Prime Video has elevated Gaurav Gandhi from Vice President, India to Vice President, Asia Pacific. In his new role Gandhi will lead APAC, incorporating Japan and South East Asia, alongside India. Effective April 2023, he will transition into this new role and will be based out of Singapore. As Gandhi moves to take on this larger responsibility, Sushant Sreeram, currently Director – SVOD Business, will be elevated to the position of Country Director, Prime Video, India.
Prior to Amazon, Gandhi has worked in companies such as Viacom18, NDTV Imagine and STAR India in various leadership roles. He moved into the video streaming space in 2015, and set up, launched and ran Viacom 18’s streaming service VOOT as his last role prior to joining Amazon.
Sreeram has worked closely with Gandhi since he joined Amazon in 2018 as Director – Marketing, and was elevated to Director – SVOD Business in 2022. As the SVOD business leader he was entrusted with building the Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) business through acquisition, growth and engagement of subscribers across B2B and B2C segments.
The biggest sporting event in India is currently underway. With each passing year, IPL seems to only grow in stature and brand value. This time, there are two new franchises, and the spectators are back in the stands too, albeit with a cap of 25 per cent. More franchises mean more matches and more talent on display, all of which eventually leads to higher monetization and valuation of brand IPL.
But the eyes this year are not just on the ongoing IPL but also on what’s to follow on the IPL front over the next few weeks. IPL broadcast rights are up for renewal, and we are set to see a fierce battle in the auctions scheduled for mid-year.
IPL is a crown jewel for Disney (Star), not just in India, but even worldwide. Hotstar, on the back of IPL, contributes more than 30 per cent to Disney+’s global subscriber base. Needless to say, Star India will stretch itself beyond its limits to retain both television and streaming rights.
But there’s the newly-merged entity that goes by the working title Zee-Sony, which is a serious contender. Sony has been down the IPL road before, being the first ones to put their money on it, when the league was only an experiment, not a proven success story. With the combined might of two big networks, Star India’s competition is tougher than it was five years ago.
Add Reliance (Viacom) to the mix, and we have a three-way tussle for IPL rights on the cards. BCCI’s decision to not go for combined bids this year makes things even more interesting, because it puts streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video into the reckoning, along with Google and Facebook.
No amount of speculation can prepare us what may eventually happen when the e-auction commences on June 12 this year. But whatever the outcome is, it will shape the landscape of the Indian media industry for the next few years, even the next decade.
The television industry is India has been struggling for relevance, despite being the medium with the highest reach, and by some margin too. IPL (and cricket in general) is one of the few things that keeps television relevant to the times, as far as media planning and buying goes. Digital viewership may have gone up, but television remains the dominant medium of sports consumption. The entire television industry, and the advertisers’ group (brands and media agencies), will be keenly awaiting the outcome.
Till then, there’s some real cricket on the grounds to keep us busy. For another seven weeks, the cricketing action will continue to enthrall millions across the nation. It will also act as a reminder for the potential bidders everyday, on how big the opportunity in front of them is.
Disney Star has announced the appointment of George Cherian as Head of Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In this role, he will be responsible for overseeing all strategic communications and CSR efforts for the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) business in the country which includes television network, streaming platform and studios. George will report to K Madhavan, Country Manager and President, The Walt Disney Company and Star India and will join the India leadership team that drives Disney Star businesses in the country.
Said Madhavan: “We are at an exciting juncture of our growth story and strongly believe that communication is one of the key drivers in establishing a brand’s stature. As the country’s leading media, entertainment and digital network, we have a strong and compelling story to tell. We are delighted to welcome George to the Disney Star team to help us communicate our vision, strategy and commitment to the Indian market, and to the various external stakeholders.”
Added George: “The combination of an industry that is on the cusp of exponential growth and a brand that is trusted and respected by millions of people the world over, could not have made for a more convincing case for me to join Disney Star. I look forward to the opportunity of building the Disney Star brands in India and working with some of the most talented professionals in this industry.”
Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), the apex body of television broadcasters and digital streaming platforms in the country, has re-elected K. Madhavan, Country Manager & President – The Walt Disney Company India and Star India, as its President for the second term after the 22nd Annual General Meeting of the company.
K Madhavan
Said Madhavan: “I am humbled by the trust and faith IBDF members have reposed in me to lead the foundation for a second term. We are at an interesting crossroad where the combination of consumer, regulatory and technology trends is remodelling the media landscape and ecosystem. I hope to continue working with the government, industry and other stakeholders for accelerating the growth of the broadcast and digital media sector in the country.”
The Walt Disney Company and Star India have pledged financial support of Rs 50 crore towards the ongoing Covid-19 relief efforts in India. The announcement was made through Star India’s Twitter handle.
The communiqué further mentioned: The proceeds will be utilized to aid relief efforts and towards the procurement of critical healthcare equipment, including oxygen concentrators, BiPAP, and ventilators along with setting up oxygen plants across hospitals. This is in addition to INR 28 crores that The Walt Disney Company and Star India contributed towards Covid-19 relief in 2020. In the endeavor to create awareness around Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), the Star India network has been running an awareness campaign through Public Service Announcements (PSA). The Company will also continue supporting relief efforts through its Disney Employee Matching Gifts program, wherein for employee donations to pre-approved charitable organizations, the Company will match the amount.
Said K. Madhavan, President, The Walt Disney Company India and Star India, through a Tweet: “We stand in solidarity with all of India in our fight against Covid-19. The Walt Disney Company and Star India are humbly contributing INR 50 crore to aid relief efforts. The need of the hour is to provide critical healthcare supplies and equipment to save lives. This is our common fight and our contribution reaffirms our steadfast commitment to India, and builds upon the INR 28 crores that our Company contributed towards Covid -19 relief in 2020.”
Mashal Sports has concluded its Media Rights Auction for the five seasons of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) to be held during 2021-2025. Star India has emerged as the successful bidder following an online auction and has retained the consolidated rights package on offer. The company will be responsible for producing a world-class feed and a strong marketing commitment to the league.
Star India Private Limited was the Media Rights Partner for PKL for the first seven seasons of the League. This was the first time Mashal Sports offered the Media Rights to eligible domestic and global players through an open tender process.
Said Anupam Goswami, CEO – Mashal Sports & League Commissioner of the Pro Kabaddi League: “Kabaddi is a magnificent indigenous sport. Mashal along with its supporters and partners including AKFI, our Players, Franchises and Media Rights partner have been able to create a strong media asset for our beloved fans in the form of the Pro Kabaddi League. The auction process has been guided by an independent Auction Committee, comprising eminent individuals. With this important step now over, we are excited to conduct a stellar PKL Season 8 later this year. Our focus during this rights period will be to further build on the success of PKL and work closely with Star India to offer our fans more and innovative ways to engage with PKL through various mediums including television, digital and gaming.”
Added K Madhavan, President, The Walt Disney Company India and Star India: “Pro Kabaddi League stands out as one of the most popular sporting properties in India and we, at Star India are thrilled to retain the television and digital media rights for the next five seasons. Over the years, we have made significant investments to enhance the aspirational value of PKL, making it the second most-watched sporting league in the country. By delivering an event broadcast of international standards, we have elevated the status of this indigenous sport, reinforcing our commitment towards building a multi-sporting nation. We will continue to work closely with Mashal Sports to take Kabaddi to greater heights.”
Veteran broadcast professional K Madhavan has been named president, The Walt Disney Company India and Star India, effective immediately. It was announced today (April 14) by Rebecca Campbell, Chairman, International Operations and Direct-to-Consumer, The Walt Disney Company.
In this role, Madhavan will drive the strategy and growth of the company in India, with responsibility for the vast Disney, Star and Hotstar businesses and operations spanning across entertainment, sports and regional channels, and direct-to-consumer. This includes oversight of channel distribution and advertising sales, as well as the local content production business.
