There’s growing a trend of empowerment of content creators today: Aradhana Bhola

Adgully is back with a new edition of its annual feature – TRENDING NOW – where we present the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of the pandemic period.

Since the last few weeks, Trending Now has been bringing insights from industry leaders on how their organisations are gearing up to seize the opportunities in 2022, break through the Covid disruptions and find growth and remain resilient.

In conversation with Adgully, Aradhana Bhola, Managing Director, Fremantle India Television Productions Pvt Ltd, speaks about the emerging trends in content consumption, the growing importance of Hybrid Ecosystems, and more

What are the trends that you expect to dominate in your sector in 2022?

A boom at many levels – platforms, devices, high speed Internet access, consumer time at hand, etc – is likely to impact the upcoming trends. The increase in content consumption, for instance, is also impacting content generation as creators expand ideas and work with different mediums to express them. This means more unique voices, varied storytelling and experimentation at the technique level. Overall, I definitely see a trend of empowerment of content creators.

There’s also a healthy exchange of content irrespective of original land and language. Geographical boundaries are being broken down more and more as content from different parts of the sub-continent as well as different continents makes its way to India with subtitling and dubbing being the bridge. This trend ties in with bundling and consolidation deals as more and more companies look at expanding their library and scaling up to cater to the hungry consumer.

Hybrid ecosystems is another emerging trend. Any entertainment company worth its salt is now looking at multi-channel offerings across platforms and devices in an attempt to capture the various consumer segments.

I also see a gradual emphasis on diversity and inclusivity in the way we work and the stories we tell. Plus, there’s growing interest in production practices that encourage sustainability.

What are the challenges and new opportunities that you see emerging in the year ahead?

In terms of opportunities, like I alluded to earlier, this is a great time for creators like us. The world is literally our oyster. Technology has connected people like never before. There’s more and more opportunity to collaborate. For instance, we at Fremantle produced ‘Hello 2021’ for YouTube across 5 countries. Our current pipeline includes major cross border collaborations.

Again, as content producers, with the increase in platforms, there’s not only that many more avenues that we have to reach out to the consumer, but also there’s a great deal of relevant options available to bring an idea to life. Depending on the idea, we could shape it as a short, a limited edition series, multi-season series, unscripted series or film. For instance, two of our most successful unscripted formats – ‘Indian Idol’ and ‘India’s Got Talent’ – run in multi-season forms, while there’s a limited edition factual series brewing in our pipeline.

I also see the regional markets grow and deepen their investment in tried and tested worldwide successes. We launched ‘Indian Idol Marathi’ in November last year and we are already set to launch ‘Telugu Indian Idol’ this year.

While there’s an undeniable increase in overall content consumption and the manner it is consumed, inherent challenges are also unfolding. For instance, with the various OTTs here to stay, there’s an impact on the traditional TV ad revenue model. As content creators, we have to find innovative production solutions that do not compromise creative excellence while delivering value for money. There’s also the challenge of the overall bar of content creation being pretty high as more and more consumers sample worldwide content. This is a good challenge to have as it pushes content innovation in the right direction. And then there’s the continued challenge of keeping productions running smoothly despite pandemic hiccups and keeping cast and crew best possible safety in mind.

How is this year’s turnout pegged to be in this sector as compared to the last two years? How strong will the recovery be? 

The year started on a pretty challenging note given the third wave, but things seem to be looking up now. There’s definitely more production currently than the previous couple of years and that’s a good sign. I think the recovery is going to be pretty swift overall, though it might take some time for things like workplace models, various consolidations, etc., to settle.

What are the changes that have happened in this sector in the last two years? 

There’s been a paradigm shift, be it in the way we create and consume content.

How strong will this sector’s growth be compared to the last two years as well as the pre-Covid period?

I’m pretty optimistic about the upswing on this front overall – sponsors, including emerging new brands, are feeling buoyant again; OTTs are here to stay; the range of storytelling has widened and the consumer wants more.