 "MSM pins hopes on Sony Pal to win over women")
Multi Screen Media (MSM) has made another move to scale up its popularity among core general entertainment TV audience - women across cities of all sizes. The network that runs channels like Sony Entertainment Television (Sony), Max, SAB TV and Sony Pix, has added a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC), Sony Pal, to its bouquet. This will be its third GEC, after Sony in 1995 and Sab TV that it acquired in 2005.
N P Singh, CEO, MSM India, says, "With Sony, we are reaching out to men and women in SEC A, B and C segments in cities with a population of over 1 million (essentially the metros). SAB TV helps us reach people in non-metro markets. With Sony Pal, we are targeting women aged between 15 and 34 years from the SEC B, C, D and even E segments. With these three channels, we have pretty much every audience covered by the network."
Viewership numbers over the past couple of years reflect a heavier urban male skew than what was there earlier for Sony. Hence, the addition of Pal lets MSM continue with its current positioning of Sony, which has a strong following in the metros. SAB remains a comedy-led channel.
Sony Pal, which goes on air from September 1, follows recent MSM launches - a second Hindi movie channel, Max 2, and a high-definition variant of its English movie channel, Sony Pix HD. MSM now has a total channel count of 12 with presence in Hindi, English and regional entertainment, music and sports.
A bit different
Even though MSM is trying to target the GEC audience that has been addressed by other Hindi channels so far, the brief for Pal's programming has been decidedly different. Anooj Kapoor, senior executive vice-president and business head, Sony Pal and Sab TV, says, "The differentiator on Sony Pal is that we gave a mandate to our producers (that includes the likes of Balaji Telefilms) that there should be shows without villains. We did not want to do what has become the norm on GECs. We did not want to show how difficult a woman's life is or how miserable society can make her. We wanted to show her triumph within the limited resources she has. Research shows that even in the so-called small towns, women have similar aspirations to their city counterparts." The Zee Group, too, recently launched Zindagi, a Hindi GEC with programmes from Pakistan, with a similar intent of walking off the beaten track.
The channel has also signed up a brand ambassador in keeping with the theme - actor and co-owner of Indian Premier League franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, Juhi Chawla. She would be promoting the channel through appearances in activations and on TV.
"If you track Juhi's journey, she has done it all. She has acted in some of the biggest hits of her time and today balances the role of a wife, mother and businesswoman. She is the first person that we thought of," says Kapoor, underlinng the affinity with the brand. Chawla will be interacting with members of Inner Wheel Clubs that the channel will be creating as a promotional activity. The channel may feature the actor as the host of an interactive show later on.
The channel will launch with three hours of original fiction content (7.30 pm to 10.30 pm), Monday through Saturday, and Sundays will be dedicated to non-fiction content. This includes a talk-show with actor-producer Raveena Tandon and a game-show with only women as participants.
The channel does not have any advertisers or sponsors on board yet. MSM says that while advertisers have been positive, they would like to wait till the channel returns some viewership numbers. While Singh refuses to divulge the investment made in the channel, MSM has not scrimped on distribution (that incurs high carriage fees even after digitisation) as Sony Pal would be available across all major multi-system operators and direct-to-home platforms from the day of launch.
Sony needs a helping hand
For the past two years, Sony has been seeing a drop in ratings. From a consistent second in 2011, the channel has slipped to being fifth and at times, even sixth in ratings. As a result, the network has lost market share in the GEC space. Star India, which also has two GECs, has nearly 41 per cent market share, while Sony and SAB are finding it difficult to retain a combined share of 20-22 per cent.
Sony's experiments with differentiated content have not paid off so far, with its latest show, Yudh, failing to retain viewers. Launched amidst much fan-fare as the television acting debut of Amitabh Bachchan, it promised edgy content. However, the show launched with a viewership of 1.5 million and in its third week, it dwindled to 0.74 million.
Singh reveals that the network plans to get aggressive in Hindi entertainment and starting with Kaun Banega Crorepati, which starts its eighth season on August 17, the prime-time content on Sony will be revamped slowly with new fiction shows, launched every three weeks.
