Category: GECs

Filmfare 2018 to air on Colors

MUMBAI: Filmfare has announced the 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018 on 20 January with Colors as the broadcast partner.

The awards will honour artists whose dedication and hard work led to some of the most memorable performances and films on celluloid in 2017. The event will bring together the who’s who of the film industry and promises to create new benchmarks with a spectacular award show.

Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak said, “What a happy ending to 2017 as we welcome the iconic black lady into the Colors family. The black lady is perhaps the most recognisable award in the country and we are proud to enhance its glory by putting it on India’s fastest growing entertainment channel, Colors. The rich history of Filmfare makes it the most sought-after awards in the entertainment industry; the addition of which to our bouquet of offerings will make our channel the Mecca of entertainment for the viewers.”

Taking forward the legacy of honouring the best of talent, Filmfare is back with the Jio Filmfare Short Film Awards 2018.

Filmfare worldwide media CEO Deepak Lamba said, “Last year, Filmfare took few big steps in strengthening its foothold and expand its reach on the digital platform with strategic associations with Facebook, Twitter etc. This year as well, we aim to set a new benchmark by reaching out to our patrons using television as well as digital platforms.”.

December 28, 2017
Mr Panchal continues to help Star Bharat top Hindi GECs across genre

BENGALURU: Of late, the Optimystic Entertainment-produced comedy sitcom Kya Haal Mr Panchal has been among the top-five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime. Last week, (week 49 of 2017) its broadcaster, Star India’s renamed free-to-air (FTA) Hindi GEC, Star Bharat, found itself topping Hindi GECs in the top-10 channels across genres charts, just below the perennial across genres topper, the Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV. In week 50 (Saturday, 9 December 2017 to Friday, 15 December 2017) also, Star Bharat was ranked second in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) top-10 channels across genre: All India (U+R): 2+ Individuals list. The list leader was Sun TV in week 50 of 2017. Kya Haal Mr Panchal was among BARC’s top-five Hindi GECs in the Hindi-speaking market (HSM) (Urban + Rural) NCCS All : Prime Time (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals list and the HSM (Rural) list.

Seven Hindi GECs and one channel each from the Hindi Movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC made it to BARC’s top-10 channels across genres list in week 50 of 2017. From the networks’ perspective, three channels from Star India, two channels each from the Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Sun Network and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) respectively and one channel from Network18 (Viacom18) comprised the top-10 channels across genres. Of these channels, six were pay TV channels and four were FTA.

Sun TV held onto its normal first rank in BARC’s top-10 channels across genre list for week 50 of 2017 with 1,024.516 million weekly impressions, lower than the previous week’s 1,052.240 million weekly
impressions. As has also been the norm, all the top-five programmes in the Tamil market – Tamil Nadu/ Puducherry (U+R): NCCS All : Prime Time (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals were from Sun TV. As mentioned above Star Bharat was at its last week’s rank of second in the across genres list with 690.538 million weekly impressions, lower than the previous week’s 733.533 million weekly impressions.

Network 18’s (Viacom 18) flagship Hindi GEC Colors climbed a rank to third place in week 50 of 2017 with 648.788 million weekly impressions, also lower than the previous week’s 673.554 million weekly impressions. Colors also led BARC’s top 10 Hindi GEC channels in the HSM (Urban): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals market. Zeel’s FTA channel Zee Anmol also climbed a rank to fourth place in week 50 of 2017 from the previous week’s fifth rank with 646.612 million weekly impressions. The channel had garnered 613.455 million weekly impressions in the previous week. The DJ’s Creative Unit produced Indian serial dramaKaala Teeka was among BARC’s top five Hindi GEC programmes in the HSM (Rural): NCCS All : Prime Time (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals market.

Zee Anmol’s older sibling and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV slipped two ranks in week 50 of 2017 to fifth rank from the previous week’s third rank. The channel’s viewership slipped to 612.024 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 679.282 million weekly impressions. The Balaji Telefilm’s produced Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya continued to lead the top five Hindi GEC programmes in the HSM (urban+rural) and HSM (urban) markets during primetime in terms of weekly ratings.

SPN’s Hindi movies channel climbed two ranks to sixth place in week 50 of 2017 with 599.399 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 528.872 million weekly impressions. Hindi feature films (HFF) Baahubali the Beginning and DJ were among the top-five programmes in the Hindi movies genre HSM (U+R) and HSM (U): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals. Also, HFF Kanchana was among the top-five programmes in the HSM urban market.

