<strong><font color="#ff0000">Special: </font></strong>Sony: Getting back to basics

The once No 1 GEC got pushed back to No 5 over the years. afaqs! traces the journey of the channel that went from being ‘young and vibrant’ to ‘one in the crowd’

If you are a lifelong student of management determined to learn lessons from corporate life, Sony’s is the story for you. It is the tale of a TV channel that ruled the GEC (general entertainment channel) business, slid to No 2 and is now an also-ran. It is the saga of a channel that lost not just its audience but its identity as well. It raises questions about whether too much success of one kind (cricket in this case, for Set MAX) can overwhelm a larger identity (of the network). And having completed three months without a full-term CEO, the Sony case study also says something about a company’s HR policies and succession planning.

Just 10 years ago, Sony was India’s most popular channel. From a 29 per cent share in the GEC space in 2000 (HSM, CS 4+, Jan-Dec 2000, source: TAM), in 2009 (Jan-Apr), its share is a mere 7 per cent - less than a third of either STAR Plus or Colors and about two fifths that of the No 3, Zee TV. People in the TV business talk of Sony with affection for its feisty and innovative approach but it is no longer a serious contender.

Big Bang

So, last month as the channel went in for a high-decibel relaunch, the option to fail did not exist. ‘Do or Die’, sounds melodramatic but that sadly and accurately sums up the channel’s precarious situation.

Sony is spending crores to renovate its programming with a lineup of six new shows (including an expensive period drama) and the second season of 10 Ka Dum, its game show. Besides, it has completely changed the look and packaging of the channel after 14 years. It is spending an estimated Rs 20 crore to merely announce the revamp.

“We are changing not just in content but also in look and feel,” says Gurdip Bhangoo, head, programming, Sony. Bhangoo is good advertising for Sony’s new look. A 15-year veteran at BBC TV, London, where he was executive producer and head, BBC Asian Programmes Unit, Bhangoo was brought in six months ago to give a new perspective to Sony’s programming.

On weekdays, the entire 8-10 pm time band has been re-worked. Older shows such as Meet Mila De Rabba, Hum Ladkiyan, Kabhi Socha Na Tha and Aathvan Vachan will be replaced. “The revamp is the start of our journey to regain our rightful place as one of the top GECs with a loyal base of viewers,” emphasises Man Jit Singh, chairman and acting CEO of Multi Screen Media (MSM is the new name for the Sony network).

The timing to convey the change couldn’t have been better. The network has used the huge reach of its channel Set MAX during IPL (Indian Premier League) – the single biggest show of the year – to announce the new clutch of programmes on Sony. Even better, in India’s one-TV households, the IPL disrupts the normal viewing pattern over the 37 days that the League lasts. A new array of shows has a better chance of being sampled now than at any other point in the year.

MAXimisation

In addition to losing share, Sony’s decline has created a peculiar problem. By betting big bucks, former CEO Kunal Dasgupta won the satellite telecast rights to IPL, in addition to two cricket World Cups and three ICC Champions Trophy, among others. (Dasgupta quit this February after 14 years in the network, following a controversy over the renegotiation of the IPL contract with the Board of Cricket Control in India).

These cricket acquisitions powered the rise of Set MAX, the network’s events-based channel which counts on a mix of films and cricket. According to one media agency estimate, Set MAX brought in about Rs 400 crore in ad revenue in 2008-09. In comparison, Sony – supposedly the flagship channel – clocked merely Rs 150 crore.

A jaded Sony affects the shine of the entire network that shares its name. “Cricket spoilt it for Sony,” agrees Meenakshi Madhvani, a media veteran who is founder and managing partner at Spatial Access Media Solutions. “Although it is a very profitable property, Sony has been left in the lurch. The flagship has had a loss of identity. MAX churns out higher revenue than Sony. To the viewer Sony doesn’t stand for anything.”

Set MAX was launched in 1999 and AXN, an action and adventure channel, came in the same year. In 2005, Sony acquired SAB from Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network. Post-acquisition, SAB has undergone many facelifts – as a second GEC, a youth channel, a comedy channel and, now, the final makeover as a family comedy channel. At last it is working. And in 2006, the network launched its English movie channel, PIX.

STAR trek

The coming of the STAR era in 2001 was marked by the launch of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) and it knocked Sony off its high perch. Those were the times when Sony had checkerboard programming, in the form of half hour weekly shows such as Heena and Kanyadaan. Fiction ruled. Sony saw itself as different from Zee, which was more traditional. Sony was aimed at the progressive viewer (both male and female), who was big-city-oriented, contemporary, and belonged to SEC ABC between 15-34 years of age.

Along with KBC, STAR launched two daily soaps, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. This started the trend of daily soaps and transformed the nature of the TV business. It dramatically increased the need for original programming, swelled costs, and brought in new audiences who were glued to their TV sets.

As the market got cluttered and viewers got used to their daily fix, Sony’s attempts to lure the audience back to the weekly format wouldn’t work. The market was just too cluttered for viewers to recall their weekly show.

NP Singh, chief operating officer, MSM, points out, though, that Zee was far worse hit than was Sony by the STAR tidal. Between 2000 and 2002, Sony’s share slid from 29 per cent to 20 per cent but Zee’s halved from 28 per cent to 14 per cent. He says this happened because STAR’s programming - and therefore, target audience - was closer to Zee than to Sony. In fact, STAR had a line-up similar to Zee’s but grander in scale, prompting the Zee viewer to migrate. It was this distinctiveness that kept Sony ahead of Zee all the way to 2005.

