Future of broadcasting: Rise of free-to-air channels is aiding growth of TV

Even as Pay TV declines, the rise of free-to-air channels is aiding growth of television in large parts of the country

Tulsidham Ke Laddu Gopal is a feel-good mythological drama. Tulsi, a devotee of Laddu Gopal (Krishna’s childhood avatar) can sense his presence even while he is invisible to others. The fun and miracles this leads to is what this daily on Shemaroo TV is all about.

It also provides an insight into the future of television -- which is about free, family- oriented, mass, and ad-supported programming.

“The free-to-air world is going through the roof. It is the biggest disruption in the way video is being consumed,” says Deepak Dhar, founder and group CEO for Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India, producers of Masterchef, Bigg Boss, and Aarya among other shows.

In the video business, an FTA is defined as a service with no recurring monthly payment. Of the 920 channels in India last year, 557 were free going by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data.

In this world, Shemaroo along with Dangal, Goldmines, and Manoranjan TV – not Disney Star, Sony, Zee, and Viacom18 – are the big four. Manish Singhal’s Enter10 Television, which closed on March 2024 with revenues of Rs 600 crore is the biggest of the lot with Dangal TV.

It is not just the most viewed channel across the Hindi heartland but across India. Manish Shah’s Goldmines Telefilms did revenues of Rs 517 crore in March 2023. Goldmines TV has been the most watched movie channel in the Hindi belt for some years now. “Ninety per cent of the TV homes in India are single TV ones: TV watching is a family activity,” says Shah.

Sahib Chopra, president, Manoranjan TV talks about its growth from one channel in 2007 to six in Hindi, Bhojpuri and Bangla now.

“FTA in urban has also increased. Many homes now take one OTT (over-the-top streaming service) plus FTA instead of cable,” says Divya Radhakrishnan, managing director, Helios, a media services firm.

Over 990 million Indians watch television. About 35 per cent of them watch only FTAs. That is up from 20 per cent in 2021. There are no reliable figures on what ad spends on FTA were a few years back but current estimates put them at Rs 3,000 crore. That is just over 10 per cent of the total television ad pie of Rs 29,700 crore. 

“The advertising gains from FTA as a segment have been large,” says Ashish Sehgal, Head, integrated advertisement revenue, Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

What is the free-to-air market?

Hiren Gada, CEO, of the Rs 557 crore (revenue FY 2023) Shemaroo Entertainment quotes something Manish Chokhani, director, Enam Holdings had said, to elucidate FTA. “From a consumption perspective, India is three countries. The top 3 per cent have the per capita GDP (gross domestic product) of Australia. In a country of India’s size, even 3 per cent is large (42 million). We map this market as cord cutters,” says Gada.

The second market is 25-30 per cent of the population with the per capita GDP of say Philippines. In entertainment terms this market is about value-conscious, pay TV viewers who are slowly shifting to digital. They may take a Netflix subscription for a month, watch everything they want, and then discontinue it.

The last and third market is 60-65 per cent of the population with the per capita GDP of sub-Saharan Africa. Parts of this population are media dark with burner phones at most. Other parts of it are huge consumers of the basic tier on cable or DTH (direct-to-home) which offer free channels or (increasingly) opt for DD Freedish connection. A kit for the state-owned DTH service costs Rs 1,000-1,200. After that there is no cost: all the 189 channels on it are free.

Note that all these three markets are huge consumers of YouTube, the largest (and largely free) streaming app. In January this year YouTube reached over 456 million viewers in India, according to Comscore data.

“The top four broadcast networks are targeting only the tier one and two, large spending audience. Swiggy and Zomato will target this segment not the FTA one or the sub-Saharan Africa population. We saw this as an opportunity and so did others. This is not the Dove or Lux consumer but the Lifebuoy one,” says Gada.

Among Dangal TV’s (and probably the others) largest advertisers are Hindustan Unilever, Dabur, Enami. Gada reckons that what you lose in value by catering to this market, you gain in volumes.

“Typically the rating of FTA channels such as Dangal TV or Shemaroo TV is four times what the same channel would get in cable and satellite homes,” says Vikram Sakhuja, group CEO, Madison Media. This higher viewership is a result of less choice and therefore less fragmentation thinks Sakhuja. This viewership includes the young, an audience lost to advertisers otherwise. “Many children in their teens are watching FTAs because they do not have their device,” says Radhakrishnan.

Where can you watch an FTA?

At about 58 million homes or 278 million people, DD Freedish is the biggest distribution platform reaching this consumer.

“FTA channel presence on DD Freedish is mandatory; otherwise the advertiser doesn’t take you seriously,” says Chopra. To this add smart TVs which are driving up the consumption of free channels that come embedded with them. For instance, Samsung TV offers 118 channels such as The Movie Club, Dangal TV, or SouthStation on its home page under Samsung TV Plus. It monetises them through its own ad-sales team.

“News (channels), movies and music get lots of views and there is the constant clamour for more,” said Prabhvir Sahmey, senior director, Samsung Ads in a chat with this paper earlier this year. Plus, many of these channels monetise their presence on YouTube too. Note that while the channels are free, there is a data cost for an internet connection to watch them unlike on DD Freedish.

While they have over a dozen channels on DD Freedish, the big four seem to have abandoned this market. What is the reason?

“To boost the growth of pay-TV, the industry collectively took a strategic decision to pull general entertainment channels off DD Freedish. Larger broadcasters follow a content windowing strategy. Fresh episodes are aired on pay channels first and telecasted on FTAs after at least a year, to capture a higher share of the advertisement spends,” says Sehgal.

The buzz is that fights with large DTH players protesting the availability of the same channels that they distribute for a payment, on the free ecosystem, led to the withdrawal. The gold at the bottom of the pyramid is not glittery enough, yet.