 Welcome to another episode of our special series Meeting All Ours. In this series we are bringing to you leaders who despite so many challenges thrown at us by COVID-19 and despite four weeks of lockdown now are ensuring that businesses stay on track at least to whatever extent it is possible and are contributing to our economy. With me today is one such leader Mr. Pawan Jayatani, Chief Revenue Officer at 9x Media. Welcome to the show Mr. Jayatani. Hi Nazia, good afternoon perhaps and I know I thought that we will have an interaction like this but that is how the world has changed in the last month or so. The whole pattern has changed but good to see you through this call. We never thought that we will have an interaction like this actually. We are meeting everyone virtually these days. So sir, I am good hope you are in good health. I mean you look healthy and fine. We all are taking care of ourselves because as industry leaders we need to maintain a good health so that we can look after other people and we can communicate the same across teams that the health is the first priority right now. I know businesses have got hit in a big way in the last month or so. The whole paradigm has shifted in the last month or so but I believe health is very important that each one of us needs to take care of physical health and more importantly mental health because of this lockdown for so long. Another thing this lockdown has done is increased our TV consumption. That is what all bomb data and all the data is in tank and it is obvious that everyone is at home watching a lot of TV. How has this had an impact on music genre? See I will tell you what, overall pre-lockdown also pre-lockdown one or two weeks. If you see overall TV viewership has been on a growth path in the last post that NTO happened last year right? Post that FDA regime started last year. Especially for FDA channels TV growth has been there in terms of viewership. Now since everyone is under house arrest, no one is going out, we are under severe lockdown, severe, severe lockdown. This is born to happen actually right? There has been roughly, overall TV growth has been roughly around 46 to 48% viewership growth has been all across all genres. Now out of each genre, GC has gone on repeat mode unfortunately because they are not able to shoot new episodes and they are not able to turn when you do content and all that. But if you see rest other genres, whether it's the news or movies or in that case music and kids, we have seen a decent growth. Even on the music also if you compare pre and post COVID-19 we have seen roughly around 6 to 10% growth in terms of viewership actually. Overall actually if you specifically talk about my network I think we have seen a decent growth. The best part is we have been able to stabilize also. There has not been a decline but there has been a moderate growth of 6 to 10%. However, quite obvious that obviously news will grow because the news consumption has been very good in the last month or so. For obvious reasons because all of us tend to watch news because there's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of that uncertainty. So there has been but the good part is that there are other genres also which have seen a decent growth. While news has dominated it because news growth has been much, much higher. One is that second is overall environment is such that news has come into forefront in terms of viewership and all that. And plus since base was not so high so you can say it has grown into say 200% or 300% and all that, that kind of person. But base has not been so equal, has not been so great if you compare it with GEC. But if you see music specifically, music post that FDA regime last year, music reach has been extremely strong. It has been perhaps even higher than news or higher than even movie channel to certain extent in certain markets and all that. But yeah, having said that, coming back to the same... Are these markets? Which would be these markets? Largely those largely HSM markets and mostly non-urban markets also. If you see, reach has been very good because of our FDA, we have been on free dish, we have been on across all DTS platforms and all that. But yes, news has seen the maximum growth. I believe that it's primarily because we're all anxious, we need updates, we need to see what uncertainty is surrounding us. So people tend to watch news and all that. But that doesn't mean that other genres haven't grown. And if you see even GECs also, I mean DD has grown actually, because they have put a Ramayana and Mahabharata, that has grown. Yes, it has become number one channel. It has become number one channel. So people in general are watching TV, people in general are watching TV. If I come back to music, what kind of consumption trends have you observed during this lockdown? Is there any change in the way people were consuming your channels before and now? Largely, if you see music, our prime time used to be in the mornings because we run a break free kind of a slot in the morning. Break free, actually you have back to back music and this applies across all music channels and all. So obviously we have seen that growing to a large extent, but we have seen other time slots growing much, much higher in terms of consumption and all. So that's one thing. Second, what we have consciously done, what we have consciously done