At the press conference held for Kaun Banega Crorepati's third season, superstar and KBC's new anchor, Shah Rukh Khan, said, "The maximum growth of the entertainment industry has happened in the television space."
A study by FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers reiterates this. The television industry in India, suggests the report, will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24 per cent to a size Rs 42,700 crore (Rs 427 billion) from its present Rs 14,800 crore (Rs 148 billion).
In comparison, the Indian entertainment and media industry is poised to grow at 19 per cent (CAGR) to reach Rs 83,740 crore (Rs 837.40 billion) by 2010 from its present size of Rs 35,300 crore (Rs 353 billion).
Dheeraj Kumar, chairman, Creative Eye, says, "From Rs 1.5 lakh (Rs 150,000) that we spent on an entire show, besides another Rs 1.5 lakh that we gave by way of telecast rights to DD, each primetime episode of 30 minutes on any TV channel now costs Rs 4.5 lakh (Rs 450,000)." He adds, "We spent Rs 3-5 crore (Rs 30-50 billion) for the publicity of our serial Betiyan on Zee TV."
Film producers too realised the potential of television. Following Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee's promotion of Bunty aur Babli on NDTV 24x7 in 2005, this year the trend continued at hectic pace.
NDTV promoted films like Namastey London, Salaam-e-Ishq and Don; CNN-IBN got exclusive rights for Jaaneman and Casino Royale. Recent films like Umrao Jaan and Bhagam Bhag were promoted on news channels instead of entertainment channels.
"In 2006, reality became a bigger word," says Niret Alva of Miditech. In fact, production houses like Endemol (whose original formats gave us Indian Idol, Fame Gurukul, and Bigg Boss) entered the Indian entertainment industry. Disney acquired Hungama TV and Fox Entertainment Group is entering Indian TV too.
Alva adds: "With international production houses and corporates setting shop, there will be stiff competition."
Though Fame X and Bigg Boss haven't attracted strong TRPs, in 2007 the reality drama will continue with big-budget programmes like Cricket Star, Extreme Makeovers and Indian Idol 3. Production costs for reality shows are Rs 20-30 crore (Rs 200-300 million); celebrities are paid Rs 70-80 lakh (Rs 7-8 million).
2006 saw film directors Karan Johar and Ram Gopal Varma courting television too. In November, Johar's Dharma Production partnered with NDTV to launch an exclusive entertainment channel. Varma's K Sera Sera is launching a television music channel, Lemon.
Percept Pictures has announced a JV with director Madhur Bhandarkar to launch a spate of programmes on Sahara TV, and UTV Software Communications has announced a Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) JV with Malaysia-based Astro.
"The space for kids channel will see a spurt in 2007," says Monisha Singh, VP, Television, UTV. Animation, feel experts, will be big in 2007. "It will take centrestage," adds Alva, who assures that interesting developments will take place in the kid space between Miditech and Turner.
He adds, "Investments will pour into production houses with concrete plans in the mobile, radio and IPTV space, besides regional entertainment channels. These are the sectors which will grow exponentially in 2007."
