‘The shakeout set off by IPL is good for GECs’

Rajesh Kamat, CEO of Colors, the first television channel that’ll be unveiled in July this year by the Viacom-Network18 JV, has an exigent task at hand.
Colors will be the 10th channel in the overtly cramped general entertainment space, which is dominated by seasoned players such as Star Plus and Zee TV and new entrants like NDTV Imagine and 9X.
Kamat spoke to DNA Money’s Arcopol Chaudhuri about the channel’s plans and its programming and differentiation strategies. Excerpts:

Why enter as the 10th player in a crowded general entertainment channel (GEC) space, when you could have been the first player in a niche genre?
From the market scenario, the advertising pie in the GEC space is worth Rs 2,000 crore. And this pie is growing and fragmenting at the same time. New players (9X, NDTV Imagine) are gaining. Both the holding entities of Colors — Viacom and Network18 — are already present in different genres of television for kids, music, movies, news channels, web and print. Therefore, the most logical one to complete our offerings is a general entertainment channel.

In terms of ad sales within the entire network, how do advertisers stand to benefit?
From the ad sales perspective, we haven’t unleashed our network power yet. As we unfurl our sales strategy,  you’ll see a fair amount of synergies develop. We’ll go on air with advertising from day one and we’ll have 3.5-4 hours of original programming and movies on weekends. We’ve got a fair amount of queries already.

Carriage costs are escalating for a GEC in an effort to ensure visibility in single television households. This is pressurising margins…
The television industry has got used to the fact that carriage cost is a part of the distributor’s margin. The costs incurred have become a part of a channel’s business model and its profit & loss statement, clubbed under the marketing budget. The cost of getting eyeballs is expensive.

In terms of target audience, are you going to be skewed towards the youth?
Our core target group is 15-34 years (both males and females). This TG will be for action format shows such as Fear Factor — Khatron Ke Khiladi hosted by Akshay Kumar. Mohe Rang De is a period drama set in the 1940s and it will appeal to the 25-plus age group.

We’ve done a content mix for the small towns, where viewership usually starts from 7:30 pm onwards. The 9-10 pm slot is the overlap period, which will have programmes for universal viewership. Overall, Colors will promote cohesive viewing. So, you watch the channel for a specific show and I watch it for another show, that’s how it all sums up.

But considering existing GEC leaders such as Star and Zee continue to grow and new players develop audience loyalties and attention for prime time, how will you divert them to Colors?
In the GEC space, it’s not going to be a situation where there will be one monopolistic player. The success of Ramayana or IPL is good news for new players like us! They’ve brought in disruption and shakeout in viewership. This means, if there is a good offering, consumers will watch it. Today, audiences don’t watch shows in a linear manner. Their 8 pm show need not be on the same channel where they watched their 7:30 pm show.

Colors launches in July and the GEC from Turner-Miditech JV would follow soon after. How many gross rating points (GRP) do you expect to garner by the end of this year?
See, it’s not a T20 game. We’re here for the long term. By the end of the year, our goal is to be a formidable player in the top three channels. The first 100 GRPs will be achieved by entering the viewer’s mindset. Then others in his family will start sampling. That’s when we hope to build loyalty and consolidate our position.

Is a shake-out on the cards in the GEC space? Do you think there’ll be a course correction?
I don’t think there’s a need for a course correction. The market is merely adjusting itself, similar to the pattern in the US. We’re moving into an era of programme loyalty, from channel loyalty. One hit programme can turn around a channel. We hope to start with a few hits and then proceed to a tough fight, a bloodbath, week-on-week. So, in the long run, networks will survive, rather than standalone channels.

c_arcopol@dnaindia.net