SonyLIV’s Danish Khan on Building a Profitable Streaming Platform
Insights on what it takes to build a sustainable streaming business
In this episode of The Media Room, media journalist and author Vanita Kohli-Khandekar speaks to Danish Khan, Business Head for Digital Business StudioNEXT & Network Channels Licensing, about how SonyLIV has built a distinctive, profitable niche in India’s crowded OTT landscape. From the breakout success of Scam 1992 to acclaimed series like Rocket Boys and Maharani, Khan explains why SonyLIV has chosen a research-driven, subscription-first approach instead of chasing scale through cash burn. He takes us inside the greenlighting process, the platform’s sweet spot of contemporary history, and the deliberate choice to avoid repeating either its own successes or those of rivals. They also discuss SonyLIV’s cautious international rollout, the rise of user-generated content, the power of devices and aggregators in reshaping distribution, and why creator-led B2C brands are set to define the next phase of the industry. Tune in for insights on what it takes to stay true to positioning—and build a sustainable streaming business—in the age of relentless competition.
NOTE: This transcript is done by a machine. Human eyes have gone through the script but there might still be errors in some of the text, so please refer to the audio in case you need to clarify any part. If you want to get in touch regarding any feedback, you can drop us a message on [email protected].
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TRANSCRIPT
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar (Host): Hi and welcome to the media room. In 2020, seven years after it's been in the business, Sony Live had just about 700,000 subscribers and it was not going anywhere and all the players who came after Sony Live, Netflix, Amazon, all of them were doing far better than Sony Live. Somewhere in the summer of 2020, Sony Live relaunched itself.
It got a little bit of some recognition. Some shows like Undekhi or Your Honour got some sort of accolades, but the needle didn't move on subscribers or on audience numbers. Then in October 2020 came Scam 1992, which is Hansal Mehta's show produced by Applause Entertainment.
That show completely shifted the game, not just for Sony Live, but it also shifted the game within streaming because it introduced a kind of programming which we had not seen earlier. A story about a white collar scam that had happened in India in 1992. It was based on Sucheta Dalal and Divashish Basu's book on the same subject.
What Scam 1992 did was not only get critical acclaim and accolades for Sony Live, it also got its subscribers and business took off for this particular streaming service. Today, it has 32 to 34 million subscribers at about 1,700 crore in revenue. Sony Live brings in about a fourth of all of Sony India.
Sony India's mother company is called Culver Max Entertainment. Culver Max Entertainment's revenue is in India. That's significant.
That's a level which none of the other OTTs, if they are part of a larger group, have hit. Secondly, it's also a significant player in the 35,600 crore streaming business. That's pay and advertising revenue.
But what interests me about Sony Live is its approach to its shows. It is cerebral and deliberately so right from the point of its relaunch. And more on this from Danish Khan, who's the executive vice president and business head for Sony Live and Studio Next.
And this is Danish's second stint with Sony. He was earlier with this company in different roles, went to Star India as programming head and came back to Sony some years back. Over to Danish.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Hi, good morning Danish and welcome to the media room. Finally, I get you on camera and get you to talk to me. So I'm very happy about this one.
Danish Khan: Thank you so much.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Danish, first of all, for my listeners, where exactly is Sony Live right now? We know that you did SCAM in 1992 and things went very well for you after that. Where is Sony Live exactly?
Danish Khan: Sony Live is exactly where we thought it would be. We are a very distinct platform offering a very distinct kind of content. And I always spoke to you about it, that when we started there, we were aware that there will be at least two big international players, Amazon, Netflix.
There will be one or two very big Indian players. And then there will be YouTube. So the world will be divided among the set of content which will be made for a large number of free users or the people advertising funded content.
And then that is driven primarily by YouTube and Meta. Then there will be a lot of content which will be built on subscription. People will pay and watch the content.
And there, I think, Sony Live is where we are focussing on. Subscription-driven content primarily. Now, within the subscription-driven content, obviously, we don't have the hours of content that Netflix or Amazon, who operate in multiple countries, will have.
So we will always have very limited hours of content. In fact, Sony in India was primarily, when we started, Hindi. And then we added Malayalam.
But if you typically look at it, in a year, we put 12 Hindi originals and about six to eight Malayalam movies. Next month, we are launching a Telugu show. Okay, we are expanding slowly.
