ITV

Tag: Sahara One

  • Sahara One firms up Hindi music channel launch timeline

    Sahara One firms up Hindi music channel launch timeline

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited is all set to launch its Hindi music channel. “We are launching the channel in the next few weeks,” said Sahara One Media and Entertainment CEO Shantonu Aditya.

    Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Sahara would be launching a music channel to expand its bouquet of entertainment businesses.

    The music channel will be encrypted but free-to-air. “We are big in Bollywood. A music is a natural extension for us. It will be a free-to-air channel at this stage,” Aditya said.

    The name of the channel has yet to be finalised. The company launched its movie channel Filmy in February.

    Sahara One head Shailendra Singh said, “I am delighted to inform that we will soon be launching our next channel, which will be a Hindi music channel. It will cater to millions of music lovers across India and worldwide. Along with Sahara One Television and Filmy, our music channel will complete the genres of mass Hindi entertainment from Sahara One, and will strengthen our bouquet immensely.”

    According to a statement issued by the company, Sahara One’s forthcoming Hindi music channel will showcase the best of Hindi music from Bollywood films and non-film albums, along with music events and original programming.

    Aditya said, “As a genre, music channels have tremendous potential for mass acceptance and popularity, and we will try to give the same kind of innovativeness to our music channel’s programming that is seen on Filmy and Sahara One Television.”

    He further added, “The new channel will also provide excellent synergy to the motion pictures business, which produces several films each year, thereby creating a lot of fresh content for our television businesses. In fact, Sahara One Motion Pictures, Sahara One Television, Filmy and our music channel will all be mutually supportive of one another and will enable us to deliver tremendous value to viewers and advertisers alike.”

  • Sahara One Television changes logo, on-air identity

    Sahara One Television changes logo, on-air identity

    MUMBAI: They’ve done it yet again! Sahara One Television has once again changed its on-air channel identity and logo.

    In order to reflect the dreams and aspirations of the new age Indian woman, the channel will don a new logo from 28 March. Inspired from the blooms of a lotus, the colours and form speak for themselves.

    Sahara One Television’s prime time programming revolves around contemporary Indian women minus the saas-bahu sagas in shows like Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Haare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan and Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai.

    The channel had last changed its logo in October 2004.

    Sahara One Television’s various phases of transition
    Sahara One Television’s new logo retains the company’s distinctive saffron and green stripes next to the company name Sahara.

    The Singapore based Bruce Dunlop Associates has designed the new on-air look for the channel, with Bollywood music director Shantanu Moitra designing the sound for the new packaging.

    “The new logo is designed by Yellow Frog a design outfit of Percept H, part of Percept Holdings Company and gives Sahara One Television the crucial singular visual identity along with colour palettes that give continuity and a never-ending promise. Though the new logo is soft in appeal, it has an inner strength that is exuded via the bloom and the colours. It is interesting to notice that the form that is created for O is inspired from a lotus petal,” said Sahara One Television COO Purnendu Bose.

    Speaking on the reason behind changing the logo, Bose said, “The old logo with the diamonds around it was too restrictive and was not flexible. It wasn’t a reflection of the true Indian woman and we wanted a logo that reflected our target audience.”
    The channel has also launched an advertising campaing with the protagonists of its prime time shows. The taglines of these campanigs are — ‘Pati Parmeshwar ka time khatam’ and ‘Kit-pit saas ka time khatam.’

    “The campaing hits the current stereotype saas-bahu sagas head-on, which have been running on Indian television for the last two years. It reflects our programming strategy that focuses on women of today,” added Bose.

    What’s more… since the channel’s key focus audience are women, it has launched a contest exclusively targeted at women viewers called ‘Naya Rang-Cricketers Ke Sang.’

    The contest began on 27 March and will run till 8 April. Under the contest one question will be asked between 8 – 10 pm everyday. The viewers have to send their replies by SMS to 9090 or call 1904-424-9090 by 12 noon next day to leave their answers.

