MAM
DD will grow post CAS – say marketing concessionaires
With the conditional access system (CAS) becoming a reality from July 2003, there is a marked increase in the number of marketing concessionaires or agents aggressively pitching for slots and promoting offerings of independent producers on several upcountry Doordarshan (DD) channels. 
This, despite the fact that DD has appointed a central marketing/buying unit headed by Vijayalakshmi Chabbria to oversee volume discounts.
Beyond regulars like Nimbus, Balaji Telefilms and Mukta Telearts, several new content marketers are now mushrooming across the country. The trend of an increase in the number of marketing concessionaires has been confirmed by several database companies which offer customised media operations, planning and billing packages to ad agencies, publications and broadcasters.
Mediaware Software and Database Services CEO Biswajit Das confirms: “Yes!There has been a marked increase in the number of marketing concessionaires for programmes which are shown on Doordarshan and its upcountry kendras and other cable and satellite broadcasters located in South India. I wouldn’t say that there is a steep influx, because only long-term players with commitment and financial backing can survive in the long term in this business. But yes, there is an increase in the number of producers and their marketing representatives.”
Ad agencies and media planners prefer to have single-point contacts for multiple programme offerings in the DD kendras (stations) located in different states. They also use these marketing agents to get insights into the psychographics and demographics of the audiences in the interiors.
Players such as Omega Mass Media, Happenings, S&S Advertising, Reasonable Advertising, Universal Communications, Globestar Enterprises, Amaffhha Media, Vibhor Video Vision, Media Dreams, Gaurav Vision are coordinating with all the top advertisers and agencies in the country. Some of them don’t even have branch offices across the country but are well known in the marketplace and receive business on a regular basis.
Omega Mass Media markets programmes on DD Trivandrum, DD Chennai (Anju Manju, Oliyum Oliyum), DD Mumbai (Kunku Tikli, Suruchi and Kayam Thappasavar) and DD Hyderabad (Cine Vennela). The company’s MD A Hari Haran says, “I have been in business for nearly 12 years and I can predict that DD channels will grow at a fast pace in the next few months. CAS will facilitate the process. However, both DD and C&S (cable and satellite) channels are distinct markets.
“As far as Omega is concerned, we have established a good rapport with advertisers and media planners. But the programme’s eventual performance will determine the inflow of advertising. We have got ad support from clients like HLL, Medimix, Dabur, Horlicks and Wipro,” adds Hari Haran, who is poised to launch more programmes post the cricket World Cup.
Happenings is another reputed marketing concessionaire which also has another division to handle AOR business for certain clients. It handles programmes for DD Trivandrum/DD Chennai/DD Bangalore/DD Hyderabad/DD Metro/DD National/DD Ahmedabad/DD National/DD Lucknow/DD Bhopal/DD Jalandhar and DD Kolkata. The popular programmes include Jhanjhar, Jhalak, Filmi Deewane and Lashkara amongst others.
Happenings director Harish Shaktawat says: “Mark my words, DD will climb back to the number position in terms of revenues pretty soon within the next two-three years. However, I must say that there is a big communication gap between advertisers, ad/media agencies and the market concessionaires. We prefer going directly to the clients as ad agencies insist on ratings. Personally, I don’t believe in TRPs, at least those where the interiors of the country are involved. Also, the media AORs apply tremendous pressure on rates.”
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| A still from DD’s programme Aap Beeti |
Reasonable Advertising’s marketing vice president S A Khan who markets BR TV’s serials Aap Beeti (incidentally the top programme on DD with a TVR of 10.19 in all homes 4 years + for 9-15 March 2003) and Vishnupurana says: “DD continues to be popular in small towns beyond metros. Many planners and buyers have become aware of the fact that DD and its affiliate reaches out to several people who have purchasing power.”
Universal Communications, a leading content production, distribution and marketing company, has obtained a good response for its new afternoon slot programmes on Doordarshan Trivandrum’s DD 4 (Malayalam), DD Chennai and DD Podhigai. The new programmes include Chandrodayam (Malayalam) and Pennurimai (Tamil). “If one travels beyond the metros to the smaller towns and district levels, DD continues to rule. In the Hindi belt, DD’s national network still remains popular,” adds Universal Communications’ MD Padmakar Nandekar.