But ultimately, it's never going to be the hours of content. It's going to be each content has to go out and create a market for itself. So we focused on positioning our content or developing content, which is slightly cerebral, which is based on little authentic research.
I think it's slightly rigorous in its development and its execution. Sun, big stars and big names, but a very sincere attempt towards choosing the right content and executing it with a lot of authenticity and heart. And we have, therefore, developed a very, very, I would say, loyal base of consumers.
Our renewal rate is close to 85%.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: You have to give me some basic numbers, some numbers for my listeners. 30 odd million.
Danish Khan: Yeah, we are there about, which includes our Jio Telco deal and Airtel Telco deal. So primarily, I think we have created a very distinct offering and the brand stands for something and we ensure that we deliver to that brand promise. And I think our success primarily lies in the fact that we are able to bring a set of stories which not many other platforms would be able to get.
So I think unless we keep that positioning strong, it will be difficult for us to stand out in this crowded market.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: You mentioned the stories and I'm going to get into that. But first, I remember, and that is also part because you said cerebral. So Scam92, Scam2003, Rocket Boys, Freedom at Midnight, Maharani, Abhi The Hunt, which I've just started watching, by the way.
It was gorier.
Danish Khan: Only the first episode.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Yeah, the first episode, hopefully it's procedural. But it is very intensive. So there are two parts to this question.
One is cerebral shows in the market as it stands. In 2020, when you relaunched, it totally made sense because we were just entering the pandemic. And October 2020, I think, or summer of 2020 is when you relaunched.
But now as the market stands today, there's a scale. We are looking at 125 million subs, 400 million people watching, streaming per se. Is that a sustainable thing?
And is scale actually something that you're seeking? Because you said clearly now that the show has to stand. And each show of yours actually does, becomes our talking point.
Rocket Boys, I still remember, Freedom at Midnight.
Danish Khan: So first thing is that I think every positioning means that you sacrifice something. You can't have a very strong positioning without sacrificing. You can't say that I'm doing everything and then have a very strong position.
So if I have to look at scale, for example, YouTube has a scale. There's approximately 500 digital consumers and most of them interact with YouTube. It's a free platform.
When we say we are a subscription driven platform, the scale comes down. When we say that we'll be a subscription driven platform without a huge amount of pre-kit, scale further goes down. So fundamentally, we are not competing with either YouTube or any other player with that scale.
Because we have chosen to be subscription driven. We have chosen to be extremely profitable. Sony always focuses on a profitable, sustainable business.
So for a profitable, sustainable subscription business, the scale is not 200 million or 300 million. So if I have to look at 500 million Indian digital consumers, out of which approximately around 40-50 million people are the ones who actually buy B2C subscriptions directly. And then some of another 100 million would be consuming it through bundling.
So I think that's where the consumer is. Then the second bit is that obviously in India, if you have to look at even for that 50 million direct consumer and 100-150 million bundling consumer, you need to be operating at least with five to six languages. We started with one language.
And as I said that we always focus on profitable, sustainable growth. Slowly and gradually, we're moving from one language to another. So if you look at Sony Live, it is not a business where we burn a lot of cash, we launch a lot of shows, we invest huge on technology, we evolve.
And throughout the evolution, we kept the business sustainable and profitable. And we kept on giving good stories to the consumer and building our brand. So I think it's a very alternate way of building business to what we are used to these days.
But I think it's sustainable.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: But it's the Sony way. I've seen you guys do it on the radio. So it's the Sony way.
So the business stands on its own legs as far as cash flow and everything.
Danish Khan: It has always stood from year one. I think the focus has clearly been profitable and sustainable business.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: And even now, you're ramping up non-Hindi languages. But even now, no bidding for films, no bidding for sports. But you did take Shark Tank totally online, if I remember correctly.
So that was also a bid for scale or to get a larger audience or to get a sort of funnel for the rest of Sony Live?
Danish Khan: No, I think, see, when in 2020, when we started, we launched Sony Live. If you look at it, there were two properties, we launched Sony Live or relaunched Sony Live in June of 2020. And we had only two, I would say, two pillars on which we planned our business.