    The winners stand a chance to win a fully paid trip for the for the last five matches One-Day Internationals to be held from 3 – 15 April with Indian cricketers on a chartered plane.

    The winners of Naya Rang-Cricketers Ke Sang contest will be announced on the channel six days prior each match. The winners not only gets to travel, dine and wine with these cricketers but shall also have the privilege to watch the match in exclusive seats.

  • Oz-SA batting blitz ODI gets ESPN high eyeballs

    Oz-SA batting blitz ODI gets ESPN high eyeballs

    NEW DELHI: The epic one day international between South Africa and Australia, which saw eight records tumble during the record run chase by the Proteas, registered a very impressive TVR of 3.1 in India on 12 March, 2006.

    Sports broadcaster ESPN garnered highest channel share of 16.5 pr cent during South Africa’s historic run chase against the world Champion. ESPN Star Sports is broadcasting Australia’s tour of South Africa covering the five one day internationals and three test series between the two cricketing giants.

    ESPN’s share was almost thrice than the next competing channel Star Plus during the time 1743 -2203 hrs on 12 March. Star Plus garnered 6.1 pr cent, Zee Cinema 4.9 per cent, Sony 3.2 per cent and DD National 2.7 per cent during the time period, an official statement from ESS said today, basing it on TAM figures (Males, 15+, SEC ABC all-India).
    The simulcast of India-England Test match on the same day garnered a rating of 3.1 (DD1) and 1.8 (Sahara One).

    And it’s not just once-in-a-lifetime matches like the one witnessed in Johanesburg that are getting in the viewer numbers, according to ESPN. Non-India cricket ratings have been on a rise, the channel claims. ESPN’s channel share surged ahead of all satellite channels during the victorious run chase of Bangladesh against Australia on 18 June, 2005, the statement avers.

    ESPN registered a channel share of 8.1 which was way ahead of other channels including Star Plus (6.9), Sony (5.7) and Zee TV (4.6).

  • ‘Our primetime viewership has increased 78%, revenues by 400%’ : Purnendu Bose – Sahara One Television COO

    ‘Our primetime viewership has increased 78%, revenues by 400%’ : Purnendu Bose – Sahara One Television COO

    After joining Sahara One Television in April last year as COO, Purnendu Bose has been able to steer the channel through a period of growth and turnaround. Bose has been responsible for Sahara One Television’s new fresh look and content.

     

    Bose was also a part of the team that launched Radio City, Star News and Hungama TV.

     

    Under his leadership, Sahara One has seen an almost 400% jump in revenues and a 78 per cent rise in primetime viewership. In this interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Hetal Adesara, Bose speaks about cricket, the new shows lined up on the channel and more…

     

    Excerpts:

    Let’s start with the current hot topic of cricket. What do you expect cricket to do for the channel?

    With cricket we found a lot of synergy. First of all, rival channels do not carry our ads and the second thing is that housewives don’t read newspapers. And cricket is religion in our country. With cricket we hope to increase the sampling of the channel and it has all the ingredients — drama, excitement, highs and low — that we aim to offer viewers with our soaps.

     

    Apart from this, post cricket, our viewership in prime time has gone up by 78 per cent.

    How much has the switch of Sahara One signal to Filmy impacted the connectivity of the channel considering the fact Filmy has just launched?

    There is no loss of connectivity post the switching of signals. We have encrypted our channel and in fact we have almost 99 per cent connectivity in Tam towns. Earlier it was 94 per cent. We just had 48 hours to do the needful and the team did a fantastic job of ensuring availability of the channel across the country.

    Since you have encrypted your channel, are there any plans of going pay?

    Going pay is very much on our agenda but not immediately. Maybe in the next six – seven months, we will go pay.

    Your afternoon band has completely gone off with cricket coming in. Doesn’t that bother you since after cricket gets over, it will have to be brought back and viewers may not come back?

