NGC claims 300% ad revenue growth

The mood at Fox International's National Geographic Channel (NGC) Network in India, is upbeat. Nikhil Mirchandani, its ad sales head, claims that the channel has been number one in the English infotainment genre (target audience: 15 +, SEC A &B) for the six consecutive weeks. That's not all. In the last twelve months the channel's revenues have grown by 300 per cent.

The channel's improved performance probably explains the management changes at the company. Effective January 2006, Zubin Jehanbux Gandevia the current managing director of National Geographic Channel Network (NGC) India will be responsible for entire South Asia "" handling the NGC and A1 Channel businesses across Hong Kong and Taiwan besides overseeing India and the Middle East.

"India is a tough market and the lessons learned here will come in handy. Besides cultural diversity, it'll be challenging to look after markets of a different size," said Gandevia just before leaving for Hong Kong earlier this week.

Back home, head of ad sales for the channel, Nikhil Mirchandani, will step into Gandevia's shoes.

India is a priority market for NGC and History Channel, says Mirchandani. Gradually, NGC has been increasing its Indian content on the channel.

"The strategy has been to include as much Indian content as possible but it has to be globally relevant. Because at the end of the day we're a global channel," points out Mirchandani.

Some of the major new programmes lined up for the channel includes 'Mission Udaan' which gives a unique insight into the Indian Air Force. Another programme to go on air soon is 'It Happens Only In India' which looks at the hard facts of India in its series on the 'Stuntmen of Bollywood', 'The Great Indian Witch Hunt' and 'Monsoon Railways'.

The channel has already tied up with Make My Trip.com, Tata Motors, HDFC Life Insurance and Lenovo to sponsor the series.