Sitaram Agrawal is a well-known personality in the Odiya M&E industry. He is the MD of Sidharth TV Network, which began its journey last year with three channels, namely, Sidharth TV (GEC), Sidharth Gold (jatras or plays, films and music) and Sidharth Bhakti (devotional). The network’s fourth channel ‘Jay Jagannath’ dedicated to Lord Jagannath of Puri will be launched in May.

An expert sound engineer, Agrawal built his initial career around a music business. Today, it enjoys an exclusive library of over 12000+ Odiya songs. His film venture has produced over 40 titles. In addition to setting up a 25 million+ YouTube subscriber base across channels, Agrawal also runs a FM radio station which exclusively plays Odiya songs.

Many commoners in Odisha still associate his name with Sarthak TV, now Zee Sarthak. Launched in 2010 by Agrawal, Sarthak TV was acquired by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) in 2015 in a deal worth Rs 115 crore. The story of how he built a successful GEC brand on the back of local programming is difficult to miss. Within three years Sarthak TV became the reigning GEC, big enough to save Zee’s sinking ship ‘Zee Kalinga’ in Odisha.  Even though a lot of its original DNA is eroded, Zee Sarthak is still the number two GEC in the market, after Tarang.

Agrawal says he would have never sold Sarthak TV had his financial partner not insisted. But the music business was still there and then digital happened in 2016. He used the medium to build the Sidharth brand this time; Sarthak and Sidharth are the names of his twin sons. Digital became his launch pad into the world of TV once again.

Agrawal’s confidence in his brand, which he says is ‘regional’ in the true sense, is evident in the fact that Sidharth TV is perhaps the only language channel to be launched in this rather turbulent period for the industry at a premium pricing of Rs 11.90. He refuses to pay ‘placement fee’ for distribution. The 62-year-old MD of the network is personally training a team of fresh, young recruits in the broadcasting business. Moreover, the network has its OTT debut planned for next year.

All this, and more in this exclusive interaction with IndianTelevision.com. Read on:

How did you go about building the Sarthak TV brand?

In 2010, Tarang and ETV Odia were the main contenders in the GEC space. Even though ETV Odia’s content was good, it didn’t get much visibility because of distribution issues with Ortel, one of Odisha’s largest MSOs belonging to the same group as Tarang. So people were left with no option but to watch Tarang. Also, Sarthak Music was a household name by then.

It was in a milieu like this that Sarthak TV was introduced to give viewers the alternative of local, real and relatable content, rooted in the values and culture of Odisha. Whether we made fiction or reality shows, localisation was paramount. For instance, we had two reality shows then "Rajo Queen" and "Grihlakshmi," both of which were based on local festivals celebrated in Odia homes in the villages. No one could have thought during that time that such localised events can be converted into glamorous reality shows.

Other GECs were influenced by national channels. Their programming matched the tastes of a more urban, upmarket audience. So, there was this huge gap that we were able to take advantage of. By 2014, Sarthak TV had become the top GEC in Odisha, beating Tarang.

You mean you were programming for a rural audience, if others were into urban?

No. Our TG was, and still is, people who live in the city, but their tastes and preferences are rooted in the village culture. Bhubaneshwar for instance, is a metro city and the capital of Odisha, but 80 per cent of the people living here are from rural areas.

Tell us something about the nuances of the Odiya TV audiences then.

Being one of the ‘Char Dhams,' Odisha is a very strong state culturally. Jatras (plays) and bhajans are popular formats here. In fact jatras are more popular than films, and their viewership is largely urban because people don’t get to see them in the city. Today, Manjari TV gets nearly 30 per cent of its ratings from jatras; they air around eight jatras a week. So you can imagine how big a genre it is.

The everyday consumption of bhajans is also very high here. For Odia people across age groups, morning bhajan is as important as breakfast. Namita Agrawal, my wife, is a renowned bhajan singer. Out of the two million subscribers on her YouTube channel, 15-16 lakh is young viewership. Odisha is a very different market from other states and national. For this reason, the single biggest challenge I gave my team was to connect as much as possible with the ‘gram’ (villages).

So how did Zee happen?

In 2014, Zee entered the market with Zee Kalinga. It was following the same urbanised, Hindi-influenced strategy which didn’t work out. So it gave us the offer in 2015. I was not at all keen, but my partner was quite excited about it. The deal went through at Rs 115 crore at that time when our reach and ratings and sales and distribution, everything was at its peak.

I left the office with four people who were part of my music company. Everything else was gone. As per the binding clause I could not launch another TV channel for five years.

How are you planning to differentiate Sidharth TV from the rest this time? How has the market changed since then?

We maintain the same ‘local’ DNA across all our offerings - fiction, reality, jatras, or films. In just seven-eight months, Sidharth TV has already telecasted 10 different IPs in both fiction and non-fiction genres. We expect reality shows to be one of our strengths because for that a channel needs to have songs as well as the rights to them; we have both through our music company. Also while others are restricted to Hindi songs and weekends, we play exclusive Odiya and our reality shows air on weekdays as well. Further, in the last four years, we have collaborated on nearly 100 jatras with eight jatra parties in Odisha.

As for the market, yes it has changed, but there’s also an oversupply of channels replicating Hindi GECs - Zee, Colors, and Star (to-be-launched soon). The big networks were able to gain a hold in West Bengal because there were no strong regional players in Kolkata. That’s not the case here, so I am assuming one or two will have to shut shop. Managing a GEC is very difficult if there’s no growth in ad revenues. In Kolkata, Zee Bangla and Star Jalsha could grow the revenue pie by 10 times. Here Zee was able to add only 15-20 per cent to it.

You recently hired two agencies to handle sales for Sidharth TV. How are you planning to grow your ad and subscription revenues?

The revenue matrix in Odisha stands at 60 per cent advertisers and 40 per cent subscriptions, which is also something we are aiming for. As our distribution grows, so will the ad revenues. While Sidharth TV is now available on 100 per cent of the cable networks, the growth through DTH platforms is slower because we are not willing to pay placement fees.

Currently our distribution stands at 33 per cent of the universe of approx. 50 lakh pay TV homes in Odisha. We have started getting steady subscriptions, and it is growing day by day. Apart from Sun Direct, recently we have become available on Tata Play as well which will further the distribution to almost 50 per cent of the base. This availability will surely boost our subscription and reach. The latter in turn will lead to higher ad sales.

According to the ratings started week 12, we were at No. three in time spent, with GRPs and reach of 62 and 14 respectively. This, with 33 per cent distribution. If we had full distribution strength, the GRP would have been around 200.

How do the local and national advertisers compare in Odisha?

It’s eight per cent local and 92 per cent national. Except for some big retail outlets and institutions, local advertisers don’t spend much here. Also Odisha being a P3 market, the ad revenue pie is not growing despite an oversupply of GEC, and low ad rates

Do you have a partner this time?

Thankfully not.