MUMBAI: Post the premature exit of KBC 2, Star Plus aims to stabilise its weekend band with a slew of initiatives. The first in this line-up, a celebrity-based gameshow Jodi Kamaal Ki, will launch on 4 March, Saturday, at 9 pm.
The channel will retain Sai Baba in the Sunday 9 pm slot.
Star Plus has already filled the Friday KBC 2 slot with soaps Miillee and Kkavyanjali. According to Star Network senior creative director Shailja Kejriwal, the channel will hold on to this schedule for some time. “This arrangement will continue till we come up with some new stuff. However, a change won’t happen in the immediate future,” says Kejriwal.
Star Plus is expected to re-shuffle the weekend band again when Sagars’ Prithiviraj Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s sitcom arrive. The historical saga Prithiviraj Chauhan was originally scheduled to replace KBC 2.
Tag: KBC 2
-
Star Plus to launch ‘Jodi Kamaal Ki’ on 4 March
-
Gameshow Jodi Kamaal Ki to replace KBC 2
MUMBAI: Anchor Amitabh Bachchan’s inability to resume shooting due to ill-health has pulled the plug on the Star Plus gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 (KBC 2). Replacing KBC2 in the Saturday-Sunday slots will be another gameshow Jodi Kamaal Ki.
Produced by Creative Eye, Jodi Kamaal Ki is an entertainment-oriented one-hour gameshow featuring celebrity couples. Reportedly, soap star Rakshanda Khan has been roped in to anchor the show.
As per the stop-gap arrangement, soaps Miillee and Kkavyanjali will substitute KBC 2 on Fridays.
What makes it necessary for Star India to hurry up its replacement plans — instead of re-running the old KBC 2 episodes — is the need for a strong property to sustain its weekend band. As expected, KBC 2 had beefed up Star Plus’ position in the weekends, but the unfortunate turn of events following Bachchan’s illness went against the strategies.
However, when the Sagars’ Prithiviraj Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s yet-to-be named sitcom arrive, the plans may change again. These were the two big ticket shows, which were originally scheduled to replace KBC 2.
“It will take some time for us to announce the complete plans. Presently, we are engaged in preparations of drawing a strong programming line up for the weekends,” states Star India EVP Ajay Vidyasagar.
Star Plus presently telecasts re-runs of KBC2 in the 9 pm – 10 pm slot on Fridays and Saturdays as it exhausted its fresh bank of KBC2 episodes following Bachchan’s illness. Bachchan, who had a commitment to shoot 85 episodes of KBC2, could complete only 61 episodes before he was hospitalised. -
Marketing TV shows, Indian channel style
For TV channel marketers and programmers it was a challenging year. How to get their programmes noticed above the din of everyone else’s marketing noise.
For the Star Network, the challenge was getting the buzz back for KBC 2, after a hiatus of four years. Says Star India senior vice president marketing and communication Ajay Vidyasagar: “KBC 2 was launched with one of the biggest marketing budgets ever in the history. The show had a five phased launch – all of which happened before the 5 August launch date.”
It worked well as the SMS and phoneins and ratings of the show reveal.
Click here
for Star Plus’ gamut of activities around ‘KBC 2’Nach Baliye on Star One was also a case in point. Hoardings with the participating star couples were splashed across the country during the entire run of the show. On the other hand, the contestants of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge — yesterday’s ‘pehchan kauns’ — have gone on to become icons of sorts today by their sheer entertaining power (not to mention the power of the network).
Zee TV’s new show Saath Phere was launched as also a big ticket game show Kam Ya Zyaada. “The marketing campaigns of Saath Phere and Kam Ya Zyaada will top the chart when speaking about Zee TV’s significant efforts,” states Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra.
Click here
to know Star World’s ‘Lost’ marketing activityKam Ya Zyaada was promoted aggressively through its network channels. The channel shot the show promos using its soap stars including the Hum Paanch starcast. As the gameshow launch coincided with Zee Sports clinching the cricket rights, the promos found pride of place on the sports channel. Apart from using the tried and tested methods of radio, print and outdoors, the channel conducted a lot of ground activities to promote the show in the pre-launch phase.
