Switching on to SMS

With television channels resorting to SMS in a big way, the mobile marketing action is heating up

Ever since he was given the additional responsibility of spearheading Star India's new wireless business division, Radio City's chief operating officer Sumantra Datta is brimming with ideas "� on how to best use the mobile phone to drive viewer interactivity with the Star network channels.

Among his plans is an exclusive offer for Star Plus viewers who have multi-media service-(MMS) compatible phones. Soon they may be able to watch a two-minute abridged version of their favourite soap on their mobile. "The whole service will focus on convenience in the form of entertainment and information available on the move," he says.

Datta is also busy putting together an array of mobile games. Some may be based on Star's popular Indian soaps like "Kesar," "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki" and "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi," while others will be imported from Star's parent company. "The wireless division will primarily deal with things that can be done off the mobile phone through Short Messaging Service (SMS)," he says.

Though TV Today does not have a separate division to oversee its SMS initiatives, manager (marketing) Rajesh Sheshadri claims that Aaj Tak pioneered the concept of using SMS in the news genre. "We introduced polls and contests on SMS for increased viewer interactivity three years ago. We've now matured in terms of SMS usage," he says.

With sports, entertainment and adventure television channels using SMS in a big way, the action in mobile marketing in broadcasting is heating up. Take Sab TV, for instance. After flirting with opinion polls via SMS for a while, the channel has launched its ambitious Wild Card contest. This involves spotting the lucky number on the channel in the 8 pm to 10.30 pm time band and SMS-ing the answer.

In June, CNBC also unveiled its mobile marketing strategy. Viewers can now access stock market updates on their mobile phones. CNBC's vice president (marketing) B Saikumar is taken aback by the response: 60,000 SMS in the first week of the launch of the initiative.

"SMS will be the third frontier available to audiences for using CNBC," he says. Ten Sports, which launched its first SMS contest with the Morocco Cup two years ago, has also been using SMS regularly for cricket and wrestling. "We will expand our SMS activities shortly," says Peter Hutton, Ten Sports' Dubai-based executive.

Clearly, SMS is the way to go. "In the coming years, the SMS to TV link will grow by leaps and bounds," prophecies Raj Singh, director of mobile marketing company Active Media. Singh should know "� Active Media provides back-end support for the majority of TV media companies that use SMS for their channels.

Why are broadcasters switchin on to mobile phone users? "The biggest reason for using mobile phone interactivity is convenience. It is a very personal medium, though non-intrusive and instant," notes Kanta Advani, president, advertising sales, at Sab TV.

Traditionally, surveys and messages were used to increase viewer involvement with the channel. Today, the primary objective is to drive viewership and stickiness to a channel. Aaj Tak, for instance, uses the funnel strategy to drive viewers to a particular show.

Explains Sheshadri: "Suppose 50,000 people respond, you can drive them to see a programme in a fixed time band as at least those who've participated are likely to tune in."

Seshadri claims that Aaj Tak used the SMS route effectively to create awareness of the Headlines Today brand. The contest built around the English news channel fetched one million entries in a period of two and a half days.

However, driving eyeballs to a channel is just one part of the story. The bigger reason, as Star's Datta puts it, is "money. We are very clear. All the activities are for generating additional revenue." He claims that in two years time, the SMS-TV strategy will be a big revenue stream for the network.

Currently, Indian cellular phone service companies give TV channels between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of the revenue generated from a TV text message. "Abroad, the minimum share is 50 per cent," says Active Media's Singh who operates in the UK as well.

Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea earlier told Ice World that Star had tied up with global system for mobile (GSM) cellular service companies and agreed upon a 30 per cent revenue sharing arrangement.

"Even if a subscriber spends Rs 10 a month on SMS and we consider a conservative figure of 15 million viewers sending messages (out of the 40 million cable and satellite television viewers in the country), it translates into Rs 15 crore a year. This is additional revenue."

Mukerjea's idea has been endorsed by Europe's broadcasting industry. A recent Mckinsey study shows that in 2003, the 900 million messages sent in the European SMS-TV market generated an estimated € 400 million for broadcasters, mobile operators and technology providers.

With innovations in terms of new shows, chat rooms and shopping applications, this market could easily be worth €750 million by the end of 2005. Broadcasters could capture one-third to one-half of that amount, the study indicated.

The study shows that one way to boost ratings and advertising sales would be to marry TV broadcasting with SMS. The survey suggests that 42 per cent or more of mobile phone users, and up to 70 per cent of teenagers, in a number of Europe's largest TV broadcast markets are interested in some form of interactivity between TV and their mobile phones.

Further, the study indicates that adding SMS interactivity to certain shows improved their viewership. It adds that if more than 5 per cent of a show's viewers interact with it, its audience is considered extremely engaged.

Such audiences are likely to talk to their friends about it and spend money on show-related content or merchandise. Eventually, broadcasters can use their knowledge of SMS activity to accelerate their marketing efforts and to command higher prices for advertising slots.

In fact, the Mckinsey report indicates that about 58 per cent of advertisers said they would allocate a larger proportion of their ad budgets to channels with attractive ratings growth resulting from the use of SMS. It hints that an SMS-TV link could boost the total revenues of a niche pay-TV broadcaster by about 1.5 to 2.5 per cent.

However, ways of seeing SMS-TV activity among channel owners vary.

TV Today's Sheshadri and Sab TV's Advani look at revenues as a by-product of the process of improving viewership numbers. "Driving viewership is my core business," points out Sheshadri.

Adds Saikumar: "Unlike other broadcasters, for us it is a marketing exercise to offer value added services to our audience. In time, we will evaluate the revenue generation potential, though advertising and subscription revenue will continue to be our primary drivers."

But does the viewing public realise that it is paying to enter the contest and will it continue to fork out money on SMS? Says Ten Sports' Peter Hutton: "Yes, this is a concern. At the moment "premium" or expensive SMS is not something we've used. But if we ever go that route, I strongly believe that viewers need to know what they are paying for."

Consumers should also not be allowed to send multiple entries from the same number to the same competition to stop large bills mounting up, he adds.

Datta allays such fears: "For premium products and offers, the price will go up. We will educate consumers on how to use these services as well as about billing. It is important," he says.

Clearly, the game is about generating mass SMSs. Today, around 6-7 million SMS are generated every day by all the value-added services put together.

In six to 12 months time, Star TV hopes to bag 50 per cent of all value-added SMS generated outside of the peer-to-peer SMS, says Datta. The broadcasting industry is clearly shifting to a new battlefield.

Additional reporting by Richa Singh in Mumbai