Changing face of Pakistan’s electronic media landscape by Hassan Waqar Raja

Changing face of Pakistan’s electronic media landscape

By Hassan Waqar Raja. Author can be reached at hwraja@gmail.com

Pakistani media landscape, today, is faced with an existential question on how to monetize old and current investments in face of tides of newer local and international content distribution platforms, changing technology and an overall stagnant ARPU environment.

As it stands today, advertisement incomes are no longer a stable and reliable stream of revenue for TV channels. Governments, both national and provincial, had become significant contributors to Ad Revenues for print and electronic media in last 10 years. Changing national political priorities and economic conditions necessitate creation of newer revenue streams. An estimated PKR 8 Billion worth of bills are yet to be cleared by the Government for previous services. In the current political and economic environment Ad revenues are only likely to go further down in the next five years. On the other hand digital Ad revenues are seeing Year on Year growth. Lastly, newer TV licenses are being awarded after an impasse of many years. Revival of some of the old licenses in 2018 and

issuance of newer licenses will lead to further splitting of available revenue pie. Together, these three factors will lead to shrinkage in total available money and everyone’s share in the electronic media.

Broadcasters will have to find newer ways to monetize their current assets through innovation and new investments for enabling a traditional Pay- TV Model in Pakistan. Traditional analogue cable’s limitations and associated cultural behaviors that have evolved over time, combined with limited local content offering have created an overall low ARPU environment. Today, Pakistan’s subscriber ARPU is estimated to be somewhere between PKR 350- PKR 400 (USD 2.55- 2.99 @ USD1= PKR 135). Younger subscribers (up to the age of 35) are more than half of the total population, and they are increasingly relying on OTT for accessing local and foreign content. The right to choose and view content, unlike the western world, is not an outcome of personal freedoms, rather a result of fewer choices on the traditional platforms and a culture of patriarchy that is often misconstrued with religious restrictions.

No part of our population demographic has access to similar forms of social and personal entertainment that is available to their foreign peers in Pakistan’s region (excluding Afghanistan) or beyond. Incomes, cost of living and costs of available entertainment leave TV or personal smart

mobile phones as the primary form of entertainment for most of our population demographic.

Growth of subscription-based OTT models hasn’t really achieved critical mass yet. Local content is already mostly FTA, where broadcasters and content owners are monetizing their property through YouTube, Tune.pk etc. this is not expected to change overnight since it will also require a paradigm shift away from FTA broadcasts, for which the market is not currently fully ready. Foreign content (non- Indian) has a lower acceptance in the country because of the language barrier and in some

cases cultural norms. But individual users are not subject to those norms and are making independent decisions. Lot of western content is being bought and sold after dubbing in the country. Sports, Indian and western content is available on OTT and remains the primary reason for ingress of

foreign content distributors in Pakistan particularly Indian OTT platforms.

Individual subscribers, as per an assessment, on average can pay up to PKR 300 per month (approx. USD 2.2) for subscription-based content. In case of Sports this can be twice or thrice this amount, but only for short durations like different cricketing and local sports events. This is a derivative of various factors that includes overall economic situation of the subscriber and their viewership pattern. But this is a powerful indicator for content pricing and acquisition strategies and design of future

infrastructure. 

Stakeholders like Salman Iqbal of ARY in recent years are seen to be investing largely in creating and supporting different local sports leagues. These leagues for Cricket, Kabaddi, Boxing etc. will lead to both generation of highly in- demand local sports content in both short and long form for linear and VOD platforms. This will also provide value entertainment to an already content savvy population. Pakistan with its single private sports channel needs more sports and a much-needed distraction from political drama on already abundant news channels.

Pakistan has separate regulators for telecom and media; Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). PEMRA has so far not incorporated OTT media distribution in its media-licensing regime, for reasons not being elaborated or discussed here. Present Government’s recent announcement of their intent to create a single regulator for press and electronic and digital media is a welcome step. This will theoretically take into account on the on- going convergence between the three areas from advertisement and funding point of view, and effectively regulate them. This step will be more effective if functions of PTA are also merged within the same new regulator to make it more resourceful and effective, in terms of both content regulation and infrastructure development, to support growing needs and regulate the changing landscape.

Today the country has approx. 152 million mobile phones (nearly 73% penetration), with 59 million 3G/4G users and 62 million Broadband users. This translates into nearly 30% penetration of 3G/ 4G and broadband access for each, respectively. Though the penetration levels are some of the highest in Asia but Internet speeds leave a lot to be desired for most. It is expected that by Q4 2019, 3G/ 4G will be universally available across Pakistan. But overall, current IT infrastructure cannot keep pace with the growing demand for online content viewership for masses in the short term. In the long term, country requires significant investments in the telecommunication infrastructure as well for enablement of the media industry. Global trends of convergence point out the relevance and

complimentary nature of telecommunications infrastructure for modern day media distribution.

