Viacom18 sharpens focus on regional GECs
After establishing presence in five Indian language markets, Viacom18 has now entered the biggest regional entertainment market — Tamil. Using the Colors brand once again, the network hopes to break into the highly populated ~16 billion adsales market. Currently, the Tamil general entertainment channel (GEC) market has more than 14 players, catering to the sixth most populous state in the country (according to the 2011 census).
It may be the youngest entertainment network in the country, but that has not stopped Viacom18 from reaching across markets to capture a larger share of the audience pie. After establishing presence in five Indian language markets, the TV18 and Viacom joint venture which completed 10 years in 2017, has now entered the biggest regional entertainment market—Tamil.
Using the Colors brand once again, the network hopes to break into the highly populated ~16 billion ad-sales market. Currently, the Tamil general entertainment channel (GEC) market has more than 14 players, catering to the sixth most populous state in the country (according to the 2011 census). It is by far one of the most cluttered markets by going by the high number of players and a competitive space to be in.
Ravish Kumar, head regional entertainment, Viacom18 however has a different take on the market.
“While there are a large number of channels, almost 80 to 90 per cent of the market (by viewership) is currently dominated by three channels-Star Vijay, Sun TV and Zee Tamil. So in that sense, we see scope to break into the market by giving fresh, innovative and thought provoking content, which has been a trademark of the Colors brand,” he says. Colors Tamil launched on February 20 boasts of a channel partner in the form of Nippon Paints since day one. Over the past few years, entertainment networks have upped the ante on their regional presence, and three out of the four major broadcasters in the country have channels in multiple Indian languages. While Bengali and Marathi GECs are part of all the leading GEC broadcasters’ bouquet, players are going about tapping the south Indian language markets in a phased manner.
In case of Viacom18, Kannada has proven to be a successful market. The broadcaster launched its second GEC in the market a couple of years back, and has managed to expand its share in the region. Of the five (excluding Tamil) markets where Viacom18 has regional GEC presence in, it leads the viewership table in two, and is a competitive second or third in most other markets. Colors Gujarati and Colors Kannada command top positions in their respective markets, while Colors Bangla is at number 3, Colors Marathi is at number 2 and Colors Oriya is at number 5. Broadcasters have realised the power of regional markets since demand for local content has been on the rise. Additionally, with the rural markets being reported by BARC’s (Broadcast Audience Research Council) ratings TV agency, broadcasters want to cast as wide a net as possible in different languages, especially where Hindi GEC’s may not get traction. In fact most over-the-top platforms also focus on building strong regional libraries, particularly the south Indian languages.
Kumar adds that the focus on regional markets has meant that the eco-system is getting the financial attention that is required for growth.
“We hope that regional TV follows the path that regional cinema has taken over the past few years. With regional movies doing well commercially and critically, the investments into the (making of) films has gone up which is a great thing. What we hope to do, apart from growing our presence across the regional markets in the country, is to bring about a positive change in terms of the quality of content and production we bring to the audiences,” he says.
In case of TV, programming also poses a challenge. According to a BARC India report, South Special (2016), the south Indian states show slightly different viewership preferences than Hindi GEC markets. For example, the South has a earlier prime time than the Hindi market and has more viewership in the morning time band than Hindi GEC's. Similarly, the southern states show more affinity to serial (TV shows) and news content than Hindi speaking markets (HSM), while the consumption of movie-based content is less compared to HSM.
Having kept these nitti-gritties in mind, broadcasters have been able to push the envelope on content and marketing, and in turn push ad-sales. “There has been growth in ad-sales in regional markets and it's encouraging. However, there is a cap on how much we (broadcasters) can push the inventory rate. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Knowing there is a limit to the ad-revenue means we're more cost conscious,” Kumar says.
Going forward, Viacom18 hopes to keep expanding its regional entertainment portfolio, whether by getting into more languages, or by diversifying with the languages it is present in, through organic and in inorganic routes.
With its entry in the Tamil GEC market, the Viacom18 network is now present in six language markets