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MEDIA Doordarshan's Phoenix Act Content-tie ups, a global presence, and a marketing and distribution onslaught characterise the Empire's comeback strategy. By Brian Carvalho Corporation 1. Corporation 2.
Now for the second one: a well-established brand, revenue generation...hah, one thing's for sure, it can't be Doordarshan, right? Wrong, very wrong. It is DD again, all right. And if that comes as a surprise, what's about to unfold are ambitions of the beleaguered public broadcaster that will leave you shell-shocked. Many may sound unbelievable, and a few of them may well be so (for instance, can you imagine a DD audio-video streaming portal, or DD via broadband!). After all, isn't this the same network that has seen its revenues dip consistently over the years, from Rs 572 crore in 1996, to Rs 390 crore by March, 1999. Isn't this the same broadcaster that's been facing the threat of marginalisation from cable and satellite majors like Zee, Sony, and Star, and which today attracts just a little over 10 per cent of the Rs 6,000-crore advertising being done on television? And isn't this the same corrupt behemoth that keeps burning your money year after year-Rs 1,000 crore of it-and still can't provide you with a decent coverage of the Sydney Olympics? It is, very much. A visit to Mandi House, DD's sparse, antiquated headquarters in Delhi, would convince you that nothing has changed-certainly not for the better. But wait. If you take the elevator to the fifth floor and walk into the office of Prasar Bharati ceo Rajiv Ratan Shah, chances of you catching him using phrases like 'revenue consciousness' and 'market-orientation' are high. A couple of cabins away sits DD's Additional Director-General Omita Paul, and you might just overhear her declaring that ''we will soon give the satellite channels a run for their money''. And if you're still wondering whether the first two introductory scenarios are figments of our own creation, well they aren't. They're excerpts of a SWOT analysis done by DD itself as part of the re-launch of its international channel, DD-World. DD's Return To Paradise
It's precisely those weaknesses and threats that emerged from the SWOT analysis that DD is addressing-even as it seeks to build on its strengths and grab the opportunities that are there for the taking. That's why DD has sought the help of BBC to digitise its channels. That's also why Modi Entertainment Network (MEN) has begun distributing the five DD trunk channels (National, Metro, News, Sports, and World) via satellite. And that's also why Shah has inked a revenue-sharing deal with b4u for showing blockbusters, hawked off a three-hour prime band to a Kerry Packer joint venture, and another three-and-a-half hours to such names as BBC, UTV, ESPN, Buena Vista, and Crest. Alliances are being firmed up with DTH platforms like Echostar and Astra to distribute DD-World in 79 countries. Then, Dutch-South African consultants MIH have worked on the feasibility of DD taking the direct-to-home route. Arthur Andersen and the IIMs are advising DD on how to go about revamping its systems (financial, management, administrative), the National Institute of Design is redesigning the broadcaster's montage, logos... it's all happening. To be sure, the most visible flaw in DD is its poor quality of pictures, a result of its outdated technology. That's being remedied by calling in BBC Resources-the consulting arm of the British network-which as you read this, is in the midst of a feasibility study on the introduction of a digital terrestrial television service and the technical facilities needed for it. ''The service is initially planned for New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai,'' says Nigel Fry, Broadcast Consultant (Consulting & Projects), BBC Resources, which was responsible for BBC itself going digital. Also addressing quality problems is Packer's Channel Nine, which via its joint venture with HFCL-HFCL Nine Broadcasting-has plenty at stake on DD Metro. ''Our engineers have identified the problems, and we are sorting out the technical issues,'' adds James McLachlan, CEO of Packer company PBL Enterprises. If its poor quality of pictures is going against DD, the perception that its channels aren't 'satellite' isn't helping, either. In cities like Mumbai, for instance, 80 per cent of the audience doesn't give DD a look-in, preferring to be hooked on to the satellite channels. That's where the government has come into the act. The Cable Act now makes it mandatory for operators to carry at least three DD channels (National, Metro, and one regional channel) in their main band of channels. And ensuring that the operators do carry these channels-via satellite-is the mandate of Modi