MxMIndia

Tag: T Gangadhar

  • A massive marketing campaign, a new fan dance move from Farah Khan, a bigger panel and lots of Extraaas… will IPL 2013 thrill again, asks MxMIndia

    IPL 6: In the mood for Extraaa

    The nine IPL team captains line up after signing the MCC Spirit of Cricket board at the Pepsi Indian Premier League opening ceremony held at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on April 2. Copyright: BCCI. Photo by Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS

     

    By Johnson Napier

     

    The opening ceremony of one of today’s most popular and expensive sporting properties may have matched its impressive track record over the years. And the organisers could thank celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, rapper Pitbull et al who were joined in force by cricket legends as they steered their way into winning the hearts of the audiences. In fact, the viewership numbers being predicted from the opening ceremony this year is expected to exceed 55 million, a fact that is being reported extensively even across foreign media.

     

    There’s no doubting the effort that has been put in by the organisers and broadcast partner Set Max as the task facing them this year was winning back the audiences that had gone adrift over past few seasons. Apart from a string of new measures and a high-profile marketing campaign, the buzz that was created around IPL 6 was dubbed as being the loudest so far, or so is the claim. Much of the credit to that is being owed to ace choreographer Farah Khan who bought in an element of newness this year with some signature moves involving cricket.

     

    Highlighting the experience this year, Neeraj Vyas, Business Head, Max said, “Firstly, the sentiments have been very positive around the IPL. It follows India’s recent performance against Australia which has kind of boosted cricket sentiments in the country. The other thing about the IPL is that it is cricket of the highest quality and degree and is extremely competitive and edgy, but there is also a lot of entertainment value attached to it. For example, the IPL campaign that we did around IPL this year is very entertainment-led and had director-choreographer Farah Khan playing host. As you’ll observe she is advocating everyone to not just sit but to be a part of the game by dancing to three key moves commonly associated with cricket – fours, sixes and falling wickets.”

     

    In fact the campaign has been a huge hit on the online space where it has crossed the 2 million mark on YouTube. “So the whole scale around IPL is much bigger this year than last year. It definitely has managed to arouse enough hype and curiosity. In fact if you see our marketing budgets, we have invested 15 per cent more than last year. There has been a substantial effort that has gone behind the marketing campaign this year. The same can be reflected through the huge buzz and reach that can be sensed everywhere and across all platforms.”

     

    Not to be left behind in the production department, Set Max has gone the extra mile this year where its studio and expert panelists are concerned. Affirmed Mr Vyas, “We have a brand new set of Extraaa Innings this time around; it is a set that is bigger than any other set that you’ll see in recent times. And joining Gaurav Kapur and Samir Kochhar will be two new hosts, Karishma Kotak and Rochelle Maria Rao. The there’ll also be big names associated with cricket like Navjot Sidhu, Harsha Bhogle, Ajay Jadeja and Sunil Gavaskar. What we’ve also done is added new names to the roster like Kapil Dev and Rameez Raja. They’ll primarily be driving the show in Hindi. So it’s also the best line-up that we have where studio names are concerned.”

     

    Not wanting to stop at that the broadcasters sensed immense opportunity in reaching out to the masses beyond the metros and tier 2, 3 towns and who until now were denied their share of voice in the affair. The wishes of the many Indians who reside in far-off towns and rural belts will be realised as they can enjoy the matches in Hindi as well. Asserted Vyas, “Another new addition this year is the airing of content in Hindi. That was done to essentially reach out to interior pockets of India who are more comfortable with Hindi commentary. Also, if you saw our coverage last year we had upped our quotient of Hindi usage on XIDs. So there was a lot of Hindi banter that happened between the expert panellists which was a decision that was taken intentionally. And this year we have just expanded that by having a dedicated Hindi feed. So the idea was to reach more and more people.”

     

    Number-crunching affair

    It has been widely reported on how the IPL this year has heeded the demands of the marketers and have offered them advertising value worth a steal. According to estimates, the channel expects to earn close to Rs 900 crore overall this year and much of this will come from top clients like PepsiCo, which is the title sponsor for the tournament, having signed a deal in the range of Rs 50-60 crore. Set Max has also sealed associate sponsor deals with eight clients including Godrej, Havells, Panasonic, Karbonn Tabs, Usha International, Cadbury, Tata Docomo and Samsung Mobiles.

     

    Highlighting the response received from the clients this year, particularly new entrant PepsiCo, Mr Vyas said, “The response from the clients goes to show that IPL is still a massive brand and secondly, as I said earlier, it is the reflection around the positive buzz surrounding Indian cricket at the moment. So there has been an extremely positive sentiment from the viewers as well as the advertisers.”