Star India’s flagship channel Star Plus was ranked seventh in week 50 of 2017 with higher ratings with 563.412 million weekly impressions as compared to 536.017 million weekly impressions in week 49 of 2017 (rank eight in week 49). The Balaji Telefilms produced Indian family soap Ye Hai Mohabbatein was among the top-five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in the HSM urban market.

The Sun Network’s flagship Telugu GEC Gemini entered the top-10 channels list across genres in week 50 of 2017 with 562.485 million weekly impressions at eighth rank. The channel topped BARC’s top-five Telugu channels list in Andhra Pradesh/ Telangana (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals markets. Telugu feature film Dhruva on Gemini topped the top-five Telugu programmes list in the AP/ Telangana (U+R) : NCCS All : Prime Time (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals market.

SPN’s women-oriented FTA Hindi GEC slipped three ranks to ninth place with 552.968 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 611.051 million weekly impressions. Balveer and Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah on Sony Pal were among the top-five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in the HSM urban market.

Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav also dropped three ranks to tenth place in the top-10 channels across genre list in week 50 of 2017 with 526.123 million weekly impressions.

Also read:

Panchal helps Star Bharat top Hindi GECs across genres

Kumkum Bhagya boosts Zee TV viewership across genres

December 27, 2017
Star Bharat brings in the new year with its new family show ‘Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki’

MUMBAI: We all are seekers in life, some seek love, some stability and some seek solutions to fix daily family problems. Imagine, if we all find that one person to help us with everything that we seek, it will be a blessing in disguise, or actually the almighty’s blessing. But do such people exist? Maybe, they do.

If someone really needs a fixer at the moment, it is the Chowdhury family that consists of a Grandfather Janki Prasad Chowdhury (Dada) and his Granddaughter Dali who lost her parents at a very young age to a car accident and has grown up to be a pampered, spoilt and short tempered which has become a sore point for her Grandfather. The need of the hour is to find a fixer, who can bring back Dali back to her roots with values & humility.

Starting 1st Jan, Star Bharat, through its philosophy of bringing the entire family together ‘Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki’, a show that is sure to instill a sense of closeness. The lead Kanhaiya, also the ‘fixer’ is a multi-facted bawarchi hired to bring to end of woes of the Chowdhury family. Kanhaiya is here to make sure he bridges the gap between Dada and Dali not just on the dinner table but also in their lives. While he is great at whipping up a delicious meal, he also sprinkles joy in one’s life. The show is inspired by the storyline of the blockbuster Bengali show ‘Bhojo Gobindo’. Tollywood’s popular Director Snehashish Chakraborty has directed the show in Hindi for Star Bharat.

Star Bharat Spokesperson said, “We are excited about ‘Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki’ as we want our audiences to start the new year with a lot of fun & entertainment. The show will highlight the importance of family values, something we tend to forget or ignore in our fast paced modern lives.”

The show will star Vishal Vashishta in the role of Kanhaiya and will mark the Hindi Television debut of the popular Bengali actress Sweta Bhattacharya as the spoilt Dali. Celebrated and veteran Bengali Film TV actor Deepankar De will essay the role of Janki Prasad Chowdhury (Dada). He plays Dada in the original Bengali show too. Rupanjana Mitra as Sandhya also plays a pivotal role in the show.

December 22, 2017
Sunny Leone in Discovery JEET’s show Man Vs Wild

MUMBAI: Sunny Leone will be displaying her adventurous side as host of the mega-popular survival series Man Vs. Wild. The iconic series will telecast in Hindi on the soon-to-be-launched GEC Discovery JEET. The new GEC will premiere in the second week of February 2018 and the series will feature the beautiful actor hosting as well as undertaking many difficult stunts and adding a dash of humour with her vivacious personality.

The original show features host Bear Grylls sharing survival strategies in extreme conditions, while navigating through some of the world’s most remote locations. The Hindi version titled ‘Man vs Wild with Sunny Leone’ on Discovery JEET will have the actress narrating her personal survival stories even as she presents Bear’s adventures in the wild. The set of the show will have elements like pond, caves and trees to give the real look and feel of a jungle.

Sharing her excitement on being a part of the show, Sunny Leone says, “I am extremely excited to be part of such a popular show and the channel – Discovery JEET. This will give me a chance to showcase my adventurous side, which has never been seen before by television viewers. While no one can do what Bear Grylls does, I will try to add my own style of fun and humour to the show.”

The GEC channel ‘Discovery JEET’ will bring together Discovery’s unmatched story-telling and the best of real-life entertainment through larger than life stories aimed at inspiring millions.

