[A2k] NYT: golden age of TV in India is now

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
QUOTE:
Television ownership is growing fast here, and it has plenty more
room to expand. There are roughly 105 million homes with televisions
in India, up from 88 million in 2000. The current number of
television households is about the same as in the United States,
though for India that amounts to only about half of the country=92s
households, compared with 98 percent in the United States.

Advertising spending on Indian television increased by 21 percent a
year, on average, from 1995 to 2005, when it reached $1.6 billion,
according to ZenithOptimedia, which tracks advertising globally.
Double-digit growth rates are expected to continue for years.

Such numbers are very tempting to companies like the News
Corporation, Disney, Time Warner and Viacom, which are losing viewers
and advertisers in their core Western markets. (In addition to the
domestic market, Indian television is also delivered via satellite
and cable to the global South Asian diaspora.)
END OF QUOTE


In India, the Golden Age of Television Is Now
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/business/yourmoney/11india.html?
_r=3D1&ref=3Dworldbusiness&oref=3Dslogin
By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: February 11, 2007

Santosh Verma for The New York Times

GHANSHYAM P. SHAH, an 82-year-old widower, spends up to eight hours a
day in front of his television watching prayer services, soap operas
and financial news. But one afternoon last December, he was
completely disconnected from his favorite pastime =97 and visibly
unsettled =97 because his new digital set-top box was not working.

=93I=92ll become really agitated if I can=92t watch,=94 Mr. Shah said as Ru=
my
M. Bhagat, the owner of a small cable company, gave up and plugged
the wire directly into the television until he could return with
another box. The image was no longer digital, but that did not matter
to Mr. Shah, a retired gold and silver dealer, whose face lit up as
CNBC India reported that the price of gold was up in afternoon trading.

Mr. Bhagat explained that some set-top boxes, which had been sitting
in warehouses for months in advance of a government-mandated change
to digital television, had proved a weak match for the heat and
humidity of Mumbai. =93Sometimes we have teething problems,=94 he said.

Growing pains like these are common throughout India=92s booming
television industry. Deregulation and new technology have combined to
produce an explosion of new offerings. Before the early 1990s, a
single government broadcaster provided a handful of channels. Now a
crowded field of domestic and global media companies, including the
News Corporation, Sony Entertainment and Walt Disney, offer hundreds
of channels.

Indian films, especially the flashy musicals and dramas of Bollywood,
have grabbed plenty of attention in the West. But the country=92s
lesser-known television business is more than twice as big, with an
estimated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2005, according to
PricewaterhouseCoopers. It is also starting to exert greater cultural
influence.

Television ownership is growing fast here, and it has plenty more
room to expand. There are roughly 105 million homes with televisions
in India, up from 88 million in 2000. The current number of
television households is about the same as in the United States,
though for India that amounts to only about half of the country=92s
households, compared with 98 percent in the United States.

Advertising spending on Indian television increased by 21 percent a
year, on average, from 1995 to 2005, when it reached $1.6 billion,
according to ZenithOptimedia, which tracks advertising globally.
Double-digit growth rates are expected to continue for years.

Such numbers are very tempting to companies like the News
Corporation, Disney, Time Warner and Viacom, which are losing viewers
and advertisers in their core Western markets. (In addition to the
domestic market, Indian television is also delivered via satellite
and cable to the global South Asian diaspora.)

The pace of change in India is supercharged because the country is
catching up to, and in some cases leapfrogging, developments that
took decades to play out elsewhere.

=93Everything that happened in the rest of the world in 10 years, is
happening here in two years,=94 said Vikram Kaushik, the chief
executive of Tata Sky, a satellite-TV company that is jointly owned
by the News Corporation and the Tata Group, the Indian industrial
conglomerate.

In the 1990s, media companies seized on new opportunities in India
after the government, which had controlled broadcasting for nearly 50
years, began releasing its grip. The first big changes in Indian
television came in the early part of that decade, when cable
operators used satellite dishes, illegal but tolerated at the time,
to give subscribers access to news on CNN, as well as American soap
operas and movies. Viewers could also watch Indian movies and music
on Zee TV, then a fledgling joint venture between the News
Corporation and an Indian entrepreneur.

Previously, India=92s ruling elite had a dual and somewhat
contradictory view of broadcasting. On the one hand, politicians
considered it too powerful a force to be left to the private sector,
especially in the years after independence in 1947, when the nation=92s
unity and secularism were considered vulnerable. On the other hand,
television was seen as too frivolous to merit much investment at a
time when politicians were focused on turning India into an
industrial power.

