 "Salil Kapoor")
People no longer schedule their days around the telecast of their favourite programme. Instead, a viewer watches content when she wants to, Salil Kapoor tells Sangeeta Tanwar
What are the key learnings that you bring from your earlier stints in DTH, electronics and software services industry to HOOQ?
The three pillars that defined the good old TV have changed. First, the hardware - the box has changed into small sleek panels. Now you carry your TV (smartphone, tablet etc.) in your hand. Second, the players and the ecosystem have changed. Increasingly, start-ups are going to play as important a role as broadcasters in the content space. Third, the standard basic consumption push versus pull theory for TV has turned upside down. Now, people no longer schedule their days around the telecast of their favourite programme. Instead, a viewer watches content as and when she wants.
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TV is evolving and getting into a new shape. Maybe tomorrow TV no longer will be in a tab but accessible through virtual reality in my glasses. The key lesson here is that technology is changing fast. Therefore, technology is something all marketers and business leaders have to be connected to. Because it can disrupt, increase and make your business vanish in no time.
The second learning is that use of data, which was earlier in a patchy form, is now becoming a real science. Technology not only helps connect to servers (networks), but it can also help you identify early signs of the emerging technologies or habits. TV companies tracking how consumers are watching TV would know the shift is happening from the standard to the online mode, from long format to short format.
How has the growth of video-on-demand (VOD) services changed TV consumption and advertising?
It will take time for TV consumption to shift online. The reason is that VOD is a new offering and people are getting used to it. I will borrow an American phrase and say that "the chord cutting is not happening as of now". Even as VOD adoption is increasing rapidly it's complementing and not changing consumers' TV viewing habits.
What are the key strategies for encouraging adoption of VOD services?
With telecom operators rolling out 4G services, VOD services will get a fillip. At present, with weak mobile connectivity and Wi-Fi signals consumers do have issues with video streaming quality. And that's why we as a brand have adopted the strategy of offering our customers the option of downloading their content at home or office, that is a place that gives you a Wi-Fi backup and good download speeds. By doing so consumers can access content offline as well and the move helps players take care of quality issues related to video content.
Another strategy to woo consumers is to differentiate the product offering and have some hooks to get customers to your platform. That differentiation comes in various ways. A player can specialise only in four-to-five minute short form video. Or one could look to specialise in the originals. Also, TV consumption and VOD entertainment in India is three-tiered: English (Hollywood), Hindi (Bollywood) and regional. As a player you can get deeper in all this. The strategy that a player wants to adopt depends on how much the player wants to invest. It is also guided by the kind of positioning you want to take and what kind of audience you want to attract. For example, HOOQ has chosen that it will be known for best of Hollywood, Bollywood and regional content. So, we have a huge catalogue of content covering the three segments.
Has Netflix's entry changed Indian VOD business in any manner?
Netflix did kick off the VOD industry globally. In the US it managed to do saw because the arbitration, that is the cost difference between regular TV and pay TV, was huge. But in a market like India where the price difference between regular and pay TV isn't substantial it will need a different strategy.
In India, service prices for TV and pay TV are almost similar. Back home pay TV has one of the lowest average revenue per users. You are paying $7 for what you are watching. So you cannot differentiate here on price. But, you can differentiate on positioning, content and approach. India is a different market as we have multiple VOD service options coming up. One is A-VOD (advertising video on demand) free to watch content, the second is S-VOD (subscription-led content), and the third and emerging format is T-VOD (transaction-based services where you pay for one movie at a time etc.).
In an industry, there will always be a strong player who will give everything (content) for free and then try to make revenue through ad. Somebody will try to become an S-VOD player. Here people are ready to pay for good content which does not have any advertising. They just want to watch it and enjoy content in an unadulterated format. HOOQ is targeting this space.
With the right ecosystem coming up (faster networks and lower data prices) the VOD market in India is hotting up. We have advertising-based subscription, TV broadcasters coming up with their apps, DTH players offering live TV, and handset as well as telecom players experimenting with content in the VOD space. The market is still evolving but holds a lot of promise.
