ITV

Tag: Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai

  • Ent. brands are illusory, elusive and magical – Star COO Sameer Nair

    MUMBAI: While speaking at the Advertising Club Bombay’s Value Creation seminar on marketing entertainment and their growing inter-dependence, Star India COO Sameer Nair stated that successful entertainment products evolve daily and have a life and personality of their own. Once created, they feed on themselves, constantly reinvent themselves and transcend their basic achievements, he added. Nair also said that entertainment brands need to be illusory, elusive, magical and superior.

    UTV Group director Zarina Mehta mentioned that the reasons for the success and failure of TV programmes were linked to marketing and communication plan; ability to offer simple propositions with a new twist and proper testing of concepts and new ideas. Mehta also stated that there were clear gaps in children’s programming and comedies.

    Star’s Nair felt that brands are basic to human existence and the concepts of names and nationality has originated from this need. Entertainment products are inanimate but the marketers breathe life into them. However, a human touch is essential to provide a lifelike experience, Nair added. The objective is to ensure that the entertainment brands outlive the humans associated with the brands – for instance Charlie Chaplin is instantly recognizable but Charles Spencer Chaplin is not! The entertainer aims to keep the magic alive for a long time.

    Nair added that human beings become brands, symbols or icons when myth eclipses reality. Entertainment brands are intangibles unlike sports and religion. Whenever human beings become icons, they get trapped and become a victim of their own. The audiences don’t like it when the icon changes. Building entertainment brands is like pulling rabbits out of a hat.

    UTV’s Mehta felt that the key to successful programming is simplicity and concise communication.

    The following are excerpts from Mehta’s presentation:
    If a programming person cannot sell an idea in 15 minutes, then the idea cannot be sold at all. Therefore, there is a need for getting a fix on the single, strong selling point of communication. Every serial has to satisfy an emotional need. The stronger the need – the better the TVR. The USP needs to be part of all communication and marketing endeavours. It is important to know and respect the consumer’s need.

    For instance, Shanti‘s USP was the fact that it was the story of a strong-willed middle-class woman with strong family values. Karamchand was a brilliantly conceived and crafted detective serial interspersed with comedy originating from the interaction between well-etched characters. Saaya and Shagun were all about female bonding. Tu Tu Main Main was about the eternal struggles of everyday humdrum. Shaka Laka Boom Boom was about magic and the fact that good triumphs over evil.

    A simple proposition that satisfies consumer needs could be taken and developed by adding a new twist. However, there is a need to make sure that the viewer understands the differentiating element of the programmes. The point of differentiation in familiar themes is what draws audiences.

    Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai failed because the marketing and communication plan failed to get in viewers for sampling the first show. The viewers had wrong perceptions that the show was about Madhuri’s marriage; others believed that it was a soap opera starring Madhuri. The marketing plan failed to prepare the audiences and required more meticulous preparation. The feedback also showed that the actual show was considered to be less extravagant than what was promised through the promos.

    Comedy serials on Indian TV need a laughter track as there is an ardent need to inform/tell viewers that they are watching a comedy serial. Khichdi is a serial that doesn’t have a laughter track and has not gone well with viewers.

    Channels shouldn’t sell programming concepts or slots and must focus on selling serials and shows. Viewers don’t watch Sundays or night slots or morning slots – they watch shows and programmes. Also, the actual content must deliver what is being promised through the communication. Some programmes have flopped because the actual programming content fell short and couldn’t satisfy consumer expectations. The programmes also fail because viewers cannot fathom the differentiating factor.

    There is nothing wrong with trying something new even if the programming initiative fails. However, the new concepts have to be tested and tried with a sample size comprising of different sections of society. Successful trial runs don’t necessarily guarantee success. There is also a need to revitalize the existing shows at regular intervals by reinventing the story idea.

    Also read
    TV personalities – good option for advertisers
    Need a hit – Its all about marketing and communications
    Bollywood producers need specialised marcom agencies
    Radio provides unique options to advertisers
    Leo Entertainment capitalises on in-film product placements

  • SET, MAX bag 5 awards at Promax & BDA Asia 2002

    MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television, which walked away with the Best TV Channel Packaging trophy in the Trade and Technical Categories at the Bajaj Boxer Indian Telly Awards 2002 recently, has won further accolades for its packaging.