     

    He added, “Client-wise if you ask me, the best thing to have happened is Pepsi’s association with IPL – who are the on-ground as well as on-air partners. Given their past history, they will naturally bring in their own flavour to the tournament. I know for a fact that they are planning some special campaigns that will begin during the IPL. In a sense, Pepsi probably understands cricket better than most other brands as they have been associated with the sport for around 15-20 years. So one can expect them to bring in their own creativity around cricket, which is always entertaining to say the least.”

     

    Confirming Mr Vyas’ sentiments, Vinit Karnik, Head of Sports and Live practice at GroupM ESP said through a statement, “We’ve been part of IPL since its inception and we strongly believe that IPL is India’s biggest and the most powerful marketing platform for brands to leverage the combined appeal of cricket and entertainment. This season has been a busy and fruitful season. We had the opportunity to work closely with the Sun Group’s Sunrisers and have enabled the new franchise get off to strong start with 10 on-ground official partnership/sponsorships including Make My Trip, 7UP, Garnier, Kingfisher, Live In Jeans, Manyavar, Sheltrex, RN Sports etc…. We also advised Vodafone backed by a comprehensive valuation exercise based on proprietary data and insights which helped them build a case to renew their on-ground associate sponsorship for another 5 years. Other high profile deals which we managed to facilitate this year included Bajaj Allianz and Mumbai Indians, Flying Machine and Royal Challengers Bangalore among others.” The total value of all the on-ground deals enabled and activated by GroupM ESP in IPL 6 is estimated at US $ 15 mn.

     

    On to another important number that’s watched closely by all, the ratings for IPL 6 is expected to outdo that put up by the previous season. According to statistics released by MEC-Meritus, average TV rating for the league stage is expected to go up from 3.8 last year to 3.9 – an increase of 2.6% (15+ years, Male/Female, SEC ABC). Also, MI (23%), Chennai (19%) and KKR (14%) are the most popular teams while support for Hyderabad has gone up by 200% (2% to 6%). Further, the study notes that Sachin Tendulkar (80), MS Dhoni (79), Yuvraj Singh (76), Virat Kohli (74) and Virender Sehwag (73) are the most popular Indian players in the League while Chris Gayle (60), Ricky Ponting (55), Brett Lee (51) and Kevin Pietersen (50) are the most popular foreign players.

     

    T Gangadhar

    T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India, said, “Our study suggests that the IPL seems to have matured as a property. The study clearly establishes that ratings in the first phase (first 18 games) impact the fate of the entire league. With Pepsi activating their title sponsorship in a big way, the BCCI launching the IPL Fantasy League and India’s strong performance against Australia, the first stage of the league could get further momentum.”

     

    According to Mr Vyas, in terms of ratings expectations, “People need to realise that IPL is now a mature and a long tournament that last 76 games spanning 54 days. Nothing of this scale ever exists in the country. In fact about 30 per cent of the games are played in the afternoon…so despite all these ground realities it sustained an average rating of 3.5 last year, which according to me is nothing short of a miracle. If you look at GEC shows today, no one manages to retain audiences over such long periods. And this despite the fact that about 30 per cent of the matches are played in the afternoon. So we will be happy if we are able to retain the ratings at that level or even better it to around 4 or so.”

     

    Amin Lakhani

    Agreeing with Mr Vyas, Amin Lakhani, Principal Partner, Mindshare said, “I’ve always maintained from the start that where cricket and especially IPL is concerned, there has been a positive sentiment observed. It kind of picks up in terms of popularity and buzz closer to the start of the tournament. The thing about IPL is that it is now a time-tested property; only last year was an aberration. It has always been a winning property and will continue to do so. It is too early to write it off. And frankly, I am not even bothered about viewership as it a 76-match affair spread across 54 days…whatever ratings it has achieved has been brilliant so far. I can’t think any other property that has managed to do so in such a scale and manner. Where viewership is concerned, I feel even if it manages to hold at 4 or above would be a very good thing.”

     

     

    Mona Jain

    But feelings seem to be mixed for Mona Jain, CEO of Vivaki Exchange, who remarked, “I expect the ratings to display a similar trend to that of last year. Also, where the campaign is concerned I believe they should have started that much earlier on mediums like television, outdoor, radio etc. And the fact that IPL is an established property maybe that’s the reason the broadcaster maybe wanting to push the property closer to the start of the event. I guess more emphasis was paid on leveraging the event then trying to build it up.”

     

    While there may be a few naysayers who’ll be raising questions on the waning demand of the sport in India, SET MAX would want to prove them wrong by posting numbers a notch better than at least the previous season. One will have to wait and watch if King Khan managed to work his charm to at least get the inaugural event off to a flying start.

