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Tune into technology

Menka Shivdasani

Get set for a treat if you are a fan of sci-fi films. The Technology Media Group has organised a movie festival, showcasing 28 top sci-fi movies over seven days in leading cinema halls across the country. It is on in Mumbai between May 18-24, then it mov es on to Hyderabad (June 1-7), Delhi (June 22-28), Calcutta (July 6-12) and Bangalore (July 20-27). On offer are films such as Jurassic Park, Batman and Robin, Godzilla and Star Wars, among others.

Technology Media who, did you ask? Well, if you are a computer buff and a couch potato (what a lethal combination that is!) you will have noticed a channel called TMG Enter. It started as a 15-minute programme on information technology on DD Metro in 199 6, grew to become the popular show IT Hour on Asianet and then on CNBC Asia, and metamorphosised into a 24-hour technology channel on April 3, 2000. Complementing the channel are IndianITonline.com, a comprehensive IT portal, and CIO (India), a twin mont hly magazine.

Achal Mehra, who joined TMG as President a little over two months ago, says that the festival is aimed at increasing the awareness of TMG as well as providing an opportunity for the viewers to experience the channel first-hand. According to him, the chan nel now reaches 7.5 million homes across the country. ``With rapid organic growth TMG expects to reach close to 10 million homes,'' he adds.

``Our core target audience is the IT industry professionals, or techies as we call them,'' he explains. ``The outer circle of our target audience comprises Internet users, which according to the latest surveys is about five million already and growing.''

Subhanjan Sarkar, chairman of the group, has been closing monitoring the technology sector since way before the dot com boom and its subsequent crash. Apart from launching a show on the industry in 1996, and keeping it going over the years, he has also p ublished the first ever-comprehensive source file on Indian information technology containing a database of about 5,000 companies from across the country. It is this expertise that he brings to the channel.

``With the growth of the IT industry in the last five years, the IT industry has grown to an over eight billion turnover and yet the industry does not have focused media vehicles to deliver the relevant target audience,'' Mehra says. ``That is a need tha t TMG Enter addresses. Since TMGs revenue comes from technology companies, and not dot coms, the channel has not been affected by the downturn,'' he adds.

The company, headquartered in Bangalore, currently has nearly 200 employees spread over print, television and online initiatives in offices at Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. Its core mission partners are Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), MindTree Consul ting, Quality Assurance Institute, RCTC (an IFCI subsidiary), Ma Foi Consultants, Canbank Venture Capital Funds Limited and Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL). ``TMG's mission partners,'' says Mehra, ``are committed to invest resources to strengthen TMGs delivery mechanism and aid in distribution infrastructure, besides providing strategic inputs to TMG's initiatives.''

TMG Enter is best identified by IT Hour, which has completed more than 1,000 episodes. ``IT Hour as a programme basically focuses on how IT enables non-IT industry,'' says Nivedita Mukherjee, Director, Content. Last week, between May 14-20, IT Hour had a special seven-hour healthcare special, focusing on areas ranging from the technology and business of drug research to telemedicine and the business opportunities for the healthcare segment.

``Since we have recently witnessed a huge amount of technological research done in the areas of life-sciences and healthcare, this special programme is our salutation to this endeavour,'' Mukherjee adds.

The channel produces more than five hours of original programming every day, including TMG News, City Diary, Zindagi Online and Breakthrough. ``Our programming is targeted towards the industry (B2B) as well as consumers (B2C),'' explains Mehra. Whereas t he first segment happens to be more information skewed, our B2C programming led by Zindagi On Line already has a lot of entertainment content in it.

There are currently over 20 advertisers on TMG. Pentamedia, Cerebra, Netcraft, Aptech are some of the early advertisers on the channel. Mehra is of the opinion that they are now beginning to get some consumer brands such as Tata Indica, TVS Fiero etc com ing on to the channel. ``Our first year has been focussed on getting the distribution in place and now we are beginning to focus on our sales efforts,'' he says.

TMG Enter is also closely monitoring viewer response, both quantitative and qualitative, and Mehra point out that they should have some definite feedback on viewers perceptions and expectations in about three months time. ``The increasing volume of e-mai ls,'' he says, ``has been very encouraging. ''

``In the cluttered Indian market, where even niches such as music, edutainment etc have plenty of channels, TMG is the first channel of its kind in Asia, and hence very uniquely positioned, '' he believes.

A channel such as this one may not be the first choice of those who prefer soaps and game shows, but for those who are interested in cutting-edge technology, it certainly fulfills a vital role. Tune in!

The author can be contacted at menkashivdasani@ftnetwork.com.

Picture: A still from the film, Godzilla, part of the movie festival organised by the TMG group.