NEWS MEDIA MANAGEMENT

DIVYA NAIK (9416)SONAL RATHOD (9420)

Case study of ETV Network

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

Ramoji Rao, the founder Head office of ETV, Hyderabad

• Belief and reverence towards one’s culture and language- Genesis of most media organizations – Imperative association

• Began in 1995 as a part of the Ramoji Rao Group

• Based on the philosophy that linguistic treasure, cultural ethos, and geographical affinity of several Indian states are diverse and need a representation in their own style

• Offshoot of Eenadu newspaper of the same group

• Has 12 regional channels with the largest network of grassroot reporting in India

• Managed by NewsToday Private Limited

Channels offered by ETV

Milestones • Aug 1995: ETV Network was launched.• Aug 15, 2001: ETV Network started ETV Urdu,

India's first Urdu language TV channel.• Oct 11, 2001: ETV delivers WWFE's entire portfolio of

programming across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives for the next three years.• Apr 30, 2003: Viewership of ETV Telugu increased to

31.9 million (up 10 per cent); ETV Kannada increased to 6.8 million; ETV Marathi increased to 5.2 million; ETV Bengali increased to 5 million (up 41 per cent); ETV Gujarati increased to 0.7 million and ETV Punjabi increased to 0.1 million.• Nov 1, 2005: In one of the Marathi Channels (ETV) in a

show called ' Samvad', Pt. Raj Kumar Sharma predicted that Sharad Pawar would become the Chairman of BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India).

GROWTH AND EVOLUTION

• Leased a high quality transponder on the INTELSAT satellite system and uplinked from Padukka near Colombo, Sri Lanka

• Began television transmission with an ambitious 17 ½ hour service of entertainment and film based programming

• Elated by audience response, started programming in regional languages

• Important characteristic of Ramoji Group according to analysts was that it was a family run organization

• Has the first Earth Station in India to be commissioned by a private media organization

• Has India wide VSAT facility

• Allows rapid dissemination of news

• Invested in 350 Intel-based high performance computers to provide its growing IT infrastructure with the latest technology

• Yupptv is now providing six of ETV’s channels for online viewing

• It has added ‘ETV Urdu’ to its kitty of regional channels in 2001

• Upgraded to MPEG-4 network

• Genesis network and ETV contracted for transmission from Hyderabad to California

Online viewing on Yupptv

Earth Station, Scientific Atlanta

ECONOMICS OF ETV

• 6 hrs of programming across its GEC channels

• Cost of programming- 35% of core revenues

• Process:

a) Programme head selects the time and content of any programme that is telecast.

b) The marketing department is told about its time period, depending on the popularity of the programme.

c) The popularity of the programme is derived from the TRP rate.

d) On that basis the marketing and advertising department find and finalize the advertisements

• Viewership as per TRP (Target Rating Point): 35% of India’s cable TV viewership and TRP of 92

• Market Share: ETV2 (News) has 36.4% share while in the case of entertainment ETV has 18.3% of share in the market.

• Advertising revenue: Contributes 36% to company revenues, generating 75% from advertising and 25% from subscriptions. Ad revenue in 2008-09 was Rs. 341.3 crores. Subscription revenue was Rs. 118.3 crores while its advertisement subscription was 78:22

Network Market Share

MARKETING AND PUBLICITY

• Programme on Panchatantra tales on Sundays at 10:30 AM through puppetry. Aimed to remind of India’s artistic heritage

• ETV Marathi collaborated with Cell18 and started a programme ‘DNA’. Contestant had to match eight pairs of parents and children and win a prize money of Rs. 8 lakh. The show received a TRP of 2.7 in the first week

• ToonZ animation entered an agreement with ETV to telecast ‘Adventures of Tenali Rama’. First in-house production of ToonZ using 2D animation. First of its kind in the country

• Big Live’s music awards for Bengal titled ‘Idea BIG Bangla Music Awards 2010’ (IBBMA) saw the TRP of ETV Bangla in Kolkatta soar to 1.1 – higher than any Hindi or regional entertainment channel

• India Post (Gujarat Circle) has tied up with ETV Gujarati for airing personalized greeting. The cost of each message is Rs 500 for a 10 sec airtime. . ETV is also in talks with India Post in three-four states for similar tie up.

ToonZ Animation, ‘Tenali Rama’

ETV Marathi’s ‘DNA’

Big Live ‘IBBMA’ awards

CHALLENGES AND CRISIS

• The Ramoji, Suman and Prabhakaran controversy

• 43 channels including ETV were told to express regret and carry warnings for airing surrogate advertisements of liquor and tobacco

• Competition of the launch of ETV2 and TV9

FUTURE PLANS

• Converted all its channels from free to air to subscription mode

• Expects an increase in share of subscription revenues thus reducing volatility in earnings, caused by higher proportion of advertising revenues

• Hindi and Urdu channels have not achieved breakeven until now

THANK YOU