Of course, television in India is changing. MTV has been changing for the past two years. While most television broadcasters treat viewers as ‘consumers’, MTV wants to treat them as ‘users’. That’s because the channel feels that the ‘viewer’ is dying while the ‘user’ is the new-age breed that doesn’t depend on the past as reference point for the future. So what the all new MTV is going to be like? “Dropping the ‘Music Television’ from under the logo is a big symbolic statement and finally closes the loop on the repositioning exercise MTV kicked off two years back,” says Ashish Patil, general manager and senior vice-president, creative and content, MTV India. Elaborating further, he admits that MTV was born of music, inspired by music, driven by music but is not limited to music. “MTV is about new ideas, new formats and new ways of reaching people in the new places they choose to live in,” he adds.
At MTV, according to Ashish, change is a constant process. “We change every second, minute, hour and day,” he points out saying that they are not moving away from music. “We are moving beyond music,” he affirms. So music will be part of MTV but it will be restricted to about 25 to 30 per cent of the content. In Ashish’s view, it is easy to figure out what female viewers of GECs want but nobody knows what youth want. So how does MTV figure it out? “Well, at 36 I am the oldest employee of MTV. The rest are all young. We spend a lot on research. We have 150 people doing research on the kind of programming the youth want. Besides, we also pray a lot,” he says with a grin.
Post-makeover this weekend, MTV’s content will be more about romance, relationships, fashion, sports, campus, gadgets, movies, masti and magic. “MTV India will mirror what MTV did in the US,” admits Ashish. He says it’s been a cool 13-year journey for MTV. “With average TVR of 1.4 and average time spent at 30 minutes against 25 minutes for the music category (15 to 24, AB), we enjoy 50 per cent leadership in terms of viewership and revenue,” he claims. But there are others who also claim to be leaders or are at least very close to the leader. According to TAM data for week 40 (CS 15 +, HSM), MTV leads in relative channel share at 17.7 per cent while its four-week average is 16.9, 9X M is at second place with 16.1 per cent share (four-week average 16.9), Bindaas is at third spot with 16.1 (15.3), Zoom is at number four with 12 per cent (12.1) and Channel (V) at fifth position with 8.4 per cent share (7.7).
The problem with the music category is that it offers limited prime-time. Hence the re-branding seems to be driven by the need to come out of the clutter of music channel category, which is not only becoming highly competitive but has a limited window open to it between 5 and 8 pm. However, as a youth targeted entertainment brand in all shapes and forms - mobilephones, voice portal and web besides television - not only MTV will have a different image and identity but it can also boost its revenue through other streams.
