TV in India, at a consumer level, is incredibly cheap: Sameer Nair

Sameer Nair, Chief Executive Officer, Turner General Entertainment Networks India Pvt. Ltd, is a pragmatic thinker and a straight-forward talker. From leading the number one GEC in the past to now heading a network of channels with distinct content, Nair is one of the most respected industry leaders today. In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, he talks about the competitive and progressive growth in the Indian TV industry and his vision for the network. Excerpts:

Adgully: If you could share with us some of the defining moments of your career?

Sameer Nair: I believe that every moment in my life is defining. I have worked with a lot of interesting people. Working on formats like Kaun Banega Crorepati, Nach Baliye, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and then in Imagine working on formats like Ramayan, Oye it's Friday, Ghar ki Baat Hain etc and the success of each of these shows were some of the gratifying moments for me. Now when we have come out with our biggest investment of the year Zor Ka Jhatka and when an actor of Shah Rukh Khan's stature says that I am a good friend I think it is very appeasing.

Ag: Imagine has always been synonymous to unique content, what is the strategy in place there?

SN: I think at every level we look to be unique and differentiated. The key words have always been unique, popular and distinctive for us. So we have always looked at creating universal programme which is supremely differentiated. Even if some of our formats have worked or not worked the baseline has been that they clearly have been differentiated. There have also been controversial events attached to some of our formats but we do not start out to court controversies. Moreover the GEC space has become so competitive that it does not make sense to have a Me Too Strategy. So we have decided to be different and in the process of being different -you win some, you lose some. We have always been big on idea and now it is going to be matched by big on scale. And what we really need at this point of time is that one big fiction hit.

Ag: Can you point out some of the challenges and opportunities for Imagine at this point in time?

SN: The prime challenge for Imagine are the top five reigning GECs on TAM's data chart. At the same time the opportunity stems out of the 100 million homes representing the huge cluster of TV viewers. I must admit that the market is really vibrant and that it is growing at the right pace with advertising's growth, digitilization happening on a large scale etc. So India is a booming market and the Hindi General Entertianment space is the main eyeball aggregator.

Ag: How have you seen the Hindi GEC space evolve over the years?

SN: Though people would like to believe that GECs today are all about reality shows, I must say that is fairly incorrect. I say this because the top show across all GECs every week is infact a fiction show. So what reality shows do is that they tend to attract a disproportionate amount of attention because of the nature of the show and the nature of the celebrity involved. But what Indian audiences actually watch are a lot of soaps. The GEC space has become more competitive and more players have entered the space. Moreover every player is that much more determined and equally equipped. I do believe that TV is comparatively cheap in India. Top quality TV content reaches an Indian home at a very average price and I think that the Indian consumers have not been able to appreciate this advantage. TV in India, at a consumer level, is incredibly cheap.

Ag: Is there a conscious attempt by the channel- Imagine to reach out to more of the smaller markets?

SN: We do try to reach out to smaller markets and the whole television market is expanding. Moreover lot of smaller cities and towns are moving into the viewing set, and even TAM's people meter has been expanded to include these markets. In the year 2000 there used to be about 25 million homes and now we have some 100 million homes. So it has changed a lot.

Moreover for us women have always been our core TG. Actually in most parts TV is driven by female audiences. So the bulk of TV is female and there are also other social realities for women across India, so owing to which they become the biggest consumers of TV. Moreover women are loyalists and hence they become an focus area in terms of attracting a loyal group of audiences for us.

Ag: Can you share with us the distribution strategy for Lumiere?

SN: Lumiere is only available on DTH, it is available on Tata Sky and Dish TV. It is essentially designed for DTH, we had never planned it to make a mass channel. Though the content is very high quality and contemporary cinema, the channel is a niche offering. Also distribution has essentially been the challenge of really taking this channel forward. It so happens that the retail price for TV content at a consumer level is very low and hence to monetize on it will take sometime.

Ag: How has the year 2010 been and what are your plans for the new year?

SN: The year 2010 was super interesting, we did some really good shows. Of course some became a little controversial. The big thing for us is that now we are a part of Turner General Entertainment Networks India Private Limited ' TGEN ' (a Time Warner Company). So which also makes 2011 a really focus year for us.

The industry is growing and there is only one trend in the industry that it is extremely competitive.

We have a lot of thing lined up for the year, we will be concentrating on getting one major fiction hit and fiction as a genre in programming will always be important. Non-fiction again is important in terms of attracting attention but fiction is important to build on a loyal set of audience for the channel.

Looking forward now with the biggest investment like Zor Ka Jhatka backed by Turner General Entertainment Networks India Pvt. Ltd Imagine is really looking at succeeding in the Hindi General Entertainment Channel space. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]