Said Campbell: “For the past several months, I have had the pleasure of working directly with KM and have seen first-hand how he has adeptly managed our India business, which has been and will continue to be critical to our global and regional strategy. A skilled leader with an extensive background in media, KM has taken our vast Star networks and local content production businesses to new heights despite continued industry evolution and significant challenges due to the pandemic.”
Added Madhavan: “I am very proud to have the opportunity to lead the incredibly talented and passionate team we have in India, and to further build upon our strong portfolio of channels and high-quality programming that is a favorite with viewers across the region. We have an exciting journey ahead of us. I am committed to continuing to move our business forward, working more closely together with colleagues across Disney to enhance our global and regional offerings.”
So where’s Uday Shankar going? That was the question everyone seemed to ask when he announced his decision to move from Star/Disney last year? But the two big rumours were him joining former Star India owners – the Murdochs and Mukesh Ambani’s Jio.
Some meetings with the Jio bosses are said to have happened, but we know we haven’t heard the last on this from the Reliance Industries headquarters.
In the meantime, Shankar took charge as the FICCI big boss, and we do know that he wouldn’t have assumed that position without something major that we was going to be doing.
So here’s News #1:
CEO James Murdoch and and the former Chairman and CEO of Star India and President of Walt Disney Asia Pacific, have announced that they are forming a new venture to explore technology and media opportunities in emerging markets.
The new partnership reunites Murdoch and Shankar, who worked together building Star India into the region’s largest media company, prior to its sale as part of the merger of 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company. Star now reaches 600m+ viewers every week and operates Hotstar, Asia’s leading OTT platform.
Said Murdoch in a statement: “After two decades of working in India and the region, at Star and more recently at Lupa Systems, it’s great to be entering into a renewed partnership with Uday. Our collaborations over the years have been immensely rewarding for consumers, our various shareholders, and our colleagues. I’m very pleased to be renewing that partnership now. As connectivity continues to accelerate and expand across South Asia and the whole region, new opportunities for innovation, across consumer sectors, will multiply.”
And this is what Shankar said: “James and I enjoyed a great partnership at Star and I am enormously excited to be in partnership with him again. At Star, we had the great benefit of working with the best and brightest Indian talent, combined with global vision and a desire to disrupt the old order. Digital Technology promises to transform the lives of many millions of people in this part of the world and I have every confidence that we can harness technology, enterprise, and tremendous talent to create a great business that is also great for society.”
The communique misspelt Shankar’s name as Shakar, which perhaps is appropriate. Shakar is Sugar in Hindi, and this is a sweet piece of news for media watchers in India.
“Lupa Systems set up its India presence less than two years ago and has already created a promising portfolio of technology investments. Partnering with Uday, to build ambitiously for the long term, will take us to another level,” said Nitin Kukreja, Managing Director of Lupa Systems India. Kukreja, if one remembers, was with Star India/Disney and was the boss of Star Sports.
Ever since BCCI announced that IPl 13 will be held this year in the UAE from September 19 to November 10, there has been a lot of speculation in the media about how much revenue BCCI, the eight franchisees and Star India would be able to earn through this high value cricket tournament held away from home turf.
It is still a matter of speculation, but one aspect is clear that BCCI’s scheduling of IPL 13 matches scheduled during evening primetime will deprive many GEC channels from the revenue which they have been expecting to get from the festive seeson advertising. As per various industry estimates, 40 to 45% of total annual advertising revenue is generated during the festive season spreading from September to December with bulk of it spent by Diwali every year.
Revival of mega programmes like KBC, Big Boss, Indian Idol and Dance India Dance is expected to give IPL some competition and to help the big players Sony, Colors and Zee to get a good share of the TV advertising budget of festive season, but many other channels will not be that lucky. BCCI has also planned for maximising its revenues during the festive season as after October 25, 2020 there will be no afternoon match and all matches will be scheduled at 7.30 pm IST. With the final scheduled on November 10, only a small window of four days before Diwali is left for other channels to encash on their share of festive spends. Had BCCI scheduled the IPL 13 a month later from October 2020, then probably the picture could have been different.
