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Subject: Tamil Television Enterprise Models (Re: TV Broadcast of Malaysian Indian Conference)
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 16:01:45 +0530
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From: "Bala Pillai"
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----- Original Message -----
From: Bala Pillai
To: Sathish
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 3:18 PM
Subject: [erumbugal] Re: TV Broadcast of Malaysian Indian Conference
Dear Sathish,
Thank you responding promptly - much appreciated.
Best I think if I gave you a very brief run-down on how global Indian/Tamil television enterprise models work.
Over 60% of programs in the Sun TV cable Network (as well as other Tamil television networks around the world) are produced by independent producers..
Simply put, the Tamil television stations deploy their capital into areas they are best at -- TV plant and satellite infrastructure, capital raising , regulatory/government relations and anchor (low-risk) programming. Anchor programs are primarily movies, movie songs and news.
TV stations generate revenue by selling air-time to independent producers and advertising off their anchor programming.
Independent producers like us, Thamil Innaiyam Productions, do what we are good at -- creativity, risk-taking and audience-advertising agencies-programming-paid public relations optimal mix calls. That is we push the envelope on new productions that we think will work out financially and that gives our creative talent an adrenalin rush :-). We balance the two. We lose some, we win some -- that's the creativity business. We pay for airtime to the television channels, our production costs and our programming-risk. We generate our revenue from public-relations and advertising sales.
Right now we are producing an innovative cross-media series called "Kadal Kadandthu Vaalum Thamilargal" where we feature lifestyles and achievements of Tamils and friends worldwide. The aim of the program is to engender actionable trust and relationship building between the audience and the interviewed. We touch on the personal, family, business and societal lifestyles of persons/families/groups we interview, and interlace it with attractive visuals of the location. We default provide the contact details of interviewees on screen. As well, we run Yahoo Instant Messenger Conferences with the interviewees at the end of the TV program -- the object being to enable viewers to develop relationships with the interviewed. These relationships turn into business, finance, social and other opportunities for the interviewed.
In short -- we recognise the world is going borderless. We recognise that 90% of one's success is (a) how excellent he his in building relationships plus (b) how he uses his brains. We recognise that Tamil/Indian-Malaysians' best bet in building longer-lasting relationships is with those they share the same ethos with -- Tamils & Indians around the world.
We leverage media, the same media that has enabled the likes of Coca Cola and Nike to build very lucrative relationships, to build lucrative relationships between Tamils/Indians worldwide. We have a lot of testimonials to attest to this.
I can understand, albeit reluctantly, where you are coming Sathish, on tight budgets and treating "publicity" as an incidental.
However, do ponder over the following:-
1) I think you would agree with me that you would have achieved your goals big time if you:-
a) generated consensus amongst Indian-Malaysians on what Indian-Malaysian priorities are
b) created a pool of opportunities to flow to current and aspiring Indian-Malaysian enterprise builders -- enterprise builders who are responsible for job creation including the flow-on lower level jobs.
2. Is not television the primary means of doing above, today? If so, does it make sense to less precisely label "consensus-creation" and "opportunities-creation" as "publicity"?
3. If cost is your only objection, let us work that out. Over and over again, I have been able to work with determined partners, and I am sure you are one, to find ways on how we pay the right amount for the right value. But first we must have a meeting of minds on value.
4. I realise by doing above, I am asking you to consider a slight change in your views. I dare do this because:-
a) I am not asking for a change in your core logic -- simply how the logic is applied given today's attention-economy (time is very precious) circumstances.
b) you yourself are a change agent
c) to highlight the costs through lost opportunities, therefore lost jobs, by not applying the logic properly.
The best bang-for-the-buck would be to carry an edited version of the conference (not live), together with in-detail interviews with current and aspiring Indian-Malaysian (and friends) as part of our "Kadal Kadanthu Vaalum Thamilargal" TV docudrama series.
I see this as the first of a long-term relationship between us. If you wish, come let us co-produce this together so that we can pass on the valuable business-side of media expertise to your organisation or partners.
I see this as a relationship that enables our two organisations to put-together all-round win-win-wins. A win for you, a win for your organisation, a win for the business leaders, a win for job seekers, a win for our audience, a win for the global Tamil/Indian community.
We will use a combination of talent from Chennai, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. The lead filming crew will fly in from Chennai and be assisted by camera crew from KL.
The cost per half of hour of programming varies depending upon the number of half-hour episodes we produce in Malaysia. What would be optimal is if we show the conference as part of a 26 episode series on Indian-Malaysian lifestyles, opportunities and achievements. We would film the 26 episodes in about 3-4 weeks.
Just for a **very very rough ball park**, target on a cost per episode of between MR$10,000 to MR$25,000. The key variables are (a) volume of episodes -- greater the cheaper, (b) slot-time (nearness or distance from prime-time) (c) promotion/logistics/filming costs in Malaysia.
Given an audience of say 40 million -- that is less than one-tenth of a cent per viewee! What would it cost you, in time costs, if you were to say "hi" to a person on a street? Much higher or lesser? And how much would the person trust you compared to if he saw you for the same second on TV? Higher or lesser?
>From our experience elsewhere, we should have no problems, with proper sales folks, to sell public-relations slots to cover these costs. I would be even more sure of this, if the likes of Paran and you were to refer me to your trusted nodal relationships to organise this for a percentage of takings. Yes, sales (and handling objections/rejections) is a profession, especially so for innovations -- at worst a necessary evil, but truely they are valuable change agents who are key links in the win-win chain.
We are doing this at a great time. Why? Because Tamil/Indian mindsets are still rather closed, we do not realise the economics and value of building relationships via TV, anywhere as near Nike does. Thus the pricing is low. Once more realise its value, as it naturally will -- the price will soar -- there is a shortage of super talent and slots.
Ask away your questions.
cheers../bala
bala@...
sydney
----- Original Message -----
From: Sathish
To: Bala Pillai
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: TV Broadcast of Malaysian Indian Conference
Dear Bala,
Hi there. We welcome any sort of publicity and coverage for the Conference. But we need to first establish how much it will cost us because this is a heavily subsidised Conference and we're running on a very, very tight budget. We may not have the funds or sponsorship available at hand.
I am curious exactly how Sun TV Network will do a TV broadcast. Do they send a crew down to KL on 1&2 June ? Will it be a delayed telecast of excerpts only or will the whole Conference be carried live ?
Thanks.
Regards from KL.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
