The advent of digital TV in 2014

The one thing that broadcasters across genres were eagerly awaiting in 2014 was the kick-off of the third and fourth phases of cable TV digitisation. This would have meant a more robust distribution revenue and less dependence on advertising revenue (which contributes close to 70 per cent of most broadcasters' revenues).

Digitisation, unfortunately, got put off. To make matters worse, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India slapped a 12-minute ad cap for every hour of content aired. Though the bigger broadcasters sailed through by increasing their ad rates, the smaller players did have a difficult year.

A lot also happened in 2014 on the content side - from high-concept, finite shows such as 24 on Colors and Yudh (Amitabh Bachchan's debut TV fiction show) on Sony to Pepsi MTV-Indies, a co-branded youth channel that celebrates the indie culture.

The year also saw sports broadcast being taken to new level. Our cricket-crazy nation got to consume a fair dose of alternative sports such as kabaddi, basketball, tennis and football.

While the debate on whether these sports have got the broadcasters the necessary eye-balls and, more importantly, revenues is still on, the one thing that all broadcasters in 2014 have earnestly pursued is stepping up their digital presence. Though these were baby steps, all of them felt the need to go multimedia.

Star India, which started starsports.com as a pay offering in 2013, claims that the Hero Super League got them over 12.8 million views on the website. Uday Sodhi, EVP & Head (Digital), Multi Screen Media, claims that Liv Sports, their online sports offering, has done extremely well.

For Liv Sports, the broadcaster had worked out a 'freemium' model during the FIFA World Cup, when consumers had to pay for live content. It has also launched Liv Sports and Sony Liv ((which airs content of its general entertainment channels Sony and Sab TV) apps.

"Between Liv Sports and Sony Liv our apps got over 15 million downloads in 2014," says Sodhi, according to whom the year gone by clearly saw the advent of mobile entertainment in India.

Viacom 18, for its flagship channel Colors, did a crowd-sourced song on Twitter for one of its reality shows, India's Got Talent. It has created an app for its popular stand-up comedy show, Comedy Nights With Kapil, which so far has got more than 2 million downloads.   

MTV, which is also part of Viacom 18, signed up two different sponsors for its show Splitsvilla for the broadcast and digital platforms, respectively. The channel created exclusive Splitsvilla content for digital that included behind-the-scene exclusives and 'break-up' diaries of contestants.

Sodhi of MSM says advertisers are beginning to take digital seriously. The network's digital platforms, he says, attracted big-ticket advertisers such as Cadbury, Hindustan Unilever and telecom companies.

Will 2015 be the year when Indian broadcasters would be able to get consumers to pay for their online content, something which they haven't really succeeded in the broadcast space? Let's wait and watch.