Let us now look at the three main interested parties who have serious revenue tagets to be realised from IPL 13. The first is BCCI who earns the lion’s share of its annual budget every year from IPL. Apart from Rs 3270 crore which Star pays to BCCI every year for the TV and digital media rights, they were supposed to get Rs 440 crore from Vivo for title sponsorship, Rs 250 to Rs 300 crore for other associate sponsorships and another Rs 17 to Rs 20 crore from other sponsorships. After Vivo pulled out from the title sponsorship, BCCI got Dream 11 as a title sponsor for Rs 220 crores, at 50% discounted price of the earlier deal. BCCI shares 50% of the title sponsorship money with the eight franchisees by distributing the same among them and the revenue of the fanchisees has also been reduced as a result of this discounted deal. As per the experts’ views, BCCI’s revenue target from associate sponsorsips etc. are also expected to see a downward revision. BCCI will have to give a hefty fees to Emirates Cricket Board for holding the matches at UAE and their other logistical cost will also go up. A combination of all these factors will lead to a lower realisation of BCCI’s earlier revenue target from IPL 13.
As far as the eight franchisees are concerned, each of them will lose out revenues from three sources. The first will be the loss from their share of title sponsorship which BCCI has sold at 50% lower value than expected earlier. The second will be the loss from gate revenue which used to be between Rs 22 to Rs. 28 crore per team from cricket grounds. The third will be from expected lower revenue of title sponsorship of each team under the current situation. Each team now anticipates to earn at least 15% to 20% less on the estimated the team title sponrship value of Rs. 50 to Rs. 75 crore (except Mumbai Indians which was looking at Rs 100 crore-plus) from title sponsorship before the pandemic struck.
In addition, all of the franchisees will have to spend extra for the travel and accomodation cost of the players as well as creating arrangements for the bio-bubble and net practice at UAE. The combined effect of all the above is expected to result in a loss of Rs 80 to Rs 90 crore per franchisee. BCCI has already rejected the appeal for concessions in IPL 13 due to the pandemic made by the franchisees. (https://www.insidesport.co/ipl-2020-bccis-stern-no-to-ipl-franchises-demand-for-compensation/)
The last but not the least of the three interested paries is Star India, the broadcaster holding the media rights of IPL for TV and Digital media. In Star India’s original plan for revenues to be earned over the contract period with BCCI, 2020 was supposed to be a crucial year when they had expected to replace earlier losses with profit. However, the pandemic changed their plans. An article published on July 4, 2020 by www.sportstar.thehndu.co referred to a statement made by Uday Shankar, the Star & Disney India Chairman to ET Now: “If there is one tournament where advertisers will put money, that is IPL but only if they have to put monies. The market has gone through massive shock. Whether it would recover enough to put thousand of crores worth of advertising in next 6-8 weeks is the real issue and we doubt that… I am not sure the market is ready to support the IPL with the same fervour…” (https://sportstar.thehindu.com/cricket/ipl-2020-postponed-future-star-india-uday-shankar-advertisers/article31986991.ece). He has obviously changed his mind since then as in a recent article in https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/cricket/, he has been quoted as saying: “Our viewership of IPL on TV, as well as OTT platform, has grown year-on-year, and that will continue even this year…Also, for any company, which is looking at advertising, IPL provides the best and most-effective platform.”
As per industry sources, Star is targeting at a revenue of Rs 3000 crore plus from IPL 13. There is difference in estimates on how much they earned from IPL 12. According to ET Prime, the revenue was Rs 2,100 crore in 2019, but some other sources peg the earnings around Rs 2500 crore.