Media distribution platforms require similar immediate upgrades. And in most cases merger with telecommunication infrastructure will be a more sensible way forward. Today, such investments are being hampered by a combination of low ARPUs and lack of Internet infrastructure across the

country. 

This Chicken and Egg impasse can be broken by introduction of newer licensing frameworks in Pakistan to provide confidence to future investors.

Direct To Home licensing is close to being a reality in Pakistan. The license price and initial investment is astronomical, and combined with the low ARPU environment, video piracy, a legacy FTA market, high taxes, limited content offering and existence of illegal distribution platforms, this is a tough business case at best. However, the potential for growth in view of the poor cable infrastructure and subscriber demand for a decent quality of service (QOS) and desire to access content, DTH is both driver of future innovation and market growth. Similarly, regulator should now also consider and allow for consolidation of licenses in the form of frameworks like Head- End In The Sky (HITS). Government and regulator must allow and encourage creation of

consortiums for operating and managing such large projects and expensive licenses and newer ideas, rather than individual owners. There is lack of technical knowledge available within the country to undertake such complex projects and more importantly, corporate infrastructure, associated risks and, lastly management and ownership structures have not matured enough for single patronage for such projects. This also will address the issue of political affinities for all sides in a politically sensitive

industry.

Foreign vendors, particularly Chinese, understand the importance of political affinities for projects in Pakistan. Weak technical knowhow, absence of mature corporate structures and comparatively stringent financing structures and higher interest rates, are enablers for the Vendor driven technology agenda in Pakistan. Such foreign financing for complex projects at exciting interest rates also carry the burden of vendor chosen technology. Structural immaturity of our corporate structures has already

been briefly presented; Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in cases with attractive financing need to be determined in such cases for both technology and contractual dependencies and liabilities.

Media industry’s linchpin today is the distribution landscape design and management. It is also the Achilles Heel for the future of this industry. Notwithstanding the good work of some who are far and few, current distribution eco- system is restricting both the commercial case for the large investors and also the overall subscriber experience.

To be ready for the future and for their survival, broadcasters must transition from the Ad Revenue model to a Subscription driven revenue stream, and as it is today, being the larger Fish in the small pond their survival is more important for keeping the balance of an already disturbed

eco- system. For its part PEMRA has already incorporated some changes. Supreme Court of Pakistan has been the driver for some of the recent initiatives on TV Audience Measurement (TAM). However honest and numerous such steps are, the secret lies in improving the subscriber

experience for driving up the ARPU. Government must encourage and allow foreign investment for upgrading the media distribution infrastructure in the country. Tax amnesties and concessions is one step. Secondly, regulatory framework should be reorganized, creating one regime for both content and infrastructure management instead of separate PEMRA or PMRA and PTA. Thirdly,

special mechanisms for legal recourse, such as media tribunals with powers of the High Courts, are required to decisively move on matters.

PEMRA is already a unique example of a regulator whose licensee’s regularly take it to courts instead of simple corporate compliance. Prompt dispensation of disputes will further strengthen the regulatory framework and overall regulation of the industry.

Pakistan must sow the seeds for evolution of the Pay- TV industry urgently, for making media industry commercially independent and selfreliant. We are already years behind our region in this area, which is already an established instrument of national projection and propaganda. Self- regulation and responsibility will be a by- product when commercial stakes will be regulated under a singular and effective regulatory regime. Today’s industry has distribution downstream as its Achilles Heel. Consolidation of licenses and equity are the most suitable means and

direction for its longevity.

HOW DTH WILL CHANGE THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE IN PAKISTAN

How DTH will change the media landscape in Pakistan

By Sheeraz Adil

The talk of the town these days in the global as well as the local media industry is the long awaited DTH project in Pakistan. In this article I will try to make it easier for a common man to understand what exactly this DTH is and what might be the outcome of the DTH in Pakistan.

Following are the few questions that are always in the mind of so many people and by the time we will end this article most of the readers will understand the basic concept and its significance for the people of Pakistan.  