Zee has also been using city wise ground activities as reach-building programmes for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge. “We have been holding ground activities in association with various popular local events such as Delhi’s Youth Nexus. These gave a real feeling of reality because the public could watch the performances of the contestants live,” says Mehra.
Sahara One branded local trains in Mumbai with ‘Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki’Sahara One launched one of its big properties – Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki – from the Rajashri stable in 2005. The channel went the whole hog to attract as many viewers as possible with unique initiatives. Special contests were conducted for Sahara Airlines passengers. Promotional activities were also held at super marts and multiplexes at the ground level.
Click here
to know ‘MTV Roadies’ marketing activityMovies and special events channel Max was also not far behind. To promote the Salman Khan starrer Lucky – No Time For Love, Max weaved a contest around it, which was promoted via print, radio and Internet across Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Apart from this an extensive van campaign across 30 cites and towns was also undertaken in order to have a direct connect to the consumer. “The response for the contest was overwhelming with close to 850,000 entries. This has been the highest response for any movie-based contest on Max or any other channel in the genre,” says Max business head Albert Almeida. Although, the real thing is yet to come as the ICC World Cup 2007 creeps closer!
Click here
for Vh1’s big ticket marketing activityStar Movies built curiosity and contests around its miniseries Lost. A five day intensive contest on radio with original Lost merchandise as the big prize was carried out. Apart from that, major multiplexes in Mumbai and Bangalore carried Lost promotional branding and launch promos before the start of theatrical releases. Meanwhile, arch rival HBO did some direct marketing activity. It organised parties in the Metros to celebrate its fifth anniversary. It also did a series of online contests, which were possible due to its studio tie ups. One prize consisted of a trip to New Zealand, while another saw a fan travel to Hong Kong for the premiere of Harry Potter And the Goblet of Fire.
Click here
to know how kids’ channels’ marketing grew upZee Sports organised football screenings in pubs in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Push was also given in Goa in a huge way. Mobile vans visited youth hangouts like nightclubs, malls and cineplexes with an aim to spread the message about the Federation Cup and get people to come to the stadiums.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS), on the other hand, also did marketing around its Premier Hockey League (PHL). When PHL kicked off earlier this year it had launched a PHL anthem ‘Ek naya junoon!, which was sung by Sonu Nigam with Sandesh Shandilya as the music director.
Zoom here
for Times’ lifestyle channel’s marketing activitiesESPN India chief financial officer Vijay Rajput claims that more than 19.8 million individuals sampled PHL in its inaugural year. The ad campaign aimed at bringing the regional affiliations to the fore by making people take pride in their socio-cultural roots. The campaign, ESS says, looks to reflect the core value of the respective community/region to make the league more involving for the audience. This will result in a bigger audience size and more intense inter-team rivalries.
And rivalries are only going to get more intense in the coming 12 months as channels try to get their programmes one up on each other. Marketing is going to get into an even higher gear.
Additional inputs by Ashwin Pinto, Bijoy AK and Manisha Bhattacharjee.
-
Marketing TV shows, Indian channel style
For TV channel marketers and programmers it was a challenging year. How to get their programmes noticed above the din of everyone else’s marketing noise.
For the Star Network, the challenge was getting the buzz back for KBC 2, after a hiatus of four years. Says Star India senior vice president marketing and communication Ajay Vidyasagar: “KBC 2 was launched with one of the biggest marketing budgets ever in the history. The show had a five phased launch – all of which happened before the 5 August launch date.”
It worked well as the SMS and phoneins and ratings of the show reveal.
Click here
for Star Plus’ gamut of activities around ‘KBC 2’Nach Baliye on Star One was also a case in point. Hoardings with the participating star couples were splashed across the country during the entire run of the show. On the other hand, the contestants of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge — yesterday’s ‘pehchan kauns’ — have gone on to become icons of sorts today by their sheer entertaining power (not to mention the power of the network).
