The King Is Content ; by Creating Programming That Cuts Through the Ever-Increasing Clutter, and by Backing It with Hard-Sell, Star Tv Could Be On Its Way to Becoming the Most Profitable Broadcast Act Nationwide.

Summary

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Perhaps the only thing that could cheese Peter Mukerjea off these days is the potholes on the narrow road that lead up to his company's headquarters in central Mumbai. Everything else, after all, is as smooth as soulful jazz for the CEO of Star India: His 15- channel bouquet has an estimated 25 per cent share of the Rs 6,000- crore television advertising market; a Hong Kong consultancy expects operating margins of the Star Group-which is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.'s Asian operations, and which is being driven largely by India- to be a hefty 40 per cent for 2005-06; Star India's flagship channel Star Plus has all shows albeit one on the domestic Top 50 list; the one-year-young Star One has a realistic chance of emerging numero dos by the year-end (ahead of Sony and Zee, only behind Star Plus); and the sequel to Kaun Banega Crorepati, kbc2, could bring home revenues of $55 million (Rs 242 crore) once its 85-week run is done- that's one-tenth of Star TV Asia's projected revenues for 2005-06- with profit margins of 65 per cent to boot. But Mukerjea, rather than basking in the glory of yesterday's conquests or counting the days till the rosy projections show up, is thinking ahead, way ahead- his new hobbyhorse isn't riding on TV at all. "What excites me a lot nowadays is the huge potential of mobile phones... Our sister company Fox has introduced 'mobisodes'-small one-minute clips of TV serials that you can download on to your phone; they have done this for the serial '24'. I think this technology can dramatically change viewing habits and is a huge opportunity for us," says the CEO, excitedly.

That's Mukerjea-and Star India-for you: Invariably a step ahead, whether it's technology, or programming. Or, as kbc2's commercial success best indicates, single-minded hard-sell. Points out Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, Group M India: "Star realised before anyone else the importance of marketing in television. Today, others might have caught on, but Star is already leagues ahead." That Star can still rope in the top advertisers at rates that are pretty much the highest in the industry (Rs 6 lakh for a 10-second slot on kbc2) is evident in the response to the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted show. Lead sponsor Airtel and associate sponsor Nokia are believed to be paying Rs 35 crore between them for the first 80-odd episodes. "Star is not the cheapest medium, but our clients are by now confident that it can deliver the goods," adds Srivastava. Concludes Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, who worked with Star's programming and marketing team on kbc2: "Star is definitely the best TV marketer in India."

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The King Is Content ; by Creating Programming That Cuts Through the Ever-Increasing Clutter, and by Backing It with Hard-Sell, Star Tv Could Be On Its Way to Becoming the Most Profitable Broadcast Act Nationwide.

Pandey is, of course, impressed by the way Star succeeded in getting viewers hooked to kbc the first time round, from the first show itself, five years ago. That's pretty much the formula it's followed since then. It's worked and how: Nine of the top 10 biggest launches (in rating terms) have been from the Star stable...

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