After establishing its digital platform 2525 with a slew of activities in 2004, Sony India's 2005 plan was to take it to the next level to turn it into a substantial revenue generating model. To drive the strategies, it needed an experienced hand in this space to head the division. The search ended in Kaushal Modi, who was then a key player in arch rival Star India's digital strategies. Thus, in February 2005, Modi switched to Sony India in the capacity of head, licensing and telephony.
Going into the second half 2006, Sony's game plan now mainly revolves around the game of cricket and Modi is banking on the bonanza to contribute significantly to the growth of his digital activities. "With cricket action coming up, Sony has got lots of initiatives lined up in this space. The action will start ticking from October 2006 onwards. We are still working on our plans," he says.
On the licensing front, Modi is exploring new markets and under his leadership, Sony has even entered the arena of format sales. "Sony used to sell its shows in the international markets and was never into selling formats. This year, for the first time, we have tried exploring this space with soaps 'Kaisa Yeh Pyaar Hai' and 'Yeh Meri Life Hai' and the experiment has generated an encouraging response," says Modi. And he is betting big on new content platforms such as Video on Demand (VoD) and IPTV to drive the growth in this sphere.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Bijoy A K, Modi explains the market scenario, the strategies and the game plan for the year.
Excerpts:
This year's MipTV witnessed the trend of TV producers investing in buying formats as against just broadcasters doing so. Would it make a negative impact on the syndication strategies of broadcasters? Coming to the second part of your question, this trend doesn't make a difference to our business strategies. We are content aggregators and not content creators. The format owners are never in a position to squeeze money out of their clients. It is up to the broadcaster (buyer) to pick up a format or not. |
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Sony has taken its two shows - Kaisa Yeh Pyaar Hai and Yeh Meri Life Hai, which are not game shows - to MipTV in Cannes this year for the purpose of syndication and formatting. How was the experience? Have you struck deals with international companies? |
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Please comment on the demand for our homegrown properties abroad? Do you keep the international market also in mind, while developing original formats? For example, if you have 5000 Indians living in a certain area in Japan and you want to target them with your content, you can do that with the help of these new technologies. Thus, you have a viable business model in hand. This has opened up new markets across the globe. Speaking about the potential of Indian properties in the international markets, there is a significant Indian diaspora - though not critical enough to drive the business -- supporting the trade. Genre-wise, I would say there is a stress on movies. South East Asia has always been the strong traditional market for Indian content. But now, with the advent of new content platforms, Europe and Africa have also started showing interest in our content. European channels such as RTL2 (Germany) have been showing a lot of interest in Indian content. As I mentioned earlier, there is a demand for movies. But, at the same time, some of these European channels now want to try shorter series as well. Hence, developing homegrown properties, which can be saleable in the international markets also, sounds a lucrative idea. But, our main focus continues to be India and the strategy has always been to leverage on the original Indian content. For us, the Indian viewer always comes first while conceptualising ideas. |
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What will be the size of the content syndication market with regard to Indian television? Please speak on the market dynamics including growth potential and competition. Competition is there in all forms, whether it is producers or broadcasters. Speaking about Sony's content syndication plan, I would say we haven't yet exploited the segment to the full extent. We have just started. Healthy competition definitely helps. With competition, you have new markets opening up across the globe. Players keep moving, looking for greener pastures. |
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How much does the content syndication business contributes to Sony India's kitty? Speaking about the future potential, content syndication & licensing will contribute well to drive exponential growth. |
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Star India recently revamped its short code 7827 and looks very aggressive on its interactive and digital plans. What can we expect from Sony this year in this space? Speaking about our digital presence, Sony already has a Wap site. But we haven't been promoting it much since the Wap technology is still in its nascent stage of growth in India. Hence, we haven't been banking on the Wap site much to drive user downloads. A good percentage of our content download happens through the telecom operator sites. We are also weighing options to launch a mobile voice platform. |
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Please elaborate on your digital and wireless strategy |
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Convergence of television and portals appears to be the latest mantra for entertainment. Please elaborate on Sony's plans and the progress in this segment. |
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How do you plan to leverage Set India's programming portfolio with the mobile initiatives? Are there plans to make mobisodes out of your popular soaps? |
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Globally, most of the mobile companies are getting out of the content sector to focus on their main areas of strength. In India also, should mobile operators have to move out of the content space? Please offer your take on this. |
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Are you looking to partner international companies in the digital space? What is your take on the global scenario? |
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What are the issues that will foster an even faster mobile market growth in India? What is critical is creating best practices and formula for the industry. Industry practices should be standardised so that, it will encourage the players to roll out a variety of services. There should be flexibility in pricing. There is huge potential in areas such as voice offerings and subscription services. By working together as a team, we can capitalise on the huge growth potential the space offers. |
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Will web streaming as a concept catch up in India? Web streaming is yet to catch up in the country because of the bandwidth issues. But, with falling broadband prices, it has got a huge potential to deliver, especially in the area of interactivity. If the government's bandwidth targets for the fiscal are met, the market would undergo a tremendous change. |