MSM has also shown aggression with sports properties with the acquisition of the National Basketball Association rights, FIFA World Cup rights and more recently, the Wave World Kabaddi rights and the Caribbean Premier League. The network already holds the rights to broadcast the Indian Premier League till 2017.
N P Singh, CEO, MSM India, says, "With Sony, we are reaching out to men and women in SEC A, B and C segments in cities with a population of over 1 million (essentially the metros). SAB TV helps us reach people in non-metro markets. With Sony Pal, we are targeting women aged between 15 and 34 years from the SEC B, C, D and even E segments. With these three channels, we have pretty much every audience covered by the network."
Viewership numbers over the past couple of years reflect a heavier urban male skew than what was there earlier for Sony. Hence, the addition of Pal lets MSM continue with its current positioning of Sony, which has a strong following in the metros. SAB remains a comedy-led channel.
Sony Pal, which goes on air from September 1, follows recent MSM launches - a second Hindi movie channel, Max 2, and a high-definition variant of its English movie channel, Sony Pix HD. MSM now has a total channel count of 12 with presence in Hindi, English and regional entertainment, music and sports.
A bit different
Even though MSM is trying to target the GEC audience that has been addressed by other Hindi channels so far, the brief for Pal's programming has been decidedly different. Anooj Kapoor, senior executive vice-president and business head, Sony Pal and Sab TV, says, "The differentiator on Sony Pal is that we gave a mandate to our producers (that includes the likes of Balaji Telefilms) that there should be shows without villains. We did not want to do what has become the norm on GECs. We did not want to show how difficult a woman's life is or how miserable society can make her. We wanted to show her triumph within the limited resources she has. Research shows that even in the so-called small towns, women have similar aspirations to their city counterparts." The Zee Group, too, recently launched Zindagi, a Hindi GEC with programmes from Pakistan, with a similar intent of walking off the beaten track.
The channel has also signed up a brand ambassador in keeping with the theme - actor and co-owner of Indian Premier League franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, Juhi Chawla. She would be promoting the channel through appearances in activations and on TV.
"If you track Juhi's journey, she has done it all. She has acted in some of the biggest hits of her time and today balances the role of a wife, mother and businesswoman. She is the first person that we thought of," says Kapoor, underlinng the affinity with the brand. Chawla will be interacting with members of Inner Wheel Clubs that the channel will be creating as a promotional activity. The channel may feature the actor as the host of an interactive show later on.
The channel will launch with three hours of original fiction content (7.30 pm to 10.30 pm), Monday through Saturday, and Sundays will be dedicated to non-fiction content. This includes a talk-show with actor-producer Raveena Tandon and a game-show with only women as participants.
The channel does not have any advertisers or sponsors on board yet. MSM says that while advertisers have been positive, they would like to wait till the channel returns some viewership numbers. While Singh refuses to divulge the investment made in the channel, MSM has not scrimped on distribution (that incurs high carriage fees even after digitisation) as Sony Pal would be available across all major multi-system operators and direct-to-home platforms from the day of launch.
Sony needs a helping hand
For the past two years, Sony has been seeing a drop in ratings. From a consistent second in 2011, the channel has slipped to being fifth and at times, even sixth in ratings. As a result, the network has lost market share in the GEC space. Star India, which also has two GECs, has nearly 41 per cent market share, while Sony and SAB are finding it difficult to retain a combined share of 20-22 per cent.
Sony's experiments with differentiated content have not paid off so far, with its latest show, Yudh, failing to retain viewers. Launched amidst much fan-fare as the television acting debut of Amitabh Bachchan, it promised edgy content. However, the show launched with a viewership of 1.5 million and in its third week, it dwindled to 0.74 million.
Singh reveals that the network plans to get aggressive in Hindi entertainment and starting with Kaun Banega Crorepati, which starts its eighth season on August 17, the prime-time content on Sony will be revamped slowly with new fiction shows, launched every three weeks.
MSM has also shown aggression with sports properties with the acquisition of the National Basketball Association rights, FIFA World Cup rights and more recently, the Wave World Kabaddi rights and the Caribbean Premier League. The network already holds the rights to broadcast the Indian Premier League till 2017.