    Our afternoon band comprised repeats of our primetime shows – Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan and Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai. We did not have an afternoon band where we showed other new soaps. Now with cricket on, our loyal viewers are watching those shows on primetime. When cricket does get over in April, we are sure that they will come back to our channel in the afternoon.

    How is cricket being used to build other properties of the channel? One of the things one would expect would be to make a big noise around a new or existing property during this time?

    We already have our key leading ladies from our primetime shows in an ad campaign around cricket. That is being aired on our channels (Sahara One and Filmy) and we also have online ads on the same theme. Apart from that, we keep promoting these shows during the match ad breaks.

     

    As far as launching new shows is concerned, we do have a few in the pipeline, which will go on air in April – May. These are fiction shows and are tentatively titled Sati and Kya Socha. Sati is most likely to replace Buniyaad when it ends its run in May.

    How would you define 2005 for Sahara One in terms of the programming and marketing initiatives taken? How much has the channel grown in the last one year in terms of viewership and revenues?

    Last year has been good for us in terms of programming. We had success with our shows like Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan, Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai and Kohinoor. Buniyaad is also doing well on the channel. As I already mentioned, our primetime viewership has increased by 78 per cent. On the other hand, our revenues have increased by 400 per cent. We have more than 260 advertisers on board. Clients are also seeing value in our programming and hence are advertising more with us.

     

    Recently we have divided our programming into two blocks and moved away from classifying shows as fiction and non-fiction. The first time band we will focus on will be the 7 pm – 9 pm one and the second will be from 9 pm – 11 pm.

     

    These two time bands will be overseen by two programming heads. Naina Toor Singh will be looking after the 7 – 9 pm band and for the time being, I will be looking after the 9 – 11 pm band — until we find a replacement for Kumud (Chowdhary).

    What was the reason behind bringing about this change?

    It’s quite simple. Viewers don’t classify shows as fiction or nonfiction They focus more on the timings of the shows that they want to watch or are interested in. Our aim will be to look at programming from the viewers’ eyes.

     

    Hence we will be looking at strengthening programming in these time slots. That’s where our new shows will also come in a couple of months.

    Apart from ‘Sati’ and ‘Kya Socha’, another property will be the game show ‘Mission Ek Crore’ with Sanjay Dutt as host. When is it likely to launch and how is the production progressing?

    We will launch Mission Ek Crore some time around the end of April or beginning May. The initial plan was to launch it before the end of this fiscal year. But we have stalled it. One of the main reasons behind this is that we first want to build our programming lineup in the 9 to 11 pm time band.

     

    Currently we have Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Kittu Sabb Jaanti Hai and re-runs of Virasaat and Kadam in this time band. We will be introducing new shows and once that is done, we will launch Mission Ek Crore.

    After the launch of Filmy, how much importance will the movie band on Sahara One hold? Will the premiers be on Filmy now? Would you take off movies from Sahara One and place shows in the weekend or will movies remain a part of the weekend lineup?

    Movies are an integral part of our weekend lineup and they will continue to remain so. We have introduced the concept of multiple premiers wherein the movie will be premiered on Sahara One at 12.30 pm and on Filmy at 3.30 pm and then again on Sahara One at 7.30 pm. So we will be airing the movie premier three times in a day. It’s on the model of a film airing in a theater at different time slots. The idea is that maximum number of people can watch it at whatever time is suitable for them.

    In the GEC space where would you rate Sahara One and why?

    Let the viewers say the same. Recently we did a survey with 2000 general entertainment TV viewers across five cities. And they personified Sahara One Television as the Abhishek Bachchan of Indian television – a star with the potential of becoming a super star. That’s how viewers rate us. And this is a strong endorsement and a matter of satisfaction for us.

    What has contributed to the growth at Sahara One in the last one year?

    It’s not one big thing that matters, but doing thousands of small things behind ever big decision, separates the winners from the others. It is a team effort that has resulted in the change we see on the channel.

     

    I’ll attribute this to the programming, on-air promos, off air marketing, sales and distribution of the channel. The program strategy of women are real on Sahara One, we have consciously stayed away from stereotypical programs and portrayed the real women that we see all around us.

