[tamil] Vijay TV and Tamil TV Ad Rates

[Bala Pillai <bala@tamil.net>]

Vijay TV entertains big ambitions
12 September 1999
Source: <www.domainb.com>

On 14 April, Vijay TV, the third largest Tamil language channel, after Sun
and Raj, joined the entertainment bandwagon. Until then its contents had
covered film, news and current affairs.

Now why would it go and do that, one may ask, when competition is fast
demanding strong differentiation? Couldn't this become a case of one too many?

S.D. Gurudutt, chief executive officer of Vijay Television Ltd, doesn't
agree. "We believe we are the most professionally-run channel, and we are
offering packages never seen in Tamil Nadu before. We now offer a mix of
high quality prime-time programmes, including serials of different genres
-- family drama, love stories, horror, daily soaps, thrillers…"

<Picture: vijay_tv1.jpg (9997 bytes)>He says Vijay TV is the first to
commission serials in Tamil Nadu. What's more, he says, Vijay TV gets much
more involved with the production of the serials it commissions than do
other channels. That means tighter control on quality and marketability.
The positioning since re-launch is "for the young at heart".

The channel's 7.30 p.m. programming is for the youth. The channel has
stepped into countdown shows and game shows such as Maha Attam (wheel of
fortune). "Today's younger generation doesn't want to watch Tamil channels.
We're changing that. We believe we've given them good reason to watch." The
good reason includes going for a programme tie-up with MTV, which has
managed to establish its own niche as a youth channel.

"We're trying to do things differently," Mr Gurudutt says. "We're trying to
look different and are using a lot of English in our programming."


Besides slots for blockbuster films, Vijay TV has signed on Bala Chander to
do12 telefilms. Mr Chander is also doing a prime-time Jay Leno kind of show
called Nayyandi Darbar. He's also doing morning shows on weekdays, where he
talks of stories in newspapers and analyses them. They even put Hariharan
on a music show, the TRP (television rating points) for which, claims Mr
Gurudutt, touched 21. In that week, he claims, Sun's highest TRP was 16.
"But Sun generally has very high TRPs," he admits. Afternoons on Vijay TV
are reserved for women, as is the 11.30 slot on weekdays.


<Picture: vijay_tv04.jpg (8078 bytes)>The entire shift to entertainment has
been defined by strong commercial reasons. As Mr Gurudutt says, "Tamil Nadu
is one of the largest FMCG markets, one of the biggest branded goods
markets. The TV medium is used effectively by advertisers -- around 30 per
cent of the advertising is regional and local, and the rest, national. The
maximum revenues come from entertainment programmes."

Mr Gurudutt estimates that total ad revenue for TV channels in Tamil Nadu
is around Rs 220 crore. Published reports, however, have carried the figure
as being Rs 150-200 crore. Significantly, Sun TV is the only Tamil channel
he expects will touch Rs 100 crore in revenues this year. In comparison,
Vijay TV is hoping to do Rs 25 crore this year, up from Rs 13.5 crore last
year. "And Raj TV should do the same. Doordarshan's revenues have been
decreasing. Advertisers look at Sun as the reach channel and Raj and Vijay
as secondary reach channels."

Mr Gurudutt is quite confident Vijay TV will beat Raj TV to number two rank
by March 2000. He's not at all sure that his channel can beat Sun, "but we
want to be a healthy competitor. Over the next three years, we want to
become a close number two to Sun."

Brand building, he adds, is a long-term process. The channel is planning
on-channel and on-ground events with a once-a-month frequency.

It seems to be working, feels Mr Gurudutt, claiming an average of Rs
1.5-crore revenue per month now. "We've signed yearly contracts so this
should be a good indicator for what we may end up with at the end of the
financial year." He says that all large advertisers are with Vijay TV "and
we've taken our effective rate up to between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 per 10
seconds, from around Rs 2,000 earlier." Sun TV, he guesses, charges between
Rs 8,000 and Rs 9,000 on an average per 10 seconds. "We deliver the same
GRPs, or gross rating points, as Sun, at a lower cost to advertisers."

Vijay TV, which was established as GEC TV by an entrepreneur in Chennai in
the first half of 1995, was bought over by Vijay Mallya's UB Group in
December the same year. Somewhere between then and November 1998, when The
Unilazer group picked up the majority shareholding and IL&FS 25 per cent,
the channel got renamed Vijay. Today, the UB group holds only a 7.5 per
cent stake in the channel.

Competition is bound to get tougher. Raj Plus and Nila are already up and
running, and another channel, Jaya, is just taking off. As happens in every
other fragmenting market category, the going may get harder for each
channel in Tamil Nadu.<Picture: send this article to a friend>

Dreaming of being among the top rankers may be meaningless unless
commercial growth leaps and bounds too. How different should "being
different" be in order to achieve that? Perhaps Vijay TV can show us that
over the next three years.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send a blank mail to tamil-unsubscribe@tamil.net or go to
http://www.tamil.net/list and fill in the form. You will then receive a mail
 requesting you to confirm. Please reply to the message and complete the
process. You can also view the archived messages at http://www.tamil.net/list.
To start a new subscription, send a blank mail to tamil-subscribe@tamil.net
or go to http://www.tamil.net/list .
To view and send messages in Tamil, refer documentation at
http://www.tamil.net/special and http://www.tamil.net/tscii .
Thamil Innaiyam (http://www.tamil.net) is proudly sponsored by The Asia
Pacific Internet Company (http://www.apic.net) not the East India Company.