On January 1, 2014, the third season began airing on the BBC in the United Kingdom and other markets. It was aired in India during the same week on AXN, much to the delight of Indian fans like me. It will be aired in the United States from January 19, much to the disappointment of American fans. It tells you how far we have come as a market for television programming - in terms of audience size, revenues and buzz. Not just Sherlock, there are dozens of other global shows - The Big Bang Theory, Orphan Black, Castle - that bring their latest seasons or new launches to India at the same time as the rest of the world. Even two years ago, this would not have been possible. But three things have changed the market for high-quality programming, so far only in English. Eventually the same factors will bring better and better quality programming to Hindi and other languages too.
The first is digitisation and the sweeping changes it is effecting to the structural chaos that characterised the broadcast industry till a few years ago. Thanks to direct-to-home television and a new law, more than 50 per cent of India's 150-million television homes are now digital. Going by the regulatory schedule, all of Indian television homes should be digital by the end of this year. This has phenomenal impact on programming quality, although in the long term. Here is why.
Going digital means the ability to slice and dice audiences in terms of price, demographics, location and tastes, among other variables. So far this was not possible - thus, the lowest common denominator ruled across genres. The idea was to grab maximum eyeballs and, therefore, advertising revenues. Digitisation does to the television market exactly what multiplexes did to films - allow for segmentation and the ability to cater to different people at the click of button. So the large numbers who want to watch, say, Mahadev on Life OK can do so - while the chappies who want to cheer some random English football teams can also do so, without the two groups stepping on each other's toes.
Add another factor. Digitisation forces transparency onto television distribution. The three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are 100 per cent digital and the next 38 towns have hit 75 per cent, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), India's broadcast regulator. This is forcing cable operators to declare their full roster of subscribers. This alone has increased pay revenues by 15 to 20 per cent in this financial year, according to broadcasters.
Put the ability to segment together with this increased ability to monetise and you'll know why niche programming is hot news. Sherlock is not a mass show; nor is The Big Bang Theory. There might be some shows that are meant for even smaller audiences - say one targeted at older people or on housekeeping or pets. The point is that targeting just a couple of million homes for a higher price and more specific programming becomes possible and profitable.
The second reason most international and Indian programmers are rushing to meet the demand for different types of programming in this market is the boom in online video consumption. More than 59 million Indians watched video online in September 2013, going by comScore data. And after email, etc, the maximum time is spent on entertainment, sports and news. Most broadcasters, therefore, are chary of missing this audience or losing it to pirated content. In spite of its early release, chances are that pirated copies of Sherlock will find their way into Indian cyberspace.
Lastly, the fact is that advertising is also finally delivering better realisation, at least for the big guys. Almost 70 per cent of total television audience is cornered by five large networks - Star, Sony, Zee, Network18 and Sun. Therefore, their ability to experiment with new shows, ideas or global programming is much better than that of stand-alone channels. FX, Star's sibling network, airs a lot of fresh global shows. So does AXN, which is part of Sony. Their sheer clout - with 15 to 30 channels each and a big flagship brand - makes it easier to bundle niche shows with mass ones. This gives niche shows the time to find their audience while the big ones subsidise them, for a bit.
Here's to the coming years - may they have many more good shows.