One scam would come, because by that time, I would have, by the time we were relaunching, had already spoken to Mr. Sameer Nair and got the scam. And the second one is that Shark Tank was always for Sony Live. And it launched in January.
So Shark Tank was always primarily a Sony Live product. And it continues to be. Obviously, TV gives its reach.
And this time, we'll get Shark Tank back on television. There was only one year last year where it was not there on TV. But it will be back on TV.
But ultimately, Shark Tank is a Sony Live product.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Okay. And what does it do? I mean, I remember having this conversation that nonfiction is also becoming key to a premium platform like Sony Live.
How does that work? I mean, was it deliberate or it just happened?
Danish Khan: No, no, no, absolutely. It's very deliberate. If you look at it, you know, typically when we sat together and when we were building a case, who will be our consumer?
So with scam and Shark Tank, one of the things that we said is that, can you just get the number of people who actually read pink papers?
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Okay.
Danish Khan: Thank you. So we said that there's a decent amount of people who are reading pink paper and newspapers. I said the first set of audience that we should get are the people who are watching pink paper or English newspapers.
So what are the two, three things that we can do? So the three buckets that we looked at are history, politics. The second bucket that we looked at is business and entrepreneurship.
And third thing is that white collar crime. So I think these are the three buckets we chose as our entry. When we are entering the last in the streaming business, by 2020, everybody will be established, right?
And you're the last guy walking into a, you better come with something distinct and special. So this was our thing and we are building on it. So even if we're going to Telugu today, it will launch next week as a show called Maya Sabha, which is about politics.
So when we go to the regional market, we will take that route of the three buckets, which is history, politics, white collar crime and entrepreneurship and business, because these are the things which we believe need rigour and research. And this is what we can offer to our consumer.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: And this audience will pay 1500 bucks. Okay. This just as a digression, where does the bulk of your viewership come from?
I remember you said that you should get at least half your viewership in the South at some point. But where are we right now?
Danish Khan: Typically, I think if I look at all India, close to 80% of the viewership comes from the top 20 cities in India. If I have to look at the South, the digital penetration in the South is very large. But at this point in time, 25% of our viewership comes from the South, especially Bangalore and Hyderabad.
But the moment we start having our full fledged Telugu and Tamil slate, I think the percentage of South viewership in our calculation should be closer to 50%.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: But Danish, one thing I'm noticing, and you know, everybody talks about how the South film market, but the South film, more than this film market, I think the South streaming market is extremely underserved. And I think now what, if I say that 2018 was the base year, don't take 2016, we're still, why is everybody so far behind on non-Hindi originals?
Danish Khan: I think if you look at the South, they have a very robust TV market, number one. I think the viewership of TV has not reduced as much as it has. That's number one.
Two, I think the movie market is extremely robust. So they are getting a lot of variety of stories in movies and they're getting interesting characters in TV. I think when streaming has to come with a very distinct offering, which they are not getting either on movie or on TV, then for it to work.
So our attempt is that with this kind of bucket that I spoke about, that will offer some stories, which perhaps they're not watching it, getting it on through movies or through TV. And hence, it will create a demand for such stories.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: You've answered this next question partly, but Phirbi, what is your greenlighting process? Because I know that a lot of people who make content when they watch shows like ours, that's the thing they look for. So just the question on behalf of everybody and including me, what is the greenlighting process?
Because your selection is, I mean, for example, one of the OTTs whose programming process I'd love to understand is Apple TV. Who's the guy in charge? I want to know whose mind is at play here.
So what is your greenlighting?
Danish Khan: I really like Apple TV.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Same here.
Danish Khan: First thing is that we have in Swagato, who is our content head, me and our marketing head and the team, I think we are pretty much married to our positioning and the philosophy of content. First thing first, I think we get a lot of concepts. So if you do scam, we get 20 white label, white collar crime stories.
The point is that people who are paying us money are not wanting to repeat the experience. So if we have done a scam and we come up with something which is similar to that, I don't think it's going to work. So one of the things that we really avoid is to repeat success.
Ours or others. We celebrate success. Ours or others enjoy it, but we avoid repeating it.
That's number one. Two, the set of audience that I just told you and you would be one of the prime audience. I think we have to offer them something which intrigues them, which raises their curiosity where they want to do it.
