Mumbai: Expanding its presence in the digital video space, TV Today Network has launched the TAK news app on the Google Play Store on Android and App Store on iOS.
The app will feature content in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati. and Punjabi, and offer personalised content to users across 18 brand channels under categories such as news, crime, as well as regional. According to the network, a separate content studio will create exclusively digital video content for the TAK news app.
The app also has a short video feature called ‘Phatak’ to showcase shareable 30-second video bytes of the latest news stories. The feature is unique to the TAK app and will not be accessible on their YouTube channels. The network currently has a cumulative subscriber base of 45 million on its YouTube channels that garner nine billion video views annually. Users can access the content on the app without logging in as it tracks the device ID to create a profile of the user. The more content the user watches on the platform, the more customised his/her feed will become over time.
“Through this effort, we are trying to bring digital audiences to our own destination,” said TV Today Network chief operating officer (Tak channels) Vivek Gaur. “We believe there has to be a clear differentiation on what we do on our social platforms versus our presence on the TAK app. A differentiated content and engagement strategy is what will drive people to our platform.”
The ‘TAK’ app logo which used to look similar to Hindi news channel Aaj Tak was relaunched under the new umbrella to come across a unique digital offering. There is a lot of effort going into our content to make it relevant and give it longer shelf life,” said TV Today Network managing editor – Tak channels Milind Khandekar. This means we’re not just reporting the news but also explaining it. Our big differentiator is the ‘Phatak’ which is news in 30 seconds. These are well shot and well-produced videos which are not available on social media.”
Creativeland Asia’s design division CLA Design Lab created the master brand design and overall design architecture for the brand. “It is always exciting to build a brand from the ground up," said Creativeland Asia founder and chairman Sajan Raj Kurup. "I personally worked closely with Vivek and his wonderful team on the conceptualisation and direction of this brand. After months of extensive collaborations between our design, strategy, communications and production team, I am excited to see the brand out there ready to take off.”
The recommendations under the ‘Phatak’ short video feature will be decided on the basis of recency and cohort-based recommendation much like other players in the short video space. When a user visits the website, he or she will only see new stories populating the page as content that has already been watched is deprioritised to keep the user experience on the app fresh.
TV Today Network has decided to go outside the Google Ad network and monetise the users on the TAK news app through bespoke advertising solutions to clients. Gaur noted, “If you show ads in a mundane and intrusive manner then people will think you’re like everyone else. Our advantage to advertisers is that we can offer them sharper audience segmentation based on audience cohorts like region, language. and preferences. That will allow us to scale and achieve profitability.”
According to a report by KPMG, digital video ad spend is expected to grow at 39 per cent CAGR between 2019-24. It accounts for a 30 per cent share of the total digital advertising spends and is expected to increase its share to 50 per cent by 2024.
