Zee, Balaji, INX stir up regional channels mkt

After the saas-bahu serials, the idiot box will now witness a deluge of regional channels.

At least eight new channels are expected to hit the screens soon, including three by the Indrani Mukerjea-promoted INX group and two from Zee Network. Indrani Mukerjea is wife of ex-Star India supremo Peter Mukerjea.

The Star group had set the ball rolling with its decision to set up a joint venture with Balaji Telefilms to launch new regional language channels last month.

So why the new rush? "The southern belt provides abundant scope for business and therefore this market cannot be ignored. Given the nature of the market, addressing the viewers in a language apart from their own is a loss for broadcasters and content providers," said Balaji Telefilms CEO R Karthik. Both Star and Balaji will combine their resources to infuse Star Vijay with Balaji content and also launch channels in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and other regional languages. According to industry estimates, regional channels account for 40 per cent of the total viewership across genres. But in the southern belt, it is much higher. Regional channels account for 80 per cent viewership in Chennai, 70 per cent in Bangalore and 65 per cent in Hyderabad. On the other hand, the regional channel viewership falls to 35 per cent and 12-18 per cent in metros like Kolkata and Mumbai, respectively.

Ashish Kaul, senior vice-president (corporate brand development), Zee Network, said, "If all cable and satellite homes come under the conditional access system, the challenge for broadcasters will be to retain viewers in the same family. If a particular broadcaster doesn't provide a channel of the viewers' interest, they may choose to dismiss the network."

Zee's regional bouquet will soon have Malayalam and Tamil channels, apart from the existing channels "" Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Punjabi, Zee Gujarati, Zee Kannada and Zee Telugu. The satellite television market is led by Tamil followed by Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

With such a large viewership base, advertisers with an eye out for a complete package demand broadcasting companies to have an array of regional channels. It also helps them in addressing more focused audiences. Industry experts claim that having regional channels in their bouquet has helped retain advertisers within the network. Joy Chakraborty, network sales head, Zee Network, said, "Having regional channels in our bouquet has helped the Zee network retain advertisers."

For broadcasters, the growing advertising revenues is the key attraction. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam channels together have generated around Rs 600 crore in advertising revenues last year, according to industry estimates.

The total size of the TV advertising industry is expected to grow from the present Rs 6,600 crore to Rs 12,300 crore by 2011, implying a 13 per cent cumulative annual growth over five years, according to the latest report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

"The growth rate of regional channels is higher than that of overall TV industry and this is one of the reasons why advertisers are exploring regional channels," said Manish Porwal, managing director (India-west and south), Starcom.

Leading regional broadcaster Sun TV Network, which operates in all four markets of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada controls majority of the advertising pie. The network has 20 channels in all four languages.

Ad slots on regional channels are substantially lower than the tariff on Hindi general entertainment channels. For a 10-second slot, the rates are in the range of Rs 6,000-20,000, while the Hindi general entertainment channel is between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2.5-3 lakh. There was no official confirmation on the Sun TV Network's figures.

While Hindi general entertainment broadcasters like Star India, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television commission content producers, it is a different ball game down south. In the south, the production house could either be commissioned to produce the content or sponsored by the broadcaster.

In case of a sponsored model, the production house buys the half-hour slot to air the show. The half-hour slot price varies depending on the broadcaster's popularity and leadership position of the channel in a particular market. For instance, a half-hour telecast slot on Sun TV Network could cost around Rs 1.8 lakh prime time on a Tamil channel while on a Kannada channel, it could cost Rs 80,000.

A production company could earn per episode margin of Rs 1 lakh on a leading network in case of a sponsored model, while in a commissioned model the margin could be between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 per episode. Also, in case of a sponsored model, the production company also earns ad revenues during the serial's telecast.