Like Hunt for example. Hunt is a, you know, there's a little, you know a bit about Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the fact that it was done by people from LTT. But what happened, how did they crack it?
Just one of the things that intrigues me is that, you know, I watched something on Netflix. It took 10 years for America with all its sophisticated expertise to crack Osama Bin Laden. In 90 days here, a few of our Indian investigators were able to crack it completely and book all of them and put them into jail or, you know.
So I think it's very, very, very, very interesting, you know. So and the process, if you look at it, the Hunt, as a procedural, it comes alive very well. So it's not so much about sensationalism of the crime, but how it got cracked in 90 straight days is something which I thought will be interesting and all of us thought.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: No, it looks interesting because you look at the first episode, that setting up of the team I found and I like Amit Sehal. He's just a phenomenal actor, I think. And I just like that and I think the casting is good in this one.
I know I've had problems with your casting at times, but this casting is very good in this one.
Danish Khan: No, we don't take any credit for that. I must tell you, in both, in case of Scam as well as in Hunt, first thing, the biggest credit goes to somebody who commissioned it. It's a very unusual subject, Samir Nair.
He has always been a pioneer, writing from KBC to what he's doing now. I think he's been fantastic. He chose, he's putting money in concepts which usually people won't commission.
And then a person like Nagesh or Hansal, and both of them came up with casting and a lot of casting credits, a lot of execution credits. It's entirely Hansal or Nagesh to do that. So our job is not necessarily, none of the casting credit or execution credit anybody in Sony Live can take.
It's the producer, it's the director, the technicians who make it. What we generally do is choose the right subject. We focus a lot in terms of rigour, in terms of what we ask, we try to ask a lot of questions which will come from consumers.
So if somebody is saying that this is Raj Jawan, another of my favorites on Sony Live, it's about a couple, the first couple, parents. And they're in urban India. Now, if the promise is that, you know, people will, the dialogues will make you laugh, insightful dialogues which will make you laugh.
We don't have to write dialogue along with our makers. We just have to react like a consumer. So to a large extent, our role is the first consumer of the content.
And we represent our consumer in front of the maker. So that is where we are. So our development process is quite collaborative.
Okay, we choose, choosing is the most difficult part. And then we spend a lot of time, sometimes a lot of people think that you take a lot of time to come up with, you know, a show. Like Freedom at Midnight, it's not possible to come up fast because you have to see.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: You know, but this was, no, but when you talked about laughter, I'll come to Freedom at Midnight. Good luck. You have some other one.
I think Dr. Arora didn't work that much because I was really looking forward to that show. Good luck, I like it. And there was another one.
I'm forgetting. I've written the name somewhere. But I do think that you get the minutiae of life.
I mean, whoever your producers are. You know, a lot of your shows are contemporary history. And I've asked you this question earlier.
How do you tread that space? You know, I mean, you've got producers. So you've got a Sameer Nair who takes complete responsibility.
He develops the product. You know, I really am from a black warrant scam, though Sameer is always known for KBC and QK Saas, but he's done all these other things. I mean, his company made all these others.
But how do you tread that space? You know, whether it is today or even 10 years back, these are sensible, sensitive issues, topics, but even a scam for instance, Ashok Mehta's family is still there. So how do you tread the space of contemporary?
What are the do's or don'ts if someone wants to adapt a book or a topic from contemporary India? And there's so many stories in this country.
Danish Khan: See, first thing is that why we are doing, okay, why we are doing is that, you know, when you're competing with such a big brands with, you know, huge resources, content coming from multiple countries, okay, and you want to compete with them, along with 12 to 15 shows, I think you better come up with something different. Okay. We can't compete with these global brands who produce huge amounts of good, high quality content.
So we have to choose stories, which are distinctly ours. Okay. So contemporary history gives us that opportunity, number one.
The first thing that you should, we believe is that when you are choosing a subject like Freedom at Midnight, or for that matter, scam, or for that matter, hunt, I think the first thing you should do is, most of the people who are talking about the content, developing the content, buying the content, the first thing you should do is that you should be, you should immerse yourself with the subject.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Okay.
Danish Khan: So while I first read Freedom at Midnight when I was in class seven or eight, in this process, I've gone through it four times.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Oh really?