around this time, you know, if you see Nine Exem, which is my main flagship channel actually, we generally used to run a very upbeat dance centric music, very upbeat youth centric music, which is high intensity music we used to run actually. So seeing the mood mapping around this time, seeing the sentiments around the country which is going through or globally we are going through. So we have toned down the tone of the music right now, right, for some time, primarily because people will not tend to dance this time. People will not tend to see much, much more upbeat music actually. So because of that also we have seen time spent going up for certain slots, for certain time slots, certain time bands we have seen much, much time slots going up. But coming back to what consumption pattern has changed. If my 40% GRPs used to come from certain time slot in the morning, now there are a large portion of GRPs coming in the evenings also, afternoons also or late nights also. So the audience has got spread across the channel actually to consume the music because everyone is under lockdown and everyone is seeing it actually. So I think that that's a good trend actually. Also have you changed your programming? Have you tried to do any kind of new mix with your programming right now? Or you are continuing with the same pattern? Being a music channel and by the core audience is youth and we used to, I mean we keep reinventing playlist, curate music, every now and then actually, right. As I said with current situation and with current sentiments which is going within society or the kind of health problems we are facing across the globe basically. We have toned down the overall upbeatness of the music right now, to large extent actually, to match the mood mapping of the audience right now. And we have got a fantastic reviews on that and because of that, time spend has gone up in certain time bands and all. But having said that, I think overall genre has grown close to 6-10% increase in the viewership actually. While news has grown certain extent to a large extent what? Movies have grown and even music has grown around 6-10%. Ten years ago music channel, BTOs, BDMTV or any channel were like far more in demand by, I mean amongst youth also and everyone. How much has these apps like Savan, Ghana, Spotify, have a direct impact on your business or maybe I don't know if it hasn't had any impact? See I'll tell you what, ten years back or five years back music as a space, music as a genre, music TV, music television network which is audio visual. We used to be treated as a frequency network because we used to deliver frequency and all that right. We used more of a snacking issue. But with overall TV penetration going, with overall youth population growing, with multiple that music tastes spreading across the society and all that. Today music as a space or music as a genre is treated as a proper reach channel because we deliver reach right. So we deliver reach to large extent and perhaps if you see 9x media or overall music if you see, overall music as a genre is close to 300 million households. I mean that's the kind of reach we have today in music. So you're saying despite all these challenges you still have a very large base and a large… I'll tell you whether it's a streaming, whether it's an OTT, whether it's on a form of music, whether it's through YouTube or another form of music and all that. Every medium pushes the overall space in music actually. That is what it has done whether it's a Ghana or Saban or Spotify. It has pushed overall consumption of music in India actually and it has really helped us actually. So and one is that second is general tendency in India is that unless you will not see Salman Khan dancing, you will not feel the song, right? So that is what TV as a medium delivers that. Third I think overall when TV penetration has grown considerably in India actually, music was one of the first genre which has penetrated very well actually. And I think to large extent you should give credit to 9x network to large extent because we have penetrated across urban and rural across India. We have been very clear that our distribution strategy has to be very clear. We have to be across all DTA, we have to be across all touch points. So that has helped overall genre and that has helped us also in terms of consumption now, right? So I disagree with you that 10 years back, perhaps 10 years back I was very different actually. Even the marketers used to treat us like a frequency channel. Today marketers or brand heads treat or agency guys or a head of brand treat us like a proper reach channel because this channel delivers or this medium or this genre delivers a proper reach, substantial reach, which is very important actually. So overall genre has grown to large extent and all these streaming companies have helped quite a bit to populate the concept of music. So that has helped quite a bit. It's like when news channels came in, the leadership of print media also went up because the overall interest in news increased. So you're talking on similar lines. Obviously see, what is important that eventually whether it's a TV channel or a streaming or a news channel or a music channel, you deliver audience, right? And brands buy audience, right? Eventually when brand does a marketing plan or the agency does a planning, they buy audience. If you deliver