S&S Advertising, a marketing and advertising concessionaire, has bagged several slots in the newly constituted DD kendras in Ranchi, Chandigarh and Hissar (in the state of Haryana). Navi Mumbai based S&S Advertising is one of the few players in the market which has emerged as a single window to a variety of programmes and content offerings aired on Doordarshan (DD) channels in cities such as Lucknow, Bhopal, Patna, Jalandhar, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur.
S&S proprietor Shruti Agarwal, who left her cosy position as a space marketing manager with a national publication to start her own venture says: “S&S Advertising has tied up with several independent producers. Jointly, we have identified bands on regional DD channels which have a lot of potential and create content to attract viewers and advertisers. With Doordarshan seeking sponsored and commission programmes, the demand for quality vernacular content will definitely go up. And yes, DD will rule!”
The sole concessionaire for Ramanand Sagar’s productions, Gaurav Vision director Rekha Chawla says: “Currently Prem Sagar’s Aankhe is amongst the top five programmes on DD National in all homes four years plus. We have been handling some of the most popular programmes such as Ramayan, Shri Krishna, Jai Ganga and Alif Laila since their inception. The market seems to be getting better and better.”
Globestar Enterprises markets programmes for DD Trivandrum/DD Chennai/DD Bangalore/DD Hyderabad/DD Metro/DD National/DD Ahmedabad/DD National/DD Lucknow/DD Bhopal/DD Jalandhar/DD Kolkata.
Amafhha Media markets programmes for DD Patna/DD Ranchi.
Vibhor Video Vision markets programmes for DD Bhopal/DD National. Media Dreams has Metti Oli and Mettala Savadi on the Sun Network.
During the last three months, however, DD producers and market concessionaires have been complaining that they have been unable to recover money from advertisers who have bought spots on the programmes.
Market sources also claim that DD has become very savvy in its marketing efforts and has increased the valuations of several popular genres. DD charges more money for music based shows. In the case of music-based shows, the producers recover not through advertising but by charging music labels. But the current sad state of music labels has resulted in hesitancy in paying money to air songs on these slots. There is a feeling that DD should have hiked prices some time back when the music industry was booming.
Another case in point is that DD prefers to give top ranking status to producers who pay upto Rs 3,50,000 for a 30-minute slot on the national network in addition to additional spot buys of around Rs 200,000. Several market concessionaires say that this is unreasonable and puts pressure on margins.
Also, several marketing concessionaires have to compete with DD’s own central marketing/buying unit headed by Vijayalakshmi Chabbria, which directly negotiates bulk deals with the top advertisers and agencies. This eats into the revenues of the marketing concessionaires and puts added pressure on their margins.
Despite all these issues, several producers are pretty upbeat that DD will rule India in 2003-4 as CAS unfolds. They feel that the C&S channels’ exaggerated claims will be unmasked.
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| A still from Maharathi Karna taken from www.ddindia.net |
Consider for instance, Sanjay Khan’s Maharathi Karna which is climbing the popularity charts. DD has also called for bids involving commission programmes based on ancient Indian folk tales and Indian literature. Several media observers feel that DD is making the right moves by seeking to add to its library.
Looks like the C&S pay channels better watch out as DD might actually rise like the proverbial Phoenix!
The biggest conversations in entertainment usually revolve around scale. Bigger launches, bigger stars, bigger production budgets, bigger platform strategies. Yet one of the clearest signs of market maturity shows up somewhere much smaller. It’s in the words they use every day: title cards, app menus, summaries, promotional descriptions, and push notifications. If all content sounds the same, the line blurs before they even click play.
It’s becoming more apparent as global platforms compete against regional ones in a world that’s increasingly multilingual and mobile-first. A team can spend hours crafting a content slate, but then rush to get the announcing copy out to the world. In a frenzied world like that, a grammar checker can be a lifeline in weeding out bad writing, awkward structure, and unwanted mistakes in content that’s going to be displayed on platforms, banners, and notifications.
The era of generic entertainment language
A strange sameness has crept into digital entertainment. Too many shows are described with the same flat phrases. Too many thrillers are called gripping. Too many dramas are labeled emotional. Too many reality formats are described as exciting journeys. The words may be completely right, yet they don’t stick in the reader’s mind.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that individuals take in material at an unprecedented rate. They are not meeting content through a critic’s essay or a full trailer every time. Often they meet it through a few words on a screen. Those words are doing more work than many teams admit.
Words have become a part of the user experience in a cluttered streaming world. They set the mood, build anticipation, help people make choices, and show them if something fits with their way of thinking, their style, or their daily life. If the writing isn’t very good, the platform itself can start to feel like it’s not very good.