     

    The on-air promos strategy has been cutting edge to the brief with simple and crisp messages communicating the channel differentiator. Marketing has burnt the mid night oil to evolve below the line strategies / activities to increase sampling and using mass media to reinstate the differentiator and driving traffic to the channel.

     

    Sales backed it up with exceptional revenue growth, through innovation thus creating value for money for advertisers leading to over 260 brands advertising with the channel resulting in a 425 per cent growth, in last six months over the first six months of this fiscal. Distribution ensured that we are available in over 96 per cent of 60 million cable viewing homes. All being a team effort.

    Despite the fact that individual shows are doing well on the channel, why does it not reflect in the ratings?

    We have seen an improvement in ratings over the last few months. But the reason why ratings of shows that are doing well are not reflected remains a mystery to us.

    Sahara One was due to launch in the UK before the end of this fiscal. Has that happened as yet?

    No, we have not yet launched in the UK. We want to ensure that we launch in this market with the best partner in order to ensure the maximum reach of the channel from the very beginning. We are in active talks with leading potential distributors which we would close shortly. We will be looking at launching Sahara One there in early 2007, not before that.

    How is the channel faring in the US?

    We have got a good response from our viewers in the US. We get letters from all over the States. In the first six months, we have close to 70,000 subscribers there.
  • Sahara One programming head Kumud Chowdhary quits

    Sahara One programming head Kumud Chowdhary quits

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Television programming head (fiction) Kumud Chowdhary has put in her papers. Chowdhary joined Sahara One in January 2004 from Star, where she was commissioning editor.

    Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, Sahara One Television COO Purnendu Bose said, “Yes, Kumud has put in her papers today. She has done a terrific job here for the last two years and is moving on to pursue her personal aspirations. We wish her all the best.”

    Chowdhary said that she was moving to pursue other things. When queried as to what her next destination was, she remained noncommittal, saying it was too soon to talk about it and “nothing was final as yet.”

    In her tenure at Sahara One Television as programming head, Chowdhary was instrumental in bringing on board shows like Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan, Kituu Sabb Jantii Hai, Kohinoor and Saath Rahega Always. “These shows have brought a lot of credibility to the channel and has brought Sahara One in synch with the other players in the industry,” Chowdhary said.

    Chowdhary had joined Sahara One when post the restructuring of Sahara’s media and entertainment business under a joint venture management company with Percept, Sahara Media and Entertainment vice president programming Triptii Sharma put in her papers in late 2003. Chowdhary was brought in to step into Sharma’s shoes.

  • India England series holds on to ratings

    India England series holds on to ratings

    MUMBAI: Holding on to the cricket loving audience. That is what the first test match in the India England series has managed to do. Tam figures indicate that the ratings achieved were similar to what had been done when India played Sri Lanka last year and only slightly less than what was achieved when India toured pakistan..

    Tam data c&s 4+ shows that for the first test match DD had a rating of 1.6 while Sahara One managed a rating of 0.9. This is similar to the ratings that the India Sri Lanka test series got last year.

    DD had a rating of 1.6 while Zee Sports had a rating of 0.8. Of course one must consider the fact that Sahara One has better connectivity than Zee Sports. Where Sahara One fared better was in the Hindi Speaking Markets. It managed a rating of 1.3 compared to the 0.9 that Zee Sports managed during the India Sri Lanka test matches.

    The good news is that the test ratings for the India England series was only slightly less than what Ten Sports managed for the India Pakistan tests which was 2.9 c&s4+. The India England series delivered 86 per cent of the audience for the India Pakistan series c&s4+.

    Test cricket rates better among men. For males c&s ABC 15+ DD managed a rating of 2.2 while Sahara One managed a rating of 1.2. The India Sri Lanka test series managed a rating of 2.3 on DD and 1.2 on Zee Sports. Ten Sports got a rating for 4.3 for the India Pakistan test matches.