a substantial reach audience, you're in the game, right? What kind of brands are investing in you right now? I mean, because most of the production houses are shut. So what kind of brands are still advertising with you? See, overall, as I said, overall TV consumption has grown by 46 to 48 percent. But unfortunately, your edX has degrown roughly in terms of volume by around 28 percent, right? In terms of volume. But when it comes to value, it will further degrow. So because of this pandemic, because of this overall global scenario, what has happened which got hit in India also because of lockdown, situation is not so great. It's pretty bad in terms of, you know, brand investing right now. Yeah, there are brands. There are minimum brands happening right now. If you see there are close to, if roughly there are 5,000 brands, 5 to 6,000 brands in India, there are not more than 700, 800 brands advertising right now. So I think because of this lockdown, because of economy going for a toss, the huge problem in terms of supply chain, supply is not happening. So yeah, a lot of brands have restrained, majority of brands have restrained from advertising at this point in time, which if you ask me, ideally should have been that since viewership is huge, consumption patterns are huge right now. Time spent has gone for TV. I think this should have been the right time for brands to advertise. But I'm hopeful that we will see some improvement in coming days or in coming months. But yeah, there has been, there has been, there has been major, major, major, major problem in the last month or so. I mean, this year has been very difficult for your industry. January came in, so while you were still struggling with that, then came the COVID-19. What does the status of NTO do right now? Do you think? Not only this year, if you see Nazia, last year FTA regime came in, I mean that disrupted the whole ecosystem for month or two months. NTO-1 came in. NTO-1 came in and when it came in, when there was a transition happening, it disrupted the complete industry for almost two months, right? And then there was an economic slowdown in the country actually. There was GS, there was GST, there was demonetization, so last few years have been pretty bad. Not before years has been quite terrible. But not as bad as this lockdown. Not as bad as this, this has been, this has been extremely worse, extreme worse actually. What I want to ask you is that in this current situation, now that you've been hit back to back by different things, is it time for a try to consider that NTO-2's implementation maybe should be put on hold until broadcasters recover from this crisis of COVID-19? It should be because there's no logical sense to enforce it at this point in time because we just, first we had just had to come out of this. Right, first we just had to come out of this and I think this current situation will take at least three to four months to get normalized growth. I don't see how we see growth and all that, but I think this will take at least three, four months minimum to normalize things to see that how things are shaping up and how we plan things way forward and all that. So I think we don't need another disruption, we don't need a disruption on top of another disruption actually. And yeah, it should be avoided and I don't think, my assumption is I think that will take a back seat for some time. Because we're just, as an industry we're just putting nuts and bolts in place first. We have been now, it's been almost 45 days we have been under lockdown, 40 days under lockdown now. And there is little hope that it will open anytime soon. And surprisingly you know what, we were just coming out of this slowdown last year. We barely managed last year to some extent and we were planning for this year now, all business plans were made. All, as an industry we made projections for this year, we thought that second half of the year will be very good. We thought first year will be slightly better than the first quarter of this year and all that. And then within a month everything changed, everything changed. I think all of our projections, all of our business plan, everything went for a toss actually. But surprisingly you know what, I've been talking to my teams, I've been discussing with my teams, I've been talking to people across, I've been talking to multiple brand heads. Surprisingly you know, no one, you know this whole crisis started way back in December. And by I think mid-March or by first week of March it had already hit close to 100 plus countries, right? 100 plus countries by first week of March it had hit, right? 