Pradeep Guha, one of the best known names in Indian media and marketing, has been a little over four months at the helm at Zee Telefilms, a world far removed from the "kind of a monopoly situation" he enjoyed as president of The Times of India group. And while Guha may call "the television industry print raised to the power of 180", that does not faze the bespectacled marketing wiz, who made his name at The Old Lady of Boribunder in a career that spanned three decades.

In this, his first media interview since the move to Zee from his professional alma mater, Guha offers indiantelevision.com an exclusive peek into some key thrust areas that he is paying special attention to. These being people, events, ramping up the Zee Network and of course the Dainik Bhaskar-Essel Corporate print initiative that bids to take on his old paper The Times Of India in its thus far impregnable bastion of Mumbai.

Excerpts:

It's been now four months since you joined Zee Telefilms as CEO. Any what one can call first impressions?
Television is a far more fast-paced industry than print. The pressures are a lot more than one experiences in print. Also, with The Times of India, it was kind of a monopoly situation. But here, it is not just competitive, but fiercely competitive. I call the television industry print raised to the power of 180. Because, while in print, your advertising lifeline depends on the readership survey you get once every six months. Here you get your ratings every week (through TAM). And now almost every day with aMap (a new online TV audience rating service) available. So that changes the whole complexion of the business.

Have you started using the aMap service?
We are actively considering it. Hopefully by June, it will start. Initially we want to understand where we stand. We want to know if we need the service for programming as well as for ad sales. But eventually, we will see where it is most effective.

Looking at the network as a whole, have you identified areas of strength and weakness?
I think one major weakness, as almost anybody would know, is that, and Zee is aware of this, we have a huge turnover of people. That is one of things where we have to provide some stability to the organisation, and try and create structures with almost the same people without disturbing them. People should feel secure in their jobs. At some time, they must know that there is no party going on; they have to deliver. We have very good people here. Also, we are trying to bring people from outside to fill the gaps.

Can you say you have completed that process?
By and large some of the areas including sales are more or less filled up. We are still in the process of getting some people in programming and research

When you say programming, are there any channel-specific people you are looking at or is it for the network?
It could be both. We are looking for research people as well.

Could you please explain your requirements in research?
This is for both consumer research as well as rating research. One is delving in TAM numbers and the other is pure consumer research. Some have come on board. We have already made offers at least to two other people. This includes a key research position.
I have already brought one person on board for convergence. It is becoming a big stream of revenue for the advertisers. We have hired a gentleman called Neil Chakravarthy. He is an investment banker dealing with entertainment industries based in London.

You have always been associated with brilliant marketing and ad sales strategies. So, in the marketing and ad sales, what are the key changes that you have instituted?
In sales, we have already brought in Joy Chakravarthy for the network. Giving the responsibility of the whole network to one person has its weaknesses. Therefore right now we have kept two systems running. Joy looks after sales for two of the biggest buyers namely Group M and Madison. The other accounts are with individual business heads. We have structured ourselves to suit the structure of the buying industry.

Any other perspective changes in the area of business, with your entry?
What we are definitely looking at is events. We are negotiating with a couple of people to get on board to manage our event business. This will be events for all the channels across the world.

Then what will be Yogesh Radhakrisnan's role?
Yogesh will work with this team. He is best at putting things together. But we need somebody to run the events.

Will there be a thrust on events this year from Zee? There is of course the Zee Cine Awards. Which are the next big events you have lined up?
This year, we have also started with the Astitva awards, and three more properties are in the pipeline. Events were seen as part of the marketing function and now we are de-linking it. It is a separate activity altogether because when the marketing executives are involved in events, their day-to-day responsibilities get affected.

When talking about events, are there any formats that you have picked up?
No. It will be tied in to our current properties.

And what of the buzz doing the rounds that you have signed Shahrukh Khan as Zee's brand ambassador, that you have a Rs 1.2 billion deal with him that includes doing movies?
That is not true. The reason for such a rumour must be Shahrukh unveiling our logos in London. At least, as of now, there is nothing else (repeats).

International business has been one of the big success stories of Zee. Have you identified any new thrust areas?
We are thinking of having one more beam. But it is too premature to talk about it.

The buzz is that Zee is planning to invest Rs 1 billion equivalent plus for a theme park in Dubai. Your comment.
I am not aware of it.

It is often said that the biggest difference between Star and Zee is that while in Star's case the network is riding on the flagship channel Star Plus, the reverse is the case with Zee TV. As in it is one of the weaker links in the Zee chain. Your comment.
See, Star, the entire company, rests on three and a half hours of Star Plus. It is doing extremely well and so there is no debate on that. We are definitely trying to improve and work on the programming to raise the ratings of Zee TV itself. As a company, we are definitely far more broad-based. We have many success stories. We have a successful oversees operation, we have successful Zee Marathi, we have successful Zee Cinema. So, it is a little more broad-based than the other bouquets, which is a good thing in the long run. Yes, I will be a lot happier if Zee TV regains its old position.