·         What is a DTH, How does it work

·         What is the technology behind this

·         What will DTH bring to the common viewer of Pakistan

·         How will it impact the industry and the people working in this industry

·         Why is it so lucrative for businessmen

·         What are the challenges

What is a DTH, How does it work

Basics of DTH

DTH is the short form of Direct to Home. Direct to home means that the viewer can view the channels in his house directly from the satellite downlink without any middle man. So the basic question is how that work will. In the DTH setup the satellite signal is directly received in individual houses through a small dish antenna and then the signal is decoded through an STB- Set Top Box and is viewable on the screens of our television sets.

The below image is the simplest form of explanation of how DTH works.

Background and the current status

As we all know that PEMRA- Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority is the body responsible to facilitate and regulate the private electronic media in Pakistan therefore the cable distribution and the DTH will come under PEMRA. The DTH project has been under discussion in PEMRA since a few years now however there wasn’t any significant progress on it. Those of you who don’t know, the two rival media giants of Pakistan had expressed the interest of DTH and there was some activity on this regard when the private media industry was launched, however the project was scrapped till recently in September when the PEMRA announced the expression of interest for the DTH license. The timelines were very tight however there was a lot of interest shown by the investors in this project. There were three licenses to be awarded to cater the total population of Pakistan. The bidding was to be on December 7^th with the announcement of the licenses on the same date however it has been postponed and is expected to get back on track in early this year.

Current Distribution Methods

Below are the few common distribution methods in Pakistan.

·         Terrestrial: The terrestrial TV is at the moment analogue in Pakistan and only the state owned channels are being distributed through this method. The digitization is in process however unless the private channels are being distributed through the terrestrial, it will remain unpopular.

·         Cable: Cable TV is by far the most popular distribution method in Pakistan. There are about 1500 cable operators in Pakistan covering more than 10 million subscribers. The cable operators have their head-end in their premises where they downlink the channels and then modulate it through the cable to each house hold. Most of the cable operators are analogue at the moment therefore the number of channels at one point of time are restricted and the major flaw in this system is the quality,  the viewer’s get a very ordinary audio and video quality irrespective of their fully featured fancy Television screens. Another big challenge in this form of distribution whether it’s analogue or digital is the physically making the cable available in households which is very difficult in the remote areas.  Some of the cable operators have realized the future of media distribution in Pakistan and they are planning to digitize their systems thus trying to overcome the basic flaws of the analogue cable distribution.

·         IPTV: IPTV is actually advanced form of distribution in developed countries however this has not been very popular due to the infrastructure and technical issues. It required a significant internet bandwidth in all houses which is yet a challenge in Pakistan.

·         Illegal and Pirated Distribution : This has now become very popular in Pakistan, mainly the DTH distribution from the neighboring country is also available in Pakistan and Government has started to crack down the illegal DTH distribution, if this doesn’t end then it can be very challenging for the DTH operators of Pakistan. There is an estimated figure that there is more than a million illegal DTH distribution in Pakistan which proofs that a very heavy amount is being earned through the illegal means. Just to give you an idea if we assume that there are 2 million illegal subscribers paying a monthly fees of 1000 Pakistan rupees (about 10 USD), then the total revenue per year is about PKR 2000,000,000/20 Billion (USD 20,000,000/twenty million dollars). This revenue can straight away come to Pakistan instead of going abroad. Once the DTH licenses are given and with the serious crack down from Government, we can imagine the business model of DTH and its huge revenue generation.

Another form is the pirated boxes being used to decode the channels without paying anything significant, therefore Government needs to create awareness about this illegal activity so that people stop doing this activity and find a legal way to watch high quality content. At the moment since the DTH isn’t there in Pakistan legally therefore if an individual has to watch good quality foreign content, then he has no choice except to have any of the above two setups.

What is the technology behind this

main components

There are many different components required in the DTH setup however we will discuss only the basics of main components below

Operator’s End

Head-end

The head end is the setup in which the operator will have the facility of downlink different channels and then combine them using the multiplexer before it goes to the uplink. The downlink is done using dish antennas and the IRDs (commonly known as Receivers, in extreme easy terminology- professional STBs) and then the downlinked channels are encoded and multiplexed (combined) and finally uplinked. The head-end is a part of Central Apparatus Room (CAR) which besides the above mentioned activities can also be used for managing live programming, IPTV, local play-out and servers for other components of the eco system.

Conditional access

This is the most important part as the conditional access talks to all other major components of the DTH setup. This is basically the encryption done on the operators end and the channels are decrypted at the subscriber’s end. In the lay man’s language the card that is physically inserted in the setup box required to view the channels, the more sophisticated and latest method is the software base encryption. The conditional access talks to the multiplexer, billing system at the head-end and the setup box at the subscriber end, which is why it is considered to be the core of the DTH setup. Which channels to be offered to a particular subscriber, which channel to block, blocking the service due to nonpayment many other activities like these are handled by the conditional access systems.