100, 90 to 100 countries, exactly as from my data. Even by end of March we never predicted that it will be so bad. And at least for the next three, four, five, six months will be a washout. So I think as an industry both from a broadcaster or an agency or a data people, the first thing what the biggest learning for all of us is that we need to see a future. We need to predict it well, we need to see that world is very small. If something happens in say California it affects India actually. So I think that's something, as an industry we need to make data analytics a foolproof. We need to see future, we need to predict it rightly because as a company I predict something that first half or second half of the year will be decent or will be at least 10, 15, 20% better than last year. But in a span of three, four, ten days everything changed, right? So I think that that's one big learning for all of us that despite that we, all of us have international networks, we have international offices, we have people sitting in US, we have people sitting in South Asia, Singapore and all that. We weren't able to collate or develop that something big is hitting us, right? And I think it start crashing in the last 10, 10, 12, 15 days, right? So that's one learning I think we should be able to see future that how we predict and how we reframe our businesses going forward. Before we close Pavan, I want to understand from you, your channel has seen a growth of 6% to 10%. We are all still at work. How are you keeping yourself and your team motivated in these times? See, to be honest, when this lockdown started, I think for one week everyone was under shock because I have never seen a situation like this. I have seen multiple recessions, I have seen multiple economic falls and downturns and all that. Perhaps, you know, for all the audience who are watching this, I must tell that 9x Media, we built this company when there was a financial recession in 2009. So one, I think it's not that companies or brands can't be built under, when there's a recession actually, when there's an economic downturn. So we have seen, at least I have seen, but this is something, this is as my, you know, everyone says that this is as big as World War I and II combined, right? That the effect is so, so, so much, as my boss rightly says that it's a black swan event. And so first couple of days, when are they going to figure out that what happened? I mean, what does this lockdown mean? I mean, for the first time I have, I heard the word lockdown, you know, when countries under complete seas, you can't go out. But then you need to pick up pieces and you need to understand, you need to see the future. You need to lead the team. And what is more important at this point in time is that the courage is very important, right? So you need to show a lot of courage to stand in, in, in, in midst of these crises actually. And obviously, it's a general, I mean, you know, it's not that during these crises, we motivate team. I think our industry is a people-driven industry and it's a huge capital for us. People is a capital for us. People is an investment for us actually. So foremost thing for us is that we not only motivate them, we, we, I communicate with them. We make sure that each and every member of team is mentally very strong, right? Because it's easy to get little disoriented because of these crises and these rejections and gloomy environment, setbacks. Even you read and watch news every day, you see complete negativity, which is, which is fact also because that's happening around the world actually. So I strongly believe and I tell this to my team that, yeah, there is a setback, situation is bad in the ground, but I think we'll come back. It's, it's a matter of two, three, two, three months, four months, we need to be patient. We need to be courageous this time. We need to sail through these times right now. But I still remember brands are built, companies are built when, when, when there's a, I mean, perhaps Ninex, Ninex was built around, as I said, that Ninex was built around 2009. And we build this company and rest his history. I mean, we are today a much, much, much bigger brand what we have never thought. We never thought that it will one day when we start 2009. So, yeah, communication is very important when, when, when you need to communicate to people and keep motivating them. You have to be, you have to come out completely transparent and we all have to be on the same page. So once you do this proper communication, be complete transfer of a team of, you don't need to give a spiel or you don't need to generally for the sake of, you know, motivate them. You need to put things in perspective. You need to show them the future. You need to show them that nothing can go wrong below this now. I think there will be upward trend only now. And, and, and we're a small team and we work like a family. And you need to show a lot of compassion and affection at this point in time, the way you show it to family. Right. I think rest things fall in place actually and when you have a belief and you make them understand that things will turn around things will come back. I think, I think to large extent, people get motivated people see the future in that sense. Thank you so much for speaking to us. This was really inspiring and insightful. There's a lot that we have learned about, you know, how to keep your employees motivated and also about what is exactly happening in the industry right now. Thanks again for speaking to Exchange for Media. We wish you good health. Stay at home until this crisis is over and stay safe. Thank you very much. Soon, soon, I think I think Christ will be soon or I will be back. We'll have a, not a virtual meeting. We'll have a meeting. Yeah, definitely. Obviously with a social distancing and all that for some time. But I think I think we'll be, we'll be back as an industry. I think I believe that we'll be back in a much, much, much, much bigger way and in a much more substantial way. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks Nazia. Always pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks a lot.