What is new on the programming side? We are given to understand that there are ten key shows lined up.
There are at least five to six shows definitely coming between now and August. We have started with Sindoor and Sarrkkar. Sindoor has done extremely well. Sarrkkar hopefully will do better. We are doing a revamped Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. The advertising has already started. It is going to be back by July.

One of the key shows is reality game show Business Baazigar. When is it going to be launched? What is delaying it?
It is a huge reality show. We didn't want to go on air till we have all the episodes in hand. Because, the complexities of putting that in place is far greater than what the company had envisaged when we actually launched it. But the project is nearing completion and we should be able to get the show on air very soon. When it comes on air, you will understand why it took such a long time.

Last year, you re-built the afternoon time band on Zee TV. This year, are you re-looking at any particular time band?
We have strengthened the 7:30 pm slot with Sindoor. We are experimenting. At some point of time, we will have to compete in the 8:30 - 10:30 band.

Please speak more on your programming strategies
I think the main problem with Zee is not that its programming is inferior to what is available. I think our marketing (including show strategy and show presentation) was perhaps slightly below the business standards. That is one of the areas that we are looking to improve.

Zee Sports has been dealt a body blow by the latest Supreme Court verdict. Looked at purely from a cricket property perspective, you will have nothing that you can either acquire or source of any significant value for the time being though two good properties in England and Australia come up for bidding in 2006. So what is the status of the channel as far as content is concerned? Does this delay the targeted June launch of the channel?
Zee Sports signals are already on air. We will try to do a sports channel without cricket. It is entertainment sports. Take a look, you will see the difference. I can't comment more on this.

There is a big push you are doing around Zee Smile. Any particular reason for the current focus on Smile?
Zee Smile is already way ahead of competition with 44 GRPs. We have not marketed it. And the connectivity issues are there in Mumbai and a little bit in Delhi. We are solving this. But the programming there is very interesting. It is truly a mainline general interest channel.

What is the channel's TG?
It is emerging as almost a slightly male-oriented channel. It is not a comedy proposition, but a feel-good channel. We are way ahead of SAB TV which also has male audience as its TG. That is why we have initiated our marketing plans now.

So, the ongoing Smile TV campaign is part of it?
Yes. There is much more in the pipeline.

What is your take on Zee's English channels?
The programming of Zee Cafe is extremely good. But there is a marketing problem. It is a great product. It is doing better now. We are doing some work on that.

Whether you market it or not, one doesn't see any hope of your English movie channel reaching anywhere near the levels of the leading English movie channels. First of all, in your own bouquet, you have HBO. Otherwise there is Star Movies. So, between the two of these, where does Zee Studio stand?
It may be surprising, but Zee Studio is financially not doing badly. It is a low cost, high on imagery channel. See, the second runs of movies really don't matter. As long as you show good cinema, it will work. We try to keep our channel engaged with big titles, as often as possible. It may not be the first runs, but they are still big titles. I can't get away from the fact that I am not linked to any studio. That is a basic constraint. But given all that, we are not doing badly. It is not a bleeding proposition.

Are you looking after the film business also?
The whole film business has been closed now.

What happens to Bhagmati then?
Bhagmati will be marketed. That is the only thing that is left to be marketed. The sales are going on at the moment.

With you coming on board, there were expectations that there will be a bigger push for films.
I personally feel, even if the board wishes to pursue films, there is a lot that is to be done on the television side. The sky is the limit, but if the core business is not in place, I don't think it is worth adding a whole lot of other things to the kitty. Right now, I am concentrating on the core business. I am trying to put the systems in place.

But Zee had a successful property in Gadar Ek Prem Katha.
Yes, it was a great property, but didn't bring too much money for us. Somewhere, we got the model wrong perhaps. But I am not ruling out cinema forever.

What exactly is the structure of the Diligent Media JV between Essel Corporate and Dainik Bhaskar Group? What I am given to understand is that, the marketing branding activity is Zee's responsibility.
It is not like that. It happens to be that some people are from Zee. Firstly, it is not a Zee show. It is between Bhaskar and the promoters of Zee. They are funding it. The JV has nothing to do with Zee as a company. However, it is a fact that since I have some experience in print business, from time-to-time, I am drawn into it. Almost a month after I joined, I was told that such a plan was in the offing. My role is purely advisory. So my key area still remains television.

What is your take on the advertising generated out of Mumbai papers?
One is what you generate out of this market and one is what you print in this market. What you print in this market is much more than what you generate. Because, it comes from all over India. What you print in this market will be approximately Rs 12 billion to 14 billion.

How much can this market expand? What is your reasonable estimate?
I think this can easily become in the region of Rs 20 billion.

Which are the dynamics that will drive this expansion?
There will be more people reading newspapers. Unique readers will drop because people will take more than one paper. This has happened in Delhi. Delhi is actually driving the Indian print market now. What happened in Delhi can very well happen in Mumbai.

Will DNA be in the tabloid format?
We haven't decided on that yet.