Q. How does it feel to be back with a TV channel?
I am definitely very excited. Sony offers a very large canvas, and also huge opportunities. For a large part of my career, I have been in the industries, which revolve around communication and entertainment. These include advertising, consumer products marketing, television, music and the Internet.

Sony has a very good brand name in the market, it is popular among TV viewers, is a popular distribution brand choice and also has advertiser confidence. My challenge is to grow it. We are a strong and consistent number two. My job is to begin by consolidating this into being a more powerful player in this business. And, obviously over a period of time, to push the envelope towards leadership in the market. I think it is a very natural aspiration!

Q. How different is the spectrum in Sony vis-a-vis MTV?
Given the fact that my background is largely in consumer oriented businesses, I understand that consumers do change, and that there are different kinds of consumers. My job is to always focus on optimum delivery satisfaction to them. And because I appreciate and acknowledge this fact, I do not see realigning myself from a younger target audience to a larger canvas as a very big challenge. To the contrary, it gives me a much better and bigger perspective to work.

Q. Are you the CEO in waiting? One hears you are going to takeover from Kunal Das Gupta next March?
No, I don’t think it has ever been said, or has been the stated objective in any fashion.

Q. Well, there have been certain reports in media to that effect.
I don’t think that information has come from Sony, Kunal or from me. I have a very clear mandate – my responsibility is to look after Sony entertainment television.

Q. How is selling media different from selling liquor and other consumer products?
It is different to some extent. It is far more dynamic, far more interactive and it is a consumer good of much shorter duration. Once a day gets over, I cannot sell airtime back to somebody else. But if someone didn’t buy a shampoo today, he can always buy it tomorrow. Besides, the extent of interactivity, the extent of involvement that an advertiser has with the consumer is higher in the media industry.

All said and done, basic principles of selling and marketing don’t change. If you have a focus on the viewer, you have a focus on the consumer requirements and you can marry the two, I think that basic promise of giving the consumer delight can be obtained.

Q. How has your experience with the dotcom been?
It has been extremely rewarding. It is very easy to write off the Internet experience in hindsight. But I believe that experience in the Internet space was a great learning experience for everyone who took the jump. In dotcoms, there is an equal play between technology, managing consumers and managing businesses.

Unfortunately, market in India did not grow as much as was anticipated, and where that is concerned, all the estimates, whether they were from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey or Nasscom, proved to be incorrect. People, who worked in that industry, fundamentally learnt a way to work faster, smarter, and to be more consumer focused. The biggest learning for me is appreciation of being a lot more consumer focused.

Q. No regrets?
None what so ever. Indya experience has made me a better human being. I don’t think I have lost out on something by going over there. I am really glad that I did it; instead of sitting on the armchair and watching other people do it.

Q. How easier it is to sell TV vis-à-vis dotcom?
Obviously television is an easier business because it is an established industry. Internet was not. Therefore, it was a more SEC A phenomenon. On the other hand, in television, we reach all the way across socio-economic groups. We reach urban as well as rural markets. Nonetheless, it is very challenging at the same time, because there are very strong entrenched market players, and there is great competitiveness in all the genres of programming.

Q. You worked as the head of valuebridge in between Indya.com and Sony. What is Valuebridge actually?
Valuebridge is a consulting business, which had not taken off at that point in time. It is a joint venture with HTA. I was keen to stay in Bangalore, so I took it up. However, I don’t have the right temperament to be a consultant. I prefer an active business, to get my hands dirty and build it, and take it from where it is.

Q. Coming back to Sony, it is planning to strengthen its programming over the weekends. What are the plans?
Let us take a step back, Sony has a lot of strengths. It is a very dynamic, very vibrant number two brand. Our approach is to build on its strengths first, and then to fill the gaps, as and where they are. We see weekend as a big opportunity. Right now not too much original programming goes into weekends. It is largely an interplay between movies and events, which too is largely a Sony hallmark. It’s a genre or format that Sony has pushed very hard and played very successfully with its viewers and its advertisers.

We are fairly strong between Friday and Sunday. We reach about 43% of the audience. And it is our intent to grow that target audience. It was to this effect that we introduced the new programme ‘kya Haadsaa, kya Haqeekat’, the social fiction thriller produced by Bala ji Telefilms. It is Friday to Sunday one- hour programme starting at 8 pm. The whole idea over here, as the timeband campaign goes out, is ‘stay home this weekend.’

What you usually have on a weekend is a large amount of fragmented viewership. Different kinds of people watch different things. Mainly, because there are whole lot of events and movies happening on TV. The new programme would, most probably, bind the family together to watch the fiction thriller taking place in their drawing room.

On Friday it is followed by Kkussum, Heena and CID, which are all successful branded shows in their own right. And on Saturday and Sunday we have movies and events. So the idea is build stronger viewing franchise.

Q. Are you looking at adding more programmes over the weekend?
Yes, we are. The one-hour show will be supported by some more shows that the channel plans to introduce in the coming months.

Q. Any other slots you are looking to strengthen?
Yes, we would like to be the most watched channel in 8 pm to 11 pm band. And I think we are doing exceptionally well in 9-10 pm slot right now.

Q. How has Kahin na Kahin Hai done for Sony?
Kahin na kahin koi hai has done well for us. Prior to its launch, Sony did not have as much viewership on 8:30 slot. Kahin na Kahin…was an attempt to improve the viewership, and it has increased by 250%. This, in itself, is a great milestone. This is a different genre with a sensitive subject – marriage. It is being done for the first time at this scale and canvas. Madhuri is very likeable. It is delivering to us what we expected it to deliver.

Q. Finally, do you watch all Sony programmes?
Yes, I do. And I enjoy it. I don’t think I would be sitting in this chair if I did not. I spent about 3 and half years in HMV, where we used to sell about 2 - 3 million cassettes of one thousand titles. I am trying to make a point that my background has inherently been in, what you would call a large-scale formula. And it is helping me now.