"My working style is not too different from Man Jit's": NP Singh

We could be stretching it a touch when we say this, but the newly appointed CEO of Multi Screen Media (MSM) appeared almost as calm as the Buddha painting in his plush cabin, when we met him yesterday.

NP Singh has grown within MSM from CFO to COO (a position currently vacant) and now, CEO; 15 years after joining the 18 year old company, he will now run it his way. And if we take his word for it, his working style is not too different from that of Man Jit Singh, MSM's non-executive chairman, from whom he took over recently.

"This is something we laughed about... that two people in two different rooms can take the exact same decision nine out of ten times," he marvels at the chemistry the two share. So we take it his team has nothing to worry about then.

Among the things that worry NP Singh, though, other than the performance of Sony, are economic uncertainties, unstable markets and the impending elections. Excerpts.

Edited Excerpts

My biggest priority is the turnaround of our flagship channel, Sony. Our weekend programming is strong but our weekday fiction bit is something we are working on. We have recently launched two new shows, Ek Nayi Pehchaan and Main Na Bhoolungi, and have received good feedback for both. Our historical show Maharan Pratap continues to do well. We will soon launch another fiction show and will bring in concepts/ideas that appeal to a larger cross-section of viewership. We will try and make our content more inclusive for smaller towns; that is an opportunity for us.

That's a misconception. The appeal of Sony in small towns is not very high and we are working towards making it more accessible in these regions through our content, communication and scheduling. Our other channels like Max cater to both, small and large towns; Sab cuts across all SECs, genres, demographics and geographies, and it's the same for Sony Mix. Pix and AXN, by definition, cater to one million+ SEC AB audiences. Sony Six (which also airs IPL) cuts across consumer segments too and our Bengali regional channel, Sony Aath, is doing well. So, the network is not focusing on urban towns per se but yes, the perception exists and we will change it over time.

We are keen to get into regional markets. As announced a couple of years ago, we are looking at one of the markets down South. We have been engaged with Maa TV and are in conversation with them, as we speak. Our strategy is acquisition-led; we are not close to organically launching our own channels in the regional markets yet.

Not really. We faced some challenges during the transition period, but clicked very well. It's been a pleasure working with him these last five years. He came in with a fresh perspective which helped me and the company.

There were a few things that happened. In 2012, when there was a TAM blackout for nine weeks, in two of those weeks Sony was number one but we couldn't report it. Also, the post- digitisation flux had started to impact some of our popular shows. We saw a decline in ratings of those shows when the data was released. We tried to correct whatever we could on those shows, during which time the universe of TAM was updated and contribution of LC1 (towns with less than one lakh population) to the overall viewership, in terms of reporting, was increased to 25 per cent. This impacted Sony.

Sony has been very popular in 0.1 million to 1 million+ markets with SEC ABC viewers. So when LC1 representation increased, we saw a dip in our ratings. Post that, we launched a lot of fiction and non-fiction shows. Some have done well (Indian Idol Junior and Maharana Pratap) but lot of our fiction shows did not perform as well. This also had a negative impact on the channel. Now we are in the middle of course correction and making some changes. We plan to launch Jaya Bachchan's fiction show pre-IPL and Amitabh Bachchan's fiction show later this year.

It's not a question of being happy or sad with one or the other. We are a robust network and there will always be challenges here and there. Yes, Sony is a challenge and Sab has done really well. There are some issues in some parts of the country as far as distribution goes. We are in the process of correcting those and are also trying to increase the overall reach of Sab. We are confident Sab will continue to grow.

I don't want to comment on the circumstances that led to those properties going away from Sony but post that we have created a lot of our own successful properties. We launched Kaun Banega Crorepati and created 'Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega', which did well. Meanwhile, Indian Idol has grown. Weekend shows like CID, Adaalat, Crime Patrol and Comedy Circus have done well. We have done what we had to do with our own content.

We are always looking for good quality content for our viewers. Whenever we find an interesting format in the international market, we will bring it to the Indian viewers.

Again, it's a misconception. There was so much buzz and excitement around the property this season, both in-stadium and on-air. Around May 5, 2013, in the middle of the season, the TAM universe was updated and the cumulative reach numbers were not reported. Our estimate is that it would have reached 225 million or more viewers.

Ratings are not the only indicator of the success. Even advertisers don't look at ratings alone; they look at the overall reach of the property. This year there will be lesser number of games because only eight teams will be playing. Also, there will be fewer afternoon matches. This will have a positive impact on the overall viewership.

It is a very new and fresh division. Initially we want to focus on making small and mid-size movies (Rs five to 15 crore). Our next movie (Darr At The Mall) is releasing in February. Post that there are three movies lined up. We plan to make five to six movies a year under the banner. All will be co-produced with established producers. In the future, if it makes economic sense, we will make big budget movies as well.