Zee TV’s new show Saath Phere was launched as also a big ticket game show Kam Ya Zyaada. “The marketing campaigns of Saath Phere and Kam Ya Zyaada will top the chart when speaking about Zee TV’s significant efforts,” states Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra.
Click here
to know Star World’s ‘Lost’ marketing activityKam Ya Zyaada was promoted aggressively through its network channels. The channel shot the show promos using its soap stars including the Hum Paanch starcast. As the gameshow launch coincided with Zee Sports clinching the cricket rights, the promos found pride of place on the sports channel. Apart from using the tried and tested methods of radio, print and outdoors, the channel conducted a lot of ground activities to promote the show in the pre-launch phase.
Zee has also been using city wise ground activities as reach-building programmes for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge. “We have been holding ground activities in association with various popular local events such as Delhi’s Youth Nexus. These gave a real feeling of reality because the public could watch the performances of the contestants live,” says Mehra.
Sahara One branded local trains in Mumbai with ‘Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki’Sahara One launched one of its big properties – Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki – from the Rajashri stable in 2005. The channel went the whole hog to attract as many viewers as possible with unique initiatives. Special contests were conducted for Sahara Airlines passengers. Promotional activities were also held at super marts and multiplexes at the ground level.
Click here
to know ‘MTV Roadies’ marketing activityMovies and special events channel Max was also not far behind. To promote the Salman Khan starrer Lucky – No Time For Love, Max weaved a contest around it, which was promoted via print, radio and Internet across Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Apart from this an extensive van campaign across 30 cites and towns was also undertaken in order to have a direct connect to the consumer. “The response for the contest was overwhelming with close to 850,000 entries. This has been the highest response for any movie-based contest on Max or any other channel in the genre,” says Max business head Albert Almeida. Although, the real thing is yet to come as the ICC World Cup 2007 creeps closer!
Click here
for Vh1’s big ticket marketing activityStar Movies built curiosity and contests around its miniseries Lost. A five day intensive contest on radio with original Lost merchandise as the big prize was carried out. Apart from that, major multiplexes in Mumbai and Bangalore carried Lost promotional branding and launch promos before the start of theatrical releases. Meanwhile, arch rival HBO did some direct marketing activity. It organised parties in the Metros to celebrate its fifth anniversary. It also did a series of online contests, which were possible due to its studio tie ups. One prize consisted of a trip to New Zealand, while another saw a fan travel to Hong Kong for the premiere of Harry Potter And the Goblet of Fire.
Click here
to know how kids’ channels’ marketing grew upZee Sports organised football screenings in pubs in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Push was also given in Goa in a huge way. Mobile vans visited youth hangouts like nightclubs, malls and cineplexes with an aim to spread the message about the Federation Cup and get people to come to the stadiums.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS), on the other hand, also did marketing around its Premier Hockey League (PHL). When PHL kicked off earlier this year it had launched a PHL anthem ‘Ek naya junoon!, which was sung by Sonu Nigam with Sandesh Shandilya as the music director.
Zoom here
for Times’ lifestyle channel’s marketing activitiesESPN India chief financial officer Vijay Rajput claims that more than 19.8 million individuals sampled PHL in its inaugural year. The ad campaign aimed at bringing the regional affiliations to the fore by making people take pride in their socio-cultural roots. The campaign, ESS says, looks to reflect the core value of the respective community/region to make the league more involving for the audience. This will result in a bigger audience size and more intense inter-team rivalries.
And rivalries are only going to get more intense in the coming 12 months as channels try to get their programmes one up on each other. Marketing is going to get into an even higher gear.
Additional inputs by Ashwin Pinto, Bijoy AK and Manisha Bhattacharjee.
-
Sun plans simultaneous launch of gameshow on network GECs
MUMBAI: Last Month, Sun Network launched a gameshow Thanga Vettai (Gold Hunt) on Sun TV to counter a probable onslaught from the Tamil version of KBC 2, launched on Vijay TV. Now, buoyed by the initial response, the network is producing the show for its Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam General Entertainment Channels (GEC).
