Category: INDRANI SEN

By Indrani Sen

Ever since Shashi Sinha spoke about adopting CPT (Cost per thousand) as a measure of TV buying instead of CPRP (cost per rating point) at the Advertising Club’s annual Media Review, the old debate about CPT versus CPRP has opened up. A week back, I read on the net the views expressed by some stalwarts of our industry, most preferring to continue with CPRP over CPT for TV buying. The TV Channels showed preference for shifting to CPT which they feel would capture the incremental viewer base (http://www.exchange4media.com/tv/cprp-vs-cptwhats-the-need-of-the-hour_66504.html ).

Most of the debates are happening assuming that CPT stands simply for “advertising cost pe thousand target audience” and with the knowledge that internationally CPT is the more accepted currency for TV buying. Collective opinion in the industry is that shifting from CPRP to CPT will inflate the TV advertising rates. Shashi Sinha said in an interview with Admatazz: “There is a fallacy in everyone’s mind that when you move from CPRP to CPT, rates will go up.” (http://www.admatazz.in/2016/10/20/interview-with-shashi-sinha-ceo-ipg-mediabrands-india/). According to Sinha, rates are governed by various supply and demand factors in the market place and shifting from CPRP to CPT will not affect them.

The definition of CPT is commonly known as “cost per thousand target audience” and most books on media planning still promote that definition. A doubt had crept into my mind when the CPT vs. CPRP debate had first began in 2010. In the age of rapidly growing digital media with CPM or the cost per mille (thousand) impressions on the web as one of the measures for online media buying, why should the digitally advanced nations use a simple measure like “cost per thousand target audience” irrespective of their TV viewing behaviour as the measure for TV buying?

Subsequent search on the Net revealed that Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), UK defined CPT as “The cost of one thousand commercial impacts for a target audience. Cost-per-thousand (CPT) is used when purchasing and measuring the efficiency of advertising campaigns”. It seemed to me that the definition of CPT was reinvented by BARB in order to estimate impact of TV advertising across multiple screens and to make the performance of TV advertising comparable with the performance of online advertising. Sinha mentioned in his interview: “CPT helps because you can compare…today you can do inter media comparison digital, print, television with CPT…..we are already doing it, we are plugging in CPTs…our clients are seeing how the integrated model of TV and print work together.”

The renewed debate reminded me about my old search findings. I checked and found that the definition of CPT still remains the same (http://www.barb.co.uk/about-us/glossary/) in BARB Glossary. The “cost per thousand target audience” and the “cost of one thousand commercial impacts for a target audience” are two totally different measures. The BARB definition of CPT will not bring joy to the TV channels as it will still be linked with TVRs without which it will not be possible to calculate cost of thousand commercial impacts for a target audience.

While checking the BARB Glossary, I came across an interesting article posted in October 2015 (https://www.thinkbox.tv/Getting-on-TV/Useful-resources/How-to-calculate-CPTs) on www.thinkbox.tv which is the marketing body for commercial TV in UK. The article takes the reader through the formulae required to calculate the cost of airtime and how many Television Ratings the advertiser can afford to buy, etc. The equation used for calculating CPT is CPT = Budget/universe/TVRs x 100,000 in that article.

I humbly request the multinational media agencies to share the definition and calculation of CPT which they are using currently in their in-house media planning models with the industry at large. Before we think of shifting from CPRP to CPT for TV buying, the industry bodies need to agree on a new definition of CPT in keeping with the international practices. BARC can also take the lead in promoting the new concept of CPT though the current BARC Glossary of Terms does not include either CPT or CPRP definitions. Finally, I agree with Sinha that Indian marketing and advertising industry should replace CPRP with CPT as a measure for TV planning and buying, but arguably we will have to use the new avatar of CPT.

Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor incharge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

By Indrani Sen

The foreword of the FICCI- KPMG Report on Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) Industry, 2016 said “In 2015, we finally began on a journey that is expected to change the M&E industry in India. A host of changes – many of them already transforming the industry in other countries are gaining traction in India… This new wave of change is likely to fundamentally alter the way content is created, distributed, consumed and monetized in India.” Adblocking on websites is such a change agent which is yet to see high traction by users in India. However, in digitally matured countries it is changing the business economics of publishers and is also threatening to change the core of brand communication.

