He has been associated with a wide variety of assignments in the domain of media planning and broadcast management. Now he's buried into hardcore research.
It's been just over six months since Tam Media Research vice president Pradeep Hejmadi joined the company and when we mention that to him, he seems shocked at how time has flown.
His last assignment was with the kids' channel Nick. His experience traverses through various media organisations like Turner International, Discovery India, HTA and The Times of India.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com's Hetal Adesara Hejmadi dwells on the various issues that concern the television industry today and also on the exciting phase that it entering.
Excerpts:
It's been just over six months since you joined Tam, how has the journey been so far and what was the mandate given to you when you joined?
In terms of mandate, the idea was simply to focus on two areas: one is on the needs of the broadcasters and to keep the system abreast in terms of the areas that are emerging as interest areas for the industry per se. The other mandate is to get people to make decisions on the basis of the information that they have. Some people tend to have a biased approach towards numbers as research sounds like such a difficult animal to manage and tame. Our focus has been to try and make sure that people are able to read audience behaviour and act on it. And hopefully start seeing some response on the basis of what they are doing so that they can get far more structured in the way they go about their businesses. The environment is pretty crazy as we are operating in a very heterogeneous market and it is not easy to use any information and just act on it. Many a times the devil is in the details so our focus is really to find that devil and help people tame it. |
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Can you throw light on the new initiatives that Tam is or will be undertaking and in which areas?
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What about the launch of the Elite panel and what according to you will be the data thrown by it in terms of viewership patterns? How much of importance will it hold in the coming days in terms of tracking viewership?
The way that we have crafted the panel has not been to bring out any nuance but to focus on a segment. Everyone wanted to have an audience profile, which is the top end of our entire market structure. So in Mumbai and Delhi, we are now going to have a panel, which will represent the behaviour of the top three or four per cent of the population. Our focus has been to use all the quantitative data that we can get and construct that profile in such a manner that it robustly segments the elite from the national panel. Again we have a whole set of variables through which we have been successful in bringing that point out. In terms of behaviour, once the panel is up people will see what happens. There are a lot of myths and that is a constant in any industry. But once the panel is up people will be able to see the reality as it is. Obviously, given that the elite are the top three or four per cent of the population will have a different lifestyle and it will reflect in their media consumption as well. Right now we don't have the panel up so I can't even force a guess as to what the panel will throw up. But it should be very interesting and the industry is very keen on getting that kind of information. |
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Which are the broadcasters who are specifically interested in the elite panel?
A few of the things that we have seen is that for the elite the segmenting elements in terms of defining them differ by market. For example, in Delhi, the definition for elite was a much trickier one than it was for Mumbai. But now for both the markets we have been able to arrive at variables that describe that segment very well. |
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So the elite panel will be only in Delhi and Mumbai?
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With new delivery platforms like IPTV and mobile TV coming in this year and also keeping in mind the new DTH platforms launching, is Tam undertaking any research in these areas?
Those numbers are already in place. The fact is that in the digital age, numbers will keep rapidly changing so we needed to find ways of being able to pull out from a large sample a very robust estimate of DTH penetration as it stands. The large sample needs to be touched, collected and reported in a very short period of time. We were able crack that by using the IMRB household panel, which has shown very interesting numbers. As things pan out, we will be working towards getting the universe estimates updated more frequently. We will also be able to understand the rollout of this phenomenon in different markets in a very different manner. |
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Is this a difference of viewership of people watching DTH and those watching C&S?
So from our point of view we have been doing establishment surveys to measure a phenomenon. So if CAS or DTH becomes five per cent of the market then we will have to report on it. |
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So are you saying that DD Direct and Dish TV DTH subscribers do not add up to five per cent of the market?
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Once Tata Sky and Reliance launch their DTH, will Tam begin measuring viewership on DTH?
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What will be the difference in the backend infrastructure for measuring DTH?
So the elite panel will be on TVM5 meters and also all the metros will be moving to TVM5 meters. |
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What according to you is going to be the impact on programming content after the launch of these new platforms?