    The Promax & BDA Awards 2002 in Singapore saw SET winning Gold for best overall packaging, a company release says. In all, SET and sister movies and cricket channel MAX have bagged five awards at the event recognised around the globe as the highest accolade for promotion and marketing professionals working in today’s electronic media.

    “These awards are recognised as the ultimate yardstick for quality by television professionals not just in the subcontinent but around the world,” SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, was quoted as saying in the release. “It is a matter of immense pride that Sony Entertainment Television has been recognised as the channel with by far the best on-air look, and the Gold for best overall packaging is testimony to this,” Dasgupta was quoted as saying.

    SET also won golds for best programme packaging (for its flop marriage show Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai), as well as best out of house promo award for its film on Gully Cricket featuring MAX Brand Ambassador Kapil Dev.

    The PROMAX Awards are presented to companies and individuals whose work is judged by a panel of promotion and marketing professionals using three measures: overall creativity, production quality, and results in achieving marketing objectives.

    The awards SET and MAX won are:

    – Best Overall Packaging: SET – Gold
    – Best Program packaging: Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai, SET – Gold
    – Best Out of House Image Promo: Kapil Dev, Gully Cricket, MAX – Gold
    – Best Print Campaign, Deewana Bana De, MAX – Silver
    – Best Campaign on Satellite & Cable, SET – Silver

     

  • ‘Lagaan’, ‘Achanak’, new shows – SET gears for life after ‘K3H’

    ‘Lagaan’, ‘Achanak’, new shows – SET gears for life after ‘K3H’

    MUMBAI: Sony is preparing for a life after the untimely but inevitable demise of the Madhuri Dixit-hosted flop marriage show Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai (K3H).

    As the UTV-produced show readies to die its natural death after a run of 44 episodes in the last week of October, the channel aims at a big splash distraction in the form of mega blockbuster Lagaan, scheduled for an airing on 27 October, a Sunday. The next day sees the revamp of thriller weekly Achanak 37 Saal Baad into a Monday to Thursday daily, slotted in the 10 pm band. Three to four other shows, the final tally is still being worked through, are expected to launch in the following week, which incidentally, leads into the Diwali (4 November) week.

    But while most mainstream channels prefer to reserve the biggest blockbusters in their kitty for telecast on Diwali day, Sony has adopted an intriguing strategy – that of scheduling Lagaan a week earlier. There is an immediate advantage this offers though, and that is that there is no other worthwhile fare to compete for the advertising rupee so Sony can extract the maximum possible out of the big ticket movie.

    Also, the week leading up to Diwali is when maximum purchasing takes place so that also might have been a factor in the decision. V-P,programming & production, Nachiket Pantvaidya points out the the film will have lesser number of ad breaks so as to provide advertisers with maximum value by reducing clutter. The film will have an uninterrupted run of an average 15 to 20 minutes before each break.

    There is another departure from the norm (as far as Sony is concerned certainly). Unlike its usual ploy of airing hit films on Saturday nights, the Aamir Khan production will be aired on Sunday night. According to Pantvaidya, if Aamir agrees, some scenes which were edited out in the screen version will be reintroduced into the movie and what will be telecast will be an “uncut film”. Pantvaidya said Lagaan , being a very long movie, would probably be slotted in at around 7 pm or thereabouts so as to conclude by midnight give or take some run time.

    Pantvaidya also revealed that a major contest was being devised so as to generate further excitement around the movie.

    Lagaan’s Sunday slotting serves another purpose as well. The current series of the Balaji Telefilms big budget weekender Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat, which airs Fridays through Sundays in the 8 to 9 pm slot, concludes on Saturday, 26 October. The new series, on which Balaji’s creative force Ektaa Kapoor has spent a lot of energy to put together a powerful plotline, kicks off the following Friday.

    The Lagaan airing will likely also be used to inform viewers about the new fare that the channel will have on offer. And there is a whole of that coming up.

