Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio, wished to introduce the staff to a person who would play a pivotal function within the Reliance-controlled leisure community’s operations, going forward. “Uday uncle”, he introduced, will take cost of the enterprise.
“Consequence over output. We should be within the pole place wherever we function and should be digital-ready. Like Jio has taken the web and connectivity to the final shopper, Viacom18 will now take leisure to the final shopper. That was Akash Ambani’s message,” an govt on the assembly recalled. He didn’t need to be recognized.
The chief sat there pondering this was the start of a brand new chapter for Viacom18. Again then, the corporate operated 46 tv channels, together with Colours, MTV, Vh1, and Comedy Central. In addition to, it owned over-the-top (OTT) companies Voot and Voot Children.
“It was evident that Uday and MDA are very shut. I used to be pondering that modifications are inevitable,” the manager mentioned.
MDA is Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd and India’s richest man. Akash is his eldest son. And ‘Uday uncle’ is Uday Shankar, the media business veteran who constructed the fortunes of Star India, turning an organization simply ₹1,400 crore in measurement in 2007, to a Rs20,000 crore leisure behemoth by 2020-21.
In 2018, Walt Disney Firm acquired Rupert Murdoch’s twenty first Century Fox Inc., making Star India part of Walt Disney. Shankar give up because the India chairman and president of Asia Pacific for the Walt Disney Firm in December 2020.
Thereafter, he began Bodhi Tree Ventures, a three way partnership with James Murdoch’s Lupa Techniques. In April 2022, Reliance introduced that Bodhi Tree Techniques will make investments Rs13,500 crore in Viacom18, to collectively “pioneer the Indian media panorama’s transformation to a streaming-first strategy”. A 12 months later, Reliance acknowledged that Bodhi Tree has invested Rs4,306 crore as the primary tranche of its total dedication, mopping up a 13% stake in Viacom18. And Shankar joined the board as a director.
Whereas Viacom18 continues to run the 46 tv channels, JioCinema, an OTT streaming service, was folded into Viacom18 lately. Shankar has been plotting a disruption with this OTT service on the coronary heart—nicely, if he has his approach, he might hasten the demise of the nice outdated tv by making entry to even premium content material practically free on the digital platform.
The chief sitting in that post-Diwali introductory assembly sensed “disruption with whole dominance”. However what was not obvious again then was how Shankar would go about his new innings.
Watch totally free
When you’ve got adopted Shankar’s profession and strikes at Star India, his playbook at Viacom18 begins to make sense.
One, he excels when given a free reign.
Star India was the crown jewel of Rupert and James Murdoch’s twenty first Century Fox. The Murdochs gave Shankar a free hand. However after the Walt Disney acquisition, Shankar began to really feel stifled.
“Uday has a sure model of working, and he was the blue-eyed boy of the Murdochs, who gave him a free hand in working the enterprise,” mentioned a former Star India govt who didn’t need to be recognized. “Disney may be very course of pushed and for each main determination, you want permission from Burbank (Disney’s headquarters in California, US). Shankar hated this,” he added.
Now, Mukesh Amabani has given Shankar the licence to disrupt. As of now, that disruption is a web page out of his script at Star India.
Star India first bagged the rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the favored twenty20 cricket league, for the 2018-2022 seasons. Shankar, initially, streamed the matches totally free on Disney+ Hotstar, the corporate’s OTT service. Equally, the ICC World Cup 2015 was streamed free for Hotstar customers. The thought, again then, was to construct a wheel of consumption that spins quick, one which retains sucking in increasingly more customers.
So, what did he do at Viacom18? The identical.
For the 2023-27 interval, the corporate gained the digital rights for IPL. And Shankar introduced that the event could be accessible totally free on JioCinema, considerably disrupting the distribution enterprise of broadcasters. Streaming platforms cost a subscription from customers for premium content material however right here, he reversed the playbook, making the sporting content material utterly advertisement-supported.
Whereas some critics argue that this determination is a disservice to the business, it strategically aligns with Reliance’s strategy, a replay of what we’ve seen within the telecom companies market—inflict larger losses on opponents. Subscription-based OTT companies are already grappling with challenges, and if Viacom18 continues to launch new motion pictures and collection continuously, it is going to grow to be more and more troublesome for the others to maintain excessive content material prices.
Other than IPL, Shankar took the daring name of placing all the unique native content material on Viacom18’s community—Hindi and regional—free on JioCinema.
“We have been engaged on varied month-to-month and annual subscription plans for authentic content material. In the future, he simply advised us that each one native content material will probably be free on JioCinema. It was surprising at the moment, however the numbers now inform a distinct story,” an govt who works with JioCinema mentioned. He didn’t need to be recognized.
As per information from AppAnnie, an analytics platform, JioCinema is now No. 2 within the pecking order of OTT gamers in India with month-to-month lively customers (MAU) of 151 million in June. MX Participant had 112 million and Disney+Hotstar about 88 million lively customers in the identical month. YouTube led the record with MAU of 470 million.
“Shankar desires to construct a large consumption platform in JioCinema,” mentioned a senior govt with Viacom18. “He believes that when you resolve for consumption, monetization will observe. Sadly, it places plenty of stress on the advert gross sales groups to herald income. A number of the plans look good on Excel sheets however will not be executable. However no one can inform him that,” he added.
Viacom18 and Reliance didn’t reply to Mint’s queries for this story.
TV’s zero innovation
Shankar’s playbook has one other underlying theme—a battle with tv. Its demise is shut, he feels. If cricket, Bollywood, regional cinema, native originals are all accessible free on JioCinema, why does one even want a tv broadcasting service?
