Exclusive | Vh1 is growing from strength to strength: Ferzad Palia

Vh1, India’s 24-hour International entertainment channel that provides viewers with their daily dose of international music, reality, fashion, Hollywood, pop culture, sports and celebrity lifestyle. It has the appropriate music for the apt music lover. The channel connects its audience to music through a wealth of original international and local programming that explores and celebrates the power of the music, artists and pop culture. Vh1 basically takes off where MTV leaves! In effect, it takes over the slot vacated by MTV a few years ago, when the latter decided to add a considerable dash of Bollywood and Indi-pop to its programming juncture. Vh1 is positioned as a channel that caters to an audience in the age group of 16 to 44 and thus offers music and shows that suit audiences past their adolescent years. Vh1 India is part of Viacom18, a 50 – 50 joint venture between Viacom & Network 18. Since its inception in January 2005, Vh1 has grown tremendously reaching over 70 million individuals across the country. It has pioneered the heady combination of programming content with live on ground activities. The channel has been committed to bringing to Indian audiences the best of international music genres like punk, rock, reggae, hip hop, pop, jazz etc. From 2011, Vh1 India has also secured a multi-year deal for airing Music’s Biggest Event - The Grammys. This has ensured that Vh1 is the no.1 viewing destination for the youth in the English entertainment and lifestyle space. Along with the best in music, Vh1 also gives their viewers the latest gossip, updates and happenings in the lives of their favorite celebrities and music stars. Globally, Vh1 is available across 148 million households in over 124 countries/territories.

Recently, in a united effort to provide independent musicians with a platform to jet start their careers, three of India’s leading music promoters – Vh1 India, Universal Music India and Hard Rock Café combined their efforts to create ‘Contrabands’. It is a platform tailored to provide opportunities for aspiring Indie artists across the country. Contrabands will be the first ever property to consolidate key factors like Discovering, Recording, Promoting and Managing the Indian musical talent thus empowering artists to be exposed and gain access to the best studios in town, top quality videos production capabilities and live gigs.

For all those aspiring artists who eat, sleep and breathe music, the time is right for aiming musicians to be a part of Contrabands. One can register on the Contrabands site where their music will be sampled by the head honchos of Vh1, UMI and Hard Rock Café. The micro site will provide relevant tools for bands to register and have their music reach the right people with minimum effort allowing for artists across genres to upload their material. Universal Music India Pvt. Ltd. (UMIPL) is a 100% subsidiary of the Universal Music Group. UMIPL has an extremely rich Indian catalogue comprising songs from classic Hindi and regional films, IndiPop, bhangra, ghazals and devotional. It’s enviable catalogue includes artistes such as Asha Bhosle, Anup Jalota, Bombay Vikings, Jagjit Singh, JoSh, Malkit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Panjabi MC, Raghav, Bohemia, Mohit Chouhan to name a few. On the International music front, UMIPL are the clear market leaders with artistes such as Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, ABBA, Akon, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, The Black Eyed Peas, Enrique Iglesias, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber amongst host of other popular music icons and household names in India.

After the talent is discovered, UMI will sign them to a 3 year recording and management deal and activate a synchronized marketing and promotional campaign that will include mass media exposure, digital distribution, live shows, brand endorsements and collaborations with international UMG artists. 

Vh1 will formulate a creatively conceptualized music video that will have an international look and feel for the artists. This video will give the bands enormous exposure by finding its way to the television screens of 70 million viewers across India. Also apart from being integrally involved with the selection and grooming process, Vh1 will also actively monetize Contrabands through its sponsor base. Commenting on this association, Ferzad Palia, Senior Vice President & GM – English Entertainment, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd says, “Vh1 has always supported Indian artists since its inception in India. This partnership with UMI and HRC takes our platform 360 degrees and is sure to spot and develop some of the best hidden jewels. We're extremely excited to take these musicians to the next level.”

As the official Tour and Venue Partner of Contrabands, Hard Rock Café will provide the indie artists a stage to showcase their music talent and promote them through on ground branding and various digital media.

