MUMBAI: Soon music will be a small minority player in Viacom18’s MTV India. The channel that used to run music 70 per cent of the time in 2008 is shrinking this core content element to 25 per cent by the end of this year, prompted by a strategy to reposition as a youth entertainment channel and have a wider draw for advertisers to tap into.
“We are styling our content beyond ‘only music’. We have already reduced our music content to 45 per cent and plan to further bring this down to 25 per cent by year-end,” says MTV India GM and SVP creative and content Ashish Patil.
MTV India, which has attracted a cult following through its reality show Roadies (that completed sixth season recently), has had other non-music shows too to feed its content such as On The Job, I Superstar, Splitsvilla (in its second season), MTV Wass Up!.
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It was a natural evolution for us from being a music to a â€?music ++’ channel and now, to a â€?youth adda’ format. The strategy was based on consumer as well as business needs,… avers Patil.
MTV will soon be launching two new shows – MTV Force India The Fast and The Gorgeous and Pulsar MTV Stunt Mania.
After a very thorough research, we came to know that there is huge need gap in the youth market. Youth, today, want much more then just music. They want to see fun, thrill, fashion, lifestyle, passion, romance, et al. So that was the consumer need. Also, businesswise, the music pie was shrinking,… quips Patil.
In December 2008, MTV India launched non-music weekday shows catering to the 7 pm band under the banner Heaven @7.