December 15, 2017
Sun TV’s unassailable lead continues, while Zee TV leads Hindi across genre

BENGALURU: The Sun network’s flagship Tamil general entertainment channel (GEC) Sun TV continued its lead in ratings across all GECs on Indian television for week 48 of 2017 (25 November to 1 December 2017) according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) weekly ratings data. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) network flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV also continued its lead of Hindi GECs with the support of Ektaa Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms produced family dramas Kumkum Bhagya and Kundali Bhagya.

BARC data for the top 10 channels across genre (All India Individuals 2+) for week 48 had three channels from the Star India network, two channels each from Zeel, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Network 18 and one channel from Sun TV network in its list. From the genres perspective, six Hindi GECs, two Telugu GECs and one each channel from the Tamil GEC and Hindi Movies spaces comprised the top 10 channels list for week 48 of 2017.

Sun TV retained its numero uno with 1019.892 million weekly impressions. The channel’s ratings were ably supported by the fact that all the five top Tamil programmes during primetime for the week were as usual from Sun TV. It is only during the Indian Premier League that the channel had to make way for the channel that airs the cricketing bonanza, but it continues leading all GECs.

Zee TV was ranked second with 723.935 million weekly impressions followed by Network 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors at third rank with 681.010 million weekly impressions. Tu Aashiqui that was aired on the latter was among the top five Hindi GEC programmes in the HSM urban (U) + Rural (R) and the HSM (U) markets during primetime. Another soap on the channel, Udaan, was also among the top five programmes list in the HSM (U) market during primetime.

Star India’s recently renamed and relaunched FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat was ranked fourth with 665.612 million weekly impressions. Kya Haal Mr. Paanchal continued its run in the top five programmes on Hindi GEC HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) markets. Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol was ranked fifth with 614.632 million weekly impressions.

SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal ranked sixth in the top 10 channels across genres list with 600.202 million weekly impressions. Balveer in the Hindi GEC HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma in the HSM (R) markets were among the five most watched Hindi GEC programmes during primetime.

SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max at seventh place with 563.980 million weekly impressions. Hindi feature films PK, Dangerous Khiladi 6 and Poster Boys aired on Sony Max were in the top five lists of programmes list in the HSM (U) market. Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was ranked eighth in the list with 515.303 million weekly impressions. Two programmes on Star Maa– Karthika Deepam and Kumkum Puvvu were in the top five Telugu programmes list during the week under review.

The Network 18 associated Telugu GEC ETV Telugu was ranked ninth with 505.527 million weekly impressions. Swati Chinukulu and Manasu Mamata featured on ETV Telugu were among the top five Telugu programmes in the AP/ Telangana (U+R) areas (NCCS All: Prime Time (1800 – 2330 hrs) : 2+ Individuals). The Star Networks flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus was ranked tenth in week 48 of 2017 with 503.505 million impressions.

December 12, 2017
Zee TV leads Hindi GECs in week 48 of Barc ratings

MUMBAI: Zee TV emerged as the leader among Hindi general entertainment channels (urban + rural) dethroning Zee Anmol, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) all-India data for week 48.

Zee Anmol and &TV interchanged their eighth and ninth positions, respectively, in the GEC urban market this week as compared with the previous week.

Hindi GECs (U+R)

Zee TV garnered the top slot this week with 675065 Impressions (000s) followed by Star Bharat at second position with 657889 Impressions (000s). Colors stood at third position with 649192 Impressions (000s). Zee Anmol fell to fourth position with 612946 Impressions (000s). Sony Pal retained its fifth position with 595324 Impressions (000s).

Star Utsav, Star Plus, and Rishtey also retained their sixth, seventh and eighth slots with 489578 Impressions (000s), 464278 Impressions (000s), and 421112 Impressions (000s), respectively.
Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television exchanged their ninth and tenth spots with 420114 Impressions (000s) and 383014 Impressions (000s), respectively.

Hindi rural GECs

Maintaining the status quo, Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, and Star Utsav retained their first, second, and third slots, respectively, with 464035 Impressions (000s) sum, 409596 Impressions (000s) sum, and 362520 Impressions (000s) sum.

Star Bharat, Rishtey, Zee TV and Dangal TV also retained their fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh positions with 341932 Impressions (000s), 308601 Impressions (000s), 270986 Impressions (000s) sum and 214034 Impressions (000s) sum.

