Exclusive | Keeping up with changing times, TTN's Srivastava

With an aim to provide quality content and in the quest to cater to the ever changing needs and demand of audiences in the best possible way, English Entertainment broadcasters have always tried to bring in rich content for their target audiences. Growing and evolving year on year, the English Entertainment genre has come a long way. Broadcasters showcase distinctive international content which brings to life many stories, moments and smiles for the audiences.

Being the new kids on the block they have witnessed competition from every corner. MOVIES NOW and Romedy NOW which cater to urban Indian audiences have been quick in adopting newer strategies and working on their content line-up.  While both the channels cater to a similar set of audiences the objective of both is different. One shows blockbuster, action and drama, while the other showcases romance and comedy.

In order to get a deeper understanding of both the channels we at Adgully caught up with Vivek Srivastava, Senior Vice President and English Entertainment Cluster Head, Times Television Network who very recently came on board with new ideas and an action plan.

Growth so far

Sharing insights on the growth and evolution of the overall English Entertainment genre, so far Srivastava said, "Some time back in the movie entertainment space, we were at third & fourth position. Today we are the number one position and have been consistent since the last 18-20 weeks.”

Sharing TAM details, Srivastava said, "Both MOVIES NOW & Romedy NOW are leading in their respective categories. Romedy NOW has a 28% channel share (TAM, CS 15-44 AB, Wk 51 ’14-Wk 11 ’15, All India 1mn+) while MOVIES NOW has a 20% channel share (TAM, CS 15-44 AB, Wk 51 ’14-Wk 11 ’15, All India 1mn+)."

He adds, “Both our channels have been fairly aggressive. While Romedy NOW is still a new player, we have yet managed to be number one for 4-5 months together last year. All in all, both the channels have come up well and there has been a sizeable growth in market share in the last six months."

Strategies

Speaking about the strategy for both the channels, Srivastava tells us, "There has been an all rounded effort on all fronts, whether it is efforts on acquisition of newer content, distribution or for that matter marketing.”

Ever since Srivastava joined as Cluster Head English Entertainment for TTN, the channel has been involved in a lot of consumer engagement programs, for instance - the 100 mania property on MOVIES NOW. There has also been an increased focus on premieres on both the channels. Recently MOVIES NOW+ .was launched as the ‘Gold Class of Hollywood’ which is the only HD offering from the network at present.

He shares, “We had an activity called ‘100 mania’ on MOVIES NOW which ran for 100 days, where we focused on the 9pm slot and created traction for that time band. There has been effort on all directions, be it on content, marketing, programming, or scheduling.”

Not only that, slots were also created for the evening band on Romedy NOW to build appointment viewing. The same has been promoted extensively in the social media space.

Apart from that the channel has also acquired newer content and additional studio partnerships for their extensive library. There has also been extensive work which has gone in working on the marketing and scheduling front.

On the Romedy front, he adds, “With Romedy we are very clear with the content. It has to be happy which is as per the brand philosophy of Love, Laugh, Live. And anything and everything which is showcased on the channel has to be themed for Love, Laugh, Live, that’s why most of the movies that you see on the channel are in that zone. They are light hearted; they are in the lively positive space. The channel occupies a very happy space and we would want to stick to that philosophy."

Plans ahead

Keeping in mind the competition, one needs to be ahead of it all the time. Sharing insights about the channels plans ahead Srivastava said, "The objective is very simple; we have to be in the leadership clan. We have to be leaders both from a viewership point and from a perception stand point. Recently, we have acquired a lot of additional content. For MOVIES NOW we have premieres which happen every Month. We also have an aggressive marketing team in place. They ensure leadership both in perception and in viewership and that’s the key mandate for us for the coming year."

Keeping up with times

English entertainment to a great extent in India has come of age. The growth now is not only coming to the mass brands but also for rightly segmented properties. Romedy has a very nice programming segment which we have looked at. We have taken an emotional hook to the brand and because it is a nicely segmented channel it has seen tremendous traction from the consumers. Also these two brands have their own individual identity and individual consumer pull and therefore, they co-exist very well in the entire space. This is essentially, the growth driver for both brands.

Ad rates

Though Srivastava refrained from commenting on the percentage increase in ad rates, he did mention that there were definitely some changes. He said, "Yes, there are corrections which are there, now that we are the market leaders. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to share the details."

HD Strategy

On a concluding note, Srivastava tells us about the HD strategy for both the channels, "Unlike anybody else in the market, we have a fully grown HD channel. While our competition typically has a simultaneous cast on their HD platform, where three movies are run at the same time on two channels, we have a full-fledged HD channel called MOVIES NOW+. " By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit