Ajay Trigunayat, the new business head of Zee Movie Zone (ZMZ), Zee English, Trendz and MX takes pride in knowing his numbers right. Managing the marketing and creative aspects of the business with equal finesse, Trigunayat joined Zee Network in March 2002 as vice president marketing for Zee Network. Since then he has handled various departments like brand management, marketing services, organising Zee Cine Awards and optimising cross channel promotions.

For the second time, Trigunayat has taken over the responsibility as the business head of Zee English, ZMZ (known prior to break up with content partner MGM as Zee MGM). In an interview with indiantelevision.com's Trupti Ghag, he talks about changes since his last stint as a business head between September 2002 till February 2003, vision for the channels and fickle world of advertising.

Read on for a tete-a-tete:

What are the challenges that you have identified for Zee English and Zee Movie Zone (ZMZ) in the coming years?
Each channel has a different battle to fight and it will only get tougher. So, rather than looking at a cluster of channels, we are treating each channel as a different entity.

Is there a content differentiator between the two movie channels?
For starters, MX is a DTH channel and that is a clear differentiator between ZMZ and MX. As for MX, we will take a decision on our game plan for the coming year in about 15-20 days, we are currently testing concepts for MX. We would be focusing on exploiting content that only DTH technology is equipped to deliver.

Could you elaborate on what exactly is it that you are looking at? What is the immediate game plan?
We ran a Bond movie festival last month. Post that, in terms of the channel share, we saw a five per cent jump from October first week's 14 per cent to 19 per cent, within a span of three weeks. We are now planning to strengthen this further by showcasing the Indiana Jones movie festival this month. We are hoping that this would be bigger than the Bond festival.

Also in the month of December, we are going to telecast Laws of attraction starring Julianne Moore and Pierce Bosnan. We are also toying with the idea of airing the Bourne Identity series made in 2000-2001, in December. Come January, we also plan to come up with new graphics and promos for ZMZ, for which research is underway. We are currently in the process of building our own team.

Right now we are just evaluating initial feedback from the masses, advertisers and we're also waiting for the latest Tam results to come in. We have had a five per cent increase in channel share, and we are targeting 20 to 25 per cent channel share at the end of three to four months.

But we are more likely to usher in the changes following airing of two of the big products that we have right now, which are Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2. We have weaved a huge festival in the month of January around it. Also for the Oscar time we would be premiering the latest award winner Monster, in February.

But you just underwent certain changes post the break off with the content partner. What is it that you will be looking at?
Essentially the whole look of the channel, but it all depends on the consumer feedback. Although the last change was something that we devised in a very small time, I personally thought it was good. Although, we did have a very good feedback from most of the quarters, we are just trying to evaluate if there is a genuine problem with content. So we have initiated research in the five cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta.

So what is the current arrangement with MGM?
As of now, we have gone independent from 1 October. But even when we had a content partnership, they were already selling telecast rights and home video rights for quite a few titles to other broadcasters. We were also picking up movies from elsewhere.

Contrary to popular perception, we were not dependent on MGM so much. In fact, we just have seven movies from MGM library, less that one per cent of our library strength. Most of our movies come from Miramax, Paramount and other stellar independent producers. We continue to have a good relationship with them.

Has the break-up helped your brand-ZMZ?
Let's put it this way, if we have to take the business forward we had to venture out on our own. Also, since we decided to go independent, everyone was willing to deal with us. It was not the case earlier. Other production houses had a concern of putting their movie under the MGM banner. We wanted to get into movies, which would be aired first on our channel, something that we had not done earlier.

Currently, we are talking to a lot of independent producers. In fact, we are going to visit the American Film Market and are looking at bidding for several titles.

We are looking at a complete change and the endeavour would be to get 20-25 per cent of market share in the next three four months.

So, are you looking at joining the big guns-Star Movies and HBO- or are you aiming at creating a separate audience base? What are the demographics that you are looking at?
We are trying to create a different audience, except that we are in the exploratory phase right now. We have already initiated consumer research and it will take another week to analyse that.

In terms of demographics, our primary focus is for the top six cities in the age group of 15-45. So, essentially we are looking at people who are young and aspirational.

So would you then be looking at the Indian Diaspora or the crossover movies?
We are currently looking at the 'crossover movies' genre. Except that we are still in the exploratory phase and we are looking at whether we are able to strike a right balance between how much we pay and how much we can earn from the market place.