Earlier in this month, I read an interesting article https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/oct/04/adblock-plus-publishers-tempted-feed-hand-bites which described how an adblocking firm’s new move to charge publishers to serve whitelisted ads has created a commotion in the industry.  Eyeo, owner of the adblocking tool Adblock Plus with a significant user base, was already charging publishers like Google, Microsoft and other publishers for getting on to their Acceptable Ads List. They have now created their own network offering to sell access to advertising which has created a controversy in the market place.

The above article prompted me to explore the anti-adblocking measures which are being used currently by publishers to save their digital ad revenue. According to Pagefair and Adobe Report quoted in http://blog.pubnation.com/publishers-fight-back-how-the-top-50-websites-combat-adblock/, adblockers have grown at an astonishing rate, increasing from 20 million users in 2009 to 200 million in 2015. From Q2 of 2014 to Q2 of 2015, they grew by 41%, adding more than 50 million new users. Historically the problem was confined to desktop and laptops, but now it has spread into mobile users. Various researches done by publishers and other research organizations seem to indicate that native ads and sponsored articles have better chance of survival against the onslaught of adblockers than the standard ads. This article is a must0read for Indian publishers as it cites screenshots of publication websites before and after adblocking showing effectiveness of sponsored articles and native advertising.

In another article published earlier this year, https://www.techinasia.com/talk/forbes-failed-6-real-ways-publishers-stop-ad-blockers-stealing-revenue Rhiannon Young criticised the anti-adblocking approach adopted by Forbes and prescribes other measures. Forbes does not allow their audience access to their content unless they turn off their adblocker or whitelist Forbes. Young suggested that instead of such a heavy-handed approach, publishers should try having a conversation with their audience, Pay wall/ Freemium model, work with an adblocking software and advertisers for creating acceptable ads, pay adblocking companies for whitelisting the publication, focus on native advertising and sponsored content. In response to Young,   Søren Fuhrjan suggested that publishers should move to a two-way communication with their audience instead of the current one-way (read-only) communication. This may create a hybrid publishing website which will be partially content-driven and partially social media-driven.

A rising crop of startup organisations, Pagefair, Source Point, Secret Media, Uponit, etc., have stated providing anti-adblocking solutions to publishers for protecting their most viable business model based on ad revenue. These organisations aim to provide ways for bypassing adblockers or tracking protection, but their business models are yet to stabilise. This could become a cat-and-mouse game with the adblockers coming up with technically superior versions which cannot be bypassed by the anti-adblocker tools.

By the time Indian publishers get their act together in digital publishing and its business economics, they will be simultaneously hit by a tsunami of adblocking tools along with anti-adblocking tools.  So, the publishers and the agencies need to prepare in advance for safe guarding their digital ad revenue stream. The advertisers need to learn about native advertising and researchers need to come up with special matrix to measure the effectiveness of such advertising. Finally, the industry needs to prepare ethical standards for sponsored content and native advertising.
Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Professor, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own. 

By Indrani Sen

Brand Equity carried an article on September 7, 2016 about Amagi’s launch of Amagi Mix, India’s first online media planning and buying commerce platform. It is targeted specifically for the growing SME sector in India, who can plan and buy TV campaigns at an affordable cost. Amagi Mix allows the SMEs to develop their own media plans based on their market priorities and execute the media buy within the limitations of their budget. In addition, Amagi will offer creative solutions to the SMEs for developing their TV commercials.

Amagi, a media technology company, was launched with a futuristic vision in 2008 in Bengaluru with an aim to deliver disruptive technology-driven solutions for TV advertising on a hyperlocal basis. The business model of Amagi is three-tiered; it buys commercial time on TV channels and sells the ad spots to advertisers on regional/ hyperlocal basis by using its technology and Ad Syndicate Network. Finally it shares profits with MSOs and DTH operators. Amagi has a partnership at one end with the TV channels and at the other with MSOs and DTH operators. Its website (www.amagi.com) portrays its technology-driven solution as “Amagi’s solution can be customised to support the duration and frequency of all ad-replacement needs. Amagi’s solution is based on a patented content trigger (The Amagi Watermark) and STORM, an enhanced satellite receiver that descrambles and decodes the channel in addition to inserting local ad seconds”. Amagi’s unique service has been used not only by local and regional advertisers, but many national advertisers also have used it to leverage TV for geo-targeted advertising in addition to their national TV campaigns.