Entertainment. ''Our job is to promote the carriage of DD's channels, and also to make sure that the operators do so,'' says Ajay Nijhawan, CEO, men, who expects to take DD into nine million cable & satellite (C&S) homes, in 48 towns, in six months. That's not going to be the easiest of tasks, but you can't mistake it: DD is trying to change. It's been trying to do so ever since Shah took over as interim CEO last June (and Arun Jaitley as I&B Minister). And the efforts are evident in last year's revenues figures, which finally looked up-and smartly at that-from Rs 399 crore to Rs 610 crore. If things go Shah's way, he hopes to end the current year with close to Rs 800 crore in his kitty. ''There's no need for euphemisms here,'' says Shah. ''The slide has been stalled, what you are now seeing is a resurgent dd.'' Selling Time In Eden
Wow! It's been some time since such rah-rah rhetoric has echoed from the staid confines of Mandi House. But it's not the step-up in revenues year on year, or Shah's fiery statements that signify the transformation. Indeed, even if DD does do revenues of Rs 800 crore this year, it will still have to depend on a budgetary grant of at least Rs 1,000 crore next year. Yes, DD is losing money, and will continue to do so for some time. What is significant is that, contrary to true PSU style, the exercise under way is a long haul, with the full-blown results becoming evident only many years down the line. As Shah himself points out: ''We've come a long way, but the road to improvement is longer.'' Of course, there's a huge rider attached. Will future CEOs and governments take DD from where current I&B Minister Arun Jaitley and Shah leave it? ''There's never been continuity at dd. For DD to turn around, it needs to have one leader for five years,'' says former DD Director-General Rathikant Basu, now CEO of regional channel wannabe Broadcast Worldwide. Whether Shah gets that opportunity today is in the realm of speculation, but there's little doubt that what DD is doing today is radical: it's selling, without using words like 'disinvestment' and 'privatisation', which will cause a stink in Parliament and amongst its 40,000 employees. What else would you call the sale of a three-hour time band at prime time (not just half-hour slots), and that to a foreign media house, asks the head of media at an advertising agency. What's more, virtually all slots on the two flagship channels, DD National and DD Metro, are being outsourced from producers. ''DD has reconciled itself to becoming a distributor, and it will rake in revenues by selling bands-and, eventually, even entire channels-to private producers. DD National will probably be retained to fulfil the role of a public service broadcaster,'' adds the media head quoted earlier. Agrees production house Stracon Chairman Siddharta Ray: ''The best option for DD is to become a distributor, and have 5-6-8 contracts like the Packer one for programming.'' That may appear extreme, but it's the only way to go and you can't rule it out in future. What is clear today, though, is that DD is selling not just slots but bands because it needs revenues badly. Revenues are much-needed because the more DD earns, the more autonomy it gets, at least financially. Already, since April 1, DD has an independent allocation, one which used to be a part of the Union Budget. It's that stress on revenues that culminated in the collective sale of three hours of programming (which otherwise would have been sold individually to producers) to HFCL-Nine Broadcasting. By next September (when HFCL-Nine completes the contract) DD would be richer by Rs 121 crore-which itself outscores DD Metro's entire revenues of last year, of Rs 72 crore. And don't forget, that DD will earn another Rs 40 crore from the sale of other slots on the Metro channel. Of course, much could go wrong, but more of that later. If the deal with HFCL-Nine appears lucrative, the one for cricket telecasts is downright juicy. Consider: DD has bagged the exclusive rights for the telecast of nine cricket series that will be played in India over the next four years from the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) for Rs 230 crore. The cost of production of each series would work out to Rs 2 crore, which means that DD's total cost on the cricket series works out to roughly Rs 250 crore. Now take a look at what DD stands to gain. Zee Telefilms, via group company Buddha Films, has been awarded the domestic air time sales for these nine series based on its bid of Rs 450 crore. Another sales agent, Stracon, has picked up the overseas rights for $43.75 million, or roughly Rs 200 crore. DD's profit? A cool Rs 200 crore over four years. ''It's a fantastic deal for DD, with a 100 per cent margin,'' gushes Stracon's Ray.
