Not about competition but working together: Gaurav Banerjee on JioStar

New Delhi: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) Managing Director and CEO Gaurav Banerjee on Tuesday said that the company is not concerned about competition from Jio Hotstar combine but is rather looking at "working together to figure out how best to entertain India", reported NewsDrum.

Asked about competition from the merger of the media assets of Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Co, he told PTI, "I believe that our business is not so much about competition as much as it is about excellence." 

He acknowledged that the JV formed after the merger of Viacom18 with Star India will definitely come up with "great content" and SPNI would strive to do the same.

"The game is therefore not really about competition. It's about how to work together to figure out how best to entertain India," Banerjee explained. 

Banerjee also said the coming together of the two rivals was not a cause for concern stating "some amount of consolidation in this industry would be helpful".

SPNI is part of Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, which announced a USD 1.575 billion investment in September 2021 when it announced the failed merger with Zee.

Banerjee hinted that despite the failure of its merger with Zee, the company is open to explore alternative routes to grow, although the current focus is on growing and strengthening existing business.

Asked about SPNI's future growth strategy and if the company would stay away from merger after the failed deal with Zee, Banerjee said, "We are open to exploring other alternatives to grow. We'd be happy to look at options." 

However, he said the company's current key focus areas are the existing brands it has, the current lines of business, and how to make them better.

"It (India) is one of the most significant and important markets for Sony globally and the reason for that is simple. One is this is the largest country by population anywhere in the world. It's also the fastest-growing major economy in the world," Banerjee said.

He further said, "It has got such an incredible share of the young population, and therefore all the metrics are very well set for long-term growth and I think all of those things make it really exciting for Sony." 

Banerjee, who is on an ‘interview spree’ after completing 100 days in his new role, was responding to a query on how significant is India from Sony's global perspective.

Asked if Sony's commitment to invest over USD 1.5 billion while announcing the proposed merger with Zee still remained, Banerjee did not confirm the number but said the commitment in terms of investing in the long term and growing the business is there.

"I wouldn't put a number to it, but I think we feel really confident about anything that we need from a resourcing point of view," Banerjee said.

He further said, "We will continue to invest aggressively behind content... and we would want that is the most crucial investment that we do as a company." 

Stressing on the need to invest aggressively on content, he said it is required due to changing nature of the industry.

In the last few years, SPNI has become both a TV and a digital company, he said, adding "my understanding of what our business needs to be is that we need to be a content company first. We see ourselves as a place where amazing stories get told, and we are agnostic about the distribution guidelines (linear TV or streaming platforms)."