“Thanga Vettai has brought us impressive ratings, according to the latest Tam data. Now we have decided to use the same format for our Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam entertainment channels. Radaan Mediaworks, the original producer of the show in Tamil, will be the producing the show for the other network channels also. We are planning a late December / early January launch,” Sun Network vice president Hansraj Saxena told indiantelevision.com.
Sun has also roped in popular film personalities from the respective regions to anchor the show. While Radaan Mediaworks promoter Radhika herself will anchor the gameshow for Gemini TV in Telugu, Malayalam actress Urvashi will handle the responsibility for Surya TV. In Kannada, actress Sruthi has been roped in to anchor the show for Udaya TV.
Thanga Vettai on Sun TV is anchored by South Indian actress Ramya Krishnan, is placed in the weekend slot at 9-10pm on Saturday & Sunday. According to Saxena, the same time slot will be used for the other network channels also. The Thanga Vettai format has a team comprising five members vying for a chunk of gold.
Quoting Tam data, Saxena claimed that Thanga Vettai beat competition by recording some impressive ratings in the Tamil Nadu and Chennai markets. He said, in the CS4+ all women category, the gameshow recorded a rating of 30 TVR on an average.
-
Amitabh effect: ‘KBC 2’ to air twice a week
MUMBAI: Star India has re-scheduled its popular gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 (KBC 2) following superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s sudden illness and his subsequent absence from work.
With effect from 2 December, the Bachchan-anchored show on Star Plus will be aired on Friday and Saturday instead of the original thrice a week (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) schedule.
A similar change has been brought in by Star India’s Tamil channel Vijay TV, which telecasts the Tamil version of KBC 2.
“As an endeavour to provide our viewers fresh episodes of KBC 2, the gameshow has been re-scheduled to two-days a week for an interim period. As per the new plan, KBC 2 will run un-affected till mid-January,” Star India vice-president, marketing and communications, Puneet Johar told indiantelevision.com.
With the rescheduling, Star India intends to keep the show ticking with the pre-recorded episodes till Bachchan recovers. Including the 2 December episode (the 52nd episode), Star Plus has already shot 63 episodes out of the overall 85 episodes committed by Bachchan.
This bank would have allowed Star Plus to run the gameshow only till 23 December as per the thrice-a- week schedule. But, by shrinking the schedule to twice a week, the channel is in a position to continue it till 7 January.
As per the revised schedule, the Sunday 9-10 pm slot will be taken over by the spiritual soap Sai Baba which originally airs in the Sunday 8:00 pm slot.
According to Johar, Sunday movie will fill the 8 pm slot. Vijay TV will telecast the spoof The Best of Lollu Sabha on Sunday, 4 December. A channel spokesperson said that there might be a different programme on 11 December.
-
Zee TV to launch gameshow ‘Kam ya Zyaada’ in December
MUMBAI: Zee TV has slotted Kam ya Zyaada, the game show which offers Rs 30 million as prize money, for December. The channel will initiate a month-long promotional activity for the big ticket show with a teaser campaign that kicks off next week.
Kam ya Zyaada is an adaptation of the Scandinavian format Gimme Five (G5), owned by the Denmark-based Zodiak Television World. The acquisition was revealed by Zee and Zodiak last month at the Mipcom summit in Cannes. Optymistix is producing the show for Zee TV.
Zee is investing heavily on the project. The channel will be using the game show as a driver property. The G5 format is unique since the show is interactive when it is off-air, claims Zodiak. At a time when mobile interactivity is being aggressively explored by television players, Zee is looking at Kam ya Zyaada as a strong platform that will drive its ambitious mobile interactive strategies.
Viewers watching the show will have to answer yes/no, higher/lower to the five SMS questions they receive, as fast as possible, and the lucky ones will get to join a weekly TV Quiz. The five SMS questions are used as a casting procedure week by week, says the format information provided on the Zodiak website.
According to Zee Network programming head Kartik Chintamani, Kam ya Zyaada will be a daily affair, running Monday through Friday. “The show has a lot to do with viewer-participation and hence interactivity. Viewers participate in the show by sending their answers through SMS. Hence, the participants will find it as a live show though it would be a recorded one actually,” he says.