Are there any structural changes in the team that you are looking at?
We have now combined the programming and marketing team. Traditionally, we took a person with a strong creative or production background on board and put him/her in programming. While gets lured in by the charm of dealing with a foreign studios and programmes of excellent production value, but when the charm wears off and then the person wants to do production again. We are working across time zones, since our transmission facility is in Singapore, we have an early morning start and we co-ordinate content from US, which is on other side of the globe and that takes up our evening. So it is not quite an easy task.

Iinstead of having one person looking after the marketing and other programming of the all the four channels, we have one person to look after both programming and marketing of Zee English and another on ZMZ and MX and these two people in turn report to a senior who does all the strategic thinking. As for Trendz, since we have to create content, we one person on programming and another on marketing, and then there are people down the line who execute.

Speaking about problems, is there a problem with ZMZ distribution post the break-up?
This is merely a perception and not the reality. There are about nine MSO's operating, including in Delhi and Mumbai, who found the channel to be a better product and they pushed it up in better band. We had a concern with one MSO, but even that will get sorted out in a couple of days. So there is no problem as far as ZMZ or Zee English is concerned.

But is there a problem with Trendz ?
Yes, we have had a lot of concern with Trendz. Fact is that Trendz, being a fashion channel is considered a niche channel. We are still analysing and considering various options.

What is that you are looking at as far as Trendz goes?
We have tied up with the Indo-Italian chambers of commerce, so we covered the Asian fashion week at Milan. Subsequently we also covered a couple of cities in Italy and we are doing a show called City lights, plus best of fashion week. We are just trying to get our fix right and we should be showcasing it in last week of December.

Is it right to assume that advertising community is not taking Trendz seriously as well?
As a niche fashion channel, its not been taken seriously and people feel that it should be a lifestyle channel. But lifestyle is not glamour. And for people who understand, the description of lifestyle as 'when life meets style' is slightly silly. We are about fashion and out thinking consumer will want exactly that- splashing Fashion in a big way. Today, people see FTV and Trendz in the same light and I think that is commendable.

Why the channel is perceived the way it is, are more of a content problem and not a promotional problem. People get tired of too much ramp shows but what we aim to offer is fashion in all walks of life and that is not life style.

In specific terms, what is it that you are looking at delivering?
In addition to whats in-whats out, hot accessories for the season, we will also be talking about the lingo, the hotspots you go to what are the places you would like to go to. Places unseen and other wise, both in India and abroad. We will make the channel come alive true to the meaning of its name -Trendz. Yes, it would be about lifestyle, but only those of the glamour and fashion world.

Moving on to Zee English, what is in store for that channel?
We have a fairly large volume deal with Warner. It provides about 80-90 per cent of our content and will continue to do so. We will be introducing fresh seasons of all the stellar shows like Friends (Season 10), Sopranos, West Wing, La Femme Nikita and some newer shows as well. But the team is still working out on the roll out process.

We are concentrating on time band 7 to 11:30 and we are going to pack it back to back with comedies and dramas. Unlike international audience who likes to watch weekly, we here like to watch dailies. Something that we are doing with Will and Grace and Friends repeats.

Despite the good content, perception in the market is that Star World is a better channel than Zee English. Why is it so?
There are two perceptions. I will not discount the fact that Star World is perceived to be a better channel. But then again there is a very strong second perception, that while Star World is excellent brand and their image is better but that does not lead to consumption.

Even today, if you were to go by rating, the popular programme to achieve a whooping 0.77 per cent rating is Will and Grace on Zee English. Something that has not been achieved by any programme on Star World.

More than focus on packaging, we decided that if we continue to focus on providing total content in competition first would be home. Rather than been known as a better brand, I rather be known as a better product. I think to that extend we are winning the battle and the numbers are on our side.

What about the advertisers, do they think that you are a better product?
I think that they are starting to think that and that is the reason why they are putting more monies. People remember shows like Full House, Friends, Will and Grace, Sopranos, West Wing and Six Feet Under. People also talk about our earlier shows, Police Academy, Threes company, Seinfeild and Mad about you. They all are Zee English shows.

As far as numbers are concerned, I think it is a world wide problem. All the systems have been devised to measure mass entertainment channels, there is nothing in the methodology that is robust enough and the numbers can vary to degrees of 60-70.