Out-of-the-box steps help Colors overseas

IndiaCast that went abroad with only Colors, has managed to become third in overall foreign earnings, by focusing on ad sales in subscription-heavy markets

Indian soaps, aired on Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), have found many takers in foreign shores from China, Southeast Asia, West Asia to European countries such as Italy. The trailblazer GEC, of course, was Subhash Chandra's Zee TV. However, Viacom18's distribution arm, IndiaCast, which manages the two GECs Colors and Rishtey, has made considerable headway in a relatively shorter span, compared to some rivals, as industry estimates now show.

According to industry sources, the total revenue from international markets for Indian broadcasters is in the range of Rs 1,650-1,700 crore. Zee leads, followed by Star. The third sport is populated by both IndiaCast and Sony (see chart).

While IndiaCast went overseas in 2010, Sony has been around for nearly 15 years. GECs are the flagship channels for the Indian networks overseas, contributing the maximum revenue.

IndiaCast had to enter international markets with just one channel, Colors, while most of its Indian counterparts already had a bouquet of offerings, complete with multiple GECs, movie, regional and sports channels).

"Even though our competitors were in international markets from the mid-90s, we had put a very aggressive time frame of five-seven years to catch up with them. We needed to have a clear strategy and take calculated risks to achieve our goal," says Gaurav Gandhi, group COO, IndiaCast. Besides keeping costs down, the idea was to focus on strong brand-building in each market.

Gandhi's team identified early on that depending only on subscription revenue (subscription bias is stronger in foreign markets than it is in India) would not be enough to gain ground in a short time. Channels like Zee TV, SET (Sony Entertainment Television) and Star Plus had legacy subscription deals, established packages and the edge of bouquet deals for platforms with limited bandwidth. "We focused equally on ad-sales, as a result," says Gandhi. Hence, branding the channel strongly for the audience to come to it was a must. The focus, Gandhi says has made Colors "one of the top-two viewed Hindi GECs in the markets we are in. And, we have a 50:50 ratio of subscription and ad-sales revenue for Colors".

Viacom18 had to battle the same stalwarts in the domestic market at the time of launch.

With some disruptive programming and heavy marketing, Colors was able to beat the reigning GEC, Star Plus within a year of launch in 2008 and held the post for almost a year.

When the network launched its second GEC, Rishtey, overseas in 2012, it had to differentiate between the two GECs. It was launched as a free-to-air (FTA) channel in the UK, after which Colors, too, was made FTA in that market.

"We realised that one of our competitors had a huge distribution advantage by being on a basic pack of the most dominant platforms there. The big money in that market was going to come from mainstream advertising, so we needed to be measured by Barb (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board that gauges viewership). That's when we made the switch and today we make three times the money compared to what we got when we were a pay channel," says Gandhi.

Colors mirrors the programming of its Indian version. With five overseas feeds, there is a small amount of local programming.

Rishtey is positioned as a channel with multi-cultural offerings, that takes a different avatar in each market. While in the UK, it is FTA - fighting with all channels night after night for ratings and ad revenue, in the US and Canada, it is a pay-TV sibling of Colors.

Rishtey also airs a lot of local, acquired content and content from Viacom18's network of channels such as kids programming, Pakistani shows, acquired Bollywood and youth programmes.

IndiaCast also got a boost by augmenting the GECs with channels like those of News18 India.

"The bouquet of general and business news works on the insight that a lot of people now look at India from a business perspective. So, we created this service - which gives a lot of business info along with the core of general news (powered by CNN IBN). Our distribution strategy has been different too - we are targeting many mainstream or international packs (and not just South-Asian) for placement - so more and more people look at this service as the definitive choice for news about India," says Gandhi.

Gandhi refuses to comment on revenues but agrees that IndiaCast is among the top three Indian channel bouquets overseas. The network has also been able to sell its content to other carriers. Two of Colors' shows Balika Vadhu and Uttaran have eventually gone on to be get translated to/adapted in native languages.