Viacom18 expands horizon, tunes into live events

With an eye on this segment, the media and entertainment company is gearing up to transform Pune into a musical haven with its flagship Vh1 Supersonic festival later this month. As a lead-up to the main event, the company has already organised Supersonic Club Nights throughout the year and the Supersonic Arcade, which are sub-brands that occur before the main festival.

“We’ve seen large consumer interest (for live events) especially post covid and people are willing to get out of their homes and spend on quality experiences,” Gaurav Mashruwala, business head, Viacom18 Live (Integrated Network Solutions) said in an interview. 

“At first, we thought these were signs of revenge consumption after the pandemic but the numbers have sustained and the number of shows being held have increased over the last year,” Mashruwala added.

Post-pandemic recovery continues for India’s live-events industry which is curating everything from music festivals to multiple-city comedy tours for young audiences craving outdoor experiences.

While the initial enthusiasm for such events was attributed to revenge consumption, as people emerged after being confined to their homes by covid-19, footfall have mostly sustained, industry experts said, with smaller cities joining the list of patrons for such events.

The live events industry was one of the hardest hit by the covid-19 pandemic. Mint had earlier reported that organized events and activations is a ₹10,000 crore industry in India but if the unorganized segment is included, the industry size could be ₹5 trillion.

The business in India is dominated by players, such as BookMyShow, which often bring international artistes to the country. The industry is also seeing new entrants like Zomato which has launched a dedicated tab on the app, that help users discover and engage with events across cities.

Despite its stronghold in film production, distribution, TV, and OTT content creation, Viacom18 is exploring various segments to enhance its entertainment portfolio.

That said, industry experts point out that the company’s television and OTT play is significantly bigger than its live events business, given that the latter faces traditional challenges like that of venues and infrastructure in India besides stiff competition.

These developments come in the backdrop of strategic moves by Viacom18’s majority shareholder, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, reportedly nearing a deal with American entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney to buy its assets in India.

Reliance will likely pick a 60% stake in this new company for $2.28 billion–$2.4 billion, valuing Disney’s India assets between $3.8 billion and $4 billion.

Mashruwala said the Supersonic festival spans multiple music genres including EDM (electronic dance music), techno and reggae, among others. Prominent names such as Major Lazer Soundsystem, Adam Beyer, King, Yotto, Denis Horvat, Hamdi, Patrice Bäumel, The Midnight, Arjun Vagale, Browncoat, Kohra, Taba Chake, among others performed at the event.

Budweiser Beats are on board as the title sponsors with Nexa as co-sponsor, along with Maybelline as the beauty partner and Jose Cuervo Magarita Mix as the celebration partner.

Besides the Supersonic event, Viacom18 has organised dandiya nights in Ahmedabad which is being expanded to more territories in Gujarat and other events targeted at kids and families in cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

“Three major streams—ticketing, brands and F&B make up 90% of our revenue. We saw around 65,000-70,000 people attend the festival over three days last year and we’re hoping to cross the number this year,” Mashruwala said.

While ticket prices and footfall have increased for live events post covid, sponsorships are down and moving more towards content partnerships, Roshan Abbas, founder of Kommune, a performing arts collective for storytellers, had earlier told Mint. “All brands have realized that an on-ground presence is good to have, but user-generated and creator-led content is far more relevant,” he pointed out.

Milestone Alert!
Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.

Here’s your comprehensive 3-minute summary of all the things Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech: Click to download!

Published: 06 Feb 2024, 01:11 PM IST