Satellite Bandwidth

First the DTH operator should select a satellite whose foot print (coverage) is available in all the locations where the DTH is to be distributed. All the DTH operators have to get the satellite bandwidth in order to uplink the channels. The bandwidth is a recurring cost for the operator. The satellite bandwidth should be enough so that the quality of the video is not compromised.

Play-out facility

Most of the DTH operators will have their own facility of play out for their own channels though it can be outsourced as well. The play out facility will be the MCR- Master Control room for the operator’s own channels.

Billing System

The billing system is also very important and it needs to be integrated well with the conditional access and the other components. It helps the operator manage it subscription base and offer flexibility to subscribers in making the payments or subscribe to any particular event for a desired time period.

Subscriber’s end

STB and the Dish Antenna

STB is the short form of Set Top Box , the STB and the antenna has to be installed at the subscriber’s facility. The antenna is used to download the signals and is connected to the set top box. The set top box is then connected to the TV sets mainly through the HDMI port hence making it possible for the subscriber to watch good quality transmission. The software running on the STB is known as Middle ware, it is basically the user interface having the direct interaction with the viewer.

What will DTH bring to the common viewer of Pakistan

Quality

Most of the Pakistani TV viewers have been watching the channels through the analogue cable distribution platform which is way below than the normal quality broadcasted in other parts of the world. There are various signal losses in the analogue cable while reaching the households. Secondly the number of connections through the same cable are increased by using a splitter thus the signal strength becomes very weak before it reaches to your TV. With DTH, the signal will be received directly at the household with an excellent quality. That connection will be dedicated for the subscriber thus giving the best output on the Television screens.

We normally talk a lot about HD TVs and invest on buying the latest HD TV set for our homes however they are useless with the analogue cable. At the moment there are very few HD channels in Pakistan however once the DTH is launched then more and more broadcasters/channels will upgrade their setups to HD thus giving the same HD quality to the viewers as well.

Value added features

I will watch the drama when I want to watch rather than wait for it every day at 8 pm.  Or what to do when your kid’s favorite program comes when he is not at home. This problem can be solved with the value added features provided by the DTH operator. This is called PVR- Program video recording, you can save your favorite program on the hard drive of setup box and watch it later as per your convenience.

Another value added feature could be the VOD- video on demand. The operator will have a pool of movies, dramas, shows etc and viewer can watch that content using the remote of the set top box without getting the same from the nearby movie shop or from a friend.

There can be many other value added features and some of these are available in Pakistan in the IPTV platform.

Reach

For the cable and other distribution means you need to have a physical connection- a cable from the office of your cable operator to your home, with the DTH you have a wireless connection with the satellite thus the reach of the DTH is huge. The distribution can be reached easily in remote areas or even in the new/under deveoped areas which are in the outskirts of the cities.

How will it impact the industry and the people working in this industry

There will be no limitation to the number of channels

With the DTH setup, it will be technically possible to have more channels as there is a limitation for the number of channels being distributed through the cable. Theoretically hundreds of channels can be added in to the system thus giving more and more choice to the viewers. Due to this limitation the regularity authority is unable to give licenses to new channels however with the DTH this problem will be solved and we may see some healthy competition in between the broadcasters. This will also open new revenue opportunities for all the stake holders including the regularity authority, channel owners and the people working in the industry.

20 channels per operator- jobs creation

As per the license terms of the DTH, the DTH operator will be allowed to have twenty channels of its own. This will be one of the key success drivers for any DTH operator, the better content an operator would be able to provide the more subscribers it will attract.

Now also imagine that if there are 3 DTH licenses awarded then there will be an addition of 60 more channels , this will create significant job opportunities for the people who are affiliated with the technical, production, and so many other fields.

Accurate Ratings

The ratings decides the commercial value of the TV channels, at the moment the sample size is few hundreds or may be couple of thousands which is analyzed in getting the TRPs of any channel. With the sophisticated set top boxes having an IP connection, the popularity of the channels can be easily determined with very less human intervention.

Marketing and advertising industry will grow

Since the number of channels with increase there will be more healthy competition in the industry and there will be more and quality marketing and advertising spent thus increasing the overall growth in this part of the industry.

Royalty to broadcasters

The DTH will also open the opportunities for the broadcasters/TV channels to charge royalty from the DTH operators as per their respective subscriber base like it is done in international markets so a totally new revenue stream can take place. For e.g. if the channel which is popular charges PKR 5 rupees from the DTH operator per month and assuming that there are about 1 million DTH customers in Pakistan, this will give an extra 5 million PKR per month  to that particular TV channel.