    Achanak, 37 Saal Baad, one of Sony’s better performing shows from the current crop, seems to be burdened with the responsibility of holding the channel’s 10 pm slot against rivals Star and Zee’s soaps at the same time. Pantvaidya said there was no point in stacking a soap against a soap and the thought behind slotting Achanak in the 10 pm slot was to offer the viewer completely different fare. The viewership that would come in for Achanak were the type that had stayed loyal to the detective series CID, he said.

    How well this strategy works remains to be seen, more so because for the initial six weeks, what will be on air are reruns of old episodes of Achanak . It will be December before the fresh fare begins its telecast, says Pantvaidya. The thinking here is that six weeks is what it will take for audiences who enjoy thriller formats to get properly clued in to the series and by the time the new episodes begin airing, a clear audience base will have been established.

    Says Pantvaidya: “The focus of our November shows is counterprogramming. Between 8 and 10:30 pm we will have checkerboard stuff on air.” All the new shows will be on between 8 to 9 pm while the two Balaji soaps Kkusum and Kutumb will undergo plotline “reinvention”, the strategy that Star India is employing vis-a-vis its own hit soaps.

    Looking at the 8 to 9 pm band, of the four shows Sony announced together, K3H – the most publicized one – has turned into its biggest disaster.

    While the weekender Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat has clawed its way up to averageratings after a miserable start, Bachke Rehnaa, the Mohnish Behl anchored game show modelled on the Columbia Tristar licensed Russian Roulette has still to take off and this may well be why there is still some debate going on within Sony over the fate of the fourth show that was announced at the time – Kucch Kehti Hai Yeh Dhun – to be hosted by Raageshwari. Kucch Kehti is modelled on Name That Tune. The brainstorming in Sony at the moment is also around another gameshow import Run For Your Money. Whether one, the other or neither see the light of day will be decided over the next 15 days or so, says Pantvaidya.

    Sony’s latest two offerings, Meri Biwi Wonderful (modelled on Bewitched), a sitcom on air at 8 pm on Thursday, and Devi , a soap slotted in at 9 pm on Friday, have both opened well, says Pantvaidya. Among the new shows that will be launching post-Lagaan are Papa Ban Gaya Hero, a sitcom that stars Vijay Raaz, the actor who portrayed the sensitive ‘Dubeyji’ in Monsoon Wedding, Goonj – a family story and Kabhi Biwi Kabhi Jasoos, a show about a housewife who moonlights as a private eye.

    Papa…, the story of a middle class guy who hits the big time and all the difficulties he faces associated with coming to terms with it, is an out and out comedy. Khabhi Biwi is a one-hour thriller comedy and the lead has shades of the character played by Jamie Lee Curtis as the wife in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies. The third show in this lot – Goonj – is a more sombre tale about the travails of a family where no male member survives above the age of 35, Pantvaidya confirms.

    Looks like Sony has opted for the 8 to 9 pm slot to pack in its variety entertainment as opposed to Star which has slotted the 9 to 10 pm band for that.

    “Ab Aayega Mazaa” (now the fun begins) is the new signature line for Sony Entertainment. And the channel is pulling out all stops to live up to it.

    Come November, it will be over to the viewer.

  • SET witnessing continued fall in ratings

    SET witnessing continued fall in ratings

    MUMBAI: As far as the ratings go, Sony Entertainment appears to be in a bit of a slump at the moment. If Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai, SET’s matchmaking blockbuster show hosted by Bollywood screen siren Madhuri Dixit singularly failed to sizzle the charts for the channel, the start has been equally unimpressive for another big ticket programming initiative from the channel – the weekender Kya Hadsa Kya Haqeeqat.

     

    The big budget serial from the Balaji stable that is costing Sony Rs 1 million per episode has failed to register on the Top 100 list. According to market research agency AC Nielsen’s TAM ratings covering all cable and satellite homes (24 panels), for the week from 11 August to 17 August, Sony’s highest rated show was the long running thriller series C.I.D. at 39 with 3.56 TVRs.

    Even the Balaji dependables Kkusum and Kutumb have been steadily slipping. Kutumb was at 41 with 3.52 TVRs while Kkusum was at 42 with 3.51 TVRs. The only other show in the Top 100 for Sony was Heena at 89 with 2.72 TVRs.

