Viacom 18 raises its pitch online

With an aggressive 360-degree campaign for its video-on-demand service the network has clearly signalled where its priorities lie

A month and a half after it announced its intentions to launch a digital platform, Voot, Viacom 18 has released a multi-media campaign that taps into country's huge demand for watching videos online and leverages the network's large library of content. The advertising blitzkrieg, mounted at a significant but undisclosed cost, is also expected to be a bugle call to arch rival Star's digital play, Hotstar and a host of other similar services in the country's increasingly crowded video-on-demand (VoD) market.

The ads currently displayed prominently on outdoor hoardings, in print and playing on TV and online platforms show three people - a man, woman and child - unable to peel their eyes off their Voot screens. VoD is becoming a part of daily viewing habits for many and according to a Nielsen report on VOD (March 2016), two-thirds of their global respondents said that they watched some form of online programming at least once a day.

Taking cognizance of changing consumer behaviour, Viacom18 is going all out with Voot. And thereby, the network, a 50:50 joint venture between Viacom Inc and TV18, which is a listed subsidiary of the Reliance-Industries-owned Network18, is also sending out a clear signal about its future growth priorities.

After Hotstar, Voot's marketing exercise is possibly the most visible, experts tracking the market said. Gaurav Gandhi, chief operating officer, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, said it was important to stand out in a market that was getting cluttered by the day.

In the last one year, the over-the-top (OTT) or VoD market in India has virtually boomed with almost every leading broadcaster either stepping into the fray or announcing plans to do so. The spate of launches, say market experts, is not expected to halt there; the desire to grab both online eyeballs and digital advertising revenues is expected to push more players to launch VOD services. "Today's media landscape is complex, but the growth of video-on-demand programming services can create opportunities for all players in the media ecosystem," said Megan Clarken, president, Nielsen Product Leadership in the report.

Last week, Arthur Bastings, president and managing director, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, in a conversation with Business Standard admitted he was watching the evolving OTT space in India closely. "With a significantly young population and a growing penetration of smart phones, I don't think anybody can afford to ignore this (OTT) space," he said.

While the advertising opportunity on VOD is estimated to be around Rs 1,200 crore now, it is slated to touch around Rs 6,500 crore in the next two to three years, according to industry experts. Existing players then have no choice but to outshout each other, since the fight, as Gandhi indicates, will be for active users especially in an advertiser-supported environment, where content is free. "It is like what you see on television," Gandhi explains, "where the most tuned in channel is also the most sought-after by advertisers. Players will have to up their game on all fronts, whether content or marketing."

Viacom18 is pushing the envelope with 17,000 hours of content across languages and genres. While movies, drama, sports, international shows characterise some of the other platforms (read Hotstar, Netflix, ErosNow etc), Voot has a four-pillar strategy to woo consumers. The network will focus on comedy, drama, reality and kids shows.

Kids, explains Gandhi, are a clear differentiator. According to the Ficci-KPMG Media & Entertainment report (2015), the kids' genre is the largest genre after GECs and movies. Apart from moving its content from Nick on to Voot's library, Viacom18 is also working on original shows as well as looking at acquiring third-party content in that space.

On the advertising front, Voot is in the process of stitching up deals with advertisers. "That process is on right now, so I cannot give you details," Gandhi says. But media agency sources say that deals will see a combination of digital-only advertising for some clients and a combination pack for those that want both TV and digital advertising. Online, clearly, is the new battlefront for advertisers, content producers and television networks.