Attraction for Telco and Banking sector

We are talking about millions of transactions per month in the form of subscription fees therefore it will open a new field for banking and Telco industries, they would be interested in providing the payment platforms to the DTH operators, particularly prepayment , scratch card, mobile and online payment methods.

Why is it so lucrative for businessmen

Volume business

So far we have seen great interest in this business and it has attracted very big groups of the country. Pakistan is a country of huge population. According to estimated figures, there are about 10 to 12 million cable subscribers in the country. The target in the first few years for the DTH operators is to convert at least 10 -20 percent of the cable subscribers to the DTH subscribers. Now if the DTH subscription is priced at 800 Pakistani Rupees, and assuming there will be 15 percent market penetration of DTH (1.8 million), the monthly revenue could be PKR 1440000000. (14.4 million USD) and multiply it be twelve to get even bigger number for the annual revenue from this project.

Control over distribution

Another interest of the big groups participating in this project is to get control over media distribution in Pakistan. Media is one of the important pillars of any country and controlling and distributing the media is a very important element.

What are the challenges

So far we have only seen the attraction in the DTH business but we must keep in mind the difficulties and challenges that the operators have to face. I have highlighted some key challenges to be taken care of by the operators.

Acquisition of license and initial investment

The first step as we all know is to get the license. The process of the bidding of the license has been slightly delayed but by the time the readers will read this article, the awarding of license date will be back on track. There are many steps involved in getting the license , the most important of which is the license fees which has to be a sealed bid envelope and the base price is PKR 20 crores (USD 2 million). It is expected that it might go beyond 10 million USD!

Solid plan to convince the viewer to switch over

It will not be easy to convince the common cable subscriber who is paying PKR 300 per month (USD 3) to pay PKR 800(estimated), plus the operator needs to come up with a plan of subsidizing the initial cost of Dish antenna and setup box. In addition to this the marketing plan has to be solid to be able to shift the mindset of the cable viewer to the DTH. As discussed above the quality, value added features and the content of the operator’s own channels will play a key role in this regard.

High cost of installation for the subscriber

We touched base this in the above challenge, the initial cost would be around PKR 5000-7000 , no matter how good is your quality and what value will the operator give to its subscriber , it will be most daunting task to convince the subscriber to pay for this cost. The best solution is to subsidize this or waive this cost to penetrate in to the market.

This will also be a big challenge for the operator as this requires heavy investment, a good solution to overcome this problem could be to adapt the good distribution strategy with minimum direct investment from the DTH operator.

Multiple connections

We all have more than one TV set in our house, and it is really easy to connect more TV sets from the cable provided by the cable operator. This will be a challenge as each TV set will require a set top box to be connected to it. This will again be an additional cost that needs to be taken care of by the DTH operator.

Physical installation and distribution

Though we discussed that the reach would be easier due to the direct satellite connectivity this means that a dish antenna and a setup box has to be installed in each and every house. This will be also a big challenge as it will consume significant resource it terms of time and money.

Technical support

The DTH operator has to come up with an excellent customer service setup. After paying double amount of the subscription the customer would expect the problems to be solved immediately. To minimize this, the first step for the operator would be to select the most reliable technical solution so that the downtime can be curtailed. In addition to this a call center setup and friendly on field staff needs to be hired by the DTH operator.

Conclusion

I have tried my best to explain the concept of DTH and how will it impact the media industry in Pakistan. For those who are affiliated with the cable industry the cable will not finish with the launch of DTH in fact it will open an opportunity for the cable operators to digitize their setups and compete with DTH operators. All in all, we should realize that we are quite late in launching the DTH as compared to other countries. There are challenges like any other big projects however this will result in the betterment of the media industry in Pakistan.

There is a lot more to discuss about this project however the aim of this document was to create awareness and give an idea of what is DTH and what is it going to bring to the stake holders.

This article is written by Sheeraz Adil who is currently working as the Sales Director, SEA region at Irdeto. Any feedback or questions will be welcomed at sheerazadil@gmail.com

Social Media, its authenticity and our responsibility

We saw the era of the “9 pm bulletin” when the majority of the population used to sit in front of the TV at 9 pm daily to watch the news, as that was the only source of information at that time. We also saw the era of the “evening news paper- aaya awam aaya, qoumi aaya” when all the eye catching images and news were part of the evening news papers sold on the traffic lights. And then we saw and even currently seeing the era of the breaking news culture, when 16 hours from 24 the screens of the TV channels remain red, they are running in a race of providing more and more sensation to our people and getting the ratings.

