Is Sony getting it right, finally?

When Sony went for a relaunch, they were having historic low GRP of only 73, NDTV Imagine on the back of Rakhi Ki Syawamvar was looking strong at 100+ GRPs. Big Three (Colors, Star Plus & Zee Tv) were looking out of competition for Sony.

Cut back to week 40, Sony is at 148 GRP with NDTV Imagine at 102 and the last of the Big 3 is within another 100 GRPs. So the question arises, has Sony done great or exceptional from May 25 onwards? The answer is "depends".

Sony has been successful in maintaining its GRPs hovering around 130-140 range, its reality shows are moderately successful, CID is going great guns, but what about the 4 daily soaps? They sank without trace, frankly speaking "Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao" was also not a runway success.

Still with so many disasters, its there and improving. It has changed its business head, brought a successful Marketer from FMCG background and having IIM lineage. It has got itself a CEO, also of IIM lineage, a consultant. It seems they are doing everything according to the rule book.

They linked with Balaji, and launched its content, daily soap at 10.00-10.30pm slot, marketed heavily and launched "Bayttab Dil Kee Tamanna Hain" with really tough to remember spelling.

They are trying to piggyback on the success of IPL with a DPL, started another fictional daily soap Pyar Ka Bandhan at 10.30pm slot. They have also linked content deal with arguably the most famous story telling brand Yash Raj Films.They are doing a lot of thing, but what is the success ratio and at what cost? The jury is still on.

Lets analyse:

According to latest aMap data, 7-8 of the top 10 shows across channels are from shows earlier than 10pm, and Sony has launched 2 new shows at slots at 10 pm and afterwards.

All its programmes in top 100 GEC programs (across channels, Sony has 7) are reality shows (except for CID). It is a known fact that the bottomline for reality shows are 30%-50% lesser comapared with successful fiction shows.

Sony is launching its most touted reality show DPL clashing with Champions League, it can only pray that no IPL teams perform well in the CL. From strategic point of view there was no need to take this unnecessary risk for a show as big and crucial as DPL.

Another point is its movies, it is showing blockbuster movies and even premiering on Sundays, its getting decent TRPs, but is that giving decent bottomline to Sony, tough ask.

Sony who were historically very fast to capitalize on new technologies are not doing enough on new things. Star family came up with Startv.in and thats a instant success, Sony is still happy with uploading infrequent and partial contents, which cannot tap new audiences neither can it monetize the digital contents.

It is not ding well in taking advantage of the digital platform. Particularly for a channel whose success comes from reality shows this becomes a critical parameter for sustainable success.

Thus the fact remains Sony may see a upside in GRPs by another 20-40 points in the next few weeks but its bottomline is definitely under pressure. Its decent success is completely based on reality shows which are risky and Sony does not have a contingency plan. Its position is highly risky and its deals with YRF and Balaji showing its race to get numbers (TRP's) at a high cost.

It should focus on 8-10 pm sot and come up with atleast 2 low cost but good value fictional content, they should do this fast if they are serious about a sustainable catching up.

Till now, Sony has a lot more to do than just getting the figures right.