Those attitudes began to change after a financial crisis in the early
=9290s forced the Indian government to devalue its currency, the rupee,
and to start relinquishing its tight control over the economy. Then,
in 1995, the country=92s highest court declared the government=92s
monopoly over broadcasting unconstitutional.

When it did yield, India went further in deregulating television than
it did in other sectors of the economy. It also gave up far more
control when compared with China, the country against which it is
most often measured. Foreign media companies can fully own
entertainment networks here; they cannot in China. (India does,
however, limit foreign ownership to 26 percent of television news
channels and newspapers.)

THE open environment attracted the News Corporation, which entered
the market in 1993 by acquiring Star TV. Star has the highest-rated
shows among the private networks in Hindi-speaking parts of the
country. Sony started its flagship channel here in 1995 and now has
seven channels; the company owns about 61 percent of the business,
with Indian investors owning the rest. The biggest Indian
broadcasters are Zee and Sun TV, which dominates ratings in non-Hindi-
speaking southern India.

Still, Doordarshan, the public broadcaster, remains the most widely
available network, especially in rural areas, where a majority of the
population lives.

To keep up with changing times, Doordarshan has retooled its
programming, adding genres like soap operas and musical contests to a
lineup that is still dominated by more high-minded =97 and what some
critics would call staid =97 cultural programming. It has also started
a satellite-TV service that has no subscription fees but also does
not include the most popular private channels.

Star has been one of the few consistently profitable businesses in
Indian television. Although the News Corporation does not disclose
financial details of its operations here, Merrill Lynch estimates
that Star accounts for 3 percent of the company=92s total operating
income, or about $116 million in the 2006 fiscal year.

Zee, which started by offering a few hours of programming a day, now
has more than two dozen channels; it started a satellite-TV service,
DishTV, in 2004. =93We offered an alternative to a broadcaster,
Doordarshan, from which urban audiences felt disconnected,=94 said
Ashish Kaul, a senior vice president at Zee. =93You cannot blame
Doordarshan; it had a national obligation.=94

About 60 percent of the nation=92s television households subscribe to
the cable or satellite services that carry private channels. Though
Indians theoretically have dozens of channels to choose from, a
handful dominate the ratings and earn most of the profits. A
fragmented cable business is straining to reshape itself in response
to new regulations and competition from satellite television services.

The transition to digital cable, meanwhile, has so far occurred only
in parts of India=92s four most populous cities. The changeover has
been troubled by technical problems, weak enforcement of a Jan. 1
deadline and a shortage of set-top boxes.

At the same time, the newest technology operates alongside the often
stark economic and social realities of India. Black-and-white
televisions still account for an estimated 40 percent of all TV=92s in
use, and about 56 percent of rural households do not have
electricity, according to India=92s 2001 census. And because most homes
in India that have a television have just one set, watching TV can be
a communal activity that brings together the entire family, and often
the neighbors, too.

Perhaps the most striking of the changes in Indian television is what
is starting to show up on the screen.

=93Dhoom Machaoo Dhoom=94 (Hindi for =93Let=92s have a blast=94) is a Disne=
y
show aimed at teenagers, and it might look at home on the Disney
Channel in the United States. It is about four teenage girls, one of
them from New York, who want to start a band so they can represent
their school in a talent contest. They face a number of challenges,
including an arrogant classmate who is determined to derail their plans.

But the show, which went on the air last month, has an Indian twist.
Priyanka, the New Yorker who has returned to her family=92s native
land, wants the girls to perform a song they have created, rather
than using a tune from a popular Bollywood movie, as the local norms
dictate. In one episode, Kajal, played by Sriti Jha, complains that
Priyanka doesn=92t understand India. =93Only Bollywood works here,=94 she
insists.

The girls do not dwell on the issue, but it is an important
consideration for television executives and media companies here.
Indian television has a strong partnership with the film industry,
whose stars appear on its shows as guests, contestants and hosts.
Movies and music videos from Bollywood remain staples on television
here.

Yet in the last decade television has attained influence over the
popular culture that is starting to rival that of the film business.
And whereas filmmakers have traditionally worked in close-knit
networks that operate in a single language, media companies have been
exploiting the large and growing capacity of cable and satellite
networks to cheaply develop customized channels and shows for
different parts of the country. Zee, for instance, operates several
regional-language entertainment and news channels.