Danish Khan: Same with Saugato and same with Nikhil. The point is that these are very sensitive topics. This representation requires a lot of rigour, a lot of discussion, a lot of point of view.
And I think one of the things is that that's what we do. We spend a lot of time jostling out what we believe as a group is the correct thing for this consumer.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: But you know one thing, given the quality of the shows that you put out and the capturing of contemporary history that you do, why is Sony Live not global? Why is it not, I mean, for example, Netflix is in 200 countries. I don't know what the Sony family thing is, but these are shows which should be available to audiences globally, to my mind.
Is that a thought that has been discussed?
Danish Khan: Absolutely. As I said, a sustainable, profitable growth plan, you know, it's sometimes slow and sometimes it tests your patience. But if you look at it, when we started, it was only in India and then we started, the global thing happened.
Only last year, June, when Sony Liv as a standalone streaming service was available in the US. So it's just a year back. So we are gradually doing it and my belief system is that if this is what the business plan is to be profitable and sustainable, not burn a lot of cash, but come up with quality content which builds a brand for long, I think it will take a little time and it's taking a little time, but we are slow but very steady and very focused on what we are able to deliver.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Fantastic. You've delivered a lot. There's no doubt about it on all the metrics.
You know one thing, and I asked this in the beginning, as the market exists, where is Sony Live? If I look at Netflix, WWE, Kapil Sharma, Sony's Kapil Sharma has gone on Netflix. You can see all the popular tiers of programming coming in because in 12 markets across the world, you know, Netflix has gone advertising and they will continue to push on getting scale by offering more massy kinds of content.
Fair enough. Amazon is doing the same thing. It is aggregating every channel, every OTT, every piece of programming it can get.
And then of course there's YouTube, who's the big brother, which is both subscription and advertising, but they are largely driven by advertising. I mean if I look at, and there's Zee5, which is again just like you, part of a large broadcast network. In this increasing linearisation where everybody is pushing for scale, does that put pressure on either your revenues or your cost or your ability to choose concepts and stick to that path which you have set?
Because the market has completely changed. They are not talking about 100 million houses. I agree with you that if your market is whatever x million, you'll stick to that.
But there is a pressure then to do that. You're not listed.
Danish Khan: So in that sense, I think that again, this vanity versus sanity comes into play. Typically, everybody is not going to be YouTube and YouTube, they bought YouTube, Google bought YouTube in 2002, invested a lot, first off the hook, now a global platform, almost like a default home screen. Fundamentally what we are, we are a content company.
And when we were on television also, I think we were a much more urban television network. We still are a very urban television network and we created an exponential value to that audience, came up with great content, great brands. Now, Sony Live has chosen this particular strategy that we will focus on. If there is a demographic pyramid, we are looking at the top 10% of the audience.
And we'll make a profitable, sustainable business. Gradually, we'll move from one language to another language and we will grow. Then there is another model where, you know, actually if people talk about Netflix now, but Netflix started long back, the journey has been quite long and they've done exceptionally well.
So is YouTube. YouTube is 2002, Netflix is before 2008. I think the journey has been quite interesting.
So it takes little time and they have hit 300, you know, there is a critical phase when the growth happens, right? So organic growth takes time. I think Netflix and YouTube both are very organic.
Inorganic growth needs acquisition. The acquisition of either property, like you buy IPL, you get 60 million guys or acquisition of another platform. Okay.
Now it's, we are talking about organic growth. We are not talking about inorganic growth at this point in time. At all.
At all. Right now, if you look at Sony's growth so far, it has been very organic from one language to another language. And a third language is being introduced next month.
So I think, and then from the market, we have moved from one geography to the Middle East, UK and last year, the US. So organic growth is happening. So I don't think we need to really look at the numbers elsewhere.
From the point of view of the audience that we spoke about, the positioning that we have, have we exhausted them? No, we haven't. Okay.
I think there's a long way to go. We have to have three more languages where we can build our content and get a lot of subscriptions. There is still room for us to grow within this position.
Okay. And profitable. So I don't think we should be comparing ourselves with or taking pressure from some other brand.
Yeah.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: So no pressure.
Danish Khan: Yes, absolutely.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Now this is more broader. So I leave, Sony live very clearly positioned. But one ecosystem is being created, user-generated content, ad-driven, completely, you know, scrolling driven.
