Interview: Rajesh Kaul, President, The One Alliance, on completion of 11 years

“The biggest challenges are two. The revenue share that broadcasters have been getting for subscription has not been adequate. And carriage fee has been very high with capacity constraints and so many channels getting launched”

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | August 28, 2013

Rajesh Kaul

The One Alliance has completed 11 years. Formerly known as SET Discovery, the joint venture between two media giants, Multi Screen Media (Sony Entertainment Network) and Discovery, started in 2002.  In conversation with BestMediaInfo, Rajesh Kaul, President, The One Alliance, talks about the challenges facing the industry, future plans and more. Excerpts:

Congratulations on completing 11 years. How has the journey been so far?

It has been wonderful with some jitters of course. We have been able to tie up with leaders in different genres. With 28 premium channels including 4 HD channels – Discovery HD, Sony HD, Six HD and Movies Now HD – we have managed to never compromise on quality. Quality, as a motto, comes before quantity to us.

This year you tied up with Times Television Network. What was the rationale behind it?

Our philosophy has always been quality over quantity. More and more channels want to be a part of the network. We check the credibility of everyone involved. We choose our partners based on their quality and whether they think we are adding value. Times Television Network was keen on joining us. And they are leaders in their genres. They make sure that quality is impeccable, which suits our motto.

What are the plans going forward for One Alliance?

We are not shopping the market, but if any group comes and we feel that they are going to add value to the bouquet, we will think about it. But we are very content at this point. Our bouquet is the most formidable one in the industry right now. We have sports, movies, news, comedy, etc. – all the genres.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

Oh, the biggest challenges would be two. The revenue share that broadcasters have been getting for subscription has not been adequate. All stakeholders know that this is the problem and we have been trying to fight it for the last 11 years. Now we hope that with digitisation, things will change.

The carriage fee has been very high with capacity constraints and so many channels getting launched. Therefore, there is this mad rush for a limited number of frequencies available. We are hopeful that once the second phase of digitization is over, the carriage fee will go away in the next couple of years. Subscription revenues which should ideally be around 25-40 per cent and they come to the broadcasters.

These have been the two biggest challenges. However, the good thing is that digitisation is picking up slowly and is going in the right direction.

Do you think the ad cap of 10+2 minutes an hour from October would affect your work?

This would affect broadcasters but won't directly affect distributors. The whole idea is that distribution revenues should increase and we are hopeful we will be reaching that place someday.

What is the number one priority now for you as a distribution company?

The biggest priority is to ensure that we get the industry towards a situation where the broadcasters start getting their fair share. Somebody has to drive that change. Fair share allocation has to start. There were big hopes with digitisation about revenues getting multiplied and carriage fee not being there. There was immense pressure on us from TRAI and Ministry of I&B for smooth implementation. We had to, therefore, tone down our expectation. Having done that, now the time has come for us to go for the real change.

Sohini.Sen@BestMediaInfo.com

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