Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited is flirting with television once again. But group president Arun Arora is clear that this time round, the relationship with the medium is for keeps. In the pipeline are not one, but four TV channels that the media powerhouse plans to unleash in the next 15 months. None is designed as a 'me too' channel, but will have a distinct personality of its own, a genre untested on Indian airwaves thus far. Arora oversees the venture, and Zee import Apurva Purohit spearheads the television initiative.

Inside the behemoth that is the Old Lady of Boribunder's edifice, Arora's office is a relatively spartan affair compared to the bright and funky decor that marks the Zoom ramparts two floors above. His restrained responses to queries about Times' ambitious TV plans belie the obvious enthusiasm that envelops the organisation, currently in the throes of the launch of the first channel off the block - Zoom.

Arora himself is upbeat about Zoom, an entertainment and lifestyle channel modeled on the lines of Times' popular city centric supplement that has exalted Page 3 to a fine art. In a chat with indiantelevision.com, Arora held forth on the various programming, marketing and distribution plans that are being put in place to ensure a smooth launch for Zoom.

Excerpts:

Zoom now seems to be ready for an imminent launch. Are things ready on the marketing and programming fronts?
Broadly, things are in place. But the final touches to tbe FPC are being given, and should be ready by next week.

What about the distribution end?
We are lucky on this end. We have started seeding the boxes, and have already seeded more than the targeted number.

Where are you seeding them initially?
All TRP towns. Hindi speaking, of course, but we are also looking at the south.

Have you appointed separate business heads for the individual channels?
For Zoom, Ashwin Balwani is the business head. Balwani, an old Times hand, has been involved in the launches of music label CBS, Times FM in its earlier avatar, and Planet M. While the Zoom team reports to Balwani, Apurva Purohit is the chief operating officer for the entire Times television initiative, to whom all television channel heads will report

What are the preparations being made for the launch of the business channel?
The business channel is around nine months away. We are looking at buying some space in Delhi too, we have shortlisted some 17 properties from which we are trying to finalise some.

What kind of research and thought went into the making of Zoom?
We tried several things that had not been tried before, the house has never been afraid of experimentation, but we dont experiment foolishly, and hopefully, this time too, the experimentation will prove us right.

We believe that people are slowly getting fed up of the saas bahu soaps, and every channel, by and large, is showing the same kind of scheming mothers in law and daughters in law, which has put off a lot of thinking minds. Zoom is for those minds which find different entertainment interesting.

So you are not targeting the masses, since most of the masses still prefer the soaps?
You see, it's a 'mass niche'channel...I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but look what we are doing with the Economic Times, we are catering to the masses, but by doing it, we have made it the world's second largest financial paper....but, it's still not just a mass-appeal paper.

So, is Zoom targeted at the 18 plus viewer?
Yes, but that's not to say that the 14 plus viewer will not find anything interesting in it

Which are the international broadcasters you have tied up with for footage?
There are some like E! and others with whom we have tied up.

How is the programming on Zoom going to be divided, will it be a mix of Hindi and English?
It's going to be a language as we speak it, we have tried to keep it as natural as possible

What is the time line for the launch of Zoom?
Since we are firming up the FPC by next week, and shows are being done by several production house, we are most likely looking at an end September launch. 60 per cent of programming is being done in house, but we don't have any studio facilities of our own, so everything is outsourced. We are uplinking from Noida.

We have taken 80,000 square feet of space in Kamla mills in Mumbai, and uplinking at some point of time, will come to Mumbai definitely. We are currently doing up the place, and the whole television wing will shift there soon.

Times' last venture into television was not a very successful one. What learnings have you carried over from the last experience this time?
When we started television earlier, we were constantly debating. And while we were doing that, some steps were taken to enter the arena. Then the top management decided that we should pay more attention to print. The print gameplan was drawn out in detail.

The top management then decided that with the limited management resources at the time, we would establish leadership in print, particularly in Delhi and Bangalore, and once that is done, we would enter television with our full might. Which is probably why it more a half hearted attempt at some programming for Doordarshan and the like, never all out as will be the case now.