MUMBAI: 9XM, the most-watched music channel in India and the world's biggest Bollywood music channel from India's INX Network, turned one year old this month.
In a market where the youth population outstrips the entire population of the USA and Japan combined, 9XM hit Indian television sets in October last year with nothing in the way of mass media marketing and promotion. With its non-stop uncut Bollywood hits format, animated self-deprecating channel hosts, and an irreverent attitude - encapsulated in the brand slogan "Haq Se" (in English this can be translated as "It's my right") - the channel shot to number one within three weeks of its launch. It has since completely dominated the music and youth centric genre and today commands a 41% share of audience, leaving MTV and a raft of domestic channels in its wake.
"The 9XM brand has become part of the youth culture in India organically by giving young people a platform to express themselves", says Indrani Mukerjea, Founder & CEO - INX Media. "Our launch strategy was to let young people discover the channel for themselves and identify with the brand. It rapidly took on a life of its own when young people began to interact with the channel via SMS messaging and discuss the brand within their own peer groups and online communities. What we are witnessing now," says Mukerjea, "is that same phenomenon in other countries such as the United Kingdom as our distribution network expands, taking the universal appeal of Bollywood song and dance to new markets around the world."
Anthony Pettifer, Group Director Brand and Communications - INX Media, adds, "For advertisers 9XM is an excellent fit with the youth market for brands such as Coca-Cola and Vodafone which benefit not only from the viewer numbers but also from the unique characteristics of the channel and its presentation style. This," says Pettifer "is often done by integrating advertisers' messages and visual icons with the animated content in a natural, unforced way, where the advertiser's brand is positively associated with the viewer's affinity for 9XM."
One year on, 9XM reaches more than 56 million viewers each week in India alone, and its audience is still growing. The channel is available to more than 8 million subscribers on the BskyB platform in the United Kingdom, where it is also carried on the BBC/ITV satellite joint venture, freesat, making it possible for a huge British audience to experience the best of Bollywood music at any time they want. 9XM also reaches a large footprint covering Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Australasia, and in the pipeline are distribution plans which include the United States and other European countries.
Vikas Varma, Head, Music Entertainment Channels - INX Media, says, "In all, the channel can reach around 65 million viewers each week in more than 20 countries. SMS traffic to the channel is around 25,000 messages each day, and views of our animated VJ's video clips on community sites such as YouTube are in the tens of thousands. As Bollywood films become even more popular around the world, 9XM is well-positioned to become the window through which young people in other countries are introduced to the music and dance that is so integral to the fabric of modern Indian films, and which transcend language and cultural barriers to be appreciated by anyone, anywhere."
Bollywood films rank second only to Hollywood in the United States, doing more business there than films from any other country - and the same is true of Australia and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom Bollywood movies regularly enter the top ten listing, and in countries such as Germany, Bollywood films are often dubbed in German and shown regularly on TV.
As 9XM enters its second year of dominance in India and embarks on a broader mission to reach youth markets in other countries, its winning formula of back-to-back uncut Bollywood hits and no video jockeys to interrupt their flow is poised to continue filling a void in the music and entertainment television space.
"9XM has created a distinctive new space in music and entertainment that targets the needs and attitudes of youth, and not just the demographics", says Varma. "Thanks to its entertaining and innovative format and content we are entering our second year not only as the leading music and entertainment channel in India, but also as the World's biggest Bollywood music channel", he concludes.