'Hindi entertainment hugely untapped'

IN CONVERSATION: Nikhil J Alva

Miditech, the television content company, is working on a new brand identity for its 50:50 broadcasting joint venture with Turner International announced recently. "The hunt for a name for the broadcasting company is on," says Nikhil J Alva, chief executive officer, Miditech. According to him, the Turner brand may or may not be used as a suffix or a prefix in channel identity. Alva spoke to Shuchi Bansal on the possibilities that the new broadcasting joint venture offers.

Is Turner International a good fit with Miditech?

To be honest, we had been talking to several international players. But Turner was one company that treated us as an equal. To understand the fit, look at its presence in India.

Worldwide, it is a $58 billion media conglomerate. It was one of the first foreign media groups that came into India with Cartoon Network. Today, it has children's channels (CN and Pogo), English film (HBO) and news (CNN) channels. It has a distribution JV with Zee as well.

At the other end, Miditech has expertise in high-TRP content that runs across genres "" children's programmes, reality shows, daily soaps and documentaries.

With your experience and expertise, why did you need a strategic partner?

Getting into broadcasting has been part of our plan for a while. But we could not have done it alone. The market is getting extremely competitive. You need to have deep pockets which we don't have. Besides, Turner International knows all about the broadcasting business. It has created many television brands.

What will the bouquet of channels look like?

We will focus on entertainment for sure. I can't disclose the details but the Hindi entertainment genre is hugely untapped. So many viewers are not watching the Hindi GECs. We will create our own audience though we know that this space is not easy to get into. We will share our plans in about two months.

Will advertising spends fund all these new channels?

Traditional advertising may not, as eventually the 30-second commercial may be edged out by advertiser funded programmes.

But subscriptions will drive channel revenues with digitisation in the form of DTH, CAS and IPTV "" hitting India all at the same time. In other countries, these technologies came 10 years before.

You have sold your stake to Turner in Miditech.

It's not a big deal as we gave only 4 per cent extra from our share. Turner International holds 29 per cent in Miditech after buying out ICICI Ventures' 25 per cent stake in the company. We own 100 per cent of the holding company Alva Brothers, which is also in the process of being rebranded.