Star India has already declared that there will be no reduction on the advertising tarif declared earlier which had a built in 20% hike over IPL 12. As per industry sources going rate for 10 second advertising is 12.5lakhs. Based on estimate of ET Prime, with a revenue target of Rs 3000 crores in IPL 13 Star is aiming for a growth of 43% over IPL 12, which semms to be highly ambitious. Based on the estimate that revenue from IPL 13 was around Rs 2500 crores, a 20% to 22% growth over last year will enable Star to achieve the revenue target of Rs. 3000 crores, which seems to be more realistic. There is already a prediction that viewership of IPL 13 will increase by 25% from IPL 12 which will help Star in marketing IPL.
To sum up, the broadcaster seem to be on a good wicket as riding on the promise of 25% higher reach, they have a good chance of realising the target revenue for IPL 13. On the other hand, BCCI and the 8 franchisees will have to be contented with reducing their losses from IPL 13 held in UAE than a total loss of cancelling IPL 13 in 2020. The smaller TV channels across genres may be complete losers as many marketers suffering from the loss in sales and revenue over the first two quarters of 2020 and the slow rate of recovery in the third quarter, may not be able to extend their advertising budgets for festive seasons beyond investing in IPL 13.
In an effort to support the Covid-19 outbreak response, Star India and Disney+ Hotstar have partnered with the former journalist Shishir Joshi-spearheaded Project Mumbai to provide over 200,000 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to health workers at BMC and an additional 10,000 khakhi-coloured kits for the Mumbai Police.
Notes a communique: “Mumbai being the most hit by the pandemic, the support will aid the ongoing efforts in meeting the demand for PPE kits for almost four weeks. Showcasing solidarity with the numerous medical, health, and protection warriors, the initiative seeks to equip the selfless people who are at the front line battling the Covid-19 pandemic.”
As the nation is coming together in these unprecedented times, Star India Network which reaches 700 million viewers a month, has launched a special nationwide campaign with consumer safety as its theme — TV Entertainment Recharge Ka Safe Tareeka.
The campaign promotes the urgent need for safety awareness, to keep families entertained while staying safe at home. Through its creative, it urges families to keep problems out of their homes by not stepping out — not even for their TV bill. It advises viewers to use the online facilities so that they can continue to #StayHomeStaySafe.
Said Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, President and Head – Distribution and International Business, Star India: “Our campaign focuses on encouraging consumers to stay home and safe, remain entertained and pay TV entertainment bills online. We are leveraging the unparalleled reach of our popular GEC, Kids, Movies and Sports channels across multiple languages to spread the message, during these extremely difficult times,” adding: “I would also like to take this opportunity, on behalf of Star India, to applaud the brave teams of Cable and DTH partners working on-ground, and to salute their efforts that have ensured continued services to viewers,” he added.
Disney Kids Channels in India is bringing in fresh content to entertain kids this summer. The line-up comprises over 100 hours of fresh content introducing kids to new stories in addition to their existing favourites across all the channels, including Disney Channel and Hungama TV.
Said Anuradha Aggarwal, Head – Infotainment, English and Kids, Star India:” “Summer is a fun-time for children and with the lockdown in place, they are especially looking to us to be their constant companion; someone who understands their entertainment needs and is there for them through the day. We have curated special campaigns for Disney Channel and Hungama in line with this thought and notwithstanding the unprecedented situation, bringing them a range of new and differentiated stories and memorable characters.”
The biggest sporting event in India is currently underway. With each passing year, IPL seems to only grow in stature and brand value. This time, there are two new franchises, and the spectators are back in the stands too, albeit with a cap of 25 per cent. More franchises mean more matches and more talent on display, all of which eventually leads to higher monetization and valuation of brand IPL.
Ever since BCCI announced that IPl 13 will be held this year in the UAE from September 19 to November 10, there has been a lot of speculation in the media about how much revenue BCCI, the eight franchisees and Star India would be able to earn through this high value cricket tournament held away from home turf.
In an effort to support the Covid-19 outbreak response, Star India and Disney+ Hotstar have partnered with the former journalist Shishir Joshi-spearheaded Project Mumbai to provide over 200,000 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to health workers at BMC and an additional 10,000 khakhi-coloured kits for the Mumbai Police.