Less than a week after SPNI CEO & MD N P Singh announced his decision to move on from the position, industry was on Tuesday taken by surprise about the news of Disney Star’s Gaurav Banerjee stepping into Singh’s shoes.
According to media reports, Gaurav Banerjee will be the new CEO of Culver Max Entertainment Pvt Ltd (SPNI). However, there is no official announcement from the broadcaster on the same. While a conformation from Sony is awaited, exchange4media looks into some of the challenges that the new CEO may have to face at Sony.
Impact of failed merger with ZEEL
After a roller coaster ride of two years, Sony, in January this year, terminated the $10-billion mega merger with ZEEL, alleging breaches on the latter’s part to meet with the crucial conditions of the agreement. Sony Pictures Networks India (now Culver Max Entertainment Pvt Ltd) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) had in 2021 entered into an agreement under the Companies Act to merge into one entity.
Along with the calling off of the merger, Sony also invoked arbitration against Zee seeking a termination fee of $90 million from the company. The plea is being heard at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). Zee has been denying all allegations and, in fact, it recently also sought the same relief against Sony - termination fee of $90 million for calling off the merger.
It will be a challenge for the new CEO to keep the team motivated after the failed merger and NP Singh’s exit.
Decline in Sony TV viewership
The viewership of SPNI’s flagship Hindi General Entertainment Channel, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) has seen a significant decline in recent years. As earlier reported by exchange4media, its GRPs dropped from 90-100 to around 70.
Industry watchers attribute the decline to various factors, including saturation of viewership for reality shows, lack of innovation in programming and the growing preference for on-demand streaming platforms over traditional television. Despite owning popular reality shows such as KBC and Indian Idol, Sony TV's non-fiction programming is struggling to retain viewership. Additionally, the shift of viewers towards digital platforms like YouTube has further affected Sony TV's viewership.
Tough competition for Sony LIV
According to COTT Annual Report 2023-24, the digital media revenue in India stood at Rs 63,200 crore in the fiscal year, out of which the share of OTT video platforms was Rs 31,800 crore. From this, Rs 21,900 crore were earned by AVOD platforms and Rs 9,900 crore by SVOD platforms, with SonyLIV share of revenue being only 1.8 %. This is much below JioCinema(29.6%), followed by Prime Video and Mini TV (18.9%), Disney+ Hotstar (12.8%), Netflix (6.5%) and Aha Video (2.4%). ZEE5 also stood at 1.8%.
With JioCinema coming up with Rs 29 per month subscription plan, the competition has become tougher in the OTT space and SonyLIV may have to really up its game to survive the market, say industry experts.
According to one of the experts, most of the revenue generation and subscriber pull come from sports, and with JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar holding a major chunk of cricket rights, nothing much is left for SonyLIV to offer in the sports segment to attract viewers.
In March 2024, SPNI inked a seven-year TV & digital rights deal with New Zealand Cricket. The deal will include India’s tours of New Zealand in the 2026-27 and 2030-31 summers, as well as all other bilateral Tests, ODIs, and T20Is played in New Zealand.
Not so strong regional visibility
Sony network’s regional play is quite weak as compared to its counterparts, say industry experts. The network currently owns only two regional channels Sony Aath and Sony Marathi. Wherein, other networks have a strong play in regional markets.
Sony Aath, network’s Bengali channel, airs dubbed version of its Hindi shows including Crime Patrol Satark, CID and Adaalat. The channel also has animated shows such as Nut Boltu, Gopal Bhar and Gulte Mama. The network's Marathi channel, launched in 2018, airs original shows such as Bhumikanya, Jai Jai Shani Dev, Nivedita Majhi Tai and Maharashtrachi Hasya Jatra.
According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), in Week 20, the top five channels in West Bengal market were Star Jalsha, Zee Bangla, Jalsha Movies, Star Sports1 Hindi and Zee Bangla Cinema. In the Maharashtra market, Star Pravah, Zee Marathi, Sony Sab, Star Plus are among the top five channels.
“Sony has only two channels in the regional market, whereas other broadcasters have a strong presence. Going forward, after the Disney Star and Viacom18 merger, Sony is going to face more challenges if they do not expand into other markets," said an industry observer
Weak sports content
The network faces another significant challenge in the sports genre. All major cricketing league rights are currently owned by either Disney Star or Viacom18. With the potential merger of Disney Star and Viacom18, the combined entity would apossess broadcasting rights to all major sports leagues, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), ICC Cricket World Cup, T20 World Cup, FIFA World Cup, Olympics and NBA. Presently, both Disney Star and Viacom18 dominate the sports content landscape.
“The sports genre is a significant driver for attracting both viewership and ad dollars. With Disney and Viacom18 dominating the space, especially in owning the broadcast rights of all major broadcasters, there is less room for other players to excel in the genre,” a source said.
Sony, however, owns the rights to various events such as the Champions League, UEFA Nations League, Emirates FA Cup, UEFA Europa League, ROSHN Saudi Pro League, Asian Games and WWE.