And there is one ecosystem which, you know, whether it is films or whether it is high-quality dramas on streaming, good fiction, non-fiction, high-quality stuff, you know, you watch that or a little bit of MX player kind of stuff, which is high-production quality, but a little more Marcian. But the fact is that the audience for this, the professionally generated content is increasingly going there. And I think micro dramas are a reaction to that also.
Many platforms getting into micro drama shots is a reaction to that. But how can, A, should the two be, they don't compete directly, but they compete for the time. If I'm watching reels, I'm taking that time away from something.
And you know this much better than I do. My point is, how does one stay steady in that market where your audience, and even from a storytelling perspective, Danish, I think that now there's this new theory that focuses, the attention span is down to less than a goldfish, eight seconds or whatever. How do you hold on to the audience?
How do you commission everything? You know, the whole, whether it's a commerce part of it or whether it's a creative part of it, it is getting impacted by the user-generated system. The fact is Meta and Google dominate what is happening to this part of the business also.
How do you, I mean, how do you look at that and how do you deal with it on a day-to-day basis as an S-Word service, as a streaming service?
Danish Khan: Okay, there are two broad industries, which have gone through this. One is food. If you look at Indian food in the last 20 years, the number of fast food and, you know, things that are available to consumers, people are buying, right?
Eating, consuming. But the consumer will get their own balance. Okay, what we are saying is that right now your choices have gone up.
Okay, so what happens is that, say for example, we spoke about user-generated content. Okay, at one point in time, 15 years from now, 15 years back or 20 years back, there was no phone. So, when you have to consume content, you have to sit somewhere and watch the content.
Exactly, you know, 30 years back, the music was consumed like that. You have to sit in one place and listen to the music. Then workmen came in and the music was consumed in the car, music was consumed in the gym, music was consumed everywhere, except sitting in one place and listening to music, right?
That's what happened in the video. Okay, you're consuming video while you're travelling, you're doing other things. And when that happens, the core of that video, the consumption, will also expand.
Okay, when you are travelling, you are looking at a very snackable video content, user-generated or microdrama. Both are competing in that space when a person has a limited time, can't commit to a large story or an intense story, they want to consume video. Okay, earlier perhaps they used to talk, earlier they used to observe nature.
Okay, while coming from the Bombay train, but now they want to watch a video. If they want to watch a video, both user-generated content and microdrama will fight for their attention. And there are two things.
One is that free, when you're watching free, you basically scroll without any guilt. But when you pay, you demand quality. Right, so that will evolve on its own.
Okay, then there is this thing of serious content. Okay, are we losing, are the serious content or professionally made content losing its share to user-generated content? I don't think so.
I think what has happened is that a person who is watching two hours of video is now watching 10 hours of video. Okay, that has expanded. Like people have started eating a lot.
Okay, it's not that, so I don't think they actually fight for it, there will be some competition in terms of attention. You need to be very good for somebody to commit a couple of hours to watch. So, if you look at the movies, there are hardly any average movies.
Either you have a flop or you have a hit. The good movies really work. The not so good movies don't work.
So, this is not, you know, average movies. I don't see a lot of average long format shows in future. Okay, there will be shows which will become hits and there will be shows which will be rejected.
But an average show which people watch because of habit, which happened in the early part of television evolution, I don't see that happening. Because why would you watch an average show when there is so much available everywhere.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: I remember Prasoon telling me that but what you said about food, eventually that leads to problems of type 2 diabetes and obesity. What that content will do to our brains and change the wiring, I don't know, but that's I think for researchers and other people too.
Danish Khan: There will be gym, there will be diet and which will be curated content perhaps in future as the content becomes so high. I understand you and I curate content for you, which is right for you. Perhaps that's the next thing that will come.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: So, I think it is needed because I'm always behind on the shows I'm on and let's say I'm like a very high capacity consumer, but others also, I find people are and then there are markets which have nothing. You know, tier 2, tier 3, why is Dangal TV so popular? Why is YouTube so popular?
So, there's that whole market where an MX player for example, will probably know. Okay, last couple of things. One is and if again, you can say this in context of Sony but I would rather that you said it in the broader context, the 2-3 big trends you see because I see a lot of consolidation has happened at the buying end and at the broadcast or the platform end.
