SATELLITE & CABLE: Battle for Indian TV viewers heats up

There must have been distress at Sony Entertainment TV (SET) in

Mumbai, as Mr James Packer, chairman, publishing and broadcasting, did a

quick carve-'n'-carry job, gouging away 30 carefully nurtured SET

personnel for his newly-launched HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India.

Said Mr Packer about the long anticipated entry of the group into South

Asia, "The timing was right. All these years, both Himachal Futuristics

Communications (51 per cent partner) and Consolidated Press Holdings

(CPH) were busy, but we were consciously looking and waiting to tap the

Indian market.

"We are a proudly Australian company and our decided number one priority

was for expansion in India. We are not interested in global footprints,"

he continued, saying, "we have a country-specific need to grow a

business."

Carrying the pennant for Mr Packer's channel is Ravina Raj Kohli,

ex-creative director, SET, and now, the new CEO at Channel Nine.

Although wounded, SET's top two gladiators, Mr Kunal Dasgupta, CEO, and

Mr Rajesh Pant, COO, have fought too many sulphurous battles to be

fazed. Their critical push to heave Zee TV - and anybody else - aside to

get within snarling distance of the Star TV behemoth is nigh. They have

quickly assessed the chink in their armour and replaced 29 people in

short order; and after a considered pause, they have hired the

formidable - and equally glamorous - Ms Rekha Nigam as a replacement for

Ms Kohli.

An award-winning conceptualiser and copywriter, Ms Kohli made her mark

early in advertising, moving rapidly through a variety of agencies

including Grey in Singapore where she was creative director. After a

week-long stint at a Mumbai production house, she stepped swiftly into

the broadcast world when SET asked her to take charge of programming and

marketing. For three years she was the third member of the triumvirate

at SET, which successfully exploited every flaw in the competition's

programming. Now Channel Nine will expect her to use her talent,

marketing skills and insider knowledge to stake out turf in the prime

time zone where Star, Zee, and erstwhile comrades-in-arms Sony have

heavily-guarded positions. The task is a heroic and pioneering one, made

difficult by the fact that Channel Nine will be carried on the

government-owned Doordarshan's free-to-air Metro channel.

Doordarshan (DD), the unchallenged slumlord of satellite and terrestrial

broadcasting, largely carries programmes allegedly made on the

cheap.

Worse, the transmission quality and equipment at DD is so bad that

HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India is using its own engineers to sort out

glitches.

Unsurprisingly, DD has few winners in the ratings game and in this

scenario, before Channel Nine can make a dent in prime time, it has to

run the gamut of bad image problems associated with the national

broadcaster.

In addition, since January 2000, 22 new C&S channels have joined the

fray, a launch rate of about two channels per month. The market is

fragmenting, and TV adspend, currently pegged at about US$800

million by Rensearch Securities, Bombay, is spread thin.

Branding itself Nine Gold on DD Metro, the broadcaster presents an

Indianised variety of shows that have succeeded in Australia, such as

Superstars, Greed and The Price is Right. Considering that some of its

programming will be going head-to-head against Star's Indian version of

Who Wants to be a Millionaire which is re-writing television history,

the going is bound to be rough, and will demand all nimbleness that Ms

Kohli has at her command.

Unflinchingly, Mr Packer said, "The entry barriers don't deter us at

all. We are using the plank of viewership and reach which far outnumbers

the C&S universe. Let me be very clear that five years down the road, we

will be among the top five entertainment companies in the land."

But in the longer run, more than television, Mr Packer is gambling

heavily on developments in technology and convergence in India. He said,

"We have taken a view on India and we are convinced that we have to be

here as India will be a dynamo of the 21st century."

His final word on the subject is: "We (CPH) have a long history in

Australia as an integrated media and convergence company and what we

have immodestly achieved in Australia can be a showcase of what we

intend bringing to the Indian market."