Chintamani says viewer-participation will be ensured pre-launch through a series of campaigns which kick off next week.” The message will be conveyed through a 360 degree campaign. We will begin with a series of teasers to raise curiosity and then the final campaign will provide the required information to the public,” he says.
As already reported, Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpai will anchor the show. Justifying the choice, Chintamani offers, “Manoj was an ideal choice because we found him best suited to the format. As an actor and a celebrity, he has got credibility and we believe in his potential to strike a chord with the masses.”
With Kam ya Zyaada, Zee TV will be attempting to make a mark on the Monday – Friday band while Star’s KBC 2 is focused on the week-end band. Sony will launch its Rs 10 million game show Deal Ya No Deal this month while Sahara’s Sanjay Dutt-anchored Mission Ek Crore is expected only next fiscal.
-
Star One gets real with ‘Nach Baliye’
MUMBAI: After tapping the comedy genre successfully with shows such as The Great Indian Comedy Show and The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Star One has now unveiled a big ticket reality talent hunt property Nach Baliye.
The celebrity dance talent hunt show, made on a budget of Rs 200 million approximately, will launch on 11 October.
‘Nach Baliye’ will be the first reality show in India to feature married celeb couples competing against each other
Nach Baliye will see 10 real-life television celebrity couples fighting it out in the dance floor to win the favour of the audiences as well as expert judges. The winning couple will walk away with the ‘Nach Baliye Champions’ trophy.
The half-hour show placed in the 9 pm slot will run Tuesday through to Thursday. The episodes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays will capture the reality aspects of the competition while the Thursday episodes will showcase the actual performances by the celebrity couples.
“When we launched Star One ten months back, we had set two internal objectives. One was to present differentiated programming while the other was to reach the number two position in the Hindi general entertainment space within 12 months. As you know, we have fulfilled our first objective and are clearly on track to achieve the second objective, says Star India COO Sameer Nair, adding that Nach Baliye is part of the channel’s continuing efforts to introduce variety programming.
Speaking on the conceptualisation of the show format, Nair said it was an original concept from the channel. “While doing our homework, we had gone through various Western dance shows which are of reality formats. But nothing fit our requirements and conditions. During the brain storming, this idea of bringing real life celebrity couples together as contestants evolved. That is how Nach Bali happened,” he says.The channel hopes to explore the reality genre to its utmost by covering the real lives of the celeb couples. The Tuesday and Wednesday episodes will provide an insight into the lives of the couples – how they live, who are their families and friends, how they adapt to normalcy and how, they also go through all the trials, tribulations of any other married couple when faced with a challenge, states an official release.
By selecting stars who are supposedly “poor dancers”, the channel looks to make the show more exciting by telecasting the training sessions as well.
Star One’s decision to attempt the dance talent hunt genre coincides with the good success some of the international networks enjoy with this genre. The ABC show Dancing With The Stars, an adaptation of the successful BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing, has made dance-learning a craze in the US, according to an AdAge.com report. The show has non-dancing celebs partnering with professional dancers and having a ‘dance-off’. Additionally, Fox unveiled its American Idol spin-off So You Think You Can Dance, the search for talented dancers, this summer.
Channel to spend big on promotions:
According to a Star One executive, the channel will be spending about 40 per cent of its marketing budget on Nach Baliye. The promotional activities unfold with a promo series on KBC 2 on 2 September. Then the phase-to-phase campaign will begin with a series of teaser promos.
According to the executive, the promos initially will try to create awareness about the “marital status of the celebrities participating”, since the common man may not be aware of that connection. The channel will launch the final leg of the campaign in the last week of September.
-
‘Here comes the hotstepper – KBC 2’
MUMBAI: Its back for the last time.
Act Two; Scene One: Signature tune with logo. Jump cut to the Bollywood badshah dressed in a snazzy black jacket rapping all the way with the audience. Cut, again, to the hot seat, computerji and Amitabh Bachchan. Zoom to the buzzer round, which will decide the lucky individual who will be seated on the hot seat. (It’s an IIT Madras student)
That’s what millions of TV viewers will see in exactly 24 hours from now (5 August 9 pm).
