Mathrubhumi's Kappa TV perks up Malayalam youth TV market

[MAHI]

It's more than a cuppa coffee that most youth
hold in their hands while they lounge about in
Café Coffee Days or BruCafes. Kappa TV - the
youth focused music channel promoted by the
Kozhikode-based Mathrubhumi media group -
has chosen to be different from others of its
ilk - it has a programming mix in English,
Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. And this, from a
group which has its origins in Kerala where
Malayalam and English are the main spoken
languages. As compared to this, mainline youth
channels MTV, UTV Bindass, Channel V, 9XM
have been sticking to one lingo - Hinglish.
Mathrubhumi media group's Kappa TV adds
some zing to its content with a host of
English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil
programming
Mathrubhumi TV CEO Mohan Nair says this is
but natural and expected from south India's
first youth centric channel. He explains: "In
south India, young viewers are very much into
popular cultures which are represented by
Hollywood, Bollywood, Mollywood, and
Kollywood. Tamil and Malayali youth also tune
into English and Hindi songs from Sony Mix,
MTV, UTV Bindaas and 9XM. Hence, we
decided to have an amalgam of these languages
along with Malayalam and Tamil in our
programming mix whether it is in the form of
music videos we play or the language that is
spoken."
Estimates are that the Malayalam TV ad market
is around Rs 675 crore; while the reach of all
Malayalam channels put together is 8.1 million
households.
Music Mojo on Kappa TV is a Malayalam
me-too of MTV Unplugged and Coke Studio
As for the ad rates for Kappa TV, sources say,
they hover around Rs 850-Rs 1000 per 10-
second spot.
On the content front, Nair reveals that the
channel has six to seven hours of original non-
fiction content in Malayalam and English on air
daily, with shows being repeated twice. Kappa
TV is primarily programmed in Malayalam with
60 per cent being back-to-back music videos
rolling out in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and
English, and 40 per cent being non-fiction
shows.
Among the music-based shows, the channel
airs Music Mojo , a Malayalam me-too of MTV
Unplugged and Coke Studio; Awesome Covers ,
a remix of songs of different languages; Mood
Tapes, a show which captures the mood of the
day and invites people across neighbourhoods
to sing and compose songs; Bindaas Bollywood,
which showcases Bollywood's best; and
International Chart Busters.
I Personally, which focuses on celebrity
interviews is past of the channel's non-
fiction portfolio
Kappa TV's non-fiction portfolio includes: I
Personally , which focuses on celebrity
interviews; Film Lounge, a film review and
recommendation show; Creative Chef and
Simply Naadan - cookery shows, Street Magic,
a magic show and Candid Camera which
features celeb photo shoots and style tips from
fashion experts. "We have chefs from hotel
chain giants like Vivanta by Taj , Crowne
Plaza,Holiday Innu and Le Meridien for our
show Creative Chef ," informs Nair.
A large number of celebrities from the south
have already featured on I Personally . These
include, Kavya Madhavan, Padmapriya, Rima
Kallingal, Swathy Reddy, Mahesh Narayanan,
Krish, Haricharan, Rashid Ali, Vijay Yesudas,
Shyamaprasad, Kamal, Prathap Pothen , Sibi
Malayil and also popular directors like
Siddhique Prashant Pillai, Mohanlal and
Mammootty.
Creative Chef features some of the chefs
from hotel chain giants like Vivanta by Taj,
Crowne Plaza, Holiday Innu and Le Meridien
The channel has also roped in celebrities to
host its shows. The show Simply Naadan is
hosted by Vishnu; Meghna Nair hosts Tales and
Tunes and Sanjeev Nair anchors the show
Filmography.
Despite an array of shows in the kitty, Nair is
quick to acknowledge that he needs more to
push the bar as far as content is concerned.
"We are mulling over experimenting with
standup comedy shows, music video festivals,
reality shows, short films and a series which
would track the career of the top artistes or
film personalities," he notes.
With a moving target such as the fickle youth
whose attention span is hard to retain, Kappa
TV has had to go the whole hog: continuous
promotion, whether it is print or TV, or the
outdoors or direct consumer engagement -
both offline and online. It helps that it has
very successful publications in-house for print
communications and advertising in the shape
of the Mathrubhumi newspaper - both in
English and Malayalam.
"We have allocated around 25-30 per cent of
our budget each for print and television, 30
per cent for OOH mediums and the rest for
digital," says Nair.
