For a channel that was making its second attempt into the country, this symbolic ritual has paid off dividends. "MTV has enjoyed a seven-fold growth in viewership, and now reaches 8.34 million households," says Sunil Lulla, general manager, MTV India. Yet, according to the latest NRS VI, 1997, MTV's average viewership in a week is up from virtually zero to 1.8 million people. Today, it is available in 3.02 million households, which is 20 per cent of the 15 million cable and satellite universe, and 9 per cent of the entire 33.6 million television households in the country.
Yet it's an achievement that's not to be scoffed at. When Roedy and his team were drawing up plans to return to the country, the signals weren't encouraging. In the six month period that MTV was away, Channel V had already decisively stepped in the void left by MTV. The channel clearly could put its finger on the Indian youth's pulse, thanks to its indigenous programming mix, the Hinglish lingo, and sophisticated packaging. The Channel V phenomenon was not restricted to just the metros, but in places like Chandigarh and Goa as well. So much so, teens in various towns knew what changes in hairstyle the VJs (video jockeys) sported, what clothes they wore and who lost weight and who didn't.
So how could MTV snatch the initiative back from Channel V?
Masala mix
11th August 1997 was a watershed day for MTV India. Something which appeared on the TV screen that day would change MTV's Indian face, perhaps forever. It wasn't one of those wacky, on-air promotions for MTV. Nor was it a steamy video. It was just star Sanjay Kapoor doing the mandatory gyrations with Urmila Matondkar and Madhoo - a song from the Hindi movie Mere Sapnon Ki Rani.
People working behind the scenes at MTV had struck a deal with HMV, to air MTV's first ever Hindi film song. Though Hindi film songs are de rigeur today, it was a great leap forward for the channel. On that Monday morning, even the young employees at MTV's Tardeo office in Mumbai had to reassure themselves by looking at the ubiquitous logo at the top right-hand corner of the TV screen.
The gyrations on the screen were causing palpitations off screen. A few kilometres away, at Lamington Road, the top brass of Channel V were also taken unawares. The message had gone home loud and clear: MTV was shedding Americana and taking on Channel V at its own game.
Up till that August morning, MTV had steadily fed the Indian viewer a diet of international releases, only to discover that he was flicking his remote control to some other channel. Because of that, even advertisers were not willing to spend money on the channel.
In the meanwhile, Channel V with its Indian packaging was raking in the moolah. It launched roadshows visiting cities across the country, released several music compilation albums and held its own music awards -- one of the ten biggest award ceremonies in the world.
Says an insider, "To run a music channel, you need to create lot of hype, you have to be present in the media, you have to be talked about." Channel V obviously had found the right buttons. To woo the cable operators, Channel V arranged for VJs to visit them for photo-opportunities. And be it production of programmes at exotic locales to showering cable operators with gifts, Channel V's purse-strings had been loosened.
Channel V was also aided by the fact that Star now had a southern beam which ensured that markets like India could get country-specific programming. Video jockeys like Ruby Bhatia and Jaaved Jaffery became household names. In addition, the on-air promos (the little, funny snippets that come between programmes) which resembled MTV's legendary ones, started becoming popular. One such example was Quick Gun Murugan, a parody of south Indian movies. Says an industry source, "Channel V finally spoke the young Indian's language. It was the one which first said eating vadapav is cool." Its formula was playing Madonna back to back with Daler Mehndi. Suddenly, being an Indian who listened to western as well as the Indian genre of music became cool -- everybody could become 'hep.'
The Grind
For MTV, turning the tide in its favour wasn't easy. Creating a set of loyal followers -- whom it could call its own -- seemed an uphill task. What face should it create for itself in India?
The first indications came when it began to air Bally Sagoo's remixes and pulled the plug off the Colonial Cousins' guitars. The initial response was favourable. In November 1996, when Michael Jackson came to India as part of the HIStory tour, MTV staged a major coup by becoming the official channel of the tour.
Finally, over the last nine months, MTV has gone in for the kill. Says an MTV insider, "We are doing it (Indianisation) fully. In fact today the channel's programmes are benchmarks for others to follow." Thankfully, for MTV, its Indianisation plans coincided with the 50th anniversary celebrations of Independence.
Why this volte face? The answer lies in the following numbers: According to Indian Music Industry (IMI) reports on listeners, 70 per cent of Indian music is Hindi film music, 20 per cent is regional, 3 per cent is devotional songs, 1 per cent belongs to the new category called Indipop, and international music forms a part of the balance 6 per cent. Though it took some time for this to sink in, MTV has since learnt fast, gunning for the mass market.
It researched over 500 music videos to understand viewer preferences. It spread its reach to around 144 towns across the country. It has managed to air over 100 'exclusives' - songs that were previously unavailable to any of the other channels. (To identify an MTV exclusive song, simply look for the animated MTV burr that rolls down the bottom of the TV screen.)
After conducting a research to understand the Indian youth, it found that the four most important issues were: education and employment, women's rights, clean politics and a clean environment. With this in mind, during election time early this year, MTV came out with the Rock The Vote campaign, urging viewers to exercise their choice -- of course in MTV ishtyle. Late last year, the channel went out on the streets to hunt for fresh VJ talent. Says Lulla, "It is very easy to hire personalities to get their rub off, but it is very difficult to create one." Of course, it instituted its own mandatory Viewer's Choice Awards as well.
