NDTV Media looks to expand operations

Close to a year after formation, NDTV Media - the subsidiary of NDTV, which has been focusing its attention on building the two brands of NDTV India and NDTV 24X7 - plans to expand its range of operations to include broadcasters/players outside the umbrella of the parent.

The vision, as Raj Nayak, CEO, NDTV Media, highlights, is to emerge as the largest media marketing company. "The organisation will function as an outsourced sales and marketing arm," he says, "aimed at those broadcasters who are keen on easing the burden of a heavy in-house sales machinery."

On the cards is an active involvement in brand building, celebrity management and on-ground events with the company exploring avenues in the area of in-film advertising, besides offering strategic consultancy services in television programming, on-air look and presentation and traffic and inventory management. "Our expertise and understanding of the business gives us an advantage while dealing with both creative and media agencies," says Nayak. "We are able to get the best value from them as well as from our media associates," he states.

The company hopes to create a platform for cross-channel promotions among those broadcasters whose business it will handle apart from launching a slew of in-house events targeted at television audiences in general. "Backward integration in terms of creating our own events for TV broadcasting is definitely on the cards," says Nayak.

NDTV Media has initiated talks with a couple of players, though Nayak refuses to divulge any details about them. The gameplan, he indicates, is to scale up operations slowly but steadily and expand its frontiers in the next six months. "We won't take up anything new till June 30, 2004," he says. "After that, we should see a steady build-up in activity," he adds.

Meanwhile, NDTV India and NDTV 24X7 continue to fight their respective turf wars with a mix of star anchors and slick shows, backed by half-hour news bulletins, interviews, analyses and discussions. NDTV India, in particular, has had to contend with increased competition over the last few months with both NDTV India and STAR News claiming second position.

The genre itself has seen increased fragmentation with the entry of new players, and some more ready to set foot in the news market in the coming months. Notable among them is the Adhikari Brothers-promoted SABTNL, which plans to launch a news and current affairs channel in April this year. The strategy or the fortune of the incumbent players is open for academic debate; for now though it is definitely a game of one-up-man-ship among news channels. © 2004 agencyfaqs!