Banijay Asia to enter short-form content space with videos shot in vertical format: Deepak Dhar

Short-form content is experiencing a surge in popularity in India, with platforms such as Moj, MX Takatak, Josh, and YouTube Shorts capturing the attention of both audiences and brands. According to a report by Redseer Consulting from November 2023, the short-form video industry in India was projected to generate $5.5 billion in revenue by 2023, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% from 2019 to 2023. The report also reveals a notable increase in average daily user engagement on short-form video apps in India, rising from 21 minutes in 2018 to 32 minutes in 2020.

Taking note of the changing patterns of content consumption, Banijay Asia, a company that produces films, Live Entertainment, TV shows and OTT content, plans to now enter the short-form content space.

Speaking on day 2 of FICCI Frames, 2024, Mumbai, Deepak Dhar, Founder and Group CEO, Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India, said, “Increasingly, more and more people are spending time consuming short-form content. Gone are the days when the TV screen was the main touchpoint of content consumption. Now, a hand device is the closest screen. Short-form content has become a competition for us. Therefore, we will soon be creating shows in short-form vertical in nature.”

In a session at the annual M&E event, Dhar talked about the influx of content, non fiction production, the blurring of OTT and TV content and more.

On February 28, 2024, The Walt Disney Company sold its India business to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries at a $3.5 billion valuation, which it bought from Rupert Murdoch for $14 billion seven years ago. 

But Dhar is not deterred by such developments as he and his company have weathered such storms in the past as well.

He said, “We are not too upset by the winds of change at this point of time. We have tons of formats that broadcasters want. In the age of consolidation, we are very well positioned to bring more and more formats which people want.”

In October 2023, Banijay Asia announced its foray into Live Entertainment and Special Events, with a pre-match entertainment ceremony at the India-Pakistan cricket match held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Cut to now, EndemolShine India is also producing the on-going Miss World Festival. This development came after Banijay's acquisition of live entertainment specialist Balich Wonder Studio.

Dhar said, “Live events are an extension of the non-fiction pillar that's been built in the company. We are very dominant and aggressive on that front. We really want to go outside of the scripted, non-scripted, traditional tentpoles of our business, and now build other franchises as well.”

Noting that India is poised to be the third big superpower, Dhar believes that the timing is set for Indian shows to export IPs globally.

In the tug between TV and digital, Dhar drew instances across Bigg Boss, Fear Factor and Masterchef to elucidate that both sides have worked for Banijay.

“We can bring learnings from the TV and the streaming side at the price point of the theTV++ model. So delivering quality at a reasonable price point is something that we've been doing all the time,” he added, talking about changing budgets.

With content comes content regulations. Dhar believes that to navigate through regulations, the choice of stories, characters, storylines, must be made at a very early stage. Being conscious and cautious about the stories, characters at a very early stage is key to tide over regulations.

Talking about the influx of docuseries consumption, Dhar believes there’s a need for a third format between fiction and non-fiction and the lines between content on TV and OTT are blurring.

“This is the third pillar that everybody is building on, which is the factual and documentary space,” he added.

He also added that the lifetime of any format would involve taking a pause and reinventing based on the environment and that some formats (like that of Bigg Boss) can be evergreen based on the ways it caters to different people.

Talking about spearheading the ‘Bigg Boss’ phenomenon in India, Dhar recalled the first day he pitched the show, drawing inspiration from its Australian counterpart ‘Big Brother.’

“We were one amongst the companies that were entering the market far too late in the game,” he recalled, “So if you are coming in a little late, you've got to do some things very different and some things new and you have to take a few risks.”

He added that this show, like a fish bowl experiment, felt like a risk worth taking and now there are 17 seasons in Hindi and multiple languages and multiple formats and OTT and TV separately.

Revealing his secret sauce to launching content, he believes it needs to have a sharp one-line story. “So as long as it starts feeling Indian, I know we are on to a good start,” he added, commenting about localisation of content. “It really needs to start with a very Indian emotion or an Indian story.”

Talking about producers knowing the pulse of the consumer, he opined that one must feel and empathise with the content before putting it forward.

Shedding light on making India a global hub for live production, he talked about one of the instances where an episode of Big Brother China was shot in India for their version of YouTube called Youku.

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