27-May-11

Business Line : Today's Paper News :

How cricket events spur TV distribution

Our Bureau BATTLE FOR EYEBALLS

Mumbai, May 26: IPL 4 was accessible to 19.4 crore viewers on analog cable across India, augmented by a five per cent increase in OTS (opportunity to see) or 1.1 crore additional viewers having access to the official broadcaster Set Max. During the ICC Cricket World Cup, Star Cricket's OTS went up 1.4 crore, adding up to 15.3-crore viewers with access to the channel. ESPN saw a jump of 6.3-crore viewers, leaving 14.7-crore viewers with access to the Cup on the channel. Star Sports saw 1.1 crore additional viewers reached, taking the total to 11.2-crore viewers with access. The data are sourced from Chrome Track the weekly distribution monitoring system by Chrome Media. The agency's Television Distribution Audit System' tracks distribution in 670 cities across India. An estimated 78.5 per cent of Indian homes are connected to Television channels by analog cable, with the rest being connected by digital cable, IPTV and DTH services. The two ways of impacting distribution, according to Mr Pankaj Krishna, Founder and MD, Chrome Media, are consumer pull (led by content affinity), and broadcaster push (driven by carriage fee investments). With increasing demand (more channels) and limited bandwidth on analog, the total carriage fee paid by broadcasters to MSOs is estimated to have topped Rs 1,600 crore last year (excluding digital cable). With exponential increase in the number of channels and resulting congestion, majority of distribution availability is dictated by broadcaster push. The gap between the demand and supply of frequencies is continually widening, explained the spokesperson. With sports properties like IPL and the cricket World Cup, there is both consumer demand and broadcaster push, note industry watchers. According to a Chrome Dii Study (on distribution investments), carriage fee spends saw a 30 per cent rise in calendar 2010 over the previous year. There is also a huge differential seen between the carriage fee investments made by channels launched prior to 2002 and those launched post that. The relatively elder channels pay only a fraction of what the new set of channels in the same genre pay today, added Mr Krishna. Besides increasing OTS, broadcasters also pay for being present on the Prime, Colour and S bands (PCS) on the analog platform. gokul.k@thehindu.co.in
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated May 27, 2011)

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