Here too, there could be many a slip between DD and that 100 per cent margin. The Rs 450-crore question is whether Zee can recover the kind of money it has bid-which basically means it has to rake in Rs 50 crore per series. The first of these, which happened earlier this year against South Africa didn't quite go Zee's way, and industry sources reveal that Subhash Chandra lost Rs 36 crore on that series. And if those same sources are to be believed, Zee now wants to pull out of the deal. After all, if Zee pulls out now, DD will encash the bank guarantee of Rs 70 crore, but then ''if Zee goes ahead it stands to lose much more'', says the source. The short point here is not Zee's financial turbulence, but DD's inability to bring home the bacon, which today is only on paper. And this isn't an isolated case. For the Sydney Olympics, Pritish Nandy Communications was awarded the marketing rights for Rs 15 crore (DD had bagged the telecast rights from the International Olympics Committee for Rs 11 crore). That arrangement collapsed on the third day; on the fourth, DD encashed the bank guarantee of Rs 7.5 crore; and by the end of the Games, DD's marketing was obviously not good enough to help it rake in the incremental Rs 3.5 crore needed to break even. Indeed, over the years DD has been paying a heavy price for not having its own marketing set-up. Instead, DD hawked slots to producers who in turn sold the air-time sales right to an agent. Often, this proved a risky business. If the sales agent couldn't recover the money paid to the producer, the producer in turn couldn't cough up part of the payment to dd. Result? Endless litigations, and no revenues for dd. That's why, points out HFCL-Nine CEO Ravina Raj Kohli, it makes more sense for DD to sell a time-band itself, rather than just half-hour slots. ''This leads to fragmentation of revenues and the lack of a consolidated perspective. We are now in a position to take a perspective of a network rather than just a mere programme supplier,'' she says. Kohli, for her part, needs that perspective. After all, her company has committed Rs 121 crore to DD over a year. Of course, you wouldn't expect Packer to default on that payment, and any shortfall would be treated as a start-up cost (competitors estimate HFCL-Nine's annual investment on programming conservatively at Rs 150 crore). Even as opinion is divided over Packer's longer term game plan-one view is that it is to eventually do all the programming for DD Metro, whilst the other is that he is using DD's reach to build his brand-Stracon's Ray points out that Channel Nine is on thin ice. ''On the one hand, it's going to be tough for Packer to make money, given the high investments involved. But if he does make money, it could be disastrous. Suddenly, charges of favoritism will emerge, PILs will be filed, and Channel Nine will have to go.'' Ray should know. His company has had quite a few PILs filed against it, and one of its spats with rival Nimbus resulted in one DD head honcho losing his job. Uh-oh, there's a serpent in Eden
Shah's biggest headache is that things can-and unfailingly do-go wrong at dd. Consider for instance his plan to make DD Sports a pay channel (by digitally encrypting it) just prior to the Olympics. Cable operators refused to accept that DD could think commercial, and duly blacked out the channel. That resistance will always be there, and could potentially throw a major spanner in men's target of taking DD Sports channel into 3,000 cities, garnering 18 million subscribers and racking up revenues of Rs 200 crore in five years. Shah points out that Rs 5.90 per month (which is less than what ESPN and Star Sports charge) for 35 days of cricket, and other major events like the Euro 2000, French Open, and Wimbledon is peanuts. And analysts point out that DD Sports has to be digitally encrypted to protect the telecast rights it bags for big-ticket events. The larger issue, though, is whether the 35
million-odd viewers of C&S channels will be willing to give DD a
chance. ''DD's efforts are a little bit late in the day,'' says M. Suku,
ceo of media-buying agency Adnova Technologies. Then, as DD's Additional
Director-General Paul points out, DD also has to fulfil its role as a
public service broadcaster. ''It's an uneven playing field, and we are
trying to respond within set parameters,'' she shrugs. Yet, if DD
recognises that neither marketing nor content is its forte, and instead
focuses on leveraging its awesome reach, hope will still shimmer within
the dimness of Mandi House. |
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Hmmm...
which two media conglomerates are we talking about here? Lack of
direction, intense competition from privately-owned channels... it has to
be Doordarshan, right? Of course.