ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

The War Continues (DD, Star, Sony, Zee, Sahara)

By: Bhuptej Kaur Pooja Shrivastav Runita Mukherjee

Steven Spielberg could well adopt it as his next magnum opus. After all, the ingredients are all in place. First came the stars, albeit of the legendary variety. Then followed the wars between them. And now we are witnessing the return of the stars, along with their wars.

Industry Background

Experimental television transmission started in India in 1959 from a makeshift studio in the All India Radio building. Satellite TV telecast, terrestrial signals on the 500 watt transmitter could be caught within a 25-km radius. Designer wardrobes in the saas bahu serials would have been a waste had they hit the small screen prior to 1982 at Black & White screen. 1976 Doordarshan (DD) was separated from AIR. DD telecast its first commercial on January 1.

Viewer had his first taste of a mass appeal serial in 1984, with Hum Log. Today, DD reaches over 80 million households and earns about Rs 600 crore from advertising. Monopoly was shattered by the invasion of private satellite channels in the 90s. Indians first watched live satellite TV images during the 1991 Gulf war (CNNs live coverage of the war) May, the same year, Hong Kongs STAR (Satellite Television for the Asia Region) brought American soaps and live sports to India.

Subhash Chandra, tied up with STAR promoters, Li Ka-Shing and his son Richard Li, to launch Indias first private Hindi entertainment channel Zee in 1992. Today five big players in the TV entertainment segment (Star Plus, Sony, Zee, Sahara and SAB Tv) and the news category (Aaj Tak, NDTV, Zee and Star News) mop up most of the advertising revenue. In 2004, ad spends on television touched Rs 4,860 crore.

Environment Scanning

Political Environment Analysis

Electronic

media in India grew in absence of any regulation for 15 years. Four years ago, Government put restrictions on news channels uplinking from India & allowed to have only 26 per cent FDI. DTH guidelines devised, foreign companies cannot own more than 20 per cent equity.

Economical Environment Scanning:

TV networks, broadcast and cable TV business will also contribute to the growth of E&M sector in India. Digital distribution, piracy and rebounding global advertising market will be three main factors impacting industry's growth over next five years. Already largest producer of motion pictures, India poised to become sizable producer of television programs as well. Increased viewership made possible by 60,000 small scale cable system operators mushroomed across country, providing satellite channels to customers at rates as low as $5 a month. Proliferation of channels putting great pressure on Indian Television Programming Industry.

Social Environment Scanning:

Indian audiences clearly prefer locally produced program over foreign programs. Television programming continues to be dominated by the Indian film industry. Genres like Game shows, soap operas, talk shows and situation comedies gaining in popularity.

With competition hotting up item numbers and celeb appearances come to television. Once an idea does well, it becomes a trend. People want value for money, they would rather sit home and watch slickly made serials which equal Bollywood in terms of technology and glamour.

Technological Environment Scanning

DTH(Direct to home) made debut in 2004 Zee Tv launched Dish TV & DD Launched DD Direct Plus. Number of hours of television programming produced in India increased 500% from 1991 to 1996 & expected to grow at even faster rate. Peculiar development in television programming in India has been use of hybrid English-Hindi program formats, popularly called "Hinglish" formats.

Comparison of Performances:
On the basis of TRP (Television Rating Points) rating Revenues generated out of the Advertisements. Sale of Programs telecasted

On the basis of TRP

Channel
Star Plus

Average TVR
6

Avg. channel share

61.2

Sony Ent.

2.27

23.2

Zee TV

1.13

11.5

Sahara One

0.28

2.9

SAB TV

0.12

1.3

Source: Tam CS4+ HSM, 5 June - 19 June: 8 pm - 11 pm TVR/Chnl share

Revenues generated out of the Advertisements/Subscriptions

Sony-Discovery ended up with a subscription revenue of around Rs 285 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2004, up from Rs 225 crore a year ago. It sustained subscription growth, even after the ICC Cricket World Cup year &ended the fiscal with about Rs 285 crore. STAR India would finish the fiscal ending June 2004 with close to Rs 340 crore of subscription earnings. STAR had reduced its bouquet price for those cable operators who were willing to increase their declared subscriber base. Doordarshan's revenue has gone up by 25.4 per cent to Rs 665.27 crore in 2004-05 as against Rs 530.23 crore in the previous year. Sahara TVs Revenues For 2004-05 was 66.29 mn. Zee Telefilms Ltd. generated revenues worth 118.37 Crores in the last fiscal.

