Is Digitisation a welcome change for Indian Television ?

Finally the 1st phase of cable TV digitisation is almost over.This shift from analog to digital will surely have a very interesting impact on the industry.In fact,already some interesting numbers have been thrown up like the drop in the number of channels having 100+ GRPs

Firstly,it will impact everybody from broadcasters to advertisers to media planners and most importantly the viewers.The market will no longer be at the mercy of few big players which will in turn benefit the viewers who are open to see different content but didnt' have much access to it earlier.Viewers's exposure to so many choices will eventually lead to improvement in content to retain their audience.Broadcasters have always been defending their regressive content by saying that is what the audience wants without realizing that they may be bearing it due to lack of options.But audience exposure to so many channels may lead to a change in their viewing habits thereby leading the broadcasters to change their content for better

Till now the English GECs have been the biggest gainers which means the space was already there for them.Not only there will be more exposure to existing niche channels there may be launch of new channels too. GECs in Indian Television is still by and large dedicated to women and there is barely any content for men who either surf news and sports channels or some exciting game shows here and there.But in coming months we may see the launch of some exclusive channels for men.Similarly for kids too there are very limited options available and digitisation will provide enough options for them too

For advertisers also it will help them in identifying and targeting their audience better with a plethora of niche channels.They can recognise their target audience in a better way which would help them in concentrating their efforts to reach them more fruitfully.Media planners too will have to look for a better channel mix

The second phase which would cover 15 states and 38 cities and is expected to be completed by 31st March 2013 will be the real game changer as by that time many more interesting trends would have been thrown up

Keep following this space for more...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Was Ajay Devgan Justified in taking YRF to the court?

From last two weeks there have been lots of noise regarding Ajay Devgan's notice to Yash Raj,its implications et al .But has he done a right thing by doing so,if you ask me Yes he has.Its really unfair on part of any movie production house to use their muscle power to manipulate the competitors.It happens in every industry and film industry is no different.. If had happened 15 years ago it would not have this ramifications where movies had time to grow.In fact there have been many cases when movie released on same day have worked like Gadar and Lagan and also Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Bade Miya Chhote Miya,(the latter two released on Diwali itself). But today when the business of movies are dependent on weekends and at the most,a week a movie definately loses out if it does not get sufficient number of screens even if the movie is better than the other one.Even a good word of mouth wont' help since even if people want to see the movie what would they do if its not playing in
Read more

Can premiering movies on OTT platforms rob superstars of their stardom?

During the pandemic, one big change which happened in the entertainment industry was the release of movies on the OTT platforms.Although, it helped Bollywood minimise its lossed due to the shutdown of the theatres the overall impact of it on the industry and starts has been/would be detrimental. There are quite a few reasons for this.Movie stars enjoy such an adulation because right from the advent of movies because people made efforts to watch them. In the earlier times, it was standing in the ticket que for hours and later too even when the online ticketing options started one has to go to a platform to book a ticket and make an effort to watch the stars. But when movies of starts like Amitabh Bacchan,Akshay Kumar,Sanjay Dutt,Alia Bhatt,Vidya Balan come to your phone/laptop/tv directly with their new proposition then the aura is lost.One can argue that they anyways come to our TV everyday in form of re-runs but those are old content which people have already watched. With due respect
Read more

Can IIM's really predict a film's success?

Last week a news article said that students of IIM A will be cracking the code of a films' success based on some statistical tools at least during the first three days.With due respect to IIM A which is our country's best B School and one of the best in world,this study on face of it doesnt' make sense.Although it would be wrong to comment on something without knowing about  the tools and how will be they implementing it but the fact is no statistical tool can predict the success of an art form specially films on which viewers' views are so myriad.If the study limits itself to the opening weekend predictions it does make some sense as promotions do play a large role in initial footfalls,but beyond that it does not seem to be possible We see on a regular basis that we often have different opinions on the same movie when we came out of the theatre,some like it some dont. Also people have different expectations from the same movie,some are more keen on the drama part,so
Read more