Roma Khanna is in an unreasonably jovial mood for someone who professes to be in a debilitating state of jetlag. Perhaps this is owing to her typically Canadian amiable disposition. Or to the fact that she is staying in a six-star hotel.
Khanna is over from the US to kick the tyres of an international media network she is in the early stages of building: NBC Universal, which has recently moved in with its cousin CNBC to share regional headquarters in Singapore.
From the inside of an airy meeting room at the splendid Raffles Hotel, she reveals her plans to introduce Asia to the latest TV imports from the West.
Khanna is nine months into her position as president of NBC Universal’s international arm, which she joined from the Canadian TV network CHUM - so is as new to her role as her NBCU is to Asia.
It wasn’t until last year that NBC Universal first made its presence felt in the region. It acquired Sparrowhawk Media Group, a UK-based private equity-back company which manages a collection of cable channels, some of which already have a footprint in Asia.
They include Hallmark (the TV channel, not the greetings cards), Sci-Fi, Movies 24, KidsCo and Diva TV, which are operated by the company known as NBC Universal Global Networks, over which Khanna presides.
The first real sign that Global Networks means business in Asia came in April this year, when Sci-Fi launched in Japan, bringing Japanese viewers a curious concoction of science fiction, fantasy and horror shows.
Indeed, say media planners, NBCU’s seemingly randomly assembled portfolio of channels is itself a curious concoction which Khanna will do well to sell to broadcasters and advertisers.
And it’s not as if these channels are household names, even in their countries of origin, say agencies. KidsCo may be increasingly familiar to children in the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong, with shows such as Angela Anaconda and Babar the Elephant. But familiar or not, the channel is up against the likes of Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Turner’s Cartoon Network, which both have a 10-year head start in Asia-Pacific.
Sci-Fi looks like the portfolio’s strongest option, and is already proving popular in Japan, with ratings up by 400 per cent since launch. But in Sony’s AXN it has a 24-hour rival with solid, original programming with a distribution network that stretches from India to Papua New Guinea.
Khanna insists, though, that Sci-Fi occupies a niche of its own. “It’s not all spaceships and aliens,” she insists. “There’s animated programming too, which suits Japanese audiences. It is very much its own channel, and in a sense we will be ‘taste-making’ for Asian audiences as we grow.”
Meanwhile, Khanna must overcome a perception that NBCU is (like some of its American rivals) using Asia as a recycling bin for long-running, often discontinued shows that the West has grown thoroughly bored of.
Its ‘family-friendly’ Hallmark Channel, for instance, airs repeats of ER, Law & Order, Judging Amy and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
This is wide off the mark, says Khanna. Other channels coming soon to the region, such as 13th Street - ‘The action and suspense channel’ - will offer viewers something completely new. And she is quick to add that a focus for her this year and next will be to bring in more original content, starting with Sci-Fi, then on to the other channels once they gain a firmer foothold in the market.
She argues, too, that NBCU is far from an obsure hotch-potch of channels. “Sci-Fi is more for men, while Hallmark is female skewed,” she explains. “We have a portfolio strategy for advertising sales. Going forward, we want to develop our channels into genre leaders, then we sell them at a premium.”
For now, Khanna’s priority is growth and scale. “When I was hired we had 15 channels. Today we have 59.
By 2009, my target is to hit the hundred-channel mark.” This should translate to a doubling of revenue for Global Networks, she predicts.
As the new boss of a new entity within a newish company (NBC Universal was formed in 2004, from the merger of General Electric’s NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment) Khanna is aware that she has plenty to prove. But this is partly why she joined.
“I wanted to be part of an international team, and Global Networks felt like an entrepreneurial organisation within a much larger company,” she says. Much larger being an understatement. Doesn’t she feel dwarfed, not only by the behemoth that she reports into, but the task ahead of her?
“It’s nice doing business knowing you have NBC and General Electric standing behind you,” she says. “And, though we’re a small part of the company, we get plenty of time and attention. After all, we are the growth arm.”
Roma Khanna’s CV
2007 President, global networks and digital initiatives, NBC Universal International
2005 VP, CHUM Interactive
2003 EVP, Snap Media
1999 Manager, legal and business affairs, Sony Music Canada