SWOT Analysis - DOORDARSHAN

STRENGHTS First channel ever broadcasted in India First channel to come up with soaps Massive viewer ship Rural reach Availability is easy as its free First choice of advertisers Given preference above others for any live broadcasts WEAKNESSES Has not been able to keep up with the pace of time Programming is mundane Ad-breaks during soaps & movies & matches is too long Poor marketing

DOORDARSHAN (contd.)
OPPORTUNITIES Can recapture the old position in the market People still believe more on the information relayed by Doordarshan more than any other channel Has government support THREATS It does not segment its viewers Has no consideration for viewers choice Lagging behind in technology

SWOT Analysis - STAR

STRENGTHS Has 11channels Very wide viewer ship Wide plethora of programs Viewer segmentation Top most in the private players

WEAKNESSES NDTV has left Star group & come up as a worthy opponent Every household has to pay for viewer ship Too many channels to pay for Is losing on its mass appeal due to too many soaps being shown Star plus is giving a lot of attention to female viewers

STAR (contd.)
OPPORTUNITIES Has gained popularity among Indian viewers living outside India Can enter kiddies zone Need to work more on comedies THREATS Need to work more on news channel as by losing NDTV, it has lost many viewers

SWOT Analysis - SONY

STRENGHTS Has10 channels CNBC has provided huge viewer ship Kids are hugely attracted by Disneys channels in Hindi & English Relay of cricket matches at MAX has provided good no. of sponsors WEAKNESSES Needs to work on soaps

Needs to work on matches

SONY (contd.)

OPPORTUNITIES B4U is not being broadcasted every where They need to improve on viewer ship Need to develop interest among masses Can go further into reality shows like Indian Idol Buying of SAB has provided a new platform to cater to humor oriented audience

THREATS Cricket season is majorly dominated by ESPN-Star Sports Set Max needs to diversify itself in other games as well

SWOT Analysis - ZEE

STRENGTHS Pay less per channel First listed media company in India Has more than 30 channels with world-wide reach Zee is the largest producer and aggregator of Hindi programming in the world, WEAKNESSES Despite mass reach, mass appeal has been lost over a period of time Has been losing market share to Star channels Prime time was restricted to two & half hours as compared to Stars 5-6 hours

ZEE (contd.)
OPPORTUNITIES Has still got a lot of loyal viewers Kids have been given good attention Can come up with chat shows like Aap ki Adalat again THREATS Has failed to deliver on advertising front Substantial amount of programming time is being utilized to air movies

SWOT Analysis -SAHARA

STRENGTHS Major Bollywood players have entered small screen through Sahara one It belongs to Sahara Group It got amazing local reach Its got 40 channels

WEAKNESSES Reception is not too good Major concentration is on News broadcasting Soaps are not able to catch the attention of viewers

SAHARA (contd.)
OPPORTUNITIES They can work on creating better market share among News channels Better marketing strategies should be employed

THREATS Wider network relays city news Its very localized channel National level performance has not been up to the mark TRP ratings have been going down.

STRATEGIES of DOORDARSHAN
Privatization of program content Opening up of air-time slots for private companies English preferring audience being tapped Changing content in terms of code of conduct for advertising

STRATEGIES of STAR
e-CRM processes adopted Multi-channel strategy Launching of Internet channel Coming up with KBC-II Many more reality shows

STRATEGIES of SONY
Never lose focus on the programming side of the business Main focus is on the strengths where yielding results is faster.

STRATEGIES of ZEE
Rejuvenation process has begin First private internet service launched Developed a new look with new programming Better marketing strategies Conducted a repackaging exercise

STRATEGIES of SAHARA
Has collaborated with Percept Star-led shows Concept of an umbrella brand Daily soaps & weekend chat shows

WHETHER SUCCESSFUL OR NOT?????

DOORDARSHAN STAR SONY ZEE SAHARA

LESSONS DRAWN