Youth-Centric Channel Hit7 Launched For Northeast India

By Nitin Pandey

LSD Media Pvt Ltd has launched its first media venture - a free-to-air youth targeted entertainment channel Hit7 - for the North-East region of India on July 15, 2011. The channel is targeted at the regions including Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.

The channel, which is headquartered at Kandivili (West), Mumbai, will be carried on INSAT4-A. The content packaging, ingestion and transmission will be done from company facilities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Speaking to exchange4media on the thought process behind the launch of the channel, Sunil Manocha, Co-Founder, LSD Media Pvt Ltd, stated, “The primary youth segment (15-25) and secondary segment (26-35) roughly account for 70 per cent of the region’s 50 million population.

And there was no any dedicated entertainment channel available in the region for youth. Hence, we found a greater need for a localised entertainment channel there.

Now, the channel will also give an opportunity to those advertisers who want to reach out to the young audience of the North-East region of the country.”

Meanwhile, Hit7’s content plan consist content from 5 major sources that include International music labels like EMI, Virgin and Warner Music; locally sourced content like music videos and regional film music; IPR (Intellectual Property Right) based fiction and non-fiction content that will include daily serials, studio based shows and reality shows; IPR based shows containing local talent like performing bands, individual performers; licensed formats that will be indigenised to suit local taste and flavour.

Right now, in the North-East region of the country, there are few current affairs and entertainment channel available that include regional channels of DD, DY 365, News Live, Rang (GEC), News Time, NE TV, NE Hi-Fi and Frontier TV.

Presently, the advertisers on the local North East channels are a mix of national advertisers, local companies, local state governments and DAVP. In the first year of operations Hit7 aims to capture 10 per cent market share of the advertising spends. Manocha said that they will be targeting all sets of advertisers in the region for Hit7. He noted, “The FMCG companies like HUL, ITC, L’Oreal, Emami, Godrej are among the largest category of advertisers in the region.

All the telecom service providers like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, Tata Telecom, Aircel are advertisers on the local channels. The other categories that are advertising on the local channels include Insurance and Banking sector, 2 wheelers among others. The local governments of the 7 states also use these channels to highlight the various schemes and projects of the government.”

On the distribution strategy for channel, Manocha remarked, “HIT 7 will be distributed across all the 7 states of North East India. The distribution of the channel is focused on local cable platforms, 20-30 urban/youth centers and deals have also been inked with all existing MSO’s (Multi System Operators) in the 7 states.”

Meanwhile, Hit7 plans a transition to DTH within two years of operations.

LSD Media Pvt. Ltd. is promoted by Sunil Manocha, Sanjay Dhar and Sumit Luthra. The mandate of LMPL is to identify, develop, deploy and own regional electronic media vehicles including Specialty channels like Music, Sports and Youth. The company mandate also includes creating media assets like talent representation; creation of IPR based formats and events.