International music genre to get four new contenders; Aidem to handle sales

All four launches are from the Cira Media stable, a Mumbai-based consulting company. The channels look forward to break even in five years.

The international music genre on Indian television is all set to get four new contenders by next month. The four channels from Cira Media group, namely Clubbing TV, Juke Box, ROCK TV and Dancetrippin are already on air in Mumbai through Incable and are expected to be available across the country on various platforms in the next month. The network has no plans to extend the distribution to analog.

Each channel will cater to its respective niche segment in the genre. While Clubbing TV is a 24/7 TV channel exclusively dedicated to electronic music, DJ and club culture, Juke Box is a music channel that offers contemporary hits and the best music from the last 40 years, international acts and popular European artists.

Amongst the other two, ROCK TV is dedicated to rock music and Dancetrippin is a dance music channel.

The core target for the entire bouquet is the urban youth. While the channels will compete with other channels in the genre such as VH1, 9XO and MTunes, which offer combined packages to viewers, Cira Media's bouquet of channels will deliver niche music.

Pallav Nagar, founder and director, Cira Media, says, "With digitisation, dedicated channels in each genre in music, catering to each segment differently, makes sense. Everyone believes that niche will be received well in the digitised era, with personalised choices and content for each viewer."

Cira Media, a Mumbai-based consulting company, is a subsidiary of Ankh Media, which serves international markets across Asia Pacific, West Asia, Europe, America and Africa.

The company also looks forward to bringing live telecast of music concerts to India. "In due course, we intend to offer these niche music channels as a platform to broadcast any concert and music events live so they can reach out to fans across the region," says Nagar.

The four channels will be paid channels; the network expects to earn close to 60 per cent revenues from subscription and the remaining 40 per cent from advertising.

The media sales for the channels will be handled by Aidem Ventures, which also manages ad sales for Mi Marathi, Live India, Sahara One, Sahara Filmy, Economist.com, GETIT, Eros Now, KBS World, Al Jazeera English (as well as several other Al Jazeera channels), Lakshyya Entertainment, Get Punjabi, Jaya TV Network and Sri Lanka Premier League.

In an official communiqué, Vikas Khanchandani, director, Aidem Ventures, says, "As digitisation progresses and more channels are launched, the Aidem sales model makes sense for even more broadcasters. The association will help Cira Media leverage this media sales revenue management, while they focus on delivering international as well as localised content across the channels."

Khanchandani adds that brand integration, partnerships and opportunities within the events space will be evaluated. Since the genre is already very small, the new channels are expected to increase the size of the genre, rather than eating into each other's space, he believes.

Youth-centric brands such as handset manufacturers and telcos advertise on the music genre.

For the record, the existing players in the genre are 9XO (9X Media Group) and VH1 (Viacom Group).