     

  • Stakeholders and consultants on their expectations from the Union Budget, set to to be presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram

    What M&E wants from this year’s Budget

     

    By Ananya Saha and Meghna Sharma

     

    Girish Agarwal, Promoter Director, DB Corp Ltd

    Fundamental need of the hour is to boost the economy, which is essential for growth of M&E. The following steps are expected for sustained economic growth:

    • The budget should send a clear message of “Stability, credibility and long-term vision for reforms”.
    • Government revenues should increase without hurting growth while strict control on expenditure (especially non-plan) is expected from the budget.
    • Clear roadmap for reforms/key bills viz.: Companies Bill, Mining, GST, DTC, Insurance, land acquisition etc. is expected.
    • With rise in inflation and reduced earnings, savings have substantially gone down over the past 2-3 years. Appropriate tax breaks would boost savings.

     

    The above basic steps should result in fresh and long term investments from domestic as well as international markets. Old policies for governing M&E sector must be revisited and reworked considering current business scenario. Policies should be framed in such a fashion that decisions at Govt. level are smooth and fast.

     

    For Radio industry, we expect Govt. to roll out old pending 3rd phase of auction, immediately with clear transparent bidding process. We expect the 3rd phase license with larger period validity and also extension of time period to 15 years, for players related to 2nd phase of bidding. Prior to the same, we expect Govt. to address music royalty issue along with long pending demand of radio players of relay of news bulletins in FM radio. Further, renewal of 2nd phase of license, after expiry of its period, needs to be worked out in an acceptable and reasonable valuation, in order to ensure adequate return on investment for all radio players.

     

    T Gangadhar, Managing Director, India, MEC

    It is important for the government to create policies that stimulate taxes and widen the tax base, not necessarily by lowering the taxes. It is important that in current economic situation, to raise consumer sentiment. We have been hearing of uniform GST, which has not been undertaken yet. Also, it is important to lower interest rates.

     

     

     

    Rakesh Jariwala, Partner, Tax and Regulatory Advisory Services, Ernst & Young

    In the Direct tax category:

    • Reintroduce erstwhile benefit available under Section 80-IB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 – profit linked deduction for multiplexes to boost their growth for tier 2 and tier 3 cities
    • Introduce alternate mechanism or a monetary threshold for obtaining income-tax clearance for foreign performers, entertainers, etc before departing from India as the procedure is time consuming and onerous
    • Introduce incentives for content creation and infrastructure to encourage the Indian film industry
    • Currently, there is uncertainty with respect to income attributable to India in case of Foreign Telecasting Companies (‘FTCs’). Guidance should be provided by way of specific provisions for determining taxable income of FTCs.

     

    Indirect tax:

    • Provide exemption from service tax on costs of film making in line with the exemption provided on temporary transfer of copyright in cinematograph films
    • Reinstate the exemption on service tax on services provided by digital cinema service distributors in a digitized encrypted format transmitted directly to a cinema theatre for exhibition – this exemption was withdrawn with the introduction of the negative list based service tax legislation
    • Clarify that service tax is not attracted in case of post production services provided in respect of content temporarily imported into India for the purpose of re-export
    • Exempt from service tax, services rendered by players and coaches to private sports leagues / bodies in line with the exemption provided for services to recognised sports leagues / bodies
    • Subsume entertainment tax in the proposed Goods and Services Tax legislation without creating a window for its levy at the local or state level to ensure simplicity in the tax structure

     

    M&E industry is expected to outgrow the Indian economy with an expected cumulative annual growth rate of around 15% over the next four years. To keep up the momentum, the industry deserves tax incentives in the upcoming Finance Bill, 2013 thereby providing an impetus to the industry and bolstering growth.

     

    Budget 2012 was a bag of mixed beans and a budget wherein the M&E industry was not given its share of adequate encouragement. Key highlights are cited below:

    Incentives:

    Indirect tax

    • Exemption of service tax on temporary transfer of copyrights in cinematograph films
    • Inclusion of admission to entertainment events and amusement parks in negative list of taxable services
    • In addition to the print sector, advertisements in media (except radio and television) including the internet or in outdoor media shall not be liable to service tax
    • Services provided in capacity of referee, umpire, coach or manager to recognised sports body for participating in tournaments shall not be liable to service tax

     

    Dampeners for M&E industry:

    Direct tax

    • Retrospective amendment to the definition of royalty thereby characterising payments for use of computer software, transponder, information databases, uplinking facilities, leased lines, etc as royalty under domestic tax laws. Hence, impacting the use of digital media
    • Tax rate of non-resident sports persons and sports associations increased from 10% to 20%

     

    Indirect tax

    • Levy of service tax on costs on film-making
    • Withdrawal of exemption of service tax on digital distribution of films tantamounting to the levy of service tax on such services
    • Levy of service tax on services provided by players and coaches to private sports leagues / bodies

     

     

    Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network

    For the broadcasting industries of radio and television we look forward to clarity, uniformity and relief from taxes. Advertisement in free to air mediums like radio should be treated differently and lower or nil service tax should apply for the same, aligning with the print and out of home industries. Also, FDI in non-news radio operations needs to be brought at par with television broadcasting. Customs duty on radio and television broadcast equipment should also be relaxed.

