Broadcast Media is OUT, Narrowcast Media is IN

Dec 22, 2010

With our core business & expertise in media consulting, at every year-end people keep asking as to which way the media is heading to in the year ahead. At the end of the year 2010, the very same curiosity has got even more relevance with the kind of media expose that the country has seen, both internally with Radia tapes and globally with WikiLeaks. Will it change the shape of things in media? And with TRACK2MEDIA Consulting launching its first news project in the form of e newspaper on real estate sector, Track2Realty, it is all the more necessary for us to release a fact-sheet on the media roadmap that we find shaping up in the year 2011.
Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the entry of more players will just add up to the number of jobs; or the increasing competition will have some impact on the pay packets as well. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media. But most importantly the new players who are eager to explore in the media business want to understand as to what makes a media project viable.
Well, TRACK2MEDIA Consulting as a communication management group has lost a couple of upcoming media projects in the year 2010 because we have been upfront in telling the clients that their approach to replicate the model, both in content & revenue, of existing biggies is fraught with dangers. Every wannabe in the media business, unfortunately, tries to replicate the existing news project, and in the process turns out to be the poor Xerox version of the existing players. When the global management consulting company McKinsey forecasted a few years back that India will soon see around 500 TV channels uplinked, it had probably no idea as to how the business of news & entertainment will see a horizontal growth than vertical one.
Some of the regional channels competing in a cluttered market are a testimony of the fact that it is not just niche market that is a key to success. Most of them have failed to evolve a serious game plan and hence unable to create a community around them. This failure has also brought a sea change compromise in the standards and ethics of journalism. Jobs are offered nowadays not just on the journalistic merit, but the ability to raise revenue from the region that is on offer. Still, most of the thinktanks of these media group are clueless as to where have the audience and revenue gone.
Nine out of 10 new media projects in the year 2010 have either failed flat or are struggling to make a break even. Indian media market has already seen dot com bubble burst, the TV channels closing down and even some big ticket print media projects failing to make a mark. Some of these projects have failed to get noticed despite of deep pockets of the promoters. On the contrary, there are other media projects, though few and far between, which are doing well despite of working in a low-cost model. This raises a question mark over the business model, brand differentiator and TG loyalty of the project.
All the successful media ventures may be devising their old success stories, but there seem to be a common pattern of almost all the failed ventures. That is their attempt to replicate the model of the existing successful ventures.  After closely examining the evolving media market in the country, we always advise the clients to write their success stories, instead of replicating anybody. This goes true for our own venture Track2Realty as well, which has been conceptualized as a market differentiator in the real estate segment.
It is not that there is any dearth of media ventures in a lucrative sector like the real estate. But where Track2Realty stands out as a market differentiator is the fact that we are neither competing with the marketing supplements of the mainline newspapers, nor are we providing a B2B platform to the industry. For us real estate is newsworthy subject that has been a virgin territory. And we are here to track the real concerns of all the stake holders-realty companies, investors, consultants and the end-users.
The question that many people ask is that whether niche segment is the new potential zone to emerge. With a certain amount of conviction I keep telling the media wannabes that the days of broadcast format is over. Unless one has a few hundred crores with a long time span to get into competitive zone with the large media houses, there is no point to even think of a venture with broadcast format. Providing every bit of news for everybody is something that has been monopolized by the large media institutions. As a consultant I keep telling everybody that even if you have deep pockets, it is always better to channelize that resource on a road that has been less travelled by.
It is our firm belief that while the broadcast format may not work for the new players, narrowcast format brings in more synergy, room for creativity & experiment and connects instantly with the focused target group. The next wave in media is slated to be with the narrowcast format, where one may not be offering everything to everybody, but an exclusive offer for a niche audience connects much better with the desired target group. One may not target million of audience who will surf your news platform once in a while, but an exclusive offer to even thousands of audience will do if your offer is worth visiting twice or thrice a day.
News and for that matter any form of media is also about creating a community around your media vehicle. Perhaps Facebook is the best example, and also an answer as to why people in general spend more time on Facebook than a professional networking platform like the LinkedIn. Both Facebook and LinkedIn are available on the Internet, accessible to everybody worldwide. But while LinkedIn is conceptualized on a broadcast format where you can network globally with anybody on a professional level, you may not end up working together on a given project even if you need services in that given geographical location. This is because this professional networking platform may not bring in like minded professionals on the table.