Furthermore, Colors, Big Magic and Star plus also retained their eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively with 182761Impressions (000s), 161346 Impressions (000s), and 136018 Impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi urban GECs

In urban GEC, Colors, Zee TV, Star Plus, Star Bharat, Sony Sab retained their first, second, third and fourth positions with 466430 Impressions (000s), 404079 Impressions (000s), 328260 Impressions (000s) and 315957 Impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Sony Sab, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony Pal also retained their fifth, sixth, and seventh positions with 315719 Impressions (000s), 273799 Impressions (000s) and 185728 Impressions (000s) sum respectively.

&TV and Zee Anmol swapped their eighth and ninth positions with 150323 Impressions (000s) and 148910 Impressions (000s) sum, respectively.

Star Utsav retained its tenth position with 127058 Impressions (000s) sum.

December 8, 2017
Bindass unveils its new series, Tere Liye Bro

MUMBAI: Bindass announces the launch of its new series titled ‘Tere Liye Bro’. The series will revolve around the exciting journey of three best friends, and the twists and turns their lives take, which make them appreciate their bond as friends much more. Co-presented by Micromax and Indian Motorcycle, and powered by Denver, the inaugural episode is slated to air on 8 December at 7pm on the linear and digital platforms concurrently.

With brand values and content that reflect the lives, dreams and aspirations of the millennial in India, bindass is constantly providing engaging entertainment with its riveting show concepts. Last year with Girl in the City (followed by The Trip and Girl In The City Chapter 2), bindass led the wave of disruption with an omni-content, multi-platform strategy to win over millennials in a rapidly evolving digital space with outstanding success. The brand just concluded its fourth series ‘Dil Buffering’ successfully which not only garnered an enviable following but also witnessed 30 million views across all platforms.

The captivating storyline of Tere Liye Bro focuses on three friends, whose bro-mance continues way past college, into their careers working world. Pulled in different directions by their careers, they still make the time to have their wild rendezvous, egged on mostly by Aniket, the most spirited of the three. He also acts as the glue that keeps them together in spite of the differences that erupt ever so often between the other two, Vineet and Farhaan. As the three ride their roller-coaster of risqué fun, a freak accident takes them by surprise, changing their lives forever. The show offers the millennial audience a slice from their own world served up with drama and intrigue that makes for compelling viewing.

Catering to both its digital and television audiences, the 10-episode series of 22 minutes each will be aired on bindass and simulcast digitally on Facebook as well as YouTube.

December 6, 2017
Thai broadcaster Workpoint acquires TV rights for Porus

MUMBAI: Porus has found a taker in Thailand. Swastik Productions’ has licenced the historical drama to broadcaster Workpoint Entertainment for exclusive TV and non-exclusive digital rights.

The show premiered on Sony Entertainment Television in India on 27 November. Workpoint also has the rights to create original music for the Thai broadcast.

In Porus, Swastik brings one of the most iconic rulers of ancient India to the screen in this legendary historical drama series. Emperor Porus faces off against the invader known as Alexander the Great, the mightiest power of the West, as both leaders fight to fulfil their ultimate destinies culminating in one of the greatest battles in world history.

Swastik Productions founder and chief creative Siddharth Kumar Tewary says, “With some key scenes shot in Thailand and the added element of original Thai music that Workpoint will create,Porus will be a truly unique project to share with Thai audiences and Workpoint is the perfect partner for this endeavour.”

“Thai audiences have a long history of enjoying Indian historical dramas,” says Workpoint Entertainment chief business development officer Dhanasak Hoonarak. “And we’re confident that the epic production that is Porus will really resonate with Thai viewers” adds Hoonarak.

November 29, 2017
Republic TV, Times Now viewership moves up as genre ratings fall

BENGALURU: The two top-ranked channels of the Indian English news genre saw small increases in their weekly viewership in week 46 of 2017 (Saturday, 11 November 2017 to Friday, 17 November 2017, period, week under consideration) as compared to the nadir of the previous week. Data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) show that the genre topper from the time of its launch 28 weeks ago Republic TV saw its ratings increase to 0.566 million weekly impressions in week 46 from 0.524 million weekly impressions in week 45. The second-ranked Times Now saw its ratings increase to 0.502 million weekly impressions during the week under consideration from 0.489 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

The other three channels from the top five English saw no change in ranks, but decline in viewership in the period as compared to week 45. They were: NDTV 24×7 at third place with 0.260 million weekly impressions (0.299 million weekly impressions in week 45); India Today Television with 0.250 million weekly impressions (0.295 million weekly impressions in week 45); and CNN News18 with 0.185 million weekly impressions (0.205 million weekly impressions in week 45).