It will be interesting to watch how the Indian SMEs take advantage of this new online platform which enables them to buy a traditional media like TV online with targeted foot print. Amagi is expecting 20 per cent of advertising by SMEs to be routed through Amagi Mix within the next three years. Apart from The Media Ant (TMA), another media agency from Bangaluru, no other media agency has explored or targeted the SME market seriously. Founded in 2012, The Media Ant claims to be a (http://www.themediaant.com/) “market place for media” with “information for more than 200,000 advertising touchpoints across various offline and online media verticals.” TMA offers to their clients “Marketing Assistant Online” for planning and buying across traditional media. While TMA does not have any geo-targeting technology for TV, which is a high impact expensive medium, it will continue to cater to a large section of SMEs who would prefer to use Print, Radio and OOH for their campaigns which have always fulfilled their need for geo-targeted advertising.

Earlier this year, Rediff’s Vubites and Star India’s Adsharp were launched as geo-targeted TV advertising tools. Zee TV is one of the channel partners of Amagi and the partnership has expanded over the years with addition of channels from its stable. So, geo-targeted TV advertising has arrived as the new strategy for TV planning and buying in India. The country is now divided into 17 regions for which advertisers can buy TV inventory on premium channels. These regions are also supported by the BARC findings, which makes it easier for the advertisers and media agencies to plan their geo-targeted spends on TV against its effective reach. Amagi would continue to enjoy the first mover’s advantage in the geo-targeted advertising arena backed by their wide network of partnerships with various TV channels.

Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

By Indrani Sen

ET Brand Equity has listed on August 28 among the most read news of last week an interview of Sir Martin Sorrell by Sarah Vizard which appeared originally in the Marketing Week on August 24. “Sir Martin Sorrell: Brands are starting to question if they have over invested in digital” https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/24/sir-martin-sorrell-brands-are-starting-to-question-if-they-have-over-invested-in-digital/. The prophecy of Sir Martin that growth that digital adspend will slow down over the next few years must have caused some worries to the big players in social and digital media in India.

Sir Martin raised a few very pertinent points related to the dependability of digital media. He was quoted by Sarah saying: “We have seen this before in arguments about viewability, ad fraud and measurement issues, not forgetting adblocking. That is where the debate is.” The issue of measurability is complex as initially the advertising industry was lured into trusting Google Analytics and Facebook data almost blindly. The industry had not dealt with real-time data while working with traditional media, so they found Google Analytics as a God’s gift. But with Google changing its algorithm without any explanation and Facebook altering content on people’s newsfeeds, it is not only traditional media who are raising questions about the dependability of digital media, advertisers have also started asking for independent research done by third party which does not have any stake in the digital media.

FICCI KPMG reports on Indian Media and Entertainment Industry have been consistently reporting over the last three years that growth in the industry would be led by the growth in digital media. Our government launching its “Digital India” programme backed by the rapidly growing number of internet users and India becoming the fastest growing smartphone market has added fuel to the fire of their future projections. The two questions which become pertinent now are: (1) will there be independent third party research on consumption of digital media in India and (2) will the ad investment in digital media slowdown in India?

In India, the advertising and media industry have been used to living in a sub-optimal condition of media research data for traditional media. Thanks to IBF’s initiative we seem to have solved the research issues related to broadcast media through BARC. But MRUC is still to put its act together as far the IRS is concerned. So, it is unlikely that our industry will be bothered about not having independent third party research on digital media. It is also doubtful if the industry will be able to raise funds for supporting such third party research on digital media. So we will continue to work happily with Google Analytics and Facebook data.

Similarly, the advertisers are also likely to continue with the present trend of investing in digital media advertising. However, if the multinational organisations receive directives from their head offices/ holding companies to review and slow down their investment in digital and social media then it may be a different story. In the absence of any data on what percentage of the advertising spend on digital media comes from multinational organisations, it is difficult to estimate the extent of slowdown in digital media advertising if the multinationals withdraw or reduce their support.

The interview of Sir Martin has thrown some doubts about the dependability of the digital media for advertising communication and it would be necessary for our industry to take the promises of digital media with a pinch of salt in near future.

Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.

By Indrani Sen

Last week, TRAI released a consultation paper on how a sustainable service of providing free Wi- Fi to the general public can be introduced in India. I read the report published in exchange 4media (http://www.exchange4media.com/digital/trai-moots-ad-based-models-for-free-wi-fi;-estimates-cost-at-less-than-2p-per-mb_65238.html), which described the consultation paper as a summary of the various models of deployment and monetisation which are being practised around the world and does not include any specific guideline for how the same structures can be adopted in India or what kind of rules and regulations will be applicable in each case.