On the contrary, with Facebook one may not be bothered about millions of users, but in a narrowcast mode one is closely networked, most often with same likes and preferences, with the friends’ list. The medium offers even more focused narrowcasting within the narrowcast in the form of creating a group. Our study on the business model, audience psychograph and emerging pattern clearly suggests that the future belong to such narrowcast format in media.      
Among the three popular modes of media-Print, TV and Internet, the power of the word of mouse is tremendous; but has not been tapped fully because there is a credibility factor that is missing on the net in the absence of any regulation. It is a free for all medium. Columbia law professor in his recent book “The Master Switch” argues that Internet is as powerful as any other communications medium.  He expects to see consolidation and government control over the web. That may be a blessing in disguise as most other media-Print, TV, Radio & Movies, have gone through phases of wild growth and experimentation, eventually settling into a pattern of consolidation, control and credibility.
If Print Media today is seen as the most creditable piece of journalism, it is largely due to the edit control mechanism of the medium. In contrast, Television may attract more eyeballs but edit control is relatively less in a Soundbyte driven medium. Internet media entrepreneurs need to adapt to this reality and reinvent their project into a digiprint format. It is not just the US President Barack Obama who contested the elections on the social networking sites, but across the world even the most conservative governments have started realizing the power of the medium.
China has launched a new search engine of its own to make foray into its 420 million strong net users’ market. Known as Goso.cn, China’s search engine has been aimed at countering the negative reports of the country on rival Google. It has been launched by the country’s largest newspaper the People’s Daily of the ruling Communist party of China. This shows how several countries view development of the internet as part of their national strategy.
Internet is a medium which enables one with a daily budget of even Rs. 10 to practice journalism and other forms of media activity. Internet has cultivated a public vested in its freedom. But then activism and radical openness of the web has to eventually set an organized pattern for the medium. With a bit of regulation, more serious players opting for the medium and the medium itself not just penetrating deep into the demography but also in the psychograph….the future is definitely calling to the digital media.

Media Forecast 2010

With our primary role in TRACK2MEDIA being media consultancy, a lot of people keep asking as to which way the Indian media is heading to in the year 2010. Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the gloomy picture in the media world will continue in the year ahead. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media.
Speaking from the perspective of TRACK2MEDIA as a media consulting agency and from a personal standpoint, what media means to us is something which is our forte, our core competency, and certainly our bread and butter. This is also one of the sunrise industries in the Indian market today. I know this statement will raise quite a few eyebrows in today’s context when the television channels are increasingly attempting to get top thin in their hierarchy and overall management practice.
One of the leading group of television channels has only recently hired a global audit firm to measure the employees’ productivity. With the mandate to roll the heads from the top (read all highly paid), restructuring resulted in many of the professionals being shown the doors. If industry grapevine is to be believed, another leading media house is ready with its own liability list. Country’s leading national daily with a financial daily, a news channel and a business television channel has also went through massive restructuring this year.
However, I am still optimistic and this euphoric state of mind has got nothing to do with the measured advertising expenditure in the year 2009. If I go by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s clearance to a number of television channels in the recent past, television as a medium of news certainly seems to be poised for another expansion spree. It may not grow vertically and qualitatively, but a horizontal growth and quantitative growth is certainly on the cards.
Even from the advertising and marketing sustenance point of view, on a macro level hardly anyone will argue against the fact that India has become the global hot spot for any global brand. From FMCG to luxury & super luxury, all roads are leading into Indian market today. India along with China has emerged as the market that is critical in any global brand’s strategy for expansion. However, I must admit here that the idea of advertising is vague. And statistics are just that – statistics.
A more critical look into 2010 for the two media platforms leading the way (television and online) will unveil a better idea of where the media is heading to. The rationale of evaluating only the television and online media is that print has apparently reached its saturation point in this part of the world and there is no major expansion on the cards. Even some of the global newspapers tying up with an Indian partner for the local edition over here have put their plans on shelves for the time being. Television and Internet, however, is heading northwards with more players joining the fray.