     

    The TV Broadcast and Distribution industry is already reaping benefits from the success of the digitization initiated by the Government. We look forward to necessary fiscal incentives in the form removal/ reduction of multiple taxes and levies and regulations which ensure transparency and power of choice to the end customer.

     

    Sandeep Ladda, Executive Director/Partner and National Leader – Entertainment & Media – Tax and Regulatory, PwC

    On the direct tax front, we could look at the following key areas:

    • Clarification on the applicability of withholding tax provisions on discount offered by DTH operators for selling recharge coupons through subscribers to third parties and on payments made by TV channel companies to uplinking companies
    • Providing a clarification stating that benefits of carry forward and set off of unabsorbed losses in amalgamation or demerger etc. also available to service sector companies
    • Proposal to sign more Co-production treaties, to get the tax credits and subsidy benefits
    • To provide a 10-year tax holiday to exports in the gaming, animation and the VFX (visual effects) industry for Indian content development, as they are emerging sectors (whether or not these are set up in an SEZ)

     

    Key expectations on the indirect tax front include:

    • To promote the domestic gaming industry, excise duty on local manufacture of gaming content could be brought down to 0%
    • Service tax applicability to the DTH industry could be eased for a limited period till the phased implementation of digitization is complete
    • Copyright services could be excluded from service tax net to avoid dual levy of service tax and VAT
    • Multiplex operators could be exempted from levy of service tax on property rentals and to distributors for exploitation of cinematographic rights, till GST is introduced to result in a seamless pass through of these indirect taxes

     

    The industry has been growing at a pace of around 17 percent YoY and is expected to maintain the momentum. The recent liberalization of foreign investment norms for a majority of broadcasting carriage segments and the radio phase III roll out will surely provide a fillip to the entertainment and media sector. Similar liberalization measures could be extended to the remaining broadcasting carriage segments like local cable operators. Also, the Phase III rollout could be implemented early for the industry to reap in the allied benefits flowing from the same.

     

    There were a few positive steps seen in the 2012 budget such as eligibility of investment linked deduction to hotel owners even if operations are carried out by third parties and service tax exemption on temporary transfer of copyright in cinematographic films. However, on the whole, budget of 2012 left a lot to be desired:

    • Retrospective amendments to widen the scope of royalty by including payments for transmission by satellite cable, optic fibre etc. as royalty were not expected. The relative standing of some of these retrospective amendments vis a vis India’s tax treaties has also been questioned by recent tax tribunal decisions. This has only added to existing confusion surrounding such royalty payments.
    • The budget also introduced provisions casting obligations on a non resident having no presence in India to withhold tax on any payments being made to a non resident of income accruing in India. This measure has impacted some of the India content broadcasting transactions happening between non resident parties.
    • Tax rates in case of non-resident, non-citizen sportspersons, non resident sports associations were increased from 10 percent to 20 percent on gross basis. Similarly, non resident entertainers were also brought under the tax net @ 20 percent on gross basis. Both these measures were burdensome.

     

    Sunil Lulla, Managing Director and CEO, Times Television Network

    The burden on the growing service sector needs to be reduced, so it may accelerate India’s growth. In prior years, in recent times, we have not seen anything progressive as such via the budget. Investment norms in some parts of the sector have already changed, for encouraging investment. The industry has been asking for lower duties on STBs so that digitization can progress and benefit millions of consumers. This is vital. As for the last year, the economy has been slow, sluggish and behind expectations – 2012 has been a disaster!

     

     

    Responses are in alphabetical order by surname.

     

  • The agency's Bengaluru office will handle the jewellery store account

    MEC India wins Bluestone.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    MEC India has been awarded the media duties for BlueStone.com, the online store for fine jewellery and accessories. The relationship begins with immediate effect.

     

    Founded by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, BlueStone.com is funded by blue-chip investors, Accel Partners.

     

    Speaking on the development, Mr Kushwaha said, “We are excited about taking BlueStone across a much wider canvas and are delighted to partner with MEC in this regard. MEC’s sound understanding of the digital space and their track record on e-commerce brands made our choice of agency easy. We look forward to a mutually rewarding partnership”.

     

    Commenting on the win, T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India said, “There is no better way to begin 2013 than this. We are excited about partnering BlueStone on their ambitious vision – a vision that could completely transform the jewellery retail landscape in India.”