English Entertainment
Regional markets to fuel English entertainment channels’ growth: ZEEL’s Kartik Mahadev
MUMBAI: The Covid2019 pandemic has given a boost to indoor activities such as TV viewing but specific genres such as English GECs, lifestyle and infotainment channels have been immensely impacted as their limited audience switched to streaming platforms. ZEEL premium channels business head Kartik Mahadev says that television came across as a trusted medium during the lockdown and the audience finds content on television compelling and comforting.
Mahadev says that the channel saw significant growth in TV viewership, led by more walk-ins as well as more time spent on television. Data shared by the network show that Zee English cluster of channels grew by 93 per cent (Week 12 – week 22 vs week 1 to week 11 as per BARC data). &flix had 56 mins (week 12 – week 22 as per BARC data) average weekly time spent on the channel.
For English GECs, the similarity of content on OTT platforms is a concern. Mahadev says, “There is no doubt that digital video platforms are here to stay. However, today we live in an AND world, not an OR world. Studies reveal that consumption of overlapped content between TV and OTT grew on television from 59 per cent pre-NTO to 82 per cent contribution post-NTO for sitcom, drama, reality genres. It naturally follows that navigation between screens is seamless and consumption on TV and digital is complementary in nature.”
According to Madison Media Sigma CEO Vanita Keswani, English GECs losing their audiences to OTT platforms is not a recent phenomenon. “They have been largely impacted due to the disruptions caused by Covid2019. Apart from that there is profitability pressure. Covid2019 is putting a lot of pressure on broadcasters and English niche is the first under scrutiny for survival,” she says.
Mahadev believes that regional markets will continue to fuel new user growth for English entertainment channels. This also includes a whole set of audience moving from regional to English content as they become more comfortable with English as a professional, conversational language.
He adds, “We have designed unique offerings such as multi-language block on &flix and locally nuanced content on Zee Café, that will stand out as enablers of bringing an aspirational, English-comfortable audience onboard. Recently, for the premiere of Jumanji: The Next Level on &flix and a simulcast in Hindi on Zee Cinema, we successfully reached a wider audience by providing access through language.”
Post lockdown, Zee Café has added 256 hours of content to cater to the growth in walk-ins within the genre, including latest dramas such as Nancy Drew and Evil, popular sitcoms such as Seinfeld and I Dream of Jeannie along with the original airings of the celebrity chat show Starry Nights GEN Y.
“Television provides youth-focused brands and premium brands the opportunity to associate with a premium subscriber base that is defined on the basis of their content choice. This sort of content and platform synergy for brands to associate with is not available on OTT platforms where English content is behind a paywall,” he points out.
Some of the brands that came on board as a partner for the property on &flix were Kia Motors, Ariel, Amazon, Airtel 4G, Xiaomi, Protinex and ITC along with Bingo Potato chips, Hyundai Creta, Behrouz Biryani, Bharat Matrimony and Cinthol. These brands were on board for the Hindi simulcast also. The channel has a new slate of premieres like Bad Boys For Life and Fantasy Island to entertain audiences.
Mahedev finds that while marquee international shows bring the best of the world to Indian viewers, locally-produced content allows adding a new dimension from the Indian point of view. “With India’s first-ever English fiction show Bombay Talking, Zee Café brought in relevance with content that is locally nuanced for the Indian viewer. What followed was the introduction of successful properties such as Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan, Not Just Supper Stars and Starry Nights that truly added a unique flavour to Zee Café’s wide repertoire of content,” he shares.
According to Samsika Marketing Consultants founder chairman and MD Jagdeep Kapoor, family viewing pushes down the priority of English GEC. “English GEC channels will now have to work on their programming. The nature of the show and specialisation will help them to stay in the business. The channels that are currently in the business will not only have to look at original content but also relevant content and solid programming. The ones who were not able to do that have lagged behind.”
In the coming months, Mahadev expects the trend in audience preferences towards light-hearted content, superhero flicks and adventure to pick up. With out-of-home entertainment options being limited in the new normal, he feels television will continue to be the entertainment destination for individuals and families. This immediate context is an opportunity for growth.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
