MUMBAI: “Digitisation of the distribution pattern has given way to niche channels,” says Perfect Octave Media MD, Ratish Tagde keeping in mind his music channel InSync which covers an array of music genres from Indian classical music to sufi, ghazals, folk, fusion and many more. InSync knowingly doesn’t cater to one yet another large Indian classical music genre- Carnatic music that rules Southern India, as Perfect Octave Media has a different plan altogether that is to start a channel-Insync Veena.

Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Tagde says, “In India, there are two prominent stream of Indian Classical music- Hindustani music and Carnatic music. With Carnatic music, it is too difficult to include other genres like we have done with our existing music channel In Sync. We are carefully conceptualising In Sync Veena. We will surely keep the divinity and sanity needed for this genre of music in the channel.” Tagde states that Indian classical music space has been ignored by broadcaster and music channel. “Going into a niche channel one requires the passion and full-hearted support of the music Maestro.”

Speaking about In Sync’s latest development he says, “There are a limited number of viewers who will be interested in watching the channels as this channel is very niche. Due to this, we work in low cost model, so we cannot afford to appoint a whole marketing team. So we partnered with expertise in this field Aidem Ventures as media sales partner.” This partnership currently is for five years.

InSync is a pay channel already available on major MSOs including Hathway, InCable, DEN, GTPL, Fastway, Star and DIGI Cable. “We have covered 80 per cent of pan India through digital cable. Secondly, we would be approaching DTH platform. By the time, we acquire the platform most of the Indian cities will become digitised. As we are niche channel we are just targeting digital home and not analogue homes,” adds Tagde. In Sync that was launched on August 15 will be free for three to six months.

It is currently working on creating about 300 hours of content with musician who is skilled on their music genre. “We have music maestros like Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Rashid Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Sivamani and Hariharan contributing to the channel's content. We already possess 300 hours of original, HD quality, video content. By the end of the year, we will have 700 hours more,” adds Tagde.