MUMBAI: Even though major music channels are shifting focus from their original formats of back to back music, Sony Mix is determined to maintain its position as a pure music channel and is cashing on aficionados by offering a wide variety in the segment.

Launched in September 2011, Sony Mix has well established itself in the league of leading music channels within a short span of nine months. Aiming to offer more music to its viewers in a differed way, the channel will soon launch the second edition of its popular show ‘Yun Bana ye Song’ with ace lyricist Swanand Kirkire. Slated to launch in September, the show will feature Kirkire in conversation with 13 celebrities from the music fraternity narrating interesting trivia and anecdotes behind the making of tracks ranging from the 60s till now.

The channel has also recently launched two new segments ‘Mix Voices’ and ‘Mix Solo’. While ‘Voices’ features common man from different walks of life singing tracks of varied genres, ‘Mix Solo’ comprises of artistes like Shaan, Javed Ali and Shafqat Amanat Ali. The artistes sing a line of their popular tracks or their favourite tracks which is then accompanied by a trivia or anecdote related culminating it with another line of the track.

Speaking about the new shows with Radioandmusic.com, Sony Mix EVP and business head Neeraj Vyas says, “We are doing small changes in our programming and have introduced these new segments. We wanted to be seen purely as a music channel hence we eliminated things like humour or animated characters as they have no relation with the basic music content on our channel.”

Inching up its way on the leader board, the channel also has plans to launch in the international markets of US and UK within the next six months. The onus now lies on the channel to maintain its position and achieve greater heights at a time when other music channels are following the usual route of turning into youth based general entertainment channels, offering music along with reality based content.

“We are definitely not going to reposition ourselves like other major players have done recently. We want to be as musical as possible. Unfortunately we are restricted only to bollywood music currently but are working on that front also. There are plenty of genres in the market but the quality needs to be good and it should blend with our model as well,” he affirms.

The channel currently caters to around 70 per cent of the music market in India with its key markets positioned in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and all metros excluding the capital. Vyas states, “Unfortunately Delhi does not give us the kind of eyeballs that we expect. If we look at the ratings, the city does not give us the mass we need and is not a music friendly market for us.”

Mix also aims to improve its distribution services in areas like Bengal, Jharkhand and Punjab with the onset of digitization helping it further expand its reach. With the strong arm of Sony’s brand reach on the channel’s shoulders, promotions and marketing have not been a cause of concern for Mix. The assortment of shows in its repertoire including Indian Premier League and Indian Idol amongst others featured promos of the channel throughout the entire season.

Vyas agrees that Sony’s brand value has definitely helped the channel a great deal. “Sony’s leverage as a brand has definitely helped us a great deal in terms of promotions and marketing. Its different properties have indeed helped us a great deal. The brand in itself is so powerful that they expect quality and that’s what we deliver to them,” he expresses.

Since its launch, Mix has offered music in varied segments like ‘Surili Subah’, ‘Ishq Vishq’ and ‘Raina Beeti Jaaye’ amongst others. The move has indeed proved quite successful for the channel in terms of viewership and revenues as most of the leading advertisers have joined the Mix bandwagon. The set pattern with dedicated time bands has helped the channel largely in achieving its targets and growing GRPs.

Commenting on the same, Vyas says, “If its four plus, then we have achieved anywhere between 12 and a half to 14 which I think is fairly decent for us as a channel who has been in the market for about eight- nine months. Given the fact that we are available in only 70 per cent of the market, we are fairly happy with the ratings. But if we can consolidate our position as a true blue music channel with a defined perception, it would make us happier.”

Most music channels like MTV have witnessed success in its reality based musical content like CokeStudio inspite of sticking to its format of offering quality based music content to its viewers. Inspired by this, most channels have now launched their versions of such reality shows cluttering the wide arena of segmented channels. But Sony Mix differs with the view and does not witness itself in the fiction based environment at all.

Vyas claims, “Even the thought of making this move does not cross our mind. There is a lot to do in the music stream as well. There are different musical forms like bollywood, pop, instrumental and ghazals that one can adopt. And with digitization around the corner, it will surprise people as they will have a lot to choose from. More and more niche channels are going to do well now.”

One of the most recent examples of the switchover was Channel V who turned into a complete general entertainment channel airing youth and reality based shows while ceasing to air bollywood music completely. While industry insiders state it as a temporarily profitable move, there are some who believe that youth now need much more than just music and the move will be beneficial to the channel in the long run.

Commenting on the move, Vyas says, “They experimented with fiction as early as a year back and they have managed to create some good fiction content which seems to be working for them. And the slot of the youth GEC is wide open. The numbers may not grow beyond a certain point, but if it fits their expectations or business plan I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

While Channel V has completely changed its format, other music channels are still jumping from one segment to the other trying to offer their audiences a wide mix of music, movies, shows and more. While this may help the networks in achieving their targets for an interim period, but in turn it is only trying to dilute the position of the channel and what it stands for.

“They have very clearly decided not to be a music channel and turn towards the youth segment which is totally different. We cannot compare as each channel in itself is a niche. But it just gives us more clarity in what we are doing. Our journey only gets more interesting now. As we have a lot of things to do and a long way ahead. Even as far as music is concerned we have only touched the tip of the iceberg,” he concludes.