It seems the TRAI paper merely indicates that the costs of access of free Wi-Fi may be borne by the end user, owner of the site where the access point is deployed, advertisers, sponsors or the government and lists the four types of models available globally: Paid Model, Freemium Model, Advertisement-based Model and Aggregators’ Model. It is surprising that the exchange4media report mentioned only under the advertisement-based model that personal data collected from the user at the time of sign-in could also be monetised to earn revenues, where as in reality such practices can be adopted by any of the four financial models described by TRAI, based on how they choose to develop their financial models.

Free Wi-Fi services are a privacy paradox as generally they come at the cost of the users sharing valuable information on their personal, locational and behavioral data. Companies providing the services can collect, store, analyse and sell the same information to earn revenues. Indian consumers who often agree to accept the rules which allow them access to internet services without going through the fine prints need to be aware about the price which they are paying for the services including free Wi-Fi. Does TRAI plan to have any guidelines for collecting, analyzing and selling personal data of the users by the service providers?

Some time back, I read an interesting article in Forbes magazine by Alex Konrad, (http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/01/22/airport-wifi-free/#777e90b311cd) titled “Who is paying for your free Airport Wi-Fi?” Konrad observed about the situation in US in that article “As ad-supported Wi-Fi has taken off, the biggest partner to airports has remained Boingo Wireless, which has traditionally paid for the equipment and installation and split its monthly and daily access fee revenue with the airports in multi-year contracts.” Needless to mention that we will also need investors/ access providers who will be prepared to sink in the money required for setting up the infrastructure. Boingo sells advertising on its Wi-Fi platform, through landing page access and display advertising and provides information on their users across airports to marketing companies for better targeting of their products and services.

The Aam Admi Party promised availability of free Wi-Fi in public places across Delhi in their election manifesto. There was an interesting analysis by Pravin Prashant early last year “Who will pay for free Wi-Fi in Delhi” (http://www.teleanalysis.com/analysis/who-will-pay-for-free-wi-fi-in-delhi-12917.html) where he mentioned “According to experts, the capex (only capital expenditure and not RoW cost) cost for free Wi-Fi in Delhi would cost around Rs 500 crore if one plans Wi-FI in government buildings and tourist places and Rs 1000 crore if one plans street based Wi-Fi in Delhi. On top of this, government needs to pay any agency who provides Wi-Fi service which would be around Rs 100- Rs 200 crores.” No wonder that Arvind Kejriwal has not been able to fulfill this promise made to Delhites. The construction of the Wi-Fi networks is a significantly large part of their overall cost. In India the process is bound to create some public-private partnerships. Does TRAI plan to have any guidelines for such partnerships? Can TRAI safeguard the privacy of Indian people while detailing their rules and regulations?

Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

By Indrani Sen

I read an interesting article last week in The Guardian by Ana Andjelic, SVP, Global strategy Director at Havas Lux Hub, “Why media design is the new media planning” which I would like to share with readers of this column. (http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/may/24/media-design-media-planning-brands?CMP=ema-1698&CMP). Andjelic quoted the analytics used by Netflix for developing personalised genre for describing television and film content and argued that in the digital world “If we apply this same micro- and human-centred approach to media planning, we get media design”.

In other words, where the success of Netflix has come from focussing on personalised genres for marketing its universe of audio visual entertainment, brands will succeed by putting their customers’ personal preference and expectations at the centre of digital media planning.  According to Andjelic, consumers today take for granted superior brand service and experience; therefore what is more relevant is an understanding of the steps taken by the customer in her journey. Media design becomes the crucial aspect of media planning, allocating investments across steps or key touchpoints “that are most desirable from the customer’s point of view and critical in their decision-making process”.

Currently, like traditional media planning, digital media planning is also centred on campaigns driven by brand messages with the goal of driving the customers towards a purchase or transaction. Unlike traditional media planning where success of the campaign is still measured through reach/ frequency and awareness, success of digital media planning is generally measured through ROI and sales. Media design has very little role to play in the process of digital media planning.

