For Sony Entertainment Television (Set) India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, the big wish for 2008 is to throw up that one hit narrative show that would get some momentum going for his network's flagship channel Set.

Other than the vexed issue of Set and its equally struggling Hindi GEC sibling Sab, the network is doing fine thank you, argues the long serving head honcho of the Indian broadcast operations of Sony Pictures

In conversation with Indiantelevision.com recently, Dasgupta looks back on the difficult year that was 2007 and offers some pointers to the strategic direction Set India (now renamed Multi Screen Media Private Limited) is looking to take in 2008 and beyond.

Excerpts:

Let's start with the new name. Is this because your parent Sony Pictures Entertainment is distancing the Sony brand name from the Indian broadcast entity?
Certainly not. The name is reflective of the company's evolution from a pure television broadcaster to a multimedia one. We want to be on all screens that are video enabled. Going forward, we will be actively investing in mobile, movies, Internet, and out of home screens. Mobile in particular is going to be a focus area for us.

When you say you want to be on all screens, could you elaborate on that?
I am going to be recycling the over 30,000 hours of television content and 750+ movie titles that I have with me. We plan to repurpose a lot of it not just across the different screens, but across networks too.

The realm of exclusivity is no longer the norm. To stay ahead of the game you have to be focused on how best to leverage the content that you have.

Like the Rs 40 crore (RS 400 million) deal you did with Peter Mukerjea's INX for 60 movie titles?
Yes. That deal entitles INX to three airings of each film I have syndicated to them.

Looking back to 2007, how would you rate the performance of the channels in the Sony network?
Well, Max was fantastic; Pix became viable. On Sony and Sab we have suffered reverses on account of our fiction programming not working.

How has the year been in terms of revenues? The perception in the market is that Sony had a terrible year?
If you add up ad sales, distribution and our international business, it would be Rs 1,200 crores (Rs 12 billion) overall, so you can't say it was a terrible year.

One reason for the perception that Sony had a lousy year, aside from its programming not working, was the ICC World Cup debacle in March. We understand you lost some RS 800 million odd due to India's early exit. Comment?
The ICC rights should not be looked at from the results from one tournament, but on how it delivered over four years. And it delivered on every count for us.

Looking at the larger perspective, what have been the big challenges the broadcast sector faced and will face, going forward?
The pathetically slow pace of digital rollout (Cas) has been the biggest challenge for existing players. Though I do believe digital distribution will come into play from 2008 onwards.

Combating all these new players will be the big upcoming challenge. The (leadership) pecking order will have to be reestablished. Star is not complacent in its position of number 1. Even Zee as a challenger is not complacent. Everybody will face challenge. The whole media business will face challenge.

The industry is seeing huge churn now. The channel explosion is going to further fragment audiences. We will soon have 9/10 channels in each of the genres - news, sports and movies.