cost yet high quality TV stations.
Sometimes people don’t under-
stand that it takes a lot of money to
set up and to run broadcast
companies because the real challenge
comes after setting up. Operational
cost has gone up hugely in India
and the cost of distribution has
increased significantly. It’s only
when companies understand that
they need to have at least the
financial resources to cover the
operational cost of the first two to
three years that they stand a chance
of doing well.
Do you get involved in training?
All the time. I’ll give you an
example. In Nigeria we set up TVC
News, the first pan-African news
channel. When I met the promoter
he said “All of that is fine, but who
is going to run it?” I said “People
who will be hired here. Your people
are going to run it.” He did not
believe me. He said “Sanjay, that’s
not possible. They have not even
seen the kind of equipment you’re
talking about.”
Of course I was fortunate to have
people like Nigel Parsons, the CEO,
and other top level people involved
in the venture but we made it a
point that we recruited and trained
every single individual. I feel so
proud when I see that today there
are no more than four or five expats
at that channel. Everything is run,
managed, done by local staff. So
training is a critical part of what we
do, and my belief is that all the
knowledge must be transferred to
the people who are working for
that station.
Is that true for all markets?
Absolutely. We set up a TV station
in Kerala for one of the largest print
companies of India, Malayala
Manorama, broadcasting in the
Malayalam language. We recruited
every single individual and trained
them to national and international
level – and look at the quality of
that station. After set-up our role is
to monitor, perhaps help with
training or a little bit here and
there, but basically our brief is to
make them self-sufficient.
How do you keep across the
constant innovation in media
technology?
That’s the biggest challenge. In
MediaGuru we have a team that all
the time looks at what’s new in
broadcasting or digital or any
media-related sector around the
globe. They report to our senior
people and engineers who once a
month get together to look at those
reports and discuss what’s new. We
talk to vendors and manufacturers
and weigh up the pluses and
minuses, so that when we embark
on the next project we can suggest
to try something new.
Just to give you an example, a
few years ago we were setting up a
TV station and MPEG4 was a new
thing. MediaGuru worked with the
client very closely and gave them
the confidence that they should go
for MPEG4 which would save them
bandwidth. That regional station
was the first TV station in India to
go for MPEG4.
How receptive are clients to your
advice and input?
There are big companies that think
they know everything. We need to
inspire confidence that we are here
to share what we know, and if they
like our ideas, great. If you can
present your idea in a manner
which is respectful of what the
client knows and does and wants to
do, they are usually receptive
because they know that it’s very
difficult to keep track of what’s
going on around the world. They
can always say no, but they know
they should listen.
You’re doing a lot of work outside
India. What are the key drivers in
other regions?
The Middle East and South-East
Asia are two very different markets.
The Middle East has the mindset
that they must have the best. It’s a
very status conscious and quality
conscious market, and they’re
willing to pay for that. They look at
your track record, how you will do
it and the time frame. Quality and
support are key. The support needs
to be outstanding because they
depend more on service companies
or vendors than is the case in India.
South-East Asia is a very
“
”
Media
companies
need to
look at
their future
withmore
passion
challenging market from a
language perspective. If you don’t
speak the local language, it’s very
difficult. And it’s a very price
conscious market.
You’re very active in digitising
archives – why is that?
It is a big opportunity. People have
begun to realize that if they don’t
digitise they might lose their
valuable material. And they are
getting a sense that if they digitise
with good meta tagging, they might
be able to make money out of it.
We have just signed up with the
largest media company in India to
digitise and manage their legacy
content as well as the content they
are working on on a day to day
basis. We are working with a large
and prestigious government
organisation in Qatar to digitise
around 70,000 hours of film. I think
we will see a lot of activity in that
area in the next three years, and
once the millions and millions of
hours of content are digitised and
managed, then they can be
monetised.
MediaGuru is now able to offer a
partnership deal whereby
MediaGuru is contributing to the
cost of digitising your archives, and
will then monetise them for you,
sharing in the revenue. We will
offer this across the globe. As far as
we know, nobody else is offering
this at the moment, it’s a unique
proposition.
Do you think that every media
owner understands the immense
changes affecting the industry?
Yes, but there is a denial as well.
Companies focus on the business
that brings in the revenue today,
but don’t focus on the business that
revenue will come from. In the next
three to four years’ time, for any
country that gets 4G, the movement
of video content will be so massive
that it will change the entire game
plan. So media companies need to
look at their future with more
passion, invest money there
because that future will decide their
fate. And the future is not far off –
it’s five to seven years’ time.
Thank you, Sanjay Salil.
THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 2 2015
|
39
t
From top News
Nation, a 24 hour
Hindi-language
channel; Sanjay
Salil speaking at
the ABU Digital
Broadcasting
Symposium;
TVC News in
Lagos; MediaGuru
stand at IBC
TECHNoLoGY BUSINESS
|
THE CHANNEL