So, you have now 5-6 companies, you know, whether it's a Jio Hotstar, Sony, you have a Meta, Google, you know, these are 5-6-7 PVR, INOX, YOLO platforms and then there is a whole lot of content making thing. But where, if you were to ask, I was to ask you, what are the 2-3 trends which will define this business in the next, I don't know, whatever you choose the number of years, 10 years, 5 years, what will they be?
Danish Khan: First thing first, okay, devices. Okay, I think the fact is that the devices are becoming the new distributors.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: You said this earlier.
Danish Khan: So, smart TVs, mobile phones, you know, like we used to have MSOs and we have MSOs and DTH operators. I think the device company is going to be the distributor. That's one trend.
Okay. And that being present in the device is going to be critical. That's number one.
Okay. Two, with devices there are aggregators like Amazon or YouTube. YouTube just opened their subscription very successfully in the US and I'm sure they're going to replicate it across the countries.
What basically they're saying is that these are like what a multiplex or cinema theatres were. We have already got distribution and technology. Okay.
You build your brand and content, put it on us, on a subscription model or ad model that you want. So, what I see is that a lot of content brands are being created. It's a creator's economy, okay, which is going to be the big trend.
So, for example, you don't have to invest in distribution and technology. You can go straight to YouTube, on Amazon, or on aggregators. I'm sure the big telcos will obviously become aggregators in future.
So, all you have to do is to create your own brand, build your own consumer and deliver a good amount of content directly to them without bothering too much about technology and distribution. I think that's one trend we are seeing in independent influencer creators, but I think that will happen with professional content.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: And therefore, your positioning, sharp positioning helps.
Danish Khan: Yes. And I think many such independent studios will turn into B2C through the aggregators and through devices. So, I see the producers slash creators will have much more B2C play in future.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: But you saw it in broadcasting also. Balaji tried to launch its own platform or somebody else, but eventually you all need one big aggregate. Everybody needs one big platform to come to and on that platform, whether it's a Sony live or it's a Netflix, then I'm recognised.
This is an applause production. This is a Sriram Raghavan film or whatever.
Danish Khan: No, I think there is a slight difference. It's much beyond that. I think about digital.
Digital to me is two things or three things. One is that it's an easy way to connect with the digitisation. Basically means that creators can connect with consumers faster, cheaper and efficiently.
And the consumer gets a lot of choices. Let me just take a thing of Amazon. What Amazon did is that any writer is now accessible to anybody else.
And you can build your writing repertoire over Amazon. The physical distribution, the multiple people who would judge you, who would pass or not pass. I think those blocks are gone.
So, that's going to happen with the creator. They have already created the platform. The distribution is already there.
The reach is there. The monetization model is there.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Discoverability is there.
Danish Khan: So, there are two things, which is creating content and marketing. So, that will always stay. It's like a typical movie.
A producer would create a movie. Creation and marketing is the producer's job. And then distribution is safe.
So, I think that's a big one. And that's what we'll be defining in next. More and more direct.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Okay. Last thing. Big challenge to your mind.
What's a big challenge for this business going forward?
Danish Khan: Two things. I think typically, as I said, in this market and this world, I think a lot of times you put pressure on yourself looking at others. Okay.
And generally lose your position. Okay. And a lot many, there are very few like Apple who have stayed steadfast.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: They have the money to stay steadfast.
Danish Khan: No. I think it's a chicken and egg thing. Okay.
When they were smaller, they didn't try for a cheaper Apple product. Correct. Right.
They have become big because they've stayed focused with a particular philosophy about the product. Obviously, when they started, Nokia was big. The first market-based pressure would be that let's create some small low-cost product, but they didn't.
Okay. So, I think that is one thing which I think stay focused with a particular positioning, a particular offering, sustainable and organic can build big brands. So, I think staying steady on those courses is one of the biggest challenges in our times.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Hopefully, someone in LA is not saying anything.
Danish Khan: No, I think Sony has been very, very consistent with what I just spoke about.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: Wonderful. Thank you so much for this, Danish.
Danish Khan: Thank you, Vanita. It's very nice talking to you.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: But some of those points were very interesting. Thank you so much for being in the media.
Danish Khan: Thank you, Vanita.