While appreciating the observations made by Andjelic, I  felt that to embrace the process of media design in media planning, we need more media research into the context (place, day part, exact time) of how customers experience the various touchpoints while undertaking their journey in the digital media world. If we compare with the analytics done by Netflix, we can safely conclude that the marketing organisations and their media agencies have adequate understanding about their customers or their target audiences, but there is a definite knowledge gap related to the ideal target context, when the audience is most favourably disposed to receiving the brand message. Needless to mention that similar gap also exists in our traditional media planning driven by GRP. Many digital media planners are aware of this gap and use their instincts and intuitions for identifying target media context. This critical gap in our digital media research needs to be addressed by the industry.

Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

By Indrani Sen

The India Radio Forum 16 held last Friday (13^th May, 2016) in Mumbai had a number of interesting sessions/ panel discussions related to the various current issues relevant for the radio industry before the grand award ceremony.  Apart from the two presentations “Measuring ROI for Radio” by Gaurav Mehta of OLX South Asia and “How can Radio kill the Video Star” by Hari Krishnan of ZenithOptimedia, there were four panel discussions on “Telling brand stories through effective and creative radio”, “Radio selling beyond FCT”, “Is Radio relevant in a mobile world’ and “Streaming Music – Threat or Opportunity for FM”.

It was clear from the choice of topics and the deliberations that lack of a currency for selling the medium is not a major concern for the radio industry. In the panel discussion “Radio selling beyond FCT” moderated by Nisha Narayanan of Red FM, the three panellist Jaideep Singh (Viacom 18), Suresh Balakrishna (Kinetic) and Vanita Keswani (Madison) did not waste any time on discussing the merit and demerit of selling radio with and without FCT. Balakrisna commented “Going beyond FCT is not a choice; how you are going to do it is the question under the current economic structure.” Singh argued that “Branded properties do not survive; properties need to be created to fill need gaps of the consumers.” Keswani cautioned about “the difference between large and small markets” in the same context. Narayan finally summed up by saying that radio industry must take the absence of the proper currency as an advantage and continue with perception selling. TAM, the only research agency providing Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), should take a note and review their research. The radio industry is not only managing without using the current RAM findings, but also is indifferent to the need for audience ratings for selling radio time.

Gaurav Mehta’s presentation on “Measuring ROI for radio” reassured number-crunchers like me about the merit of research and analytics and at the same time raised the question if media planners can take the same approach for TV and radio planning. Mehta shared about his experience related to TV advertising with IPL where his investment resulted in a substantial increase in reach and awareness about OLX but created no spike in his sales matrix. On the contrary, his venture into radio advertising gave him a much better ROI related to sales. On the contrary, his venture into radio advertising gave him a much better ROI related to sales. OLX, according to Mehta is a regional marketer because the consumer psyche differs from region to region. Therefore OLX needs to use different advertising communications in different parts of India which makes radio a natural fit in its media mix. Mehta explained in details about the research and analytics undertaken by OLX in relation to measurement of ROI, where around 800 pieces of information are used in a media optimiser model developed in-house for radio planning, buying and scheduling.  OLX chops and changes the radio plan on a two day cycle in order to get the most effective ROI.

Academic research and modelling in the above area started in the first decade of this century. In 2012 an interesting while paper was developed by Arbitron showing how to do ROI modeling. http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/ROIonMarketingModelMix.pdf. In 2012 an interesting while paper. In the same year, Drew Kondylas, Marketing Consultant at The Radio Agency wrote in his blog“Using radio is a powerful and efficient tool to generate leads and revenue — one of the most efficient in fact — and tracking results should never get in the way of getting results.” http://www.radiodirect.com/calculate-roi-for-your-radio-campaign/. In 2014, Ad Age India carried report of a Nielsen Catalina Study showing that the ratio of incremental sales revenue per thousand to advertising cost per thousand is highest for radio. Radio also delivers result consistently and gives massive return on advertising investment. http://www.adageindia.in/media/what-medium-scores-highest-roi-it-may-be-radio/articleshow/45733960.cms.

It is extremely reassuring to find that the management of a young marketing organisation has given the necessary financial support and freedom to their marketing head for developing a system for measuring ROIs for the media mix in general and radio in particular. Media Agencies should take a note and explore with their clients the scope of measuring ROI for radio through analytics.

Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/ROIonMarketingModelMix.pdf.

