What changes are you seeing in the way marketers use television?
It is a question everyone in the industry is asking: what will be the fate of television? As hand-held devices become ever more popular, drawing advertising dollars and now even launching exclusive content, some are wondering if the television days are over. Honestly, linear TV is on a decline, however it is up to the broadcasters and how they reinvent themselves like how radio got reinvented after its decline.
Television, however, will remain fundamental to lifestyle. Over time there is a form of a co-existence; there is space for both linear television and online. Television with co-existence becomes even more important because it becomes the destination point for big-ticket, big-event, heart-of-the-nation programming.
For example, for two of most popular Asian reality shows in this region – Super Dancer and Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) – that come out of Sony Entertainment Television Asia, instead of using linear TV in isolation, we integrated television with social media and digital as well as on-ground activations. This widened our reach and our objective was accomplished. We will be attempting to do the same for the upcoming reality shows Indian Idol and Dus Ka Dum (Power of 10) too.
So, activities like on-ground in malls, social media, digital and linear television push the concept and widen the reach.
What is the biggest challenge facing the TV industry and how are you tackling it?
We as linear television broadcasters are moving out from telling stories to making stories that are engaging and relevant to the Middle East’s Asian audiences. Making stories is a collective effort from the brand, marketeers and audiences, empowering the viewers too. The TV industry needs to move from a broadcast-focused approach to a content-driven approach that is specific to the market and should have the bandwidth to offer this content on multiple platforms. This can achieve the objective of reaching the desired audience, and in turn helps brand to co-create brand stories based on each platform, relevant to the content and audience consuming that content on their platform of interest.
What changes in TV are you most excited about in the next couple of years?
Big data and data analytics will not only play a major role in deciding content relevant to market but also give a clear understanding of the audience psyche and an opportunity for the brand to be exposed to these audiences when they are in celebratory mode.