Sibling rivalry
Call it confusion of the airwaves. If a "blind" test is done today, the average viewer of either of the two music channels will not be able to make out which is MTV and which is Channel V. He is not to blame actually.
Take for instance Channel V's BPL Oye. If you are watching this programme and flick your remote control to MTV, you will find the latter has its own countdown in the identical format called Ek Do Teen If you are a regular watcher of BPL Oye, you would know that singer Raageshwari is no more with Channel V, but with MTV. Another example. Channel V's Liberty First Day First Show has its MTV counterpart, at the same time, in Housefull.
Though Channel V can take credit for indigenously packaging programmes, Lulla counters it by saying that, "We offer a bhel puri mixture of music. We never ghetto-ised the channel." What he means is that there are no particular, fixed hours for playing Indian music, but played back to back along with international videos.
MTV today claims that over 80 per cent of the channel has Indian content, a major difference to its earlier 20 per cent. But Jules Fuller, general manager - India, Channel V, begs to differ, "In marketing to the youth, you have to keep rethinking every month. Trends keep changing."
Yes, there are a lot of areas on which the two rivals would like to slug it out, but it is indeed a fact that they do agree on one thing: the overwhelming number of single set households is a dampener on their respective music channels' growth. (Not more than 8 per cent of India's 33.5 million television households are dual set homes.) The reason lies in the very nature of music channels, which are beamed 24 hours a day. Viewers tend to plan and watch their favourite shows and casually visit the music channel, dipping in and out. Even if there is a religious teenager in the family worshipping either of the music channels, he would have to wait for non-peak hours, when the other members of the family are not watching the television.
Says Fuller, "Niche channels like music channels are traditionally reserved for the second set in the household. But if you notice, there has been the rise of alternate viewing hours in the mornings and the evenings." An offshoot of the single set household factor on Lulla's MTV is that the channel has had to restrict itself regarding its content, in an attempt to be in line with Indian social mores and boundaries.
Aunty 303's problems
Meanwhile, fissures were beginning to appear at Channel V's creative team. The brains behind Quick Gun Murugan, Udham Singh and Space Khalasis - Rajesh Devaraj - decided to only freelance for the channel. Creative director Shashanka Ghosh began freelancing as well. Even Ruby Bhatia, as Fuller says, "is diversifying." It is rumoured that many more employees have defected to MTV.
In some ways, the churn inside Channel V's office had been coming for sometime, with Hong Kong demanding more bang for the buck. Normally, after discussions on yearly programme production plans at the beginning of the year, Channel V is assigned its budget, apportioning that for the large flagship shows and the smaller shows. While set budgets couldn't be exceeded, there appeared to be no relation between the advertising income for a particular programme and its production budget.
Though the advertising rates of Channel V are marginally higher than MTV's, it offsets that with a packaged deal which combines rates with Star Movies and Star Plus. And it also helps that programmes can be cross-promoted across these channels.
But now, Channel V is cutting down on costs. Most of its videos are shot at its new, bright yellow studio-cum-office in Khar, Mumbai. Says an insider, "Budgets have been pruned. A lot of money was spent in the initial two years." So what is the fall out of such a situation?
Simply, production of programmes have to be done at minimum costs, employees who were used to flying and staying at swanky hotels now have to travel by rail. The channel is attempting economising on virtually all of its activities: barter arrangements, tie-ups with production houses, credit titles in exchange of hospitality.
Because of the exodus of people, Channel V has had to hire fresh creative talent and spend money and time to train them. Says an former Channel V employee, "Inexperienced personnel have risen up the ladder faster, and placed above the experienced ones." Cost cutting also has had a fall-out on the programming content.
While the two channels have been fencing each other, a third force seems to have stolen the thunder. Since February 1997, when Channel V's decline began, the cumulative audience (percentage of the total audience reached throughout the given month) of Channel V was 53.3 per cent and MTV's was 26 per cent. (This figure is the weighted average of the figures from three metros, Mumbai, Delhi and Madras, and the target audience are SEC A and B, between 15 to 34 years of age, of both sexes.)
Exactly a year after that, Channel V's percentage has dropped to 43.1, as against MTV's rise to 34.4. But there is a dark horse in this race: Music Asia. This channel has grown in the same period in the same cities from 22.1 to 39.4. There's also a school of thought amongst both the rival channels that MTV and Music Asia have gained viewership at the expense of ATN.
By Demand
So what aces does Channel V have up its sleeve to stem the rot? At least it is definitely sprucing up its programming by launching fresh talent and fresh contents. Says Fuller, "Indianisation is the starting point. What we have done is just the base of the cake, the icing is yet to come."
For starters, a re-packaging of flagship BPL Oye is due. Indian folk music, live music, tie-ups for live shows at ritzy Mumbai hang-outs like Not Just Jazz By The Bay and Razzberry Rhinoceros, Asian underground music from the UK is on the anvil. Fresh graduates from National Institute of Design are working feverishly to design new graphics. Acknowledges Fuller, "The past year has been very serious, very competitive. Now we will go mad, and rain heavily on the parade." The channel has managed to retain its long-time advertisers like BPL and Liberty, and has recently signed a three-year contract with Coke for sponsoring six roadshows each year. And it has managed to get Walls Feast to sponsor for the first time for its "The Chosen One' series.
MTV also has planned some fresh moves in May, but the company is tight-lipped about it. But both the contenders have to make space, if they haven't done it already, for the most unlikely third player in the field, Music Asia.
Now it is the turn of the Indian viewer to say, "We are like this only."