Journalist friends in the print media may crib that their intellectual superiority and low pay is shameful as against the triple S and one P (Sex, Sensationalism, Silly & Politics) driven television where PYT (Pretty Young Thing) is all you need to succeed. But television will continue to go some distance as against some other forms of advertising, including that of Internet and Outdoor. Television in India may be ridiculed by the serious but minority audience and academicians but it will never go away, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Actually the footprint of television in India is a case study as to how media is consumed and preferred in this part of the world. In terms of marketing strategy, 2010 may see the Indian television shifting from the traditional Ad-Breaks to that of Media Value. The fine blending of advertising and editorial content seems to be on the cards. In the US, this transformation has started long ago starting with the advent of online videos and digital video recorders. These technologies allowed viewers to skirt traditional advertising and put more pressure on media value and brand integration in the content themselves.
With more advertisers ready but cautious with their advertising dollars, the idea of branded integration will emerge as the new buzz word amongst agencies and content providers. Theoretically good content may be the king but advertisers still need to balance the idea of brand image with that of media value. To be precise, branded content may be more readily available, but media value is not about availability but if its right for the brand.
Internet opened up in India nearly over a decade ago and the new kid on the block immediately got a setback. The dot com bubble burst n late ‘90s was inevitable for two specific reasons- with very low internet penetration the whole idea was ahead of its time; and then everybody thought of making a million or two through the cheapest media vehicle possible with no quality content in the kitty. However, over the past decade the increasing internet penetration has ensured that Indian netizens grow phenomenally and online media is a formidable alternative platform to that of television, and believe it or not, even print. If the largest media baron of the world Rupert Murdoch believes the time has come for the paid content online, he has reasons to believe so.
While Internet advertising revenue growth in the US and some other parts of Europe has reached a saturation point of under 5%, Indian forecast of around 20% growth in 2010 sounds too lucrative. This has also led to digital advertising agencies appearing out of nowhere for the first time in the last couple of years. After all, this is where the key elusive demographic that the majority of global advertisers are salivating to get a chance to market is consuming their media.
For 2010, the big question about online advertising is not about why, but where. Google Analytics has suddenly emerged as much in demand as TRPs are there for television. Unlike television where advertising has more of a defined role of where trends are shaping the industry, online is fast emerging as the happy hunting ground for advertisers looking for low cost and high value medium with a global audience.
However, it seems that the lessons learnt from the first round of dot com bubble burst have been easily forgotten here. What is happening once again is that everyone is a content provider whether legitimate or not. In the absence of any defined regulation and the low cost operation, websites have suddenly mushroomed on anything and everything. This makes the job of serious website companies even tougher to produce more quality content and create the right marketing and promotion campaigns to make online advertising a legitimate success. As a practitioner of brand management I feel the online media will see some serious Off-line branding in order to create a market differentiator.
No wonder, when TRACK2MEDIA did a market feasibility survey for its forthcoming online news venture www.indianewsstreet.com, most of the marketers in this part of the world opined that online is a dynamic but fluid media platform. We do understand that advertisers understand the language of ROI (return on investment) and with constantly evolving platforms without rules and metrics, providing a sustainable business model will constantly be a major challenge. For 2010, it will be a year of proving out the validity of online as content providers, updated & instant platforms, and advertisers converge to figure out the right business model in the Indian market.
Television has an edge over here due to platform convergence because this not just ensures having the content available on both online and television, but utilizing both platforms to cross-promote the content and ultimately enhance the viewer experience. For television, online provides a whole new dimension of watching programs from audience interactivity and behind-the-scenes footage to an e-commerce component and social-networking aspect. The marketing strategy of TV 18 is a case study in this context.
If the serious engagement of both the print and television media with their Live Online Site is any indication in 2009, there will be some really serious competition in the segment. Thus, for the media groups with “Only Online” platform to offer, rich content, distinct market positioning and cutting edge exclusivity is the only answer. In the words of legendary Mark Twain, take the roads less travelled by and 2010 is the year for all of you seriously involved with the Online Media. Despite the ups and mostly downs of the media sector in the year, 2010 only promises a better and optimistic media market in India.