"Original content in factual entertainment will increase in India": Network18’s Avinash Kaul

It's a simple criteria. The story has to make you say OMG. In a season, we have 10 episodes and four stories, so we have 40 stories. So only something that’s very unique can make it. So it's not that tough to really pick the best in that sense.

The theme keeps on evolving. We are also a reflection of the society that we live in. We have changed from the individual-based themes that we had earlier to a little bit about innovations, innovators and the youth. We are also a little more focused towards the environment- recycling, climate change, and the people working in these areas. We've observed that people get inspired by these stories, and if that inspiration can help the society at large, then OMG! Yeh Mera India would have played a larger role than just entertainment.

Yes, absolutely. In fact, I had told the team earlier as well, we are dubbing the content in different international languages. Because as the parent company A&E, we are known for Pawn Stars, which is in its 19th season now. OMG! Yeh Mera India is one of the few international formats that the joint venture has produced in India and there have been a lot of requests from them, to see if they could take a licence for the format and take it across various geographies wherever A&E is present as History TV18. It might very well be OMG! This is My America or OMG! This is My Canada.

On television, there are always sponsors willing to support the show. Plus, the digital traction that it gets is also something that is a huge pull for the sponsors. And eventually from a lifetime content perspective, we syndicate our content. For example, our content is now syndicated to Discovery Plus as well. It's one of the top most performing shows on Discovery Plus as well. There are a lot of legs to this content. But we haven't explored it as much. If we were to dub this content in different Indian and world languages, there would be enough takers. So there is a lot of scope there. And as the show is evolving we are also looking at evolving more revenue lines out of the show.

The OTT platforms are a very different business with a different level of investments. From an A&E perspective globally, there is no single OTT platform. From Network18's perspective, we have Voot, our joint venture with Viacom18. And from our perspective , our content is without any boundaries. It's not a competition in that sense. If you check it’s social media pages, there are queries about the History18 shows. The content play and the audiences are too small to be really looking into who's competition and who's not. So there are clear distinctive spheres in which we are operating. And I think audiences are discerning enough to know which organisation is behind which piece of content.

Absolutely. It has never been truer in the past, and it will never be truer in the future. Probably when everybody does this, the wave of original content productions will increase significantly in India. And I'm glad that some of the steps that we took have now forced our erstwhile competitors and now collaborators to really up the game of production. We see a lot more original content production happening in factual entertainment in India now than has ever happened in the past. And it did take a brand like ours to start that revolution of content in India, by staying consistent with our original content production year on year, pandemic or no pandemic.

Whatever content we have produced so far has always done extremely well on digital and on TV. So far, the challenge is more the economics of it, because these are not very cheap productions. It is not like producing daily soaps. There's a lot of research and investment going into it. Currently, the economics of factual entertainment channels doesn't support huge masses. OTT platforms also haven't moved fully into factual entertainment. But as and when they do, the economics is likely to see a very different revenue stream. And that may be of interest for us as a company as well.

The reason why international quality content travels the entire world is primarily because the high production cost just amortises across every territory that picks up the rights. For example, if OMG Yeh Mera India is streamed in America or in Singapore or countries like that which have a large diaspora of Indians then in that, the revenue models eventually emerge because the cost is amortised across multiple syndication platforms. Increasingly, content syndication will play a much more important role for this kind of content in the future.

I agree with you. It is just that unlike fiction shows where you can produce unlimited episodes, here you really need to hit that sweet spot. OMG Yeh Mera India is actually the longest Indian original production in factual entertainment. Generally international series have long seasons. But there aren’t many seasons of original Indian content. So we are always on the lookout for another series. We had done the show ‘Man vs Job', but unfortunately, these shows have a limitation- how many jobs will you finally showcase? It is not so easy to find series like these which can go on for seasons.