Fourth Dimensions Media Solutions, a company well known in South India for its media outsourcing services — especially driving ad sales for television channels — has now completed 9 years in the business. Launched on 7th February, 2011, Fourth Dimension Media has been thriving under the leadership of CEO Shankar Bala ever since.
MediaNews4U spoke to Shankar Bala about Nine years of Fourth Dimension Media, and his future plans for the organisation:
Excerpts:
Congratulations, on FD completing 9 years, how has the journey been so far?
The Journey has been really exhilarating – from the time we started. Like every company we have seen our Up’s and down in the last 9 years, thanks to our promoters – SRM Group we have been able to sail through each time. The mission for Fourth Dimension is to be a one stop shop for all Media needs be it Television, Print, Radio and Digital, we have stood to that I feel.
Who are your competitors in this domain?
I don’t know frankly. When the idea was mooted close to a decade ago, this wasn’t launched to keep a tab on who will be our competitors. The whole point was to offer a Gateway to South to a lot of broadcasters who find it difficult to connect with advertisers here. I feel there is room for everyone to grow.
Coming to the Large Format Events (B2B) – how did this occur to you? and why Chennai first?
During my meetings with clients and agencies all over India – my observation was that they either knew very little about TN as a state or it was more of hear-say which I felt was bad. South India Media Summit (2018) was initiated to be a knowledge session for both clients, agencies and the people at large (who attended the summit). Seeing the success of SIMS 1, we started SIMS 2 and then Mobile Conclave in Coimbatore.
Chennai is where we belong to. TN is a P1 market for a lot of clients and brands and continues to be, hence that was the first choice.
So, is right to say Fourth Dimension – is more of TV, less of Digital and less of Events etc – Take us through!
Fourth Dimension is like a Thaali (Full Fledged Meal). We offer Rice, Roti etc. we never restrict ourselves to one medium – we are that way medium agnostic. Today our products are flagship Digital brands in 2 large south states (Tamil & Telugu) and take TV in South (PT and V6 News). We are probably one of the few Media Outsourcing companies to have done an international tribute concert in Mumbai for ‘Queen’ and we did a similar one with ‘Rolling Stones and Scorpions’ and also developed content for some channels in India which was again first of its kind.
What are your future plans for Fourth Dimension?
It’s our endeavor to spread knowledge qualitatively about South India – all 5 states. We would like to take our events to smallest of towns
Take us through your team?
Bharath is the COO and Regional Heads – Thyagraj ( West ), Balakrishnan (South) and Jayanta (North)
What’s your take on the Broadcasting Scene in India and South India ?
I feel it’s a great time to present in India now if you want to make a career in Broadcasting. More than 800 Channels and many more to come. Look at the potential with just over 17 Crs C&S Homes – the potential is so much. South India alone has more than 75 News Channels, more than 70 odd GEC’s, same goes for Music etc…guess many will launch more too. While people still advocate for OTT and the rest which will come – I reiterate that TV is here to stay. South is one of the few places where WTP happen in Television and later it happens on OTT – not for all movies I would place this argument – it is still lot different from the rest.
Over to you Bharath – what’s your vision for Fourth Dimension?
Vision for fourth dimension from my side is to be a platform for clients from south of India to decipher the national trends and be a part of the national wave. We would want to create multiple platforms using latest technology that would go a long way to benefit brands from the south.
