Ensconced in his first-floor office in Continental Building in Mumbai's Worli, an office he moved into just a year ago, Subhash Chandra is a picture of composure. In starched white collarless shirt, black trousers, trademark white tuft neatly brushed back, he's reclining in an oversized leather chair and gazing intently at a plasma screen mounted next to his desk. The large leather-topped desk is exceptionally tidy, apart from five complicated looking remotes, all neatly lined up.

It has been three days since Zee unveiled its new network logo at the Zee Cine Awards ceremony in London, the first salvo in a three-year campaign to make Zee Telefilms #1. Or rather, as the Chairman of the Essel Group sees it, making its flagship channel Zee, the market leader. "We're already on top as far as profits amongst all the media companies go," says Chandra, ever the contrarian. Zee may be third in line, behind Rupert Murdoch's Star TV and Sony Entertainment Channel but Chandra sees no reason why, three years down the line, Zee should not be able to corner half the profits of the total media and entertainment market (estimated currently at Rs 2,500 crore) and a 35 per cent market share. What about the indifferent response to its shows with TVRs (television viewership ratings) of even its top shows (see Way Behind) lagging far behind the two market leaders? "Sure, there are certain gaps in our sales and marketing efforts, but those are now being addressed," asserts Chandra confidently.

Part of this ebullience might spring from the recent appointment of seasoned marketer Pradeep Guha as Zee Telefilm's CEO. Since he came aboard earlier this year, Guha has already persuaded two highly-regarded marketing professionals, Joy Chakravarty from Star TV's Ad Sales and Suresh Balakrishnan from the Hindustan Times, to sign on. Comments Guha-widely regarded as being the brain behind making Bennett, Coleman & Co. (BCCL) the marketing success it is today- on the brief he's been entrusted with: "To strengthen Zee Network and enable it to lead news and entertainment into new and hitherto uncharted horizons."

Guha and his team are the key to Chandra's pet project, probably one of the most challenging the rice-trader-turned-media-mogul has ever embarked on: taking on the formidable The Times of India head-on, that too in its home turf, Mumbai. Zee, in collaboration with the Dainik Bhaskar Group, plans to launch a national newspaper based in the city.

"We're gearing up to take on the market leader," states Chandra, who, along with the Dainik Bhaskar Group is pumping in between Rs 800 crore and Rs 1,000 crore into the venture. The project, barely in its research phase, has already run into controversy. Zee, which has set aside Rs 25 crore for the launch, is accusing BCCL of plagiarising its teaser campaign for its publication, Maharashtra Times.

Zee's Chandra: He is plotting yet another makeover and readying to battle The Times of India

Vox Populi

Television, clearly, is where the big bucks are. A recent report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an industry lobby, and audit firm KPMG values the television industry at Rs 13,900 crore and expects it to touch Rs 37,100 crore by 2010 as additional distribution platforms proliferate and offerings in niche genres grow. The question everyone's asking is how does Zee's flagship mass-entertainment channel plan to revive its lacklustre prime-time slot. The perception amongst most media planners is that Zee is a cost-effective "support" channel. "It's definitely number three, though it still figures on most media plans, if you want to reach a wider audience base, especially upcountry," says Mona Jain, Vice President (Media) of Delhi-based Cheil Communications. Zee realises the necessity of reviving its prime-time slot if it wants to be taken seriously by audiences and advertisers alike.

Guha, reluctant to disclose the strategic marketing plan being worked out, retorts with a cryptic, "It's too early for me to discuss this in detail." Zee TV, launched in 1992, has faithfully stuck to its mass-general-entertainment positioning. That will continue, says Abhijit Saxena, the channel's President, but there will be efforts to target niches such as women, children, and the like. "The staple diet will continue to be soaps and movies, with new formats like game and reality shows adding the spice," says Saxena, who looks much younger than his 36 years. Zee, he adds, will continue with its practice of outsourcing 90 per cent of its programming, considering that this helps keep a tight check on costs. As if to emphasise that this practice no way affects quality or the creative process, Saxena reels off a long list of new innovative programmes in the pipeline.

Business Baazigar, with its tagline of "ideas lao paise le jao" (come with ideas and walk away with money) is being positioned as a reality show about creating entrepreneurs; evergreen singalongs Antakshari and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa are being repackaged; and new frothy soaps like Sindoor and Sarkar are in the works. Films shall also be a key differentiator with Zee having commissioned 52 feature films by multiplex-directors such as Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah and Saurav Shukla. "Regular innovations from our side and catering purely to the viewers' taste help in maintaining the channel's popularity," says Bharat Ranga, Business Head, Zee Cinema.