And now the most popular, the era of social media, the facebook and watsapp applications used by most of our urban and to some extent rural population as well. These two applications are used by young and adults, literate and non literate, chief executive to office boy, grandparents and the list goes on.

I have chosen to highlight a very major issue which is the sharing and believing of anything that can be photo shopped. I have come across so many posts and people keep asking, did you see that , how can someone say like this, it can only happen in Pakistan etc etc. People without thinking and realizing that it may not be true share it massively. We don’t realize this can hurt someone, this can lose someone’ earning, this can even lead to someone being fired from the job or thrown out of the family, most importantly someone’s image.

These posts may be true but we should have some sense of responsibility before sharing. Only if ask few questions from ourselves, is this really true? Does it have any small proof of what is being talked about? Sharing of this might hurt someone, did I see it myself etc.

This paragraph was not intended to my part of the article but while searching the images I found some really heart breaking images of the massacres being done on mass scale, I felt so bad looking at those images and decided that we will refrain from those as there might be some truth in them as well. Therefore we will mainly talk about the images which are least controversial in terms of religious beliefs.

Below are few images that might be true but we need to see may be its wrong and done just to destroy someone’s reputation or image.

Look at this worm in KFC sandwich.
How the hell it is proved that the worm was inside when the sandwich was purchased

The ratio of the shoe is not appropriate and it clearly shows that is photo shopped but many people shared this image. we kept sharing and discussing

In this page people have written that the fungus was inside the nestle juice but how do we know if it was inside or was put in the glass later. This might be a conspiracy to shatter the sales of nestle

Lizard in some noodles being cooked, how do we know that the noodles show in the picture is maggi. In the second image how do we know that the condition of the person lying in the hospital is because of eating maggi or even the noodles shown in the image

I started writing this article few days ago and now days we have huge media coverage on the Axact issue. People are saying whatever they want against them without realizing if its true or not. May be because of this irresponsible attitude the organization can suffer badly , that means almost 5000 people can lose jobs. On an average if one people supports his 4 member family then 20,000 households will be affected. This is only about the direct employees, there are so many suppliers, service providers etc that will be affected by this. I plan to write a separate article in detail on this specific controversy.

However the message that I wanted to deliver through this article is to realize that we should be responsible in making judgments without any proper proofs. This can hurt someone’s business, life and relationship, therefore think before you share anything which can be harmful for others.

The writer can be contacted on sheerazadil@gmail.com

The Rise and Fall of a super brand

The Rise and fall of a super brand 

By Sheeraz Adil 

I thought I would never see a down fall of a well establish brand and it will remain only in our marketing books that every product has a life cycle.

For those who have no idea about the product life cycle, it is one of the core principles of marketing that every product goes through 4 stages

1:Introduction
2:Growth
3:Maturity
4: Decline

When my marketing teacher introduced this concept, it suddenly came to my mind that only newly opened businesses can decline as one can understand that it is hard for them to sustain but once the product reaches its peak how can it decline. Or else not very huge companies can decline like Frooto, Choco Chums, Haleeb, RC Cola and Polka to name a few but their decline was primarily because of the tough competition from the huge companies like Nestlé Unilever Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Then I realized that the life cycle exists for all the products doesn't matter if they are on their peak. Some unbelievable declines of the recent times are Nokia, Blackberry and now GEO which is of most interest to me being part of the same industry.

Geo has been an institution in the Pakistan Broadcast Industry. It has produced talented journalists, engineers, directors and many other professionals.

Things that went wrong with geo:

1: Feeling of being super power

Geo thought they control everything in Pakistan and to some extent it wasn’t wrong at all. However too much of everything leads to a path where you don’t realize what you are doing. Many think that Geo has played a vital role in defaming Pakistan internationally. . The most disliked content ever broadcasted by geo according to me was their attempt to proof the plan and nationality of Ajmal Kassab. I still have a question in mind that what could be the objective of geo broadcasting the investigating reports with no proper proofs.

I would sort of agree with it however we should also realize the role that geo has played in promoting the positive image of Pakistan, whether its any achievement in sports or research or some really effective education and awareness campaigns it was only Geo in the whole industry who could have done this for Pakistan

Although geo is by far the most neutral content provider but one felt that something is wrong. Too much support to the current government and  being one of the biggest supporters of the controversial Chief Justice pushed geo to where it is now. It is also said that it is because of Geo , General Musharraf is having tough time in Pakistan. I personally think that he doesn’t deserve what he is going through these days. Democracy is fine, but he did what none of the democratic leadership has done to Pakistan. He was the one who coined the free media term in Pakistan otherwise we would be relying on the 9 pm pro government news of our state broadcaster.

