Exclusive | ROMEDY NOW to offer differentiated content: TTN's Trigunayat

Television channels globally and even in India are normally categorized as GECs, news, sports, children’s and so on. They are further segregated by demographics, geographies, age groups, target audience, tastes and preferences etc. It is rare to find a TV channel segmented differently. However Times Television Network (TTN) has come up with a television channel that has been differentiated by a unique thought. The fifth channel of the group called ‘Romedy Now’ has for the first time has taken fundamental human values of ‘Love and Laughter’ and created a unique channel in the entertainment space. But the broadcaster’s internal assessment sees tremendous opportunity in the English entertainment category for viewers and advertisers alike. That there is a section of the urban audience that has high propensity to spend and who will welcome new and rejuvenated entertainment!TTN has therefore moved into this space to strengthen its presence in the English Entertainment Space.

Currently the English entertainment space is competitive enough and characterized by twelve players –MOVIES NOW, Star Movies, PIX, Zee Studio, HBO, Star World, FX, Fox Crime, Big CBS, Comedy Central, ZCafe, AXN etc. However says Ajay Trigunayat, CEO, English Entertainment Channels, TTN, “this genre in India is growing at 98 per cent. It reaches out to over 150 million television viewers on a monthly basis. We believe, that the category is under-valued and under-monetised in terms of both advertising and subscription revenue.”

Romedy Now will showcase love and laughter movies from Hollywood in addition to series sourced from across the world. The channel aims to get the message of ‘Love and Laughter’ which are basic fundamental human emotions: across every possible touch point. The target audience for the new channel is the urban, upscale audience, both men and women, in the age group of 15-45 years. Romedy Now, with the brand identity of ‘Love, Laugh, Live’, has been pegged as a ‘one of a kind English entertainment channel, Adds Trigunayat, “Extensive research has revealed that the audience is seeking highly differentiated and personalized content. The identification of this ground-breaking shift in genres and the significant gap between behaviour & need has led to the conception of Romedy Now.”

The English Entertainment category has grown well over the past few years. If one were to look at all eight metro markets, it used to be around 61 GRP about three years ago. The same has doubled in size now to around 125 – 130 GRPs week on week. Now that there is a fundamental change in metrics, this growth and reach will be more evident.  Currently the category has a reach of around 7.5 crores viewers watching closely about 41 minutes on average per week. Hence the category per say has seen an exponential growth and this change reflects the way people consume content.

Says Trigunayat, “Digitisation has changed things. Look at the eight metro’s digital penetration today we find that the consumer is exercising an equal choice and is able to implement the same. We have more focused channels today and there is an increase in viewership an average of twenty two per cent.

TTN which already has Movies Now is not worried about the growth of one channel at the expense of other. Says Trigunayat, “ At the end of the day, a diverse offering of products is required to cater a wide range of consumer preferences – from action and adventure to love & laughter. Thus it is a key to have all bases covered.” As for the movies genres within the movies space there is a thin line between action, horror, romance, comedy etc. On how it will decide where to telecast a movie – between Movies Now and Romedy Now, Trigunayat says, “In this case it will depend on the fact that which genre is predominant in the movie. Also there would be some movies which will play on both channels e.g. ‘Titanic’ but there would be just few of them.”

As for content, Trigunayat says, “We have a lot of titles under our kitty, approx 400 hours of series and 350 odd movies as of now. It will expand going forward. For the first year we are sorted. People will get to see a lot of content that they haven’t seen before.”

The plan for Romedy Now fits in with the broader plan. The company plans to launch it in the eight metros first and then expand to the one million plus towns. Accordingly, the channel will be available through cable (both analogue and digital), satellite and DTH. It would be available in both standard definition and high definition (Romedy Now +). For this it will amply leverage its key strength that of being the largest media company in the country and a presence across radio, print, internet and mobile along with the channels. One is sure that no efforts will be spared to make it a success. TTN currently reaches in 45 countries. It plans to touch 75 countries by the end of this quarter  add to the 100 million viewers every month within India.