The new year has brought with it a new TV broadcasting structure.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently introduced their new tariff order on channel pricing and packaging, allowing consumers to choose and pay for individual TV channels. While this is good news for subscribers, it leaves a lot of broadcasters and distribution platform operators in a fix.
In fact, the channels that have a lot to lose would be those which are new, niche or not so well-established. Until now, they were included in bouquets, which led to some inevitable sampling on the consumers’ part. Given the option of choosing TV channels on a-la-carte basis, viewers won’t buy niche channels that seem irrelevant. Or worse, they may not even know that they exist!
What does this mean for broadcasters like you? You will need to seek out real-time analytics to accurately decide profitable pricing and packaging strategies—and most importantly, advertise them effectively. Since the industry is undergoing a revamp, here are a few things you can do to stay relevant in such a dynamic ecosystem:
1. Build Awareness - Let your audience know your channels exist
In order to remind your audience that you exist and to stay top-of-mind, you need to keep them engaged in every way possible. How about targeting your TV audiences through another screen?
A Facebook study showed that 94% of participants kept a smartphone on hand while watching TV. This gives you the opportunity to engage your TV audiences with ‘subscribe now’ ads on their mobile phones.
What if you want to engage only relevant audiences for some of your channels? You can attract specific language viewers across the country by targeting based on their language consumption or other preferences.
For instance, when launching their new historical drama show during a prime time slot, Star India reached out to over 3 million unique viewers who watched a lot of shows in the same genre genre, and also those who regularly tuned into GECs during the same time band. This highly relevant targeting got them 200,000+ new viewers in just 14 days!
2. Determine your pricing strategy better
Channel performance is important in determining the aptness of pricing and packaging. Data analytics on real-time viewership can help you better align with consumer demand and competition dynamics. Refine your pricing and packaging on a regular basis with daily/weekly performance reports of your channel and even those of your competitors.
Find out the number of people who watch your content and the amount of time they spend on your shows. This can be done at a pan-India level or at a more granular geo level with socio-cultural targeting. You can even conduct A/B testing of prices/packages among TV audiences of your choice based on targeted survey feedbacks.
Advanced audience insights can also help channels get real-time analytics on their channel performance, helping them take quick corrective action in content programming. This can improve TRPs among any channel category such as GECs or Movie channels.
For example, if low weekly performance is estimated before the end of the week, you can line up a blockbuster at a prime time slot during the weekend to improve your viewership.
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3. Maintain loyalty among your existing audience
In the race to get more people to subscribe to your TV channel, let’s not forget your channel’s current viewers.
Retain your existing audience by finding out what shows and genres they watch the most. Then target them with ads on their phones, promoting your channel’s contents that fall in their preferred category.
You can also bring back lapsers or viewers who’ve previously watched a show but dropped out. Identify these show lapsers and target them with creative ads, reminding them of what they’ve been missing out.
For example, Colors TV reached out to over a million show-lapsers with teasers of episodes that they missed on TV. Within just two weeks, viewership for their show increased by 25%.
4. Ambush Marketing - Get your competitor’s audiences to subscribe
Want to take your audience targeting a notch higher? Win your competitor's audiences over by targeting those who watch similar shows and channels.
You can further identify your target group from among your competitor’s audience. For example, target subscribers of your competitor’s HD channels with ads on their mobile phones asking them to subscribe to your HD channels.
Want to engage relevant audiences for some of your channels? Attract specific language viewers across the country by targeting based on their language consumption or other preferences.
For instance, Star India managed to convert over 170K TV viewers into avid followers for their newly introduced show in less than a week, by targeting audiences of competitor shows of the same genre.
5. Come up with better content based on feedback from TV viewers
While all the above points will help you sell your channel further to your audience, remember that content is king. In order to keep your audiences interested in your channel, create content that’s of interest to them.
Understand what your TV audiences really want to watch on TV and keep them coming back for more. You can do this by executing high-velocity consumer research through mobile surveys for quick feedback on your shows.
This will further help you understand why your viewers may be dropping out or why they prefer your competition’s channels over yours. Such intel can be extremely useful in taking quick corrective actions.
All you have to do is identify your target audience based on their TV viewing habits, take their feedback, and incorporate them into your offerings to make them better and subscriber-worthy!
While the new Tariff regime is bound to usher in an era of true choice among consumers, experts predict that broadcasters will benefit from this move in the long run. So don't let these changes scare you, instead tap into consumer preferences and make the best out of the situation.
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