The television industry came to the forefront with the entry of players such as Star TV, Zee TV and Sun TV into the Indian homes in the early nineties.

850 active channels From a handful of terrestrial channels two decades ago, now there are over 850 active channels — across languages and categories such as general entertainment, music, movies, news, infotainment and sports.

According to a FICCI-KPMG study, the television industry is estimated at Rs 37,000 crore at the end of 2012. General entertainment channels account for a chunk of this. But at 150, India has one of the highest numbers of news channels in the world. A senior executive at Zee TV group attributes the growth in news channels to higher profitability and growing number of channels from political parties. He says English news channels command higher ad rates due as they connect with potential urban audience.

“The number of music and sports channels have also grown. While music channels do their best to connect with the youth, sports channels have increased manifold, primarily on the back of cricket. Traditionally, cricket had been the major driver for sports channels in India,” said Harish Tambota, an independent programming consultant.

Regional channels Regional channels account for over 25 per cent of the total TV viewership. Even in terms of advertising, regional markets continue to outpace the national market in terms of growth.

While Tamil and Telugu markets account for around 50 per cent of the total regional viewership, Marathi and Bengali markets account for 30 per cent, says the study.

“We have been seeing a phenomenal growth in terms of viewership for regional channels. Advertisers too are willing pay a premium for this audience,” said Punit Goenka, Managing Director and CEO, Zee Enterprises Entertainment Ltd.

Changing content According to Sunil Punjabi, Business Head of AXN Networks India, an English GEC from the Sony stable, programme preference in India is significantly different from any other Asian country. So by tweaking its content, the channel has introduced a lot of soaps and reality shows to attract more viewers.

Similarly, music channels such as MTV and Sony Music have introduced reality shows.

“Soaps and reality shows are the most-wanted genres at present in India,” says Radhika Sarathkumar, Chairperson of television content producing company, Radaan Media Works Ltd.

Growing ad pie The growth in the number of channels has led to an increase in advertising inventory. Riding the growth of TV channels and viewership, advertisers across categories such as food and beverages, personal care products, services, automobile, healthcare, real estate and financial institutions, have increased their spend on TV.

As a result, the television industry managed to garner a little over 38 per cent of the total ad pie of Rs 35,000 crore.

TV advertising Though the advertising industry has been reeling under pressure in the last couple of years due to the global economic meltdown, the TV advertisement market has been growing. It registered a growth of 8 per cent in 2012 to touch Rs 13,500 crore. It, however, grew more than 12 per cent in the previous year and 17 per cent the year before that, said ad industry sources.

The growth in the number of channels can be attributed to increasing cable and satellite homes in the country. It increased by 11 million in 2012 to reach 130 million. This has changed the way television channels are being distributed. 2012 saw unprecedented changes in the distribution front, with mandatory digital access system (DAS) being implemented in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. This gave a shot in the arm for subscription revenues of broadcasters.

Cable, DTH Direct to Home (DTH) operators set the ball of DAS rolling. As of now, with a third of the pay TV industry subscriber base, DTH contributes more than cable TV operators to broadcasters as well as to the Government. However, multi-system operators, too, are expanding their network at a fast pace. With the kind of growth in penetration and digitisation and the resultant increase in revenues to broadcasters, the future is bright for the television industry.

ravikumar.r@thehindu.co.in

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