2: Ignoring other participants of the race

There is another strategy that we learnt in marketing and that is cooperative strategy. Geo didn’t consider having alliance with any of its competitors and this lead to the grand alliance of its competitors against geo. It is really sad when one of the journalist or team members of any channel dies due to any terrorist activity, the other channel ignores such a big incident. On all these occasions all the channels should have a collective voice.

Most of the channels in Pakistan now seem to have one aim- and that is to make sure that geo doesn’t recover from the recent hit. It should not be this way; the industry will suffer if something happens to geo. When most of the channels are reluctant to pay even salaries, geo has always ensured that the employee gets the salaries on time.

3: Supporting too much PML-N and ex CJ

It is a general feeling that geo is too much pro PML N and ex CJ. No matter if geo denies this but it is quite evident that the content after the elections has been biased. I think we haven’t eliminated any corruption or miss management in the government run organizations as compared to the last government but certainly we haven’t seen that sort of criticism for this government like it was in the previous one.

4: Unnecessary defaming of ISI chief

I think this has been discussed on all the forums so I need not to write too much on this. It shouldn’t have happened. This is irresponsible journalism and many think that you don’t do this with your top agency and if you do you are off air!

5: Revenge mode against Musharraf

We all know that geo was banned in Musharraf’s reign and geo also faced tough time in UAE due to the pressure of Gen. Musharraf however that doesn’t mean that you start taking the revenge on air.

Things in which geo was accused and blamed unnecessarily

1: Morning show issue & its reaction

It wasn’t an issue at all, this was unnecessarily created by its biggest competition. I am not an expert but this is not be wrong if I say that ARY and Mubashir Lucmans content has way passed the level of extremely immature journalism. The series of Mubashir Lucmans Baba ji campaign was pathetic and pointless. But it shows the mindset of our people and how external forces creates and changes the perception of the masses.

2: To an extent Aman ki Aasha

I think Aman Ki Aasha was a very nice campaign if the objective was to reduce the tension at the borders and to improve the economy. We all should realize that we should have good relationship with our neighbours in order to excel. However at the same time if there is some anti state activity by the neighbors then it should also be broadcasted in order to be neutral. Certainly Aman ki Aasha is pointless if we find  out that the India is responsible for the unrest in the country. In addition to this, even if they are responsible for this, it cannot be done with our black sheep so instead of blaming others we should identify bad people amongst ourselves in order to eliminate this issue.

3: Cable operators Mafia

I am sure now the government would realize that how important for us is DTH and even if we have to continue with the cable then they should be a proper frame work , rules and guidelines for the cable guys to operate.

 

Conclusion:

I am not an expert but if geo shuts down it will be the worst night mare of our industry. It has a huge employee base and so many kitchens are running because of geo. Not sure how can this be done but there should be a solution to this extremely big issue of the industry. I wish that geo improves its deficiencies and come back on track. With BOL to launch soon , there should be tough competition between all the leading channels for our industry’s growth.

All the stake holders need to realize if one horse falls in the race, the other horses also fell. So Geo should be running in order to have a smooth race!

My Name is Afridi and I am not a terrorist!!

Apologies for writing a non broadcast engineering article, but its difficult to maintain two blogs. We will work out on this soon. 

I don't know if this is something that is happening to us in all aspects of life but this is something that should not happen at least not in sports. I will keep this article short as I know that most of the readers including myself lose interest if the content is too much to read.

I made a visit to Dubai Sports City for some personal work and got stuck in the rush as there was an IPL match happening in the Dubai Cricket Stadium. Being the die hard fan I thought I should also try to get a glimpse of all the international players. But literally tears came in to my eyes when I realised that there are no Pakistani players in the IPL.

I have always been looking at the two sides of the picture and in this case tried to rethink to get the answer for myself as in why are the Pakistani cricketers deprived from this glamorous event. I thought a lot but couldn't find any answer to this. Asked many friends but even they had no idea as why is this being done to only players from one country who has the most wins in the T20 format, whose bowler has been the highest wicket taker and as we all know that role does Shahid Afridi plays in this format. I can bet all cricket fans love to watch him play. Even my Indian hair dresser said that I would have gone to watch the match if Afridi would have been participating in IPL. This is the team who has always been in the semi finals of all world cups of this format.

No international board has raised this question that why is this injustice done to only Pakistanis. At least ICC should raise this issue with BCCI. All my Indian friends want Pakistani players to participate in the IPL then the same question comes in the mind...why?