By Indrani Sen

Recently read an interesting article in The Guardian arguing how today’s brands can learn story telling lessons from Shakespearean theatre (http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/marketing-agencies-association-partner-zone/2016/may/03/shakespeare-lessons-interactive-immersion-marketing?CMP=ema-1698&CMP=) which made me again conscious about the disappearing line between the creative agencies and the media agencies in the rapidly changing media scenario where innovation through online content is emerging as a major player.

Online video is being increasingly used for creating branded content which is storytelling beyond advertising. These videos are not constrained by duration like TV commercials; they are free to air and easy to share. They can be interesting and interactive with potential to go viral. It is free for all playing fields today with digital marketing agencies, creative agencies and media agencies competing with each other.

Last year, an article by Satrajit Sen in afaqs quoted from a report by the IAMAI and IMRB (http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/42895_Online-Advertising-The-Rise-of-Video) saying spends on video ads will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56 per cent and contribute 12 per cent to overall digital advertising spends in 2015 up from seven per cent in 2014. According to ComScore report, one in five internet users watch videos online daily and on an average, a user watches seven hours of online video a month of the 55 million unique video viewers in India. Today, the number of unique video viewers is growing exponentially, thanks to improving Bandwidth, mobile internet speed and cheaper 3G plans.

ComScore has been continuously reporting on the growth of Indian’s online video consumption. Back in 2013, an article by Saloni Surti in exchange4media.com quoted from a report by ComScore, stating India’s online video consumption per month had doubled in the last two years.  The article talked about the limitations of the ecosystem of online video advertising in India (http://www.exchange4media.com/digital/online-video-ads-gaining-popularity-amongst-advertisers_51425.html). However, over the last three years, the proliferation of branded online video content beyond advertising has changed the game plans of Indian advertisers. Initially, we saw only youth-centric brands using this medium, but now advertisers regardless of their primary TG have pitched in.

A recent report on Digital Media by Deloitte explores the global and Indian situations in relation to consumption of on demand digital video content. The report concludes with (https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/in/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/in-tmt-rise-of-on-demand-content.pdf) “More and more media consumption is happening on digital media, and people are more time on digital media as compared to traditional media. This increase can be credited to the improvement in mobile devices technology and internet connectivity, which has provided the viewers with the option of accessing digital media content on the go…….Like digital music players, digital video players are also adopting both subscription and ad monetization models and offering personalised offerings to maximize adoption. Going forward, digital audio and video on-demand services will see a lot of activity. As this space heats up, getting business model right will be critical for success.”

The FICCI-KPMG – M&E Report 2016 “The future now streaming” quotes “An increase in transactions in the digital content creation segment has been witnessed in 2015 and this trend is likely to continue in 2016”. So, we can expect that the use of on demand digital video content over the Internet will continue to change and evolve.

What are the trends which are taking place in the western countries which we can expect to see in India in near future? In my view, we can expect the following trends:

i/ Video services providers will market and promote the quality of their content independently and through digital/ media and creative agencies.

ii/ There will be demand for affordable digital storage in the high growth areas

iii/ Videos have traditionally required cinema type workflows with pre- and post-production activities. Automation of video creation / specialised tools will eliminate the need for extensive production hours and will offer cost-effective solutions.

iv/ There will be rapid growth of various business applications for videos as the delivery vehicle across first and second screens.

v/ Finally, webcasting will become an everyday part of the Unified Communications Continuum (UCC) and is likely to play a role in the education segment.

To sum up, storytelling through online videos is going to be a gamechanger in our industry in the near future. It will continue to be an open playing field for all interested parties and a major contender for awards for innovations.

Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own. 

By Indrani Sen

The digital video entertainment is the new kid on our media block. Indian broadcasters, production firms, telecom operators,  video on demand players as well as international players are all crowding the in the space vying for a share of the rapidly growing segment.  Every business publication as well as industry websites have been carrying news and views on the topic. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has already announced their intention of starting measurement of digital viewership from end of 2016. Shuchi Bansal,  Media, Marketing and Advertising Editor of Mint recently reviewed the Indian Video on Demand (VOD) market scenario in her article “Video on Demand services set to explode in 2016”. (http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/k18JBjPyvSD7BZSgJcFjQK/Videoondemand-services-set-to-explode-in-2016.html). The lead-in to the article read “What is happening in video-on-demand services sector right now is similar to what happened to private satellite television in India in the early nineties” It will be interesting to wait and see if her premonition comes true, as this time the success of the new players reaching out to the consumers through mobile platform will result in a total churning of the Indian TV scenario and may lead to the death of many smaller TV channels.

