Digitisation's child Vh1 turns 10

It was late to the party as western music had been popular till the 90s, but was in time for digital delivery on DTH platforms

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Niche channels gained the most with the advent of distribution platforms besides the neighbourhood cablewallah. One of the brands which benefited irrefutably, marked its 10th anniversary this week.

Viacom18’s English music, and now entertainment, channel, Vh1, might have started on January 1, 2005, but its head, Ferzad Palia, says it is “just a 10-year-old kid”. Tasked with establishing yet another niche channel now, Comedy Central, it seems that Viacom18 was able to correct Vh1’s course through the past decade.

Present across cable and DTH (direct to home) platforms, Vh1 is one of the network’s profitable businesses. But the going was rough at the beginning. And, attaining both reach and profitability took some time.

REACH HIGHLIGHTS

• Channel share is 25 per cent relative to peers like Star World, AXN, Z Café, FX, Fox Crime, 9XO.
• Reaches approx. 40 million households (annual)
• Reaches to 91 million individuals (annual_
• Monthly reach of around 11 million
• Time-spent of the audience is around 25-30 minutes a week

The team had just two weeks on hand to market the launch. “We were asked around 15 December, 2004, that the channel be launched earlier than scheduled. We started with 40 videos and three cities: Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru,” says Palia.

But with analogue delivery systems, and cable operators with regional monopoly, dictating carriage, there were problems galore. “The first five years were tough. Revenues were small and it was difficult to convince advertisers. And, despite being in just three cities, there were still problems as Delhi alone, for example, had 600 cable operators. So, at times, the channel was not on some of the cable networks even in those cities,” says Palia.

Direct to home
But as DTH players began to spread out by 2007-08, Vh1’s reach improved. Palia says, “We could reach the non-metro cities. In the analogue times, a non-mass channel like Vh1 was relegated to the end of the band, with sketchy quality, making it difficult for viewers to sample it. On DTH platforms, it got clear audio and video reception.”

As a result, content was spruced up from 40 videos to 60 videos and blocks for music genres introduced such as Vh1 Classic for old numbers and Vh1 Cardio for a morning workout.

Use of limitations
But cable digitisation was still some time away. Also, western music was losing its connect with the Indian audience by the 2000s. With limited resources (and reach), the channel looked for opportunities to corner a captive audience. “We tied up with coffee shops, salons and gyms where an audience could watch the channel. We had the challenge of popularising western music, something that was the trend in the nineties. But by the time we launched, Bollywood was dominant. We have a long-standing relationship with Barista and recently tied up with Café Coffee Day,” says Palia.

By 2007-08, the network realised that the label of a music video channel would not be enough. Other music and youth channels, too, have gone beyond their initial brief to incorporate a wider appeal. Vh1 began airing long-format non-fiction shows that would bring it into the English entertainment category, worth around Rs 175-190 crore, with players like Star World, Zee Café, AXN and Comedy Central. However, in electronic programming guides of large cable operators and DTH players, it is still clubbed with music channels, as is its sister channel, MTV.

Steps beyond TV
It took seven to eight years for the channel to turn profitable claims Palia. Much like what the newbie MTV Indies is doing now by backing live events, Vh1 began organising live events and partnering with brands. The extension into events spurred advertiser interest.

It started off with a Hip Hop Hustle event, which eventually became a TV programme by itself, as did Rock Rules and Jazz Masters. The events got larger in scale, with the latest addition being Vh1 Super Sonic, held in Candolim (Goa) every year in the winters.

“Through the ground events, we provided an integrated media vehicle to our advertiser partners and that has helped get the money pouring in. Today, ad-sales contributes the majority,” Palia says.

The channel acquired the live broadcast rights to critically-acclaimed awards shows like the Emmy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and the Golden Globe.

Given that over the past 10 years, Vh1 has acquired a considerable amount of music content, the live shows are woven into the programming of the channel to create an eco-system.