With industry pundits expecting the television content industry to explode from Rs 14 billion to Rs 30 billion over the next two years, UTV Software Communications is laying the foundation to ride on this boom.
Having slipped in the television content production business over the years, UTV's revival strategy includes holding IPR rights for some of the content that it creates, working out a genre-specific approach, and striking partnerships with other production houses.
The Ronnie Screwvala promoted company, which has set the pace for the Bollywood industry, is readying to develop formats and content that can travel across the globe.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Sibabrata Das & Anindita Sarkar, UTV Television COO Ajit Thakur explains how the company plans to scale up its content business.
Excerpts:
Why is it that UTV's television content production business slipped over the years? UTV did not take steps in this direction. We didn't have a genre-specific approach, but continued to do a number of things. Also, good talent was lacking in the industry. |
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Is UTV going to focus on specific genres as part of its revival strategy? |
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Which is why you are interested in creating a property like Gandhi? |
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How much will the fund requirement be for this project and are you planning to strike a deal with an international broadcaster ahead of production as a de-risk strategy? |
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Will you hold the IPR for the Indian market as well? |
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How will the basic revenue flow from the content supply to local broadcasters be taken care of? We see the reality genre having the potential to travel to overseas markets as well. Our aim is to produce six reality shows by the end of this fiscal. Our next look will be in fiction and we will take a genre-specific approach. In fact, every six months we will get into a new genre and consolidate in that space. |
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What are the genres that carry an opportunity for UTV and could be tapped? |
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UTV has got into co-production partnerships with different local production houses. Isn't this the beginning of a new trend, much like what has happened in the movie business? Going global, of course, is a key part of the scale up plan. We have another big project coming up which we feel we can take to the global arena. |
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Hasn't UTV recently started getting into TV content production in the southern languages? |
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In a unique deal, UTV paid a minimum guarantee to NDTV Imagine for Ramayan and syndicated it to the Sun TV network of channels. Will we see more such deals? |