Playboy in India: Sari, no
nudity By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Is India ready for Playboy?
The world's top-selling men's magazine is looking
to launch in India, but in keeping with
conservative mind-sets it will not carry its
signature nudes - at least for now.
However, once entrenched, it's anybody's
guess whether the magazine will go all the way
given an opportunity and the industry's stiff
competition.
Playboy is currently in talks
over starting a men's magazine that would not only
be free of nudity but also would not use its
trademark name, chief executive Christie Hefner
said last week.
Hefner, daughter of Playboy
founder Hugh Hefner, considers India the company's
boldest venture.
"This is quite a departure
for us," she told the Reuters Media and
Advertising Summit. "We are interested in the
possibility of going to India, but it wouldn't be
what we call classic Playboy. It would be an
extension of Playboy that would be focused around
the l
ifestyle, pop culture, celebrity, fashion,
sports and interview elements of Playboy. But it
would not have nudity and I don't think it would
be called Playboy."
The proposed launch of
Playboy or its "extension" suggests a lucrative,
Indian market of young spenders and readers in a
rapidly growing workforce that is increasingly
more attractive to foreign media players looking
to make forays into the country. It's the same
reason foreign retailers, mobile phone
manufacturers, automakers, airlines, luxury
brands, banks, insurers, telecom players and many
more are making a beeline to India.
And
the reading market is large. According to Indian
Media Observer/FIPP, "the reach of India's print
media (dailies and magazines combined) has
increased from 179 million to 200 million people
in the last three years, according to the National
Readership Survey, 2005. Though the urban
readership share fell from 48% to 46%, the reach
increased from 17% to 19% in rural areas. In
addition, the survey says that the number of
readers in rural India was almost equal to urban
India because of rising literacy rates." Out of
the 18 main languages in the country the highest
readership is in Hindi, followed by English, which
amounts to India's second unofficial language.
Circulations and readership are booming at
a time when American and European newspapers are
reporting declines in sales. With nearly 80
million copies sold daily, India is next only to
China, where about 93 million copies are sold
daily, according to data released this year by the
Seoul-based World Association of Newspapers.
More than US$1.5 billion per year is spent
in print advertising and $1 billion for TV.
According to a report by management consultancy
firm KPMG, 64 million Indian homes will be linked
to cable and satellite connections by 2007. By
then, the overall revenues of TV broadcasters are
expected to shoot up to $3 billion.
India
Daily reported in July that "the overall Indian
print market is set to grow at the compounded
annual growth rate of 6.9% (compared to a growth
rate of 2.7% for the Asia-Pacific region) and will
be worth $2.4 billion in 2008 from $1.8 billion in
2004, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers
study."
Playboy, which will soon be
available in Argentina and possibly return to
Italy and Australia as joint ventures, announced
its India plans in wake of the gradual opening of
the Indian market to foreign publications, a
process that started in 2002. In the latest move
the Indian government has allowed foreign
investment in non-news publications up to 100%.
Foreign holdings are allowed up to 26% in Indian
newspapers and television channels.
The
current laws permit selling foreign newspapers but
not printing them. Foreign newspapers are
available in India, printed in neighboring
countries and normally late to arrive. After the
latest changes in the statutes, foreign newspapers
can launch facsimile editions of their
international editions after incorporating local
subsidiaries in India. Foreign magazines can be
imported free of duty and with ease.
Since
the opening up of foreign investment, several big
international players have entered the Indian
newspaper and television market, attracted by high
consumer spending and rising advertising revenue.
It is estimated that foreign majors have already
invested about $300 million into the Indian media
industry and a further $250 million is expected in
the near future.
The British Independent
News & Media paid $34 million for a stake in
Jagran Prakashan, a Hindi-language daily publisher
and television broadcaster. Reuters entered into
an agreement with Bennett, Coleman and Co,
publisher of The Times of India newspaper, for an
English-language TV news channel, which is
expected to start this year.
Pearson's
Financial Times has paid $3 million for almost 14
% of the Business Standard, the country's
second-largest business daily newspaper. Dow Jones
has started its own partnership with Bennett,
Coleman to print The Asian Wall Street Journal.
Henderson Private Capital's Asia Fund, a private
equity fund, has bought a $20 million stake in The
Hindustan Times. Singapore-based Standard
Chartered Private Equity Ltd has invested $11
million in New Delhi satellite broadcaster NDTV,
which runs two popular news channels.
Other high-profile discussions and tie-ups
include BusinessWeek and CyberMedia, a leading
Indian publisher of information technology
magazines; The Intelligent Computing Chip,
published by TBW Publishing; Par Golf from
Exposure Media and Walt Disney. Media giants such
as Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal and Time Warner
have shown interest. Existing financial content
and data-processing companies such as Dow Jones,
Reuters, Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse (AFP),
operating through 100% subsidiaries, have looked
at fresh equity partnerships.
However, for
a magazine such as Playboy, apart from competition
from existing multi-media sources, it is the
nature of content that will be scrutinized and
open it to attack. For all the talk about a
lifestyle magazine, nobody expects the publication
to stray too far from what makes it famous and
accounts for its sales. Still, over the last five
years overall magazine readership has declined by
more than 7% and advertisement revenue is being
eroded by television. Also, magazine prices are
generally low as this is a price-sensitive market,
with most sales coming through the newsstands.
Meanwhile, the second aspect of the
Playboy launch is about an Indian people being
exposed to cultural cross-currents that comes with
free thought, new technology, competition and
capitalism as opposed to the previous dogmas of
socialistic and conservative society that are
being slowly turned around. It is in this latter
facet in which problems could arise.
Given
the colonial hangover, there are many who are more
than willing to cry themselves hoarse when an
issue revolves around the imperial power, US, and
its deleterious cultural and social effects. Coca
Cola has faced the brunt of such protests in
India. Change can happen only slowly. Perhaps a
culled version of Playboy is a realization of this
reality. The magazine will have to be careful.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing
.)
ifestyle, pop culture, celebrity, fashion,
sports and interview elements of Playboy. But it
would not have nudity and I don't think it would
be called Playboy." 