“JioCinema shouldn’t be competing with different streaming companies. It’s an alternative choice to TV,” Shankar lately advised his management staff throughout a gathering. “India is approach forward of the curve so far as the decline of TV and adoption of digital is worried. A big inhabitants has grown up with out TV and has been consuming video with cellular screens,” he additional added through the meet.
Lack of innovation within the broadcasting house will solely speed up the autumn, he believes. There was little innovation for the reason that launch of high-definition channels— Nationwide Geographic launched the primary high-definition channel in India, in 2010. The subsequent 12 months noticed 22 channels being launched within the infotainment, sports activities, normal leisure and film genres.
“Shankar is vocal about the truth that, of late, there was zero innovation within the business or inventive framework within the Indian media and leisure house. He additionally recalled that the one disruption within the Hindi normal leisure house was in 2009 when Viacom18 launched Colours,” mentioned an individual at present working with Shankar. “The TV ecosystem has grow to be stagnant, he believes.”
The end result of Shankar’s actions will probably be felt within the broadcast house within the months forward. Already, the free streaming of IPL had an affect—Viacom18 claimed that for the primary time within the historical past of IPL, digital income surpassed that of TV through the event’s 2023 season. Promoting businesses don’t agree with the declare and maintain that TV continues to be forward however solely by just a few hundred crores.
In the meantime, Shankar is focussing on unique offers to construct JioCinema’s content material bouquet.
Other than IPL, Viacom18 has signed an unique content material take care of Warner Bros. Discovery for its whole slate, together with the HBO Originals for round ₹1,000 crore for 3 years. This content material, nonetheless, gained’t be free. HBO Originals have been earlier accessible on the Hotstar platform. Shankar can also be pushing for unique offers with famous content material creators—such agreements, in brief, cease them from working for rivals.
“At Star India, he inked offers with massive actors like Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn, which helped Star and Hotstar grow to be the one place to look at their motion pictures. At Viacom18, he’s now signing such offers with manufacturing homes too,” mentioned one individual within the know. He didn’t need to be recognized both.
Additionally within the works are child’s content material, to this point unavailable on JioCinema. Offers are being finalized and an enormous content material slate, which incorporates anime content material, is predicted quickly. This suggests a coming battle with YouTube Children, an app YouTube created for youngsters.
The to-do record
Whereas Shankar’s new innings is off to a flying begin, he has challenges to beat. Constructing a new-age media companies is probably more durable now than it was a decade in the past. One of many challenges will probably be to construct a world-class tech engine which may ship a customized direct-to-consumer expertise on the scale the corporate’s shareholders would love.
“Furthermore, attaining important return on funding within the high-cost video business could also be tough, particularly when confined to only promoting and subscription income streams. Consequently, JioCinema might have to drive new income streams after 2025 anchored to gaming and commerce, which is able to leverage the group’s different allied digital and shopper companies,” Vivek Couto, govt director at Media Companions Asia, an advisory agency, mentioned.
Couto is assured that Shankar has a transparent monetization plan. “Reliance and its companions have little interest in constructing backed companies or long-term loss leaders with JioCinema and Viacom18,” he added.
However not all consultants agree. Partho Dasgupta, managing accomplice at Thoth Advisory and ex-chief govt officer (CEO) of BARC India, questioned the monetization technique or the dearth of it. “There appears to be an funding in content material with out clear monetization plans—that too heavy investments. We aren’t positive what magic trick Viacom18 has to get better heavy investments in say HBO content material or the IPL,” he mentioned. “The primary IPL season market figures don’t present any massive bang. Buyers will probably be watching whether or not the cash spent will give satisfactory returns,” he added.
Dasgupta mentioned {that a} struggle chest of ₹15,000 crore (whereas Bodhi Tree has invested ₹4,306 crore, Reliance entities will pull in ₹10,839 crore into Viacom18), if used judiciously may very well be helpful but it surely’s not simply concerning the capital firms deliver to the desk. “Media and leisure will not be pushed solely by finance and machines—there’s a human ingredient. If utilizing the cash one can’t produce the most important reveals, and distribute and market the properties, then it’s of no use. Briefly, cash helps but it surely’s not the one issue,” he mentioned.
Content material resonating with clients is a significant factor and it might’t be served out in a jiffy. “It’s the individuals who will make or break these desires for the group,” Dasgupta mentioned.
Shankar’s job, subsequently, is to assemble a crack staff. A lot of his current hires are from his former employer, Disney Star.
He has picked Kevin Vaz because the CEO of the TV enterprise. At Disney Star, he headed the corporate’s leisure enterprise. Viacom18 has additionally named the previous govt vp and head of regional clusters at Disney Star, Alok Jain, because the president and head—Colours Hindi and Regional.
Different senior executives who’ve already left Disney Star and joined Viacom18 embody Anil Jayaraj (CEO, Sports activities) and Okay Aravamudhan (head of public coverage). Business watchers say extra staff from Disney Star are more likely to be a part of Shankar despite the fact that he has a repute of being a troublesome taskmaster.
Throughout his stint in Star India, Shankar advised this author that he doesn’t consider in firing anybody. “You must establish the potential of your staff and provides them targets. They may both shock you or go away on their very own.”
As of now, all executives becoming a member of Viacom18 need to shock him, be a part of the approaching disruption. Shankar, lately, was heard saying: “IPL was not the final disruption; it was the primary.”
That’s a chilling message for rivals, and tv.