A Long Way Ahead

Perceptions are hard to change overnight. Especially when they are based on the fact that this isn't Zee's first attempt at a makeover (its last big one, soon after advertising industry veteran Sandeep Goyal took charge as CEO in May, 2001-the man quit in October 2002-saw it launch 20 new programmes). Loyalty to the Star platform is still very high, thanks to the "fat and rich" programming the channel has created in the critical 1-3 p.m. and 9-11:30 p.m. slots. And ironically, even when Zee gets the formula right, as with Astitva Ek Prem Kahani-the story of Dr. Simran, a woman of substance that has come in for consistent praise from media planners and audiences alike-it does not manage to quite achieve the same television ratings as any of Star's shows. Evidently, the channel needs more winners to keep audiences interested. "Good viewer pullers that keep the fickle TV watcher hooked," is the prescription from Meenakshi Bhalla, Vice President, O&M.

All this has an impact on advertising. Ad revenues-which make up half of Zee Telefilms' total revenues-grew only marginally from Rs 626.5 crore in 2003 to Rs 635.5 crore in 2004. In contrast, two-thirds of Star India's revenues come from ads, and this component is growing at over 25 per cent a year. This, despite Zee's rates being among the lowest. Effective rates for a 10-second ad on the prime- time television slot are between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 for Sony, Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,500 for Zee and Rs 1,40,000 to Rs 1,60,000 for Star Plus according to Ranajit Ghosh, Group Manager, Madison Media. Zee's response is a marketing blitzkrieg currently on the anvil. "We have already put a team for network sales in place with clear-cut sales objectives. This should help put our growth curve in line with that of the industry's," promises Guha.

A lot of this growth will come from regional channels. Currently accounting for 38 per cent of all tv viewership and second only to general entertainment, this genre is expected to notch high double- digit rates, primarily due to the direct connect this platform has with local and regional advertisers. Zee already has five regional language channels and two more will be launched in the next few months. Two of these are targeted at the southern market. Star has only one, Star Vijay in Tamil, but CEO Peter Mukerjea insists that "we have a view on other south Indian language channels that I am not in a position to discuss".

Direct To Home (DTH) is another area where Zee will lock horns with Star. While the Star TV-Tata combine is awaiting final clearances for its DTH foray dubbed Space TV, Zee claims to have over 200,000 subscribers for its Dish TV offering that beams over a 100 channels to each (it is eyeing 10 million customers by 2010). Zee's plans recently received a boost with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) non-discriminatory directive forcing Star and Sony to provide its services on Zee's DTH platform. "With competition, service levels and quality standards will only get better, and this in turn will lead to a new and different consumer behaviour pattern when it comes to the consumption of media and entertainment," says Mukerjea.

Zee's Guha: The new CEO is ready for the challenge

Media and entertainment will continue to be focus areas for the Rs 4,000-odd crore Essel Group. Play TV, billed as Asia's first online interactive gaming channel, is to be launched in a few weeks. Play TV is inspired by the group's earlier online lottery venture, Playwin, which was launched in March 2001, and boasts over 400 terminals and a turnover in excess of Rs 800 crore. "It's a completely new concept; put simply, the power of your remote control is replaced by your mobile phone," says Ashish Kaul, VP (Corporate Brand Development). And, internally, efforts are on to remove the perception that Zee is a one-man show by launching a performance incentive scheme for the company's 1,200 employees. "In some cases, these can be as high as 50 per cent of an employee's base salary," says Sanghamitra Ghosh, Executive Vice President (hr).

Iron-willed Chandra-he gave up smoking his trademark 501 beedis almost overnight-has never been known to shy away from a fight. Currently, he has just taken the powerful Board for Control of Cricket India (BCCI) to court for Rs 1,630 crore in damages after it cancelled telecast rights-$308 million (Rs 1,355.2 crore)-for four years of all cricket played in India, after first awarding it to Zee (that, and the proposed launch of a sports channel would have helped Chandra even the score with Star, but it wasn't to be). Sometimes, this entrepreneurial resolve can cut both ways, especially while dealing with professionals. Zee has had eight CEOs since its inception. Shriniwas Rao, a media analyst at Mumbai-based brokerage firm Enam Securities, sums up the popular perception about Zee. "Sure, content costs have been cut down to the bone, there's a strong distribution backbone and margins are being maintained, but blockbusters are a must." Chandra is searching for them too.