That is a bigger issue than simple copy fatigue. If every title is presented in the same voice, brands begin to blur together. The audience may still watch, but the platform stops building a distinct editorial identity.
Why platform voice now matters more than ever
Entertainment companies used to rely heavily on channel identity, release schedules, or star power to define themselves. Those signals still matter, though the digital environment has changed how users experience them. A streaming app is a living product. People move through it quickly, often alone, often late at night, often half-distracted. They encounter dozens of pieces of micro-copy in a single session.
That makes voice consistency more important than many product teams expect.
A platform that sounds sharp, clear, and culturally aware feels more premium. A platform that sounds overproduced, vague, or repetitive feels less alive. This is especially true in markets where viewers move easily between local television, global streaming, short video, sports, and social media. The standard for attention is high, and bland wording rarely survives first contact.
The strongest media brands tend to understand a subtle truth. Good copy is not only about selling a show. It is about shaping the personality of the service itself.
This happens through many small choices:
● how drama is framed versus comedy
● whether youth content sounds natural or forced
● whether mobile notifications feel urgent or annoying
● whether homepage descriptions carry rhythm or read like database entries
● whether language changes intelligently across regions and devices
These details may seem minor in isolation. Together, they define how a platform feels.
The cost of speed in modern content operations
One reason entertainment language becomes repetitive is simple pressure. Media teams are under constant demand to move faster. There’s more content to create, more spaces to fill, more regions to cater to, and more forms to accommodate. What once might have been a single piece of copy can become a complex network of related content within app stores, smart TV interfaces, social media, push notifications, email marketing, and ad-supported spaces.
Under that pressure, safe language becomes tempting.
Safe language is quick. It passes review. It offends no one. It can be reused across genres with minor edits. The problem is that safe language is often forgettable. It tells viewers what category a title belongs to, yet does little to communicate why anyone should care.
This is where media teams face a real strategic choice. They can keep treating copy as a production step, or they can see it as part of audience experience design.
That second view changes the workflow. It encourages stronger editorial direction, clearer brand vocabulary, and tighter review processes. It also creates room for experimentation. A show summary does not need to sound like a press release. A release alert does not need to sound like a machine-generated reminder. There is space for specificity, texture, and voice, even within short-form platform language.
Multilingual markets reveal the problem faster
This is especially the case in a market where there are a variety of languages and a complex identity for the audiences. A text that reads well in one language can sound clunky in another. A translation can preserve meaning while losing energy. A tagline built for desktop can fall apart on mobile. A youth-oriented campaign may become overly formal when localized too literally.
That is why the best media writing in multilingual environments depends on adaptation rather than simple conversion.
The goal is to preserve intent, tone, and audience fit across versions. That takes editorial judgment. It requires people who understand how entertainment language behaves in real life, not only in style guides.
Some of the most common problems appear in places audiences notice immediately:
● subtitles that are grammatically fine but emotionally flat
● app descriptions that sound translated rather than written
● genre labels that fail to reflect local viewing habits
● promotions that use the same vocabulary across very different titles
When these weaknesses accumulate, viewers may not consciously analyze them. They simply sense that the platform feels distant or mechanical.
The hidden power of better wording
There is a reason sharp writing continues to matter even in a highly visual medium. Before viewers commit time, language gives them a frame. It tells them what kind of experience awaits. It reduces uncertainty. It can even create an appetite.
This is valuable, and it is valuable in a somewhat nebulous way. Well-crafted text can increase click-through rates, reduce bounce rates, increase trust, and facilitate the spread of content across discovery surfaces. It can also be useful for the spread of advertisements by making the overall platform feel more refined.
But the real value is in the culture. Entertainment organizations want to be modern. They want to know how people feel. They want to be able to state that they live in the same place. That is very hard to achieve through templates alone.
The platforms most likely to stand out over time may be the ones that invest more seriously in their editorial layer. They will care about sentence flow in metadata, tone in alerts, nuance in translation, and clarity in every line that appears before the content starts. They will treat words as part of content packaging, product design, and brand building all at once.
In a business obsessed with scale, this may seem like a small idea. It is not. When streaming platforms start sounding the same, language becomes one of the few tools left to restore distinction. A sharper voice can make a familiar interface feel more thoughtful. A better sentence can rescue a title from invisibility. A more human line can remind the audience that somebody on the other side still understands how people actually choose what to watch.
