star India is aggressively building a wide portfolio of English entertainment channels. Its aim: to capture specific needs of different viewers.
Backed by a rise in audience share, Star is eyeing a revenue growth of 30 per cent from its English channels.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Pinto, Star India senior VP, GM English Channels Saurabh Yagnik talks about the strategy the network has adopted in growing the consumption for English entertainment channels.
Excerpts: |
|
After Star India started overseeing the operations of the English channels, what has been the difference? |
|
Could you elaborate on the growth of these channels, particularly with reference to this year? |
|
Even in revenues? |
|
What are the challenges before English channels at this point of time?
We have done local shows on Star World like 'Koffee With Karan' to drive viewership. We are also doing localised promotions around shows. For Masterchef Australia, we brought a jury member down here. Among other things a live chat happened which was well received by the audience. We put legs to our promotional strategy to ensure that people find content that is relevant and relatable. Then you intersperse it with aggregator shows like Koffee With Karan. This is how you break barriers for English consumption. |
|
|
|
Do content costs present a challenge to the business model? |
|
With more players coming in, how is Star Movies fine-tuning its strategy to hold on to its position?
Also, there are a huge amount of online viewers. We will use this to market and talk about our properties. |
|
Is viewer loyalty growing for this genre or is it still very much title driven? |
|
Is HD the future for this genre? Do all English movie channels need to move towards it? |
|
By when do you expect to breakeven on the HD feeds? |
|
Tam data shows that Star World has increased its share despite new entrants. What have been the reasons for this? |
|
Which are the genres that are working the best for you? Sitcoms and crime dramas work very well as does local programming. 'Masterchef Australia' is also performing well. The range of shows that do well is broad based. |
|
What role does localisation play for Star World? |
|
Is non primetime becoming important? Yes! We see viewership here as well. The scheduling is based on viewership patterns so that we get unduplicated audiences across time bands for various shows. We slot shows based on viewer profile. We run omnibuses of our weekly offerings on the weekend. So people can do a catch up. This allows more viewers to watch us outside primetime as well. |
|
Could you talk about the increase in marketing innovations?
We are doing a high decibel campaign around 'Terra Nova' which is a sci-fi show. The Torrentz property on weekends is to bring shows as close to the US airing date to India. This is how we build Star World as the destination for the best American shows fresh from the US. |
|
Are you expanding distribution beyond DTH for FX and Fox Crime? Digital is the right place. This is where a large part of consumption of English GECs is going to happen. The kind of audience that we target is affluent and will move towards DTH as the viewing experience there is better. That is where people consume more. We believe that digital is the right way to go. We don't have analogue plans for them. |
|
Is the English GEC big enough to have channels according to TG and audience profile? We have had a different strategy based on our own insights. Star World has a healthy portfolio. Fox Crime is not based on a demographic cut or of the TG; it is based on the fascination that people have for a particular genre. With FX, we looked at catering to the evolved sensibilities of the more discerning viewer. Our strategy is based on viewer behaviour and mindset. |
|
As more entrants come in, how much of a challenge is fragmentation? There is enough penetration but lesser category share. We are the second largest English speaking population in the world. But the share of English GECs is nothing to talk about in relation to that. With more affluence, education and people becoming more global in their mindset, the consumption of English content will only grow. Also disposable incomes are growing and the propensity to consume branded products is the highest in this category. |
switch
switch
switch