"Comedy Central was never a cheap channel to advertise on": Ferzad Palia

As the channel completed two years yesterday, afaqs! caught up with the SVP and GM, English entertainment, Viacom18 to know more about the journey of Comedy Central in India.

Exactly two years ago, Viacom18 launched a comedy entertainment channel - Comedy Central - believed to be a clutter breaker in the English general entertainment space because of its 'special' focus. The channel that got publicised initially through word-of-mouth is still banking heavily upon the 'effective' medium.

According to Ferzad Palia, senior vice-president and general manager, English entertainment, Viacom18, the channel never had the kind of budget to go out and blast crores of rupees on any campaign.

"For us, social media and hangout tie-ups are really powerful and we have a robust network to back us in terms of promotion. However, one very important factor of publicity for us has been 'word-of-mouth' since our audience is very aspirational. Also, since the shows end within 20-22 episodes, it is never justified to go out and spend an exorbitant amount on mass media," he says.

Comedy Central was launched on January 23, 2012 with the brand philosophy of 'Laugh it Off'. Palia recalls, "At that time, we were coming to the core. We had certain hypothesis but we didn't know how it would eventually turn out. It is the same for any product launch and it's more difficult in the television space. You can easily be waved off with a click of a button here. The biggest need for us was to differentiate from existing players who had been around for years and we did that very successfully."

As a channel offering humorous content, it has also been a good medium for advertisers. Palia believes that for Comedy Central, it's more about getting advertisers who are interested in seeing the benefits of the channel they are advertising on, versus increasing ad rates. The channel has thus not increased ad rates significantly since its launch. "It's not been about increasing ad rates because we never sold Comedy Central cheap. There are some channels that follow the strategy wherein they sell cheap initially, get advertisers and then later on increase ad rates. But I don't think it works that way. Our ad rates have always been healthy."

Handset manufacturers, confectionary, automobile, FMCG and jewellery brands have advertised on the channel. However, Palia adds that as opposed to Hindi GECs, the English GECs' bread and butter do not depend on any particular category.

Comedy Central also rolled out its first consumer product line - South Park T-shirts - last year. It plans to build on that as it continues to contribute to the on-ground events in various forms. Along with LIVE Viacom18 (a subdivision under Integrated Network Solutions), Comedy Central did Chuckle Festival last year that was about touring stand-up comedians in the country. It took comedians like Gabriel Iglesias, Eddie Ifft, Paul Varghese to do shows in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Early last year, the cannel also brought down Sugar Sammy to do shows in India. "Comedy is growing as a genre, be it in theatre form or stand-up comedy. All the on-ground shows that we have done have worked really well for us. We get in and try help people wherever we can and partner with them to put out a good show."

On viewership trends and kind of people watching the channel, Palia adds that Comedy Central is being watched by people across age groups. "People are watching the channel in different times of the day. For instance, I don't expect 'House of Lies' to be huge amongst 15-24 year olds because its more for the working audiences, who will understand that fairly evolved humour. A show like Anger Management, on the other hand, will be liked by everyone. Also, I didn't expect Mash to be watched by the 15 year old audience, but it's happening as the fathers are making their sons watch the show."

Suits and Anger Management have been two really successful shows on the channel and are the larger focus of FY14, according to Palia. "We are trying to get audiences to sample shows they have never heard of. There was a time that we really wanted the big name shows. But we quickly realised that those are not the ones that the audience really wants to watch. They want you to show them what is different and what they may like, which they have not come across so far. We are focused on building Comedy Central as a brand not on the back of one show or another," Palia adds on the lessons from the past.

Palia explains that it's more challenging to please an audience that has greater exposure to international content. For Indian audiences, he believes that the more evolved the content, the more difficult it is to retain audiences. People want stuff for which they don't have to really think about. Evolved comedy is for a particular set - which has great international exposure and a great sense of humour.

While English GECs cater to more urbanised/metro audiences, Palia says that this year, there will be more action for Comedy Central in the smaller markets, especially the 1 million+ markets. "The genre is metro-focused. We are seeing traction from a lot of smaller markets but are we focused on them? No! We are just available there," he laments.

As of now, the channel is airing around 30 hours of original content every week. It has tied up with multiple independent studios to acquire content. Though Palia refused to divulge further information, he hinted at the launch of locally produced shows in the coming months.

On a signing off note, Palia says, "This is a two year old brand. We are learning to talk, walk and I think it's been a healthy baby so far. Now, it's about ramping it up. We have got into the top English GEC slot and now we have to build further, from a brand point of view, content point of view, marketing, disruptive point of view and also monetary point of view."