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Is the euphoria over?

The two 24-hour regional language channels, Gurjari and Lashkara began with a bang six months ago. But for the producers who have made programmes for the channels, the honeymoon seems to be over. Reminiscent (India) Television (RITV), the company which runs the channels, is being accused of withholding payments to producers and technicians.
Subash Menon, Managing Director, RITV, replies to the allegations and talks about his future plans in a freewheeling interview.

Gurjari and Lashkara were to cover a wider footprint according to earlier reports. But they are now restricted only to Asia. Why?
Gurjari and Lashkara are being broadcast from the Thaicom-3 and the footprint covers Asia, Middle East, Australia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Both these channels are being well received in these countries apart from Asia, and within 6 months of operations the demand for these channels is increasing and are being added by the cable networks to their current channel line up, just as in India.

We are currently in the final stage of negotiations with the major satellite and cable groups for carriage and distribution in UK, USA and Canada and will be available in these countries by the beginning of the year 2000.

Which are the areas in India where the two channels have the greatest penetration apart from Gujarat and Punjab?
The demand for a Punjabi and Gujarati channel which stands out in the current broadcasting industry, is clearly for our channels. This demand is reflected by the major cable companies moving these channels on to the more viewable frequencies. Viewers from both these communities in different pockets of India are demanding the channels, this goes to show their popularity not only in Punjab and Gujarat where our major target base is but also other parts of India. For e.g. in West Bengal Gurjari has 50 per cent and Lashkara has 67 per cent penetration!

How many viewers do the two channels reach in India?
From the inception till date we have got the carriage in the areas of the highest penetration of our target viewership and we have reached almost 100 per cent in terms of our market size and viewership. We are currently being watched by an estimated 11 million households out of the 22 million cable houses which caters to our market and are carried on all the major cable networks in the country.

What are your future plans for the two channels in terms of marketing strategies?
Our new marketing plans for the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of the year 2000 is focused on the road shows, events in the local cities of Punjab, Delhi and Ahmedabad, moving on to the interiors and bringing the local talents of these regions closer to our viewers and make them identify with the channels. Those exercises will create more awareness and interest amongst the advertisers to come to our channels in a big way.

Which of the two channels would you say is more popular and why?
Both the channels have a distinct identity of their own and have attained popularity as individual brands by themselves and are not here to compete against each other, so the question of being better then the other does not arise in the pretext of their individual programming or brand popularity.

There is a buzz in the industry that RITV has yet to pay its producers and technicians their outstanding payments which, it is being said, run into 3-4 lakhs per producer. Comment.
Rumours and dissatisfaction voiced cannot be taken as they have been placed or heard by someone, but the figure stated by you cannot be truly justified. As we are in a business there is a continuous business cycle where we do have creditors and we need to strike a balance in our business that means something to the individual or companies who have chosen to do business with our company and vice-versa.

It is also being said that senior executives of the channels are rude to the producers who have stopped shooting for their serials until their dues are cleared. Comment.
Some producers have been stopped from shooting further episodes, as they have not met with the quality that was required by us. But no incident of this nature has been brought to my notice.

M.S.