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MONICA TATA, VICE PRESIDENT & DGM, ENTERTAINMENT NETWORKS, SOUTH ASIA, TURNER INTERNATIONAL INDIA
 
WB is india’s gateway to hollywood! we deliver a premium hollywood viewing experience at home to hollywood enthusiasts

What was the rationale behind launching Warner Bros. in India?
WB, the English entertainment channel that offers Hollywood enthusiasts, the biggest movies, hottest action, best dramas, funniest series and the brightest stars from one of the world’s biggest and most respected Hollywood Studios – Warner Bros. In fact, WB was launched on March 15, 2009, post an extensive research done across geographies and demographics to tune-in our programming with the English entertainment needs of TV viewers across the country. Even the viewers response to WB has been great. When WB was launched in March 2009 it was at the number 3 position with 12% relative share. And so has been the advertiser response with the average monthly billing on WB being up by 25% in 2010 over 2009. In the launch year itself, the channel attracted 60 plus brands. Within the first half of 2010 we already have 26 new brands on the channel.

What kind of viewers are you looking at and how has been the channel’s reach so far?
WB is aimed at the upscale, affluent Indian audience between the ages of 18 and 44 years with a colossal appetite for Hollywood’s best, around the clock. As far as the reach is concerned, the channel within the first year of its launch has already been distributed in approximately 50% households reached by the more established players in the genre.

What is it that actually differentiates WB from the lot?
Competition is extremely important and healthy! As one of the oldest and established broadcasting companies of India, Turner is adept at holding its own in the dynamic media and entertainment space. In fact, currently within the English entertainment genre, we operate two very strong, yet distinct channels in India – HBO and WB. HBO recently completed 10 years and WB is one year old. HBO is our premiere movie destination and WB is a channel for Hollywood aficionados. WB is a channel for movie lovers; it is like owning your personal DVD collection. Anytime you switch on the channel it shows movies that you love to watch, enjoy watching and were wanting to watch.

What all titles can these movie aficionados expect from WB in the near future?
As the destination for Hollywood aficionados, WB is like owning a personal DVD collection. The channel at any time is always playing favourites. 9:00 p.m. on Saturday nights, WB offers you to relive the cinema experience by watching some of the best movies with just a single two-minute break! In the coming months, WB will be launching the animated version of George Lucas’ cult, science fiction series – Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The series was a huge success internationally. This will be followed by the premiere of Human Target, a new action thriller series. WB also has an exciting slew of premiere shows under its WB Breakfast Franchise such as Good Morning Miami, Four Kings, New Adventures Of Old Christine. In fact, in 2010 alone WB is adding 200 titles.

Though a majority of Indians do speak English fluently, not many can follow all the dialogues in the English films. So, can showing a movie with subtitle make a big difference?
WB is about delivering a premium Hollywood viewing experience at home to Hollywood enthusiasts. We are evaluating this but are yet to see a co-relation and the true value addition of subtitles in this context.

 
TIMES GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR VINEET JAIN TOOK UP EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES AT THE GROUP IN 1986 AND HAS BEEN DEEPLY INVOLVED IN SHAPING THE STRATEGIC COURSE OF ACTION EVER SINCE. BEING THE MORE OUTGOING OF THE TWO BROTHERS, HE IS WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED AS THE FACE OF THE GROUP AND HAS SUCCESSFULLY EXTENDED THE TOI BRAND TO TV AND ONLINE MEDIA. IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERACTION WITH VIRAT BAHRI OF 4Ps B&M, HE SHARES HOW THE GROUP CONSISTENTLY STRIVES TO REINVENT ITSELF AND CHALLENGE EXISTING PARADIGMS AND HOW HE ENVISIONS THE FUTURE.

Since its inception, The Times of India Group has been a path- breaker in the media industry. What is the key to continuously maintaining and building world-class standards and processes in this industry?
The Times has never been scared to challenge conventional wisdom, and to take what the rest of the media industry has called crazy risks – for instance, our idea of invitation pricing, when we reduced the cover price of our newspapers. Truth is, what the outside world often sees as a gamble, is actually the outcome of hundreds of hours of intense top management discussion and debate. Typically, the economics of every decision is thought through to the last detail. We then back them up with systems and processes that we have institutionalized over years, both in terms of people and technology. The key is to create and deliver value, day in and day out – and to give our readers and advertisers MORE than what they actually pay for. For instance, our group has been making huge investments in production capabilities that are comparable with the latest and the best in the world. For us, growth is oxygen, and our biggest fear and threat is complacency. The idea of resting on our laurels is anathema to us. Along with giant strategic leaps, we also strive to make continuous incremental improvements and innovations.

