Disney UTV works on distribution gains

MUMBAI: Disney UTV has set a three-pronged strategy to build its television business in the country which includes strengthening the distribution of its existing channels, developing richer content and expanding portfolio with new launches.

Distribution is the most important priority for the company that was integrated with Disney following its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company early this year as part of its strategy to expand its business in emerging markets like India.

?The main thing that we did this year was integration of the two companies, Disney and UTV. The two networks together had a 3 percentage share of viewership of the total Indian market from a television point of view,? says Disney UTV MD-Media Networks MK Anand.

The coming together of Disney?s kid?s network with UTV?s mass specialty channels will help Disney UTV in gaining critical mass, Anand believes.

?It was a three-part step to take us from wherever we are over the next two to three years. As separate clusters, they were basically niche networks. I mean you couldn?t call them national level networks,? he adds.

Disney UTV has nine channels under its belt spanning kids, youth and movie channels post integration. These include Disney, Hungama, Disney XD, UTV Stars, Bindass, UTV Movies, UTV Action and the newly launched preschool channel Disney Junior.

?What we realised is that Disney UTV started to emerge as a significant media network (post integration). The least that you need in order to become a significant player in the Indian market we believe is 5 per cent plus,? he avers.

With ambitions to become a significant player, Disney UTV set out to strengthen the reach of its channels with special emphasis on kids and movie portfolio.

Anand expects the distribution piece to be sorted out by March-end next year. The target is to grow subscription revenue by 30-35 per cent and strengthen its presence in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

He also said that the distribution was earlier optimised on the basis of what advertisers wanted.

?Our targeted subscription revenue growth for the coming year is 30-35 per cent and we are very confident of achieving that. We expect it to continue for another year and then it might come down,? he claimed.

He also said that Disney UTV will gain on a net basis as carriage fee payout has remained under control.

?The silver lining is that our carriage fee over the last year has not gone up; it hasn?t gone down because we have increased our distribution requirements on ground presence. We are making more money than we are paying, so for us net-net we are making profits from distribution,? he avers.

And digitisation came at just the right time for the broadcaster with the first phase almost through and the second phase deadline scheduled for 31 March.

Like most broadcasters, Anand is bullish about digitisation as carriage fee is expected to come down while subscription fee should look up. Disney UTV has also concluded deals with multi-system operators (MSOs) in the three cities.

?On a long term-basis the carriage fee will come down on per-channel basis because the capacity of cable has gone up,? he states.

The first one on the radar was Disney XD which was mainly concentrated in South India and the objective was to take it to the Hindi Speaking Markets, the primary market for most kid?s broadcasters.

?We believe that is the channel that should be able to cross the 100 GRP mark. This would mean that out of the six major (kids) channels in the country, three would be with us,? he says.

Disney XD, according to him, has more than doubled its GRPs from 35 to 65-70.

On the movie channels side, the thrust was on having a reach on par with top three channels in the genre - Star Gold, Zee Cinema and Max. The priority for Bindass and UTV Stars, on the other hand, was to maintain its reach among the SEC AB 15-24 HSM 1mn+ market.

According to Anand, kids and movie channels put together are drivers for the network.