    Speaking about Kya Hadsa…, Sunil Lulla, executive V-P – SET, said it was far too early to pass judgment on the show’s performance. Lulla, while admitting that the channel’s ratings had seen a dip in the last three months, was however, quite categorical that the present slump was just a blip on the radar for SET. Lulla maintained that the Kkusum, Kutumb franchises still had positive cachet with audiences and said that the tweaking in the programming already brought about for Kutumb, as well as what was planned for Kkusum, would show results in the coming weeks.

    Lulla also expressed confidence that the slew of new shows that would be unveiled over the next few months would reinforce the message that there is freshness and excitement to be had on the channel.

     

    See related report:
    Madhuri show fails to jack up the TRPs for Sony

     

  • Madhuri show fails to jack up the TRPs for Sony

    Madhuri show fails to jack up the TRPs for Sony

    MUMBAI: It’s early days no doubt. But the first week’s TAM ratings of Sony Entertainment’s matchmaking blockbuster show hosted by Bollywood screen siren Madhuri Dixit, Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai, has not brought too much cheer.

     

    According to market research agency AC Nielsen’s TAM ratings covering cable and satellite homes in the nine main cities, the very first episode on Monday (29 July) managed only 2.69 TRPs and debuted at 66 on the charts. The next day’s episode saw a further dip to 1.39. The ratings fell further on Wednesday before picking up somewhat on Thursday and Friday.

    SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta, was not so downbeat in his assessment however, and said that more time was needed to make a judgment on the show. Dasgupta said a parallel survey that they had commissioned AC Nielsen to do in the two main metros, which covered 500 respondents in Delhi and 500 in Mumbai, had thrown up more encouraging findings. The results of that survey had shown that 33 per cent of those sampled saw the shows and of those that did watch, 76 per cent said they intend to watch it the next week as well.

     

    The TAM data from the main metros, however, threw up a mixed bag. Kolkata had the highest ratings for the debut show at 4.52 while Mumbai had a 4.18 TRP. Delhi cold-shouldered the show from Day 1 with a 2.24 rating. All three cities saw a ratings dip in the following episodes.

    Meanwhile, the show that K3H is pitched against in the 8:30 to 9:00 pm slot, Star Plus’ Kasauti Zindagi Kay, was 9 on the TAM charts for Thursday’s episode at 10.05 TRPs. Monday was when KZK had its lowest rating of the week with 8.38 TRPs, but still in the Top 20 at a solid 14.

    And while talk that K3H would be SET’s Kaun Banega Crorepati was more media hype than serious expectation, Sony and producer UTV were probably expecting a far better start to the proceedings.

    Hindu Businessline reports that advertisers such as Videocon, Samsung, Hindustan Lever, Dandi, Moov and Pantene have paid high advertising fees to get on to the show. According to media planners, sponsorhip rates for the show have been Rs 35 million for a 13-week package (with airtime of 60-90 seconds a week).

    For Sony, it is still the Balaji dependables Kkusum and Kutumb that are delivering the goods. And as regards K3H, it will have to do far better in the coming weeks if it is to justify the reported Rs 200 million + that has gone into its making.

  • Without skipping a beat, ‘Dhadkan’ set for fade-out

    Without skipping a beat, ‘Dhadkan’ set for fade-out

    MUMBAI: Hospital series Dhadkan, along with twin dilemma Hubahu are making way for the Madhuri matchmaking show Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai that commences telecast on 29 July.

    KNKKH has been slotted in the 8:30 to 9 pm band that was earlier occupied by Dhadkan (Monday through to Wednesday) and Hubahu (Thursday). While Hubahu is being wound up after a 40-episode run this Thursday, Dhadkan, which launched earlier with much fanfare, is being pushed to a later time slot from the coming week.

    A gritty well made serial, the big-budget Dhadkan nevertheless was never able to garner ratings higher than 2 TVRs, say sources. The consistent lack of ratings is now responsible for the show being shifted to the 10:30 pm slot till the third week of August, when it will end after bringing the tale to its logical conclusion in a total of 87 episodes. 

    For the show, producer Aqua Pictures had put up a state-of-the-art set in western Mumbai’s Kandivli suburb using authentic hospital equipment. At the end of the day though, India’s answer to ER failed to strike a chord with audiences here. And that is what ultimately forced Sony to turn off Dhadkan’s life support system.