DTH platform players have already realized that to drive people to take a box or dish and to go through the motion of having a one on one relationship with the service provider, they will have to add some value over the basic tier. So from their point of view, they are trying to build and aggregate as much content and provide as much variety as possible. Whether consumers will watch or not, we will know once we know what content has been aggregated. It will be a game of wait and watch to find out whether tastes will change. But the fact is that tastes changed when we shifted from terrestrial to cable and satellite. So going by that, tastes should change with DTH coming in but how much and by what measure will have to be seen. Obviously some rules of the game will change. For instance, currently distribution does play a very critical role. At that time, the kind of TV sets will not matter because all these households will be remote households by default because they will switch channels off the set top box (STB). All of these households will get all the channels on the STBs provided they pay for them. So it will become television neutral and also cable bandwidth neutral. In one sense it becomes a level playing field across consumers. Now if you get 300 channels as against 100, will you watch three times the TV? It will be interesting to find out. I have a feeling that over a period of time people and their tastes change. So you will see a change in behaviour but over what period of time and will it be an easy or painful switch-over will be ascertained by various constituents. From our perspective, we need to have measurement that is representative and precise. We need to have people understanding what is coming out of this system so that they can then funnel it back. We are actually at the doorstep of a very interesting phase. In six to eight months' time we will start seeing some things changing. |
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What are your views on conditional access system (CAS)? How is it going to impact the industry if and when it comes into place?
But I think once DTH rolls out and channels announce their pricing for DTH, it will help CAS. It is very good that we have a body like the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which has put in certain norms to help platforms iron themselves out. So in their regulation the 'must provide' clause has been put in and pricing parity has been brought in so that channels can't have different pricing for different platforms. This will help CAS and DTH. Intrinsically there are some issues with CAS. One of them is inter-operatibility. As far as CAS is concerned, if you stay in Chembur and then move to Churchgate, you might not be able to use the same box. Whereas this problem does not arise in DTH. In Chennai, for example CAS did not fly because the tastes of that market is very different. Also the popular regional channels are all free to air. So the number of people who were ready to pay for that box was very small. But in a lot of other markets, most of the Hindi entertainment channels are all pay. As long as they don't buckle because of advertising revenue pressures and stay pay, they could fuel growth of CAS. |
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Tam has been tracking viewership in Chennai, where CAS has been implemented. What have been the learnings from there?
In that market, it was a first launch, so it is understandable if Sumangali might have adopted the strategy of not wanting to price it down that much. But obviously the value proposition was not that compelling. This is not the case with a lot of northern and western markets. In these markets a lot of Hindi content is pay, which has appeal. Therefore it might drive the box much faster than it did in Chennai. So Chennai is really an exception. |
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Going forward, what according to you are the issues that broadcasters will face in the coming years with new technologies launching? Do you have any words of caution for them?
If broadcasters see that as an opportunity and seize it, it might be a lot more good news for them than what it seems to be, with certain reservations. If you get your pricing right; if you make sure that as a broadcaster you are not biased towards a distribution platform, it is only going to be better because there are issues with the kind of TVs in a household and in what kind of analog frequency band is there with cable. Plus there are issues with the number of people you can serve with one cable system. All of these will cease to exist with DTH. A consumer will start making a choice and give their preferences, whereas broadcasters will be able to solidify the product over a period of time. So that revenue line will become a far more solid line. Obviously, there will be a painful and uncertain phase but that is there everywhere. People will have to learn to deal with it but it will take a slightly longer time. Consultation can work much better than confrontation in many a situation. At this stage people in the industry need to communicate more effectively… forget strategy and that's what will help them. |
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Do you see any other major event impacting the television industry this year?
I don't know what else will be big this year, but religious channels are catching up big time. Sports is going through the roof in terms of the number of events. With so much of cricket, I'm not sure whether it will have that novelty value. It will have mass appeal but whether all masses will run for it will be worth watching. |
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What are the genres that will work this year? Will reality shows still rule the roost?
Also notable is the fact that unfortunately all the sequels of reality have not done that well. So it also tells you something about such programming. But there is a growing appetite for it from the consumers' side. So from that point of view it will stay… in what form and format, we will have to see. If you see the number of people going to Mipcom from India, you know that reality is not going anywhere. Over a period of time things will start ironing out in the reality genre. In reality a unique concept, which is executed well gets you walk-ins faster than a soap. For anybody who wants a shot in the arm, reality is the quick fix solution. But then, they need to have a solid strategy to retain that new audience and capitalise on it. |