Of course, the big TV players will not be affected as they are all jumping into the brand wagon of video on demand (VOD) or digital video entertainment to ensure that if the audience viewership shifts from large screen to small screen, their revenue goes from one pocket to the other. Star India was the first mover with the launch of Hotstar in February 2015. In first nine months, Hotstar earned the distinction of being one of the fastest growing mobile digital services across the world with 40 million consumers downloading it.  Balaji Telefilms followed suit with announcement of the launch of ATL Digital Media in April 2015. Eros Now from Eros International which had launched earlier in 2012 as an on demand digital movie library expanded their offer in 2015.  Airtel Digital TV was another early mover in this space from 2012 and tied up with Disney India in 2014 to launch an English Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) Service – “Disney Family Movies”.

Notable among the others players who entered the Indian market last year were Hooq, Sony Liv and Yuup TV. Hooq, backed by Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and Singapore telecom giant Singtel offered Indian audience Hollywood content from Sony, Warner, Disney, Dreamworks and Miramax along with Indian content from leading banners. Multi Screen Media’s video on demand service Sony Liv rolled out before the festive season in 2015. Yuup TV with their offer of Live TV, Catch up TV and unlimited movies also entered India last October.

In January 2016, Netflix, world’s leading internet television network, entered the Indian market. After the early move by Star India in 2015, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) and Viacom took one more year to put their act together.  In February 2016, ZEEL launched their new video on demand platform OZEE earlier this year. In keeping with their business strategy in the linear TV space, Zee Group has entered this new space shooting with a double barrel gun. Apart from launching OZEE, ZEE New Media also launched Ditto TV, India’s first Over The Top (OTT) TV distribution platform. Ditto TV plans to offer live TV channels and on demand video content to consumers through all types of screens, connected TV, desktops, laptops, Tablets and smart phones. Viacom 18 Digital Ventures is planning to launch their VOD brand called VOOT by end of this month. Various start ups like Arre from UDigital Content Pvt. Ltd, promoted by Ronnie Screwvala and B. Saikumar are also crowding in this space. Recently launched Vodaphone 4G LTE service offers VOD services like HOOQ and Hungama Play among other facilities.

The two major Dish TV operators chose different marketing strategy for entering OOT TV. Dish TV launched Dish Flix in 2015 with a separate hardware along with a monthly subscription fees for watching ad free movies. Tata Sky is inviting their consumers to set up VOD services by connecting their internet to the TV set which is included in their subscription package. Quicker Entertainment is offering movies on demand to Cable TV operators which may help cable services to get additional revenue.

There is no doubt that we have now an ecosystem that supports VOD platforms with improving bandwidth and increasing smartphones. The young Indians who prefer entertainment on the go rather than appointment viewing on linear TV are turning out to be the early adopter of digital video entertainment.  Low percentage of multiple TV households will help in adoption of personal devices for finding individual solutions to entertainment. Our e-commerce system is also ready to support the transactions.

The real challenge for all the players is two fold. Firstly, they need to find a sustainable monetization model. Three  types of business models are currently operating in Indian VOD market-  (i) Subscription supported video on demand (Airtel, Tata Sky, Dish Flix, Quirk Entertainment, Netflix etc.), (ii) advertisement  supported video on demand (Hotstar, OZEE, VOOT,  You Tube, etc.) and (iii) transactional video on demand (pay per view).  Some of the subscription based models are offering ad free viewing while the others are combining subscription with advertisement support (Balaji ATL). Some are trying out the Fremium revenue model. However, time will only tell how Indian consumers with their penchant for consuming free content on internet and used to free downloading via Torrent will react to paying extra for digital video entertainment. Secondly, the heterogeneous Indian market makes it difficult for the VOD players to offer an ideal package of quality content to the consumers for which they will be ready to pay.

While many advertisers have already started experimenting with this new medium, the industry is now eagerly waiting for the BARC inputs to legitimise their expenditure. The large VOD players also need to build up their own analytics based on data generated by mobile users. Personalisation of VOD offering based on consumer insights will become a key differentiator which will make this medium stand out from other mass media.  How different VOD players use mobile analytics in addition to the BARC data for customising mobile user data for different advertisers will be an important factor in determining their success in the growing Indian market.

Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami.  In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.