In Conversation with Krishna Menon, Chief Operating Officer, QYOU Media India

In recent years, the way we consume television has undergone a remarkable transformation. Traditional broadcast television is no longer the sole source of entertainment in our living rooms. Connected TV, also known as Smart TV or Internet TV, has emerged as a dominant force, revolutionizing how we access and experience our favorite shows, movies, and content. As the popularity of Connected TV continues to soar, industry experts are closely monitoring its current growth trajectory and speculating on its future and in an exclusive interaction with Krishna Menon, Chief Operating Officer, QYOU Media India ,he shared his thoughts on the current state of Connected TV and its exciting prospects for the future.

AR- Can you discuss the current growth trajectory of Connected TV (CTV) and its future potential in India? How is QYOU Media India positioning itself to capitalize on this growth?

Krishna- According to various reports, it has been noted that the current growth trajectory for connected TV (CTV) is between 20-25 million and is further expected to grow by 60 million in the next two to three years. The introduction of 5G and the decline in data pricing have significantly boosted CTV’s growth in India. Recent data highlights that 90% of India has switched to smart TVs, and therefore we must keep an eye on how Smart TV is evolving into Connected TV.

QYOU Media India is making significant strides to establish itself as a player in the Connected TV market, and we are currently looking at launching various channels. In India, CTVs are about to experience a massive explosion. The entire CTV space will be turned into a major play in the upcoming year. By the time it hits its peak, we want to make sure that we have at least 8 to 10 FAST channels available. Given their tastes and choices, QYOU Media India offers a wide variety of content to CTV viewers. We are also looking at accelerating content on these channels with respect to different genres.

AR- Could you share insights into the demographic that engages in cross-media content consumption? How does QYOU Media India tailor its content to cater to this specific audience?

Krishna- The industry currently only has a partial understanding of how people engage with cross-media content. Tracking user behaviour and performance across platforms is challenging due to fragmented measurements across several channels. The absence of a unified system leads to inconsistencies in measuring the effectiveness of an ad campaign.

When it comes to offering content to viewers, we are extremely genre-focused. We have a kids’ channel called ‘The Q Kahaniyan’, and a gaming channel called ‘Q GameX’ which is the one-stop destination for existing and budding gamers. By understanding the demographic that engages in cross-media content consumption and tailoring its content accordingly, we at QYOU Media India aim to attract, engage, and retain a loyal audience in an increasingly competitive and fragmented media landscape.

AR- What is your opinion on cross-media measurement? How does QYOU Media India approach measuring and analyzing the success of its content across different media platforms?

Krishna- Since there is no set method for evaluating cross-media, we can compare the CTV and broadcast reports we receive to understand the consumption patterns, as the cross-media content consumption is typically diverse and spans different age groups, interests, and socio-economic backgrounds. However, certain trends and preferences can be observed among the audience. We have witnessed massive content consumption coming from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, while our broadcast channel is focused on a different audience set. Hence, there is no direct relevance to this. In the near future, marketers hope to have everything under one roof at some point when evaluating the success of an advertising campaign. This would be an ideal situation, but we haven’t reached here as yet.

AR- Connected TV platforms offer opportunities to leverage advertiser-brand relationships. How does QYOU Media India utilize these platforms to strengthen such relationships and deliver value to advertisers?

Krishna- At QYOU Media India, we cater to advertisers’ needs based on the campaign requirements because we have numerous digital-centric product offerings. By leveraging connected TV platforms, QYOU Media India provides targeted advertising, data-driven insights, brand integration, customised ad experiences, measurement capabilities, and collaboration opportunities to deliver significant value to advertisers. As a result, relationships between brands and advertisers are strengthened, and long-term collaborations are encouraged, positioning QYOU Media India as a reliable and successful advertising partner.

AR- In terms of QYOU Media India’s digital distribution strategy, how are you working to strengthen it? Are there any specific initiatives or partnerships that have proven successful in expanding the reach of QYOU Media’s content?

Krishna- We started this journey three years ago with a ‘digital-first’ strategy, when we were not present on traditional distribution networks but we were already available on the digital networks.

At QYOU Media India, we have a unique proposition of not only bringing the digital ecosystem on linear TV for our viewers, but also catering to the digital-first audiences who are cutting the cord and moving towards the connected TV ecosystem, thereby exponentially building ourselves as a holistic entertainment network in India. To drive synergies between linear TV and digital, and capture newer and wider audience segments, we have strengthened our presence on Connected TV through partnerships with major smart TV players. With an intent to augment our content distribution, we offer the CTV users our content library across various genres, like Hindi entertainment with Q TV, young adult and kids animation channel with The Q Kahaniyan, eSports with Q GameX, Marathi entertainment with Q Marathi, and now we have entered the spiritual lifestyle genre with Sadhguru TV powered by QYOU Media. As a young entertainment brand, making digital-native content available for viewers on connected TV and linear TV provides us with an opportunity to open doors to millions of viewers and give our content a place and platform of its own.

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AR- QYOU Media’s Q PLAY has been instrumental in leveraging audience scale. Could you elaborate on how Q Play works and how it has helped in engaging and growing the audience for QYOU Media India?

Krishna- Q PLAY is QYOU Media India’s first direct-to-consumer free-to-watch app that carries QYOU Media India’s FAST (Free ad-supported TV) channels across various genres. The app is designed to consolidate all the channels right from the Hindi GEC to kids animation, eSports, Marathi entertainment, to spiritual lifestyle channels, along with snackable VOD content, all under one roof. Q PLAY is an offering that helps us to leverage our audience scale and employ a direct relationship with them in the digital universe. Through the app, we aim to reach out to the cord-cutters beyond the metro cities. The launch of Q PLAY has opened a myriad of new possibilities, enabling us to be independent in addition to relying upon third-party platforms for distribution. The app is available to download on the Google Play store and can also be directly downloaded across 100+ leading Smart TV brands and your mobile devices.

AR- QYOU Media India offers branded content across broadcast TV, connected (Smart) TVs, and app-based platforms. Can you highlight some of the successful branded content offerings and the impact they have had on both the audience and brand partners?

Krishna- Since the launch of QYOU Media India, we have been introducing universally appealing channels that are genre-defining. We recently entered into a partnership with a globally recognised spiritual leader, Sadhguru, to launch a new eponymous channel dedicated to delivering his holistic and inspirational spiritual and wellness programming. Our partnership with the Isha Foundation for the launch of ‘Sadhguru TV’ on Connected TV is a testament to our commitment to our viewers. The channel’s thought-provoking programming is sure to take viewers on a transformative journey filled with growth and self-discovery. We are certain that the channel will keep viewers engaged positively and help us build QYOU Media India as a one-stop destination for quality and differentiated content. We will continue to explore more such branded content partnerships to serve relevant content to our target audiences.

AR- Looking ahead, what is the way forward for QYOU Media India? Are there any new strategies, expansions, or innovations that the company is planning to implement to further enhance its presence and offerings in the Indian market?

Krishna- QYOU Media India aims to be the preferred destination for advertisers to target a particular audience and give them multiple types of audiences in a fragmented way. In accordance with the type of media they utilise, we can also assign them a certain audience. If a specialised agency wants to run a particular campaign, we can also consider doing a campaign with the help of our influencer marketing company, Chtrbox. By strengthening our capabilities with Maxamtech, we look forward to greater opportunities to reach out to our audiences with new products driven by innovation and interactivity. In the next two to three years, we are looking at expanding our content offerings to audiences across multiple genres. We also want to look at how we address every audience segment that is looking for a certain piece of content.