We have grown five-fold in the last three years: Prem Kamath, Executive Vice-President and General Manager, Channel V

It is said that our entertainment industry is never static and the sole keyword that marks the workings of the industry is “change”. Accordingly, music channel…Channel V has gradually changed its positioning from being a music channel to a youth General Entertainment Channel (GEC). At present the channel airs four fiction shows and will add a couple of more soon. Tellychakkar.com spoke to Prem Kamath, Executive Vice-President and General Manager (Channel V) about the same. Excerpts: How has the journey been from being a music channel to a youth General Entertainment Channel (GEC)? There was no real cutoff date for becoming a GEC. It started when we revamped and re-launched in August 2009 by deciding to move away from film music videos and doing more and more of our own property content. This thinking behind this was that it will help us to connect with our consumers a lot more. Furthermore, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating… right? And the numbers validate the same. Our GRP (Gross Rating Points) was then 10, today we have an average of 55 (which is more than five-fold growth in three years). At the same time our nearest competitor, say MTV, is still only around 20 GRPs (so we are three times ahead of them as well). There is not much private music around? We want to promote private music but the structure of the music market is such that around 99% of the music consumed is only film music. Also the other big problem is that music demand has majorly shifted to online, consumers are not ready to wait four or five hours on music channels for that particular video to play. Last but not the least many talented musicians are also shifting to Bollywood rather than cutting their own albums. Can you talk a bit about your target audience? Although youth audience (15-25 years) is 65% of our overall population they are not specifically serviced. Most GEC TV content is generic type which appeals to a wide variety of age groups. So Channel V wishes to fill this critical gap by making shows which only deal with the youth, be it a (Gumrah, Dil Dostii Dance, Suvreen Guggal) etc. We deal with all aspects of youth life in great detail. Youth audience in general is very fickle. How can you hold them to your content offerings? It is indeed a challenge, hence we have made daily fiction our vehicle of connect. To make this work we need characters and stories which connect with them. In the past three years youth time spent on our channel has increased (it is much more than on any other GEC show). But we still need to invest much more in distribution and reach. Now with digitization, we will have equal opportunity to be seen which will be yet another plus. When can we see edgy content like (Two and a Half Men? ( Is the youth not more receptive to open sexuality and other modern themes as compared to say GEC audiences? Our audience is pan India. It is not anglicized or westernized and neither is it restricted to just one or two parts of a city. The highly popular Gumrah does push the envelope as it deals with teenage crime and other related issues. This is something what I feel other channels shy away from. We want to be edgy but not mindless. What is the main feedback you are getting from your target audience? That they are misunderstood, their parents and teachers just don’t get them. Youth attitude is not one of angst or rebellion anymore, as it used to be fifteen-twenty years ago. They also feel that their generation is forging ahead in terms of technology and relationships and others just can’t keep pace. This is where we step in as a brand and try to address their concerns through our varied content. You never bring in big ticket Bollywood stars on your reality formats? Historically we have never invested heavily in such formats as we have budgetary constraints compared to GECs. Rather we concentrate on making our concepts ((Love Net, Date Trap() much sharper. This differentiated and innovative content then goes on to negate the above need. Can you throw some light on your latest upcoming non-fiction offering The Serial? This genre bender is an interesting and novel concept. For it is not reality or fiction neither is it fully scripted as well. We will feature Kritika Kamra, Raj Singh Arora, Karan Kundra and Vikrant Massey, among others all playing themselves. The twist here is that all their life stories, relationships etc will be told through the eyes of a 14 year old boy. Thus viewers will get a glimpse into the world of well-known TV stars. What’s next on your fiction menu? (Best Friends Forever (BFF) ( starts 3rd December (2012). It is a story of three girls who have a dark secret to hide and its implications. It is slightly edgy as we have unconventional kind of protagonists. Then in January 2013 we will launch our sixth fiction property. We will talk about that later. How does channel V see scheduling? In conventional prime time the family audience wins control of the remote in a single TV house. Our viewership is strongest at late afternoons or early evenings. Therefore we aired our first fiction show at 7 pm (Dil Dostii Dance) and then went up to 6.30 (Suvreen() then 5.30… now we may look at 5 pm as well. We also have an original show as late as 7.30 pm (Humse Hai Life(). Gumrah also air at 8. There are also plans afoot to have some non-fiction on weekends.