The recent push towards digitization of television homes throws up some interesting possibilities.
Very quickly, for the uninitiated, digitization means that every home and every television set in that home is linked to a set-top box. What this means is that every single television set is accounted for, and the new digital technology allows for HD quality sound & picture, for a lot more channels and services.
Currently India has some 147 million television homes, of which about 120 million are cable & satellite homes, of which about 30 million are digitally addressed homes – homes that have a DTH or Digital Cable Set Top Box installed. With the current regulatory push to total digitization, this number is expected to reach 100 million homes by 2015.
The charge is being led by the DTH Companies and Analogue Cable Operators now turning digital. What digitization allows is packaging and tiering for buffet and a la carte billing across basic & premium tv channels, video on demand and pay-per-view services. But rather than go into the details of DTH platform operations, let’s stay with an IDEA instead.
100 million homes that are accounted for, that are billed monthly, that can be targeted – that’s a big deal. A very, very big deal!!! At 100 million homes, this becomes a critical mass of accounted for premium customers who are anyway paying between Rs. 250-500 per month for the services they presently receive.
Imagine promoting a huge blockbuster movie premiere on DTH/DC along with its theatrical release! And priced at Rs. 100 for a single viewing window on the DAY before the opening weekend! It is conceivable that Content Creators – especially Movie Producers – could create an interesting proposition for this target audience. And you don’t need not all of them to sign up – just a subset would do.
How many homes would sign up for such an event? Let’s see the math…
Out of a 100 million universe,
@5% = 5 million x Rs. 100 = 50 crs
@10% = 10 million x Rs. 100 = 100 crs
@20% = 20 million x Rs. 100 = 200 crs
@30% = 30 million x Rs. 100 = 300 crs
@40% = 40 million x Rs. 100 = 400 crs
These are real numbers. Remember, these homes already pay between Rs. 250-500 p.m. For a major blockbuster movie premiere simultaneous and just prior to its theatrical release @ Rs. 100 / family is a steal…considering the same family would pay anything between Rs. 500-750 to see the same movie in the theatre the next day!
Obviously for this to succeed, conditions apply!
The movie needs to be a genuine blockbuster and not some made-for-television bauble trying to pass off as the real thing. That means the movie must boast big stars and directors, and be produced by a big studio/production house. The movie must be marketed like always, on the scale and noise of the biggest mainstream blockbuster. The DTH Premiere window must be a SINGLE WINDOW only. The movie must release theatrically the next day. There must not be more than 6-8 such movies per year.
Obviously theatre owners will whine and moan, about lost revenues. The simple solution would be to offer them a share of DTH revenues as a sop to support the idea. In any case, not everyone will sign up for the DTH Premiere. The bulk of DTH consumers are on the Telco-style, pre-paid, monthly recharge payment cycle. And like good value-conscious, middle-class Indians, they wait till the last minute to pay or to sign up for any new service or channel. For the first couple of movies, it may be slow-going.
But conceptually, this is a giant new revenue stream. It does not hurt theatrical box-office. The single window in fact forces people to throng to theatres if they missed the DTH Premiere. The lower cost of the DTH Premiere encourages more people to sign up since it is so much cheaper than the theatres. The Creators win both ways. The Big Blockbuster Movie with blockbuster marketing promoting a DTH Premiere on Thursday and the nationwide theatrical release on Friday is a Blockbuster Idea waiting to happen!
What will it take? A critical mass + willingness to sensibly share revenues with all players in the ecosystem.
What’s the catch? There is none…apart from making a great movie…but then that applies for any movie that hopes to make any money!
SAMEER NAIR 