in terms of coverage and was ahead of top GEC channels including Star Plus, Colors, Sony and Zee TV (Source: BARC, TG:- 15+ NCCS AB, Mkt:- HSM, Period:- 29th Sept’16-07th Oct’16, Cum. Cov’000- the nine days following the surgical strike). Ground Reports, Real-Time war room, with 3D sand models of the LOC and the depth provided to the viewer reflected in the numbers.
ON AAJ TAK’S MARKET-SHARE: Aaj Tak is the No.1 news channel in the nation for the last 15 years across rating parameters with an average market-share of 17.2% (Source: BARC, NCCS All 15+ yrs, HSM (U+R), All days, 02:00 -26:00, Avg (Wk 01 -40’16), market-share basis 12 channels. On coverage, the channel has consistently maintained a 20% lead over the No.2 player
ON AD RATES FOR THE CHANNEL: Aaj Tak is the preferred platform amongst advertisers given that the dealings are on a public rate card and the premium is commensurate to the leadership status. The channel operates at a healthy premium over the other players in the space. This rises out of not just ratings, but a very big difference in perception and brand equity.
ON ADVERTISER INTEREST: The advertising has been on the upswing owing to the consistent performance of the channel. The increased demand from advertisers and the ROI that our existing advertisers get is reflected in the advertising growth on the channel. Aaj Tak is the consistent No. 1 news channel across All India, HSM, Urban, Rural and Prime Time along with coverage. Advertisers acknowledge the channel’s leadership and its effectiveness for reaching relevant audiences.
WE EXPECT MORE THAN RS 100 CR GROSS REVENUE FROM PWL SEASON 2: KARTIKEYA SHARMA
The Pro Wrestling League (PWL) Season 2 is all set to begin from December 15, 2016. Kartikeya Sharma, Founder & Promoter, ProSportify & iTV Network, talks to us about it. THE FIRST YEAR: The experience was better than we expected. The biggest challenge was the paucity of time, just around 40 days, to pull off an event of this scale and size. We managed to come through and that was gratifying. Every stakeholder benefited substantially from the first season – be it the advertisers, broadcaster, leagues, wrestlers, Wrestling Federation of India. Sony Max and Sony Six registered huge viewership growth. PWL Season 1 was seen by over three crore people on a daily basis (Source: BARC: TG CS4+ Market: All India Time Band: 1900 - 2100)
KEY LEARNING: A lot of the innovations that we did - such as toss, male and female wrestlers competing in the same team –worked. This is one of the major reasons for the surge in viewership, with female viewership at 42%. We saw strong viewership not just in the Hindi heartland but also across metros.
PWL SEASON 2: It’s going to be much bigger and more action-packed. We are going from 36 hours to over 100 hours this year, three hours of action every day spanning 30 days. We will have 14 bouts a day as against seven in Season1. A big learning was that the bulk of the viewership came during the big TV hours and we want to build on that. It will be twice as big in terms of reach, thrice as big in terms of inventory and exposure. We are here for the long run and truly believe that the PWL league can become a tangential alternative to commercial sport slike cricket in this country.
FUTURE PLANS: We are looking to create more IPR properties in the wrestling domain and thus new revenue opportunities. We are looking at more than Rs 100 crore in gross revenue with about 70% in gross operating profits in Season 2 of PWL.