Non-fiction > Fiction

Sony had cemented this differentiation by launching two new shows, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (in 2003) and Indian Idol (2004). Even at its peak Jassi (the story of an ugly duckling turned glamour girl) couldnt’t overtake the saas-bahu serials in numbers but it created a huge buzz. Sony also put big marketing money behind Indian Idol which became a rage among the young and continued delivering audiences for several seasons.

Jassi (and to some extent Kkusum) was the last big hit and Sony has been surviving since then on a combination of film hits, reality shows, and some old weekend properties like CID, which is in its 12th year, and Boogie Woogie. But Sony’s weakest link has been the weekday primetime band, where it has been slipping year on year.

afaqs! spoke to several former Sony managers as well as to senior media planners for this article. A common lament was that Sony has been unable to find the right balance between reality and fiction. After the success of Indian Idol, Sony was enamoured of reality shows. It licensed some big ticket non-fiction format shows to India - Deal Ya No Deal, Fear Factor, Fame Gurukul, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa and Bigg Boss.

The rush of reality shows - not all of them well handled - explains why there is ambiguity about Sony’s public image. The beauty of the GEC business is that if a channel can get the serials right, the viewership is loyal and the ratings steady. Sony couldn’t get it right.

Recalls a former senior Sony executive, “When reality was working, internally, fiction took a back seat. But when other channels turned to reality shows, viewers moved over because they had reality and fiction. Over time, viewers have forgotten to sample Sony.”

Another criticism: unlike a STAR or a Zee, Sony has repeatedly failed to exploit a spike in its viewership brought on by a hit, allowing the momentum to evaporate. In other words, it keeps climbing and sliding down the same hill. In any case, after its first love affair with reality shows, Sony discovered the limit to growth by fashioning a strategy around this format. It needed fiction.

Part of this has to do with a muddled programming strategy. There has been a string of programming heads over the last many years: Ravina Raj Kohli, Rekha Nigam, Tarun Katial, Anupama Mandloi and Sandeep Sikcand. And until Bhangoo joined, for a year Sony – incredibly – had no programming head. “Being ‘different’ in programming was a matter of faith at Sony except that nobody could figure out how to be different,” puzzles a former manager.

Wrong Turn

Around 2005-2006, when Sony was still No 2 but weakening, the management decided that if it had to get to the top, it would have to broadbase its appeal. How? By creating STAR - and Zee - style programming and by going after the same type of audience as its rivals.

In retrospect, it was a recipe for disaster. NP Singh candidly explains the thinking at that time, “We wanted to get out of the niche and gain size. We felt that if we wanted leadership, we needed to attract not just SEC ABC viewers but also D and E with fiction that had mass appeal.”

Serials such as Kulvadhu and Rihhaee were introduced on weekdays. The move backfired. It not only failed to draw new viewers but alienated existing Sony viewers. Ratings on weekdays sank.

Basically, STAR and Zee were far ahead on the fiction curve. It was too late for Sony to battle them on their turf. But because it had not drastically changed the weekend lineup, core viewers continued to flock to Sony on those days.

Madhvani, interviewed before the channel’s recent makeover, says, “Sony used to be perceived as a channel for a younger, upper SEC audience. But now, it’s the first channel that is dropped from a media plan because Sony is not able to differentiate itself from other GECs.”

Trouble-shooting

By the middle of 2008, the top brass knew that the game wasn’t working. A usage and attitude study was commissioned to relook how brand Sony is perceived and what viewers expect from television per se and “that gave us a very good insight: that the viewer understands the DNA of Sony very well,” says NP Singh. “And that’s why they come to us every weekend. And since in weekdays Sony had deviated from its DNA, the viewer had found other options,” he adds.

Danish Khan, head, marketing, Sony says that the study revealed that viewers want novelty, variety and quality. “They want a change in programmes much like what we have seen in cinema,” he says. They yearned for shows like Jassi. “We inferred that the viewer saw Sony as an alternative,” he adds. Besides, the viewer also wants better locales, production values and casting.

The study has provided the foundation for Sony to woo back its audience of before: 15-34-year-olds, male and female, SEC ABC, who have high ambitions, are at the crossroads of their lives, are tech savvy but rooted in their culture.

The new programmes on the channel reflect the theme of ‘hope and happiness’, in keeping with the general optimism among the young in India. Says Bhangoo, “This is only the first step in going towards what we want to achieve.”

Can it climb out of the rut? It’s possible but difficult. Sony seems determined. As Man Jit Singh says, “We hope our new programmes resonate with viewers. We are committed to our strategy and will continue to execute against this strategy. Our programming will evolve but the underlying strategy will remain unchanged.”

All the way since 2000, a trio of channels has ruled the roost. In the first half of the decade, STAR, Sony and Zee between them had a share of 75-85 per cent of the GEC space. As more channels streamed in, the ruling trio (with Colors replacing Sony) now has a share of 65-70 per cent. Can Sony break out of its low share to join them and make it a quartet? Or does the structure of the market dictate that it will always be a trio?

The second issue is whether Sony can cause enough disruption in the viewing habits – and that too on the heels of Colors which has already roiled the market. Besides, some two dozen new shows have been launched by GECs in the wake of IPL.

Also, television per se is having trouble retaining the interest of the young, especially in the metros, because they have just so many options when it comes to entertainment.

Finally, it comes to this: If Sony can get a hit or two out of its new fiction shows, it will have a good chance to claw its way back into the reckoning. For as people in the GEC business know, what separates professional disgrace from adulation is only 30 minutes of magic.