=93We have a vibrant TV industry,=94 said Rama Bijapurkar, a business
consultant whose clients include Disney and who also writes a column
for The Economic Times. =93When talking about the hinterland, TV is
what Bollywood would like to be.=94

Nachiket Pantvaidya, an executive director at Disney=92s Indian
operations, predicted that =93Dhoom=94 would be a breakthrough for Indian
television because it was one of the few shows produced for
teenagers, and specifically for girls. He said that more than 90
percent of what Indian youths watch on TV are family dramas and other
shows created for their parents.

=93This is a story of kids who are trying to do something out of the
ordinary,=94 Mr. Pantvaidya said. =93Nobody makes TV for the real world.
This kind of TV is rare.=94

Ms. Jha, the 20-year-old who plays one of the girls on =93Dhoom,=94
added: =93This can=92t be compared to the whole lot of family serials.
This is much more real and close to the lives of kids.=94

=93Dhoom=94 is Disney=92s sophomore effort at producing TV shows in India =
=97
its first, =93Vicky Aur Vetaal,=94 was based on an Indian myth about a
prince and a genie-like figure. The company sees television as the
first step in a broader India strategy that includes films,
merchandising and possibly a theme park. Last year, Disney spent
$44.5 million to acquire a 15 percent stake in UTV, a production
company based in Mumbai, and to buy Hungama, a television channel of
children=92s programming created by UTV.

=93We decided early on that this had to be driven locally,=94 said Gary
Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide in
Burbank, Calif. =93If we were to truly become a global company, we had
to let our regional organizations create their own programming.=94
India was the first country where the company developed local Disney
Channel shows, something it is now doing in Britain and Japan, too.

Many of Disney=92s competitors have built their businesses on a similar
strategy. Time Warner, which operates the Pogo and Cartoon Network
channels here, is offering an Indian version of =93Sesame Street=94
called =93Galli Galli Sim Sim.=94 The show uses some material from the
popular American show, but it is set on an Indian streetscape and is
anchored by four local Muppets. A large orange-and-red lion named
Boombah replaces Big Bird.

Television executives say the ventures by Disney and others aimed at
youths and various niche markets are a welcome break from the way
business has been done in India. A handful of channels =97 which carry
soap operas, reality shows, music shows and important cricket
tournaments =97 receive the bulk of the advertising. Yet entrepreneurs
continue spending millions of dollars starting copycat networks.
India has more than 40 cable news channels, for example.

=93Here it is, we have 200 channels of the same stuff, and people are
saying let=92s do more of it,=94 said Sameer Nair, chief executive of
Star Entertainment, a News Corporation subsidiary. =93That will churn
and change.=94 (In an indication that competition is intensifying, Mr.
Nair announced last month that he would be leaving Star in March.
According to news reports, he will be helping a rival Indian-owned TV
company start a new entertainment channel.)

AS media executives try to introduce innovative programming, exactly
what can go on the air in India remains fluid. There is no overt
censorship of television content, but most media companies say they
aggressively police themselves to avoid running afoul of political
and cultural mores.

Several movie channels were forced to go off the air for more than a
week last summer when a court in Mumbai ruled in favor of a
schoolteacher who had argued that films that had been rated for adult
viewing only in their cinematic release could not be shown on
television without being edited and recertified for a wider audience.

In some ways, television fare in India today is far more adventurous
than it was even five years ago. A recent adaptation of =93Big
Brother,=94 known here as =93Bigg Boss,=94 for instance, has stirred the
pot by showing minor celebrities behaving badly. Though it may seem
insignificant, the show has let viewers see famous people as human
beings, said Kunal Dasgupta, who heads Sony=92s Indian television
operations, which broadcasts the show.

Still, Mr. Dasgupta knows that social customs evolve slowly here. He
said he was considering =93with kid gloves=94 a proposal from an Italian
company to help produce a miniseries that would be based loosely on
the life of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India=92s ruling
Congress Party who is the widow of the former prime minister, Rajiv
Gandhi.

The proposal calls for an Indian cast, but the series would take an
=93Italian perspective,=94 Mr. Dasgupta said. =93I find it very exciting
and challenging,=94 he said. =93At the same time, knowing our own media,
we could be ripped apart.=94 He said he was =93trying to see if we can
get people who are really in power to accept that if we do such a
thing it will be O.K.=94

The fact that he is even considering such a proposal is a sign of how
far television has come in India. And as the country continues to
experience major economic and social changes, the shape of Indian
television is likely to keep evolving.

************************************************************************
***
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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