Pakistanis are just not getting the chance to earn on the same scale financially but they are missing the chance to play international cricket , interact with other players and missing the exposure that all other countries are getting.

With all this injustice , no home cricket , being pushed in the corner but still we are called the team who can beat anyone, this team is called the team with the most talented players and always give tough time to all other teams. Irony is that UAE was considered as the home ground of Pakistani cricket but the cricketers were not invited to play on their make shift home grounds.

I would like to admit that we may have some terrorists living in our country but our cricketers are not terrorists.  They should be treated like all other players of the world. Inclusion of Pakistani players will not only increase the popularity in the game but commercially it will also help BCCI to earn more which is the most important infact seems the only objective of BCCI.

As my best friend slash proof reader says "Politics should be separated from sports. The sport it self gives a message of friendship and harmony. How on earth , we can side line the most fertile land of cricket and do favoritism among the so called big names."

In the end I will leave the conclusion open till the time we are included , should we not boycott the IPL , shouldn't our channels stop broadcasting IPL, should our news channels stop covering that event and should our advertisers stop paying for this event??

Types of CTOs

Being in the industry for almost 10 years now, I have some very good friends working as the Chief Technology Officer in various companies of the Broadcast Industry in Pakistan. This article is not to offend any of my friends but just thought that we all should realize what factors we consider before making the decision and what factors should we actually consider in acquiring the technology.

To make it interesting I have categorized major types of CTOs , they are

·         TYPE 1: I want the best

·         TYPE 2: why should I invest so much?

·         TYPE 3: give me best price

·         TYPE 4: no we can't change everything

·         TYPE 5: our management doesn't have budget

Now let’s define these types:

 

“I want the best solution” type

This type of CTO always wants to acquire the best technology and price is never his top priority. This CTO will always follow the industry trends and ethics. He will be not adapt any short cut to meet the deadline or management’s expectations. They also play a vital role in educating his management as they are usually not technology experts so it is the CTO who guides the real use and worth of the investment in technology in order to achieve the organizational goals and targets.

“Why should I invest so much?” type

These kinds of CTOs generally are the ones who don’t keep them updated with the latest technology. Their perception is that there should not be heavy investments if a cheaper option is available. They are usually those who don’t have a specialized degree or technology background from the grass root level.  They came to this position with their experience and hands on skills. They always find an alternate cheaper option and usually think a short term solution.  In the longer run they might end up in spending more and eventually something that makes it difficult for their organization to compete with their main competitors.

“Give me best price” type

Give me best price type CTOs are the one who run for the prices. They will acquire technology only if it is extremely cheap.  They are more worried about their management’s money that the management itself. Sometimes they are quite successful as the suppliers in the competive world give extremely heavy discounts but their margins are too less and they lose interest in providing the efficient customer service. Another problem with these CTOs is that they expect the heavy discounts from the suppliers to be valid for entire life time.

“No ,we can’t change everything” type

These types of CTOs want to do something but don’t have the courage to adapt the rapid changes of the industry. They are always on the back foot and are in severe pressure from their internal clients. There are many if and buts in their mind and eventually they find that their management is not very happy from them.

“My management doesn’t have budget” type

This type is very close to “why should I invest so much type” but the main difference is that they realize the importance of acquiring latest technology but are unable to convince their management to invest on technology. They are happy with their 9-5 stable job and only get aggressive when some equipment becomes faulty.

Conclusion:

Hope the readers had good time reading but the key is to realize the individual and organizational circumstances. It always easy to criticize as compared to provide the solution and execute it. So I would like to highlight few factors that should be considered no matter what type of CTO you are.

These are below and they are not in any priority sequence

·         Total cost of ownership

·         Scalability

·         Reliability

·         Price

Total Cost of ownership

It is one of the most important factors in decision making as one should realize the overall cost of ownership and not just the deal price. It includes the customer service of the supplier, the power consumption of the equipment, post sales support, replacement policies, warranties, rack space to an extent and many such factors. 

Scalability

The industry and the organizations are always growing so the solution should be selected which is always easy to expand. it is not easy to make the equipment off air and then add the new one , so ideally the equipment should be scalable and that too without going off air.

Reliability

Reliability is again one of the most important factor as this equipment has to be up and running 24x7x365. Down time is not an option as it causes huge revenue loss therefore reliability and performance of the equipment should be considered as a top priority before making the decision.

Price

Price is also the key factor especially in our market. We are heavily burdened by the rising cost and the currency devaluation so ideally the target should be to get the best equipment in the best price.

The above article is written by Sheeraz Adil and will be happy to see your feedback on sheerazadil@gmail.com