Uday Sodhi is currently the EVP and Head - Digital Business at Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (Sony Entertainment). He has over 24 years of experience across verticals, including online talent acquisition, digital and mobile Entertainment, mobile VAS, search, e-commerce, web hosting, VoIP in India, among others.

He currently heads the digital business of Sony Entertainment Television and is responsible for growing its digital properties, including online entertainment portals like www.SonyLiv.com and www.LivSports.in. The group's mobile apps and mobile games also come under his purview.

Prior to this, he was CEO of HeadHonchos, a job search service, exclusively for senior management professionals. And before HeadHonchos, he was CEO of Balaji Telefilms' new media business, where he was responsible for building the mobile VAS, mobile entertainment and internet business for Balaji Telefilms.

At Balaji, Sodhi was credited for the launch of Hoonur.com, a talent portal that enables people to audition online. Prior to that, he was senior VP of Interactive Services at Rediff.com, and before that he worked with Net4India and Bausch and Lomb India.

Sodhi is a post graduate in marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). 

In this exclusive interview with Ratnika Swami for India Digital Review, Sodhi talks about Sony’s strategies to strengthen its mobile offerings to consumers, the future of VoD platforms in India and the importance of providing relevant content across multiple channels. Excerpts:  

Q. You launched Sony LIV two years ago. How has the response been so far?

Sony LIV gets 5-7 million monthly visitors online, while the mobile app has been downloaded 15 million times. Our presence across diverse digital platforms like mobile, online, telecom and YouTube is quite strong and these are important sources of revenue for us. We are growing at a rate which is faster than the projected digital market growth.

Increase in mobile internet connectivity, low tariffs and introduction of cheaper smartphones has led to huge increase in consumption of video content on mobile. The consumer today is looking for content on the go, thus making mobile a key focus. As a result, we launched a number of apps including KBC Play Along, creating a second screen experience allowing viewers to answer questions with the contestants and win prizes. We also have the KBC Official App allowing fans to engage with the show any time they want. We’ve had approx. 2 million downloads for the KBC suite of apps and over 13 million downloads for both Sony LIV and LIV Sports.

Q. Could you please share a brief about the current strategy and direction that Sony is taking in digital in India. What are some of the key things you will be driving personally? 

We will strengthen our mobile offerings to consumer and our agenda is to make 2015 the Year of Mobile Entertainment and deliver great content through product innovations on SonyLiv.com and LivSports.in. We will continue to grow and scale. We will continue to innovate and engage our users by establishing our marquee properties in the new media space. 

Q. How is the digital media affecting TV viewership in India? What key changes have you observed in the past few years?

Digital media won’t affect TV viewership as they both cater to different set of audiences. With the emergence of the second screen we see a paradigm shift in the way today’s consumer consume content. A typical consumer is present across multiple screens at the same time, he is watching the TV, surfing the internet on his tab as well as checking the phone to connect or chat with friends. 

The emergence of new digital platforms, connected devices, video portals, increasing bandwidth and changing consumer habits for anywhere, anytime, any device binge viewing is augmenting the online consumption story in India. Latest report released from ComScore notes rapid growth in online video consumption in India where video consumption has doubled in the past two years to 3.7 billion videos per month. This burgeoning growth has been driven by a sizeable increase in the number of online video viewers, in addition to increasing consumption per viewer. 

Q. What do think is the future of Video On Demand (VoD) platforms in India? And where does LIV Sports feature in this?

VOD is here to stay and grow. Today, content distribution and content consumption has gone democratic and there is relevant content present for all types of audience across multiple channels. Video On Demand (VoD) platforms are bound to grow with time as digital is not bound by any constraint of time and space, thereby enabling viewing from anywhere, anytime and from wherever possible. Today’s netizens stay connected all the time on their mobiles and tablets and they want their share of entertainment likewise. Consumers want to engage, interact and consume content at their terms, at their convenience and in their method.

Sony LIV is the one point digital destination into the world of Sony Entertainment Network. It offers interactive, rich and immersive user experience through various innovative features. Users can use the Mood Wheel on Sony LIV to watch their favorite video as per their mood/genre; they can create playlists of their choicest of shows through My Q and be rewarded as a LIV Guru, by consuming Sony LIV content.  In addition to original complete content, Sony LIV also offers short content formats like Catch-up episodes, Quickisodes and Short crunch episodes. The premier Video on Demand brand is available online and on other platforms such as on Android, Apple IOS, Java, Windows 8, Sony connected-TVs, Blackberry Z10 and Nokia mobile phones.

LIV sports offers both VOD as well as LIVE video content. The idea behind the launch of LIV Sports was to create a premier digital sports entertainment destination where we will offer quality content which is mass inclusive and not designed to cater only to ardent sports fans. We have attempted to redefine the way sporting content is presented and consumed. It kicked off as the official mobile and Internet broadcaster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup TM and then went on to acquire mobile and Internet broadcast rights for the South African RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series for India, Vijay Amritraj backed Champions Tennis League, the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament and the Australian Open.

Q. A few years back, TV channels and production houses started experimenting with digital, but the two medias are still seen largely as separate. Do you think the time is ripe for the marriage of TV and digital? How do you think will the integration be achieved? 

The TV is here to stay and won’t be replaced by the Internet. But, based on the younger crowd, we can confidently say that the Internet as an entertainment viewing option has a very healthy user base. However, TV will continue to remain a primary media activity as it far outweighs alternative video viewing methods in terms of total time spent.

TV shows are simultaneously tapping into digital and mobile platforms as consumer’s video consumption behavior is changing into “Cross –platform intake” or “platform agnostic” intake. 

Q. Apart from your mobile apps, most of your videos are also hosted on YouTube. With the growing popularity of YouTube, do you think the video consumption on your mobile apps has suffered or do you think the overall market has expanded to include all media?

No, video consumption on mobile apps have not suffered because of YouTube. On the contrary, Sony LIV has seen consistent growth in video consumption on mobile. The category is expanding – so we don’t see YouTube hurting content consumption on our platforms.

Q. Recently, it was reported that within the next six months, Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd (MSM) is looking to produce original shows for its online site and mobile application, Sony LIV. Could you elaborate on that? 

Yes. MSM is in talks with independent producers and filmmakers to create a few shows, expected to go live on its digital platform (Sony LIV.com and Sony LIV app) in June. 

Q. Will this new content be available exclusively on Sony LIV, or will other platforms also be used to scale up distribution?

New and original content will be available on both Sony LIV and YouTube and we will see what other platforms we could take the content to, in order to scale up distribution.

Q.  What is your current revenue model for Sony LIV & LIV Sports?

Presently, both Sony LIV and LIV Sports are advertiser funded platforms.