The channel's ad agency Maitri also helps out
with its promotional activities and brand
integrations. Promos and standups, posters and
tent cards for shows like Music Mojo , Film
Lounge and Ragaramiyer can be regularly
spotted in railway stations, cinema halls, coffee
shops, ice-cream parlours like Baskin Robbins.
"We have also tied up with certain Kerala
online portals like Metro Matinee for
advertising about our channel," informs Nair.
And he also narrates with pride how Music
Mojo 's popularity has seen a spinoff being
played out on Club FM - an in-house radio
station.
Mathrubhumi director - marketing &
electronic media Shreyams Kumar says
the
channel has ignited the imagination
of the young crowd, within months
of its launch
"International brands like Lulu, Perfetti, Baskin
Robbins and national brands like ITC and
Kalyan Jewellers are our current advertisers,"
says Nair. "We also have a host of local
advertisers like Kalyan Silks,Bhima Jewellers
and Pothys Silks under our roof. We are in
final negotiation with a whole host of brands
including Idea Cellular and Nestle for brand
tieups," affirms Nair.
The channel is available in almost four million
cable & satellite TV homes in Kerala, on DEN,
Asianet, Siticable and on select cable TV
networks in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and
Maharashtra. This apart, it is in the process of
signing up with almost all the DTH providers
nationally, which Nair expects will be done
before Onam. It is also available
internationally in north America and Europe on
IPTV platforms, while it can be seen in the Gulf
courtesy E-Vision.
Kappa TV has also started pushing its content
out digitally on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
and Pinterest. Video views on YouTube tot up
to about 1.5 million, with some 9,550 odd
Twitter followers. Facebook likes add up to
some 15,000 plus.
Definitely not something to crow about, but
Nair says the digital push has been on for only
four months and is helping build offline
traction. "Viewers from India, United Arab
Emirates, US, Saudi Arabia, UK, Qatar,
Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Singapore, Oman,
Bahrain, New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia and
Ireland have been watching online versions of
our music shows on YouTube. Videos of all our
popular shows are updated daily on our
YouTube channel", he reveals.
The digital initiative is handled by a four
member team headed by Kappa TV director
marketing and electronic media Shreyams
Kumar.
"Keralites and the wider Malayalee diaspora
exposed to best in international entertainment
was thirsting for an ethnic mélange. We at the
Mathrubhumi sensed this opportunity, and this
gave birth to Kappa, our specialty channel.
With pulsating music, riotous humour, film
review and intimate interviews, all tightly-
edited, it has ignited the imagination of the
young crowd, within months of launch", says
director - marketing & electronic media
Shreyams Kumar.
"This channel is a landmark achievement, since
we have realised our long cherished goal of
cross-media synergy. That this has occurred in
our 90th anniversary year makes for reloaded
pleasure."
The group already owns a news channel and a
youth channel (both of which was launched in
early 2013) under its umbrella. And it has two
more licences approved by the ministry of
information and broadcasting. One of these is
for a general entertainment channel, which it
has been planning to launch but has held back
on it because of budgetary constraints. "But
the desire to have at least one GEC is very
much same like any other group," discloses
Nair.
Mathrubhumi TV CEO Mohan Nair's Kappa
TV is
certainly serving some hot 'cuppa' and has
left the
youth wanting for more
To keep costs low, the group is using the same
news channel infrastructure to roll out Kappa
TV daily.
Nair has the right pedigree to successfully
steer the Mathrubhumi group's TV ambitions.
For one, he has print media experience as
bureau chief and senior editor of The
Economic Times from 1988 to 1999. Then he
has the requisite domestic and international TV
experience, having worked for six years with
Asianet Communications and with Maharaja TV
in Sri Lanka before moving to Asianet
Communications as COO for six years. He took
up the challenge of steering a primarily print
group into TV in 2010 and first off the blocks
was the Mathrubhumi news channel, followed
by Kappa TV.
And his efforts have won some praise and even
the attention of rivals.
Leading Malayalam network Asianet has taken
note of the success that Kappa TV has
achieved. Plans are afoot to revamp one of its
channels, Asianet Plus. "We are aware of the
importance that a youth channel holds and
that is why we are revamping Asianet plus for
young viewers in the coming two months ,"
affirms Asianet, business head, Anup Chandra
Shekharan. Sources reveal that this revamp is
going to see it emerge as an amalgam of
Channel V and Life Ok
The Sun TV group too has awakened to the
potential. Music and movies channel Kiran TV
has been converted into a movie channel
called Kiran Movies. On the anvil, sources say,
is another music channel which is quite likely
to be under the Surya brand.