Air-Time Marketing Channels
The cost to the French biggie, which is a concessionaire for some 150 radio stations, 130 press titles, and 32 TV channels in Europe comes to Rs 10 crore over three years. IP also gets equal representation on the company (with a claimed turnover of Rs 37 crore) board. Primetime is slated to take on a new label, Primetime IP.
Primetime IP is banking on the fact that several new channels which have come up -- and many more are likely to crop up -- will find it uneconomical to set up and sustain full-fledged marketing units.
"There's a point at which setting up a marketing team becomes economically viable for a channel; before that, it's just a drain on resources," says Krishnan. "A channel has to be sampled initially by viewers and advertisers, then it should gain penetration and build up viewers to that critical mass. In India, this may take a long time, especially with the fragmentation of viewerships in a highly competitive environment. So channels can farm out their marketing functions to people like us."
What he says is true, if one goes by the past. Star TV. for instance, had appointed Primetime, followed by MediaScope to market its air-time. Then, TNT Cartoon network appointed MediaScope, while ESPN India's air-time has been sold by the Lalit Modi group company Buena Vista. Finally, who can forget that DD has had its air-time marketed by independent producers for years now.
Krishnan says that IP will help Primetime (which has about 33 air-time sellers on its rolls) in deciding on how it should approach and implement the outsourcing concept in the Indian market as it has the experience and expertise from operating in several foreign markets. "We have been marketing DD programmes for years now; and we are talking about entire channels or big time blocks, not half an hour slots. IP has the expertise and software to manage this," says Krishnan. "We have a lot of homework to do. But I see a lot of potential. Already, a regional channel has been asking us to take on all its air-time, he added.