The media industry has gone through a lot of upheaval over the years with changing trends as well as a consistent redefining of the media landscape. How does The Times of India ensure an enduring relevance and connect with its old and new audience across all forms of media?
The secret is to identify what readers want – before even they themselves know they want it – and make it available to them. At Times, it’s been our constant endeavour to anticipate change, to keep our finger on the pulse of society, and to stay ahead of the curve. We think of ourselves as being in the business of creation and innovation. We spend a great deal of our time, energy and thought in reaching out to newer and younger generations of readers. We want to be part of their lives and their aspirations; it’s our mission to help them become successful. Look at India’s demographic: with such an enormous young population, our future lies naturally with the youth of the country.

The Times of India Group has endured and retained a formidable position in the Indian media space over seventeen long decades. What is your vision and aspiration for the group from here on?
The Times of India Group has strategically diversified into various media platforms – print, TV, radio, online and mobile. While each has its own logic and idiom, I believe there is room for greater synergy – so that we can deliver greater value to our readers and advertisers, 24 by 7. Consumers are constantly changing their platform of media consumptions based on the time of day and convenience. We want them to stay in touch with us – and us with them – wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. We want them to consume our content through the day, across the different media platforms.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

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Erwann Thomassain, Director-Marketing, Asia Pacific, Amdocs knows the deal too well. With close to $3 billion (and growing) turnover for the last fiscal, it’s still no surprise that not many have heard about his corporation. They mine their gold handling critical behind-the-scenes strategic and technical processes for large scale telecom corporations. 4Ps B&M gets answers, and more
 
Though it might be relatively new to India, the company has been serving over 750 service providers in about 60 countries for almost 30 years now. Offering an array of business & operational support systems and service delivery solutions, Amdocs (with revenues of $2.86 billion in fiscal 2009) is certainly one of the leading providers of back office systems to telecommunications carriers and Internet services providers across the globe. Thanks to the sudden rush to build out new telecom technologies and networks, especially 3G systems, among Indian telecom service providers, Amdocs (which began its India operations in 2004) has seen some fast paced growth here too in the past few years. In fact, it has already potted some top players in its kitty. In an exclusive conversation with 4Ps B&M, Erwann Thomassain, Director – Marketing, Asia Pacific, Amdocs, reveals his India strategies:

For starters, how important is India to Amdocs?
India is an important market for us with huge potential. Firstly, while it has a big population, the mobile penetration is only about 20-25%. Further, the Indian government has just auctioned 3G licenses which is set to initiate a data explosion in the country. The move will certainly drive exponential traffic on the networks of service providers, which means a lot of business is on its way for us.

So how do you plan to leverage these opportunities?
Though our plan for the Indian market is very simple, it’s really challenging. Considering that the service providers will now not be able to cope up with the forthcoming data explosion we are planning to offer an array of services that will help them meet their subscribers’ demands. In fact, Amdocs has already launched a series of products which include unique offerings like CES8 (Customer Experience System), OSS (Operational Support Systems) and BSS (Business Support Systems) to ensure that the end customer gets the best experience and stays with the service provider. So, our strategy for India is to enable the service providers to offer new services to their consumers.

It is expected that the entry of new players would further bring down prices of voice & data services. Considering telecom is a capital intensive business, how would the companies be able to maintain their bottomlines?
You are right in saying that for a telecom company, it is necessarily a capital intensive business and the new players that have just entered the market are going to further bring down the voice & data charges. But this is not a good strategy as it’s not sustainable in the long-term. For instance, the price war among service providers in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, et al, has proved detrimental to their growth. What they need to do here is to go back and look at the services they are providing, and check for some differentiation and loyalty. They further need to find out that how they can improve their services and in turn customer satisfaction. Therefore, we are looking at building the brand Amdocs with a view of a long-term growth rather than a short one. We have the triangle (CES8, OSS and BSS) influence which makes us unique in the market. In fact, we hope our India journey to be more exciting and beneficial than the excursions we have done across the globe in the past.
 
How will the scenario change in the Indian telecom space with the introduction of 3G?
With 3G making its way in, there is a need for greater sophistication as service providers will now be looking at offering services targeted at a specific verticals like banking, transportation, et al. Service providers will now have to move from their traditional business models to new business models otherwise they will not be able to survive the competition.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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