So what’s different this time round as Bachchan gazes intensely into the eyes of the contestant and in his baritone voice asks, “Lock kiya jaye?” Plenty.KBC 2 is racy and spicy. The Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, for starters, has a hipper atmosphere with AB wearing the rapper’s hat and his attire — courtesy a top fashion designer — transformed from aristocratic to hip-hop.
What adds to the excitement is, of course, the doubled prize money that stands at Rs 20 million. What’s more, this time round Bachchan will pose a question in every episode right in the beginning for KBC viewers who could not reach the Fastest Finger First (FFF) or the Hot Seat.
The viewers have to rush in their answers either through the MTNL/BSNL landline or an Airtel number. This has to be done a few minutes before Bachchan reveals the answer of the said question just before the episode ends.
The viewer with the right answer and the quickest response time will be selected through a random computer draw to pocket Rs 200,000. The winner will be informed a few days after the episode.
That apart, the nine contestants who lose out in the FFF and don’t make it to the Hot Seat (HS) will get a fresh chance to play via Play Along. While the Big B asks questions to the HS player, the nine FFF participants can play along. At the end of the episode, one of the nine contestants who has got the maximum answers right in the least amount of time will win Rs 200,000 as well.
Hang on! There’s more in KBC 2. The show will also see the introduction of the fourth lifeline called Flip. This lifeline can only be activated by the participant in the HS after he/she crosses the first stage or the sixth question.Flip can be used at any point in time if the participant in the Hot Seat finds the question tough and can ask to flip the question. This is in addition to the already existing three lifelines – audience poll, phone-a-friend and 50/50.
KBC 2’s first schedule consists of 14 episodes. Interestingly, according to Star Plus, 77 per cent of KBC 2 respondents have come from small towns (population less than 1 million) . In 2000 when KBC hit the small screen, most of the respondents had come from metros. KBC 2 has received a total number of 50 million calls.
The first schedule sees a dominant presence of respondents from Madhya Pradesh and Kolkata; 16 each.
Looking at consolidating the weekend block, KBC 2 will get a lead in from serial major Kasautii Zindagi Kay on Friday and will be led out by Star Plus’ new show debuting tomorrow, Ba, Bahoo Aur Baby at 10 pm on weekends. On Fridays at 10:30 pm, viewers will see Star Plus’ evergreen star Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
Sundays will see the launch of Shanno Ki Shaadi, 7 August onwards at 10:30 pm, taking the lead in from Ba, Bahoo Aur Baby.
Will KBC 2 script yet another leaf in the success book of Indian television and that of Star Plus, especially on the weekends? We also can’t wait to ‘unlock’ this verdict! -
Vijay TV claims success with Tamil version of ‘KBC 2’
MUMBAI: Star India’s Tamil general entertainment channel Vijay TV has joined sister channel Star Plus in the KBC 2 launch ratings celebrations.
While Star Plus is basking in the glory of the tremendous opening numbers Tam data has thrown up for the second coming of KBC, Vijay TV says the Tamil version of KBC 2 has helped it to double its channel share in the 9-10 pm band on weekends.
Quoting Tam numbers, Vijay TV says for week 32 in which KBC 2 debuted, the channel recorded a viewership share of 15.7 in the SEC ABC 4+ C&S Chennai market, which is a jump of 100 per cent over the earlier week. For the week 31 on the same time period, the channel had recorded a viewership share of 7.2 per cent.
The launch episode of KBC 2 on 5 August recorded 4.1 TVR which went up to 7.6 TVR the next day, says the channel, quoting Tam.
Among female audiences (C&S 15+), KBC 2 romped home an impressive 5.1 TVRS on Friday and an even better 10.9 TVRs on Saturday, claims the channel. Across Tamil Nadu, among females the Saturday episode scored a high of 7 TVR.
“KBC 2 has delivered as per our expectations and we are quite satisfied with it,” was the initial response from Vijay TV DGM Harsh Krishna Rohatgi on the success of the Tamil version of the mega show.