Genre ratings continue declining

The English news genre has seen a decline in ratings over the past few weeks. Analysis of BARC data for the combined ratings of the top five English news channels for weeks 1 to 46 of 2017 increased from the lowest viewership to date of 1.179 million weekly impressions in week 2, to the highest viewership in week 11 to date of 4.987 million weekly impressions. The ratings then started to decline until week 19 of 2017 which saw the launch of the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV.

In week 19 of 2017, the genre witnessed its second-highest combined weekly ratings of top five channels to date of 4.282 million weekly impressions. Republic TV has topped the genre right from the first week of its launch to date in 2017. Goswami’s channel helped increase the genre’s overall ratings, but its eyeball pull could only retard the slow decline that the genre has seen since then as can be seen from the chart below.

Since news is event-driven, the above statements also are evident if one were to go by the four week average weekly impressions of the combined ratings of the top five English news genre, rather than weekly numbers. It may be noted that the data for week 21 has not been considered in this paper and hence the four week average weekly impressions of 2.6327 million for the W22-24 period is a three-week average. Further, the number for the last point on the graph (W45-46) of 1.7895 weekly impressions is a 2-week average.

In week 11 of 2017 (Weeks 9 to 12), elections results in five states of the country were announced and hence the ratings of news channels peaked. Weeks 13 to 16 saw a decline in the genre’s ratings because week 14 of 2017 saw the launch of the Indian Premier League. Weeks 17 to 20 were Republic TV’s launch period and as everyone wanted to see how Goswami would perform, the genre’s ratings climbed to a four week average of 2.972 million. The average of weeks 22-24 was a small blip, and since the other English News channels withdrew themselves from BARC ratings, the data will not be discussed any further here.

Weeks 25 to 28 numbers for the top five channels saw the 4-week average ratings climb smartly to 2.9155 million weekly impressions, followed by the highest four week average of the genre in 2017 until now of 3.2695 million weekly impressions in weeks 29 to 32. As is evident from the figure below, the genre’s 4-week average ratings have only declined since then.

Ratings for the same period of the previous year can’t truly be compared to see if decline is a periodic trend because news is generally event driven as mentioned above. For example, in 2016, demonetisation was announced on November 8; in week 28 of 2017, ratings of the Hindi news genre peaked because the Supreme Court’s Ram Rahim verdict was announced in that week.

November 24, 2017
Sri Lanka’s higher TV content import levy to hurt Indian TV channels

MUMBAI: Ouch! India's content syndication executives are yelping in pain. Sri Lanka’s (SL) finance & mass media minister Mangala Samaraweera, earlier this month, issued a set of regulations which increases the levy that the government will be imposing on imported dubbed teledramas, films and commercial programmes to SLRs 150,000 from SLRs 90,000 earlier.

The idea behind the move: push local creativity and production and ensure the propagation of the emerald isle’s culture and values.

The country’s creative community – including film and TV producers, actors – has for long been lobbying the government to levy a higher import tax on content.

Says a media observer: “The Sri Lankan market accounts for around six to seven per cent of Indian broadcasters and distributors global exports of TV and audiovisual content. With this 60 per cent tax imposition, broadcasters there are definitely going to take a hard look at their expense sheets and probably halve their imports. And this will impact exports from India which are likely also to fall.”

Over the past few years, Sri Lanka’s broadcasters have been increasing the import of popular shows from India and dubbing them in Tamil and Sinhalese. “In the case of some of them, Indian shows have made up to 20-50 per cent of their prime time programming,” says a private satellite TV executive.

Adds another Sri Lankan media observer: “People in Sri Lanka love quality programmes and when the content buyer is buying content from India or any other players the quality is guaranteed. All the imported programmes are always on top of the charts and local programmes are not doing that great.”

Sources reveal that Star Plus’ library show Yeh Hain Mohabbatein was amongst the most popular shows on one of the Sri Lankan channels.

Adds the observer: “With duties being imposed at the rate of SL Rs150,000 for a maximum of a four part programme slot of two hours, with each show being of 30 minutes duration, SL broadcasters will have to perforce give a boost to the sagging SL production sector. (The second four part slot will attract a penalty of SL Rs 250,000 and SL Rs 350,000 for anything beyond that.”

India’s syndication executives are, however, hoping this is a temporary phenomenon. Last year, Pakistan’s government had put up a full stop to TV shows and film imports from India, which had left audiences there annoyed and the ecosystem reeling. It however, backtracked this year and allowed Pakistani’s TV channels to import TV shows and film, with some restrictions.

Indian executives had heaved a sigh of relief then. Hopefully, that will be repeated in the case of Sri Lanka too.

November 24, 2017