Cellcast India: This is 'my' television

Research shows that the majority of us are getting tired of ads. Because they are everywhere — on television, in newspapers and radio, across billboards, magazines, cars… they even pop up on the ATM screen as we wait for it to dispense our cash. At least one channel promises to offer ad-free television, MyTV, which was launched last month by Cellcast India, a subsidiary of Cellcast Plc.

But there is a caveat. As Ashutosh, chief operating officer-television, Cellcast India, points out, “It is an ad free channel which will integrate brands in the content. For us, TV is a platform just like the internet and IVR (interactive voice response). While we don’t have a commercial ad slot, we are open to sponsorships and branding.” Free-to-air MyTV promises another novel feature-it is interactive. Customer interaction will be through three platforms — television, mobile and internet (including social media platforms).

“The theme of the channel is simple: pay and participate,” says Ashutosh. The content offered by MyTV includes contests as well as informative shows. “The DNA of the channel is different as others don’t produce what we do,” adds Ashutosh. “The anchor on any show would ask the viewer to call up, and we can receive more than one call at a time.”

MyTV has been funded by Canaan Partners and Vertex Venture Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. The company reportedly has an investment outlay of Rs 750 million for MyTV. Its distribution partner is BAG Network and it will be available across India’s western, eastern and northern regions. It aims to reach out to over 35 million analog and digital homes, including multiple DTH (direct-to-home) platforms in the first phase. According to the company, the channel has reached 15 million homes in about three weeks.

Cellcast India has been operating in India for over seven years now. It has worked on a series of interactive TV programmes and shows based on mobile subscription. Cellcast has a dozen game shows on some Hindi channels as well as a handful of regional channels. It also has IVR based shows and subscription-based astrology content.

Cellcast became famous with its late night reverse auction show Bid2Win (launched in India in 2006 and was broadcast every evening simultaneously across four of India’s leading cable channels — Sony, Sahara One, Zoom and Zee Punjabi); some other popular shows in its portfolio are — Gold Safe and Bhavishyaphal Sitaron Se Hal on Imagine TV; Cricket Howzatt on India TV and Insomnia Sona Mana Hai on Zee TV, among others. Most of its shows air late night and they make money through premium calls made to mobile interactive voice response systems.

Last year, Cellcast provided 4,000 hours of content across various television channels; it plans to increase this to 10,000 hours this year. It will start an online channel in the next two months. “For us, a viewer is an active partner; thus we hope that the interactivity that we offer will help us score high,” says Ashutosh.