With a total of 181 venues in 58 countries, including 142 cafes, 18 hotels and 8 casinos, Hard Rock International (HRI) is one of the most globally recognized companies. Beginning with an Eric Clapton guitar, Hard Rock owns the world's greatest collection of music memorabilia, which is displayed at its locations around the globe. Hard Rock is also known for its collectible fashion and music-related merchandise, Hard Rock Live performance venues and an award-winning website. HRI owns the global trademark for all Hard Rock brands.

Armed with a revolutionary business model the property aspires to combine broadcasts as well as live music to create not just a national platform for indie artists but one that provides international exposure ensuring a spot at lineups of festivals like Hard Rock Calling, Glastonbury and Tomorrow Land.

Speaking to Adgully, Mr. Ferzad Palia Senior Vice President & GM – English Entertainment, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd shared about their journey since the launch of the channel, their presence on the social media and also about some of their upcoming events. “Vh1 is present in all markets. It was born to fill in the void which was there in the market at that time and  has grown from strength to strength. Year 2010 was a game changer for us and went beyond all expectations,” said Mr. Palia.

He further informed that Vh1 is all about engagement and interacting with audiences. When asked about their plans for year 2013 he said, “We are looking forward to deepening our engagement with Indian audiences. Going forward in the year 2013 Vh1 would be doing events almost every two days as majority of the brands like to partner with Vh1. The channel is currently present in 38 towns and will strongly increase its reach by being present in relevant markets like Jaipur, Chandigarh, etc.”

Sharing about their activities on the social media front Mr. Palia informed that they have 2 million Facebook fans and 17000 Twitter followers. This year they are looking at strengthening their digital presence and will be launching their own website very soon. They can be visited on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vh1india. Vh1 India has also launched Vh1 Pulse, a Facebook app that constantly streams international music on Facebook for fans. It is a music streaming application that showcases Vh1′s Top Featured Albums and also gives the audience to build and share their own playlists. The channel has also launched an app called Vh1 Radio Gaga that is available Live on Airtel and Vodafone. It is a ticket to the biggest, hippest and blockbuster international music, live first on these telephone networks and is the biggest youth initiative in line with the Brand philosophy.

Hardcore fans of Vh1 can soon look forward to the MTV Movie Awards which is coming soon on their favourite channel.

Viacom18 is looking at earning advertising revenue of Rs 500 million from Vh1 and Comedy Central in FY14. Their aim for the next fiscal is to have Vh1 and Comedy Central garner a 35 per cent share in English entertainment channel ad pie which is around Rs. 1.4 billion. Comedy Central, which has completed a year of operations in India, has identified content, digital, live events and consumer products as the four verticals it will focus on as it prepares for its next phase of growth.

Where upcoming activities on Vh1 are concerned this year, Vh1 has tied up with the coolest Holi festival parties across the country and have launched an initiative called Vh1 Fab Holi Parties. It is an initiative by Vh1 to promote a new-school way of partying during traditional festival like Diwali, Holi, etc. It is for the first time that an Indian television channel is going a step further and associating with Indian festivals that are celebrated in the most unique way. The channel further establishes its leadership for the on-ground activities in the English music space in both commercial and indie categories across all genres.

The channel has tied up with 6 coolest and funky Holi parties. These include Holi Reloaded, Holiguns, Holi Cow, Rangholi, Shiva Squad Holi and Rang. These parties will feature some of the best EDM artists and will be held across Mumbai and New Delhi on March 27, 2013.

Another interesting programme music fans can look forward is Jersey Shore.Vh1 and Appy Fizz presents the finale of Jersey Shore Season 6 which premieres on April 7, 2013 at 11.00pm exclusively on Vh1. The final season will see one hour episodes with 5 time repeats. Vh1 will also do a Pop up Video special on Jersey Shore leading to the premier of the final season 6.
Thus with a most varied and interesting line up of events on Vh1, audiences can connect to their favourite music channel like never before!