ITV

Tag: Tarun Mehra

  • Zee TV unleashes outdoor campaign to promote 9-10 pm band

    MUMBAI: For the first time in its history, Zee TV has kicked off a ‘dual’ campaign to promote its 9 – 10 pm prime time band. The innovative promotion has the soaps in question, Kasamh Se (9 pm) and Saat Phere (9:30 pm), sharing hoarding space across Mumbai.
    “Zee TV has been leading the 9 pm to 10 pm band since a long time. But, we are not using this campaign to project ourselves as numero uno. This promotion is to assert the popularity of Bani and Saloni – the leading ladies of the respective soaps”, states Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra.

    Zee TV recently conceptualised an episode of Kasamh Se in such a way that, it had both Bani and Saloni in the same show. This was when Saloni attended the wedding of Bani’s younger sister in a recent episode.

    According to the Tam data (Week 31 to Week 34 2006, CS4+, HSM) offered by the channel, it is a neck and neck race going on in the 9 – 10 pm band presently. Zee TV is leading the race with an average TVR of 4.7 against Star Plus’ 4.5 TVR.

  • Zee TV enters new genre with ‘Ravan’ on Saturdays at 9

    Zee TV enters new genre with ‘Ravan’ on Saturdays at 9

    MUMBAI: In the peaceful abode of so called ‘Lanka’, Zee TV unveiled its latest mythological drama Ravan. From comedy to reality, the network aims to strengthen its hold in the general entertainment space with the addition of yet another genre, mythology. Ravan will kick off on 18 November at 9 pm to beef up the prime time weekend slot.

    Unlike the customary tales of Hindu mythology, this show hopes to delve into the life of the evil one ‘Ravan’. Little is known of Ravan as a great scholar, a devotee of Lord Shiva and that he was the grandson of Lord Brahma. Backed by research, the drama will follow the events and characters that drove Ravan to emerge as the malevolent King.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com at the launch, Zee TV Sr. VP marketing Tarun Mehra said that this will add to the existing line up which will make for ‘Super Saturdays’ which kicks off with Nerolac Impressions Jama De followed by Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hain, the yet to be launched Ravan and Idea Zee Cine Stars Ki Khoj.

    Expectedly, Zee will push their new property to the hilt. “We will advertise heavily on the channel itself, along with using outdoor in 10 to 12 cities, while radio promotions will also be included on Big FM and Radio Mirchi,” Mehra says.

    The costs for opulent sets of the show have been pegged at Rs 10 million and it is estimated that about Rs 1.5 million to 1.6 million is spent on every episode of the show. In total, 52 episodes are being shot.

    Explaining why the channel has decided to go the ‘mytho’ way, Mehra says, “There seems to be a rejuvenation of mythology as has been seen in the latest animated movies Hanuman and Krishna. Zee TV has always been known to do things differently and so we hope to lure viewers from grandparents to kids to view the story from Ravan’s perspective.”

    Zee TV business head Punit Goenka said, “Ravan is the latest addition to our diverse programming consisting of dramas, comedies, reality shows and movies. This show reveals the lesser known facts about the life of Ravan; his journey from Mahamanav to Mahadanav. The script of this mythological drama has been written with authentic references and research. With Ravan Zee TV presents viewers with a mythological show that is different from the present generation of serials.”

    Given, that the story narrates the life of one who is widely accepted as ‘evil’, the untold story of the Ravan may get viewers to sample the show. Even though the channel says research forms the backbone for the drama, whether it can find its hold in the given slot is yet to be seen.

  • L’il Champs and Zee TV salute the spirit of Indian cricket

    L’il Champs and Zee TV salute the spirit of Indian cricket

    MUMBAI: On the occasion of the start of the cricket season on Zee Sports, the five finalists from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs will render the Shabaash India title track to enthuse the Indian cricket team towards winning the series.

    Speaking on the initiative, Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra said, “We are very proud of our Champs as we are of the Indian cricket team. Shabaash India seeps in patriotism and its title track exactly denotes the honor that we want to designate to this spirit. The track is very peppy and the Champs have added to its sprightliness.”

    Zee Sports VP Marketing Gaurav Seth said, “We are delighted to have the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs turning their attention to India’s most popular pastime, cricket. We salute their patriotic spirit and will be happy to showcase their talent through the cricket on our channel which will be widely watched.”

    The track can be heard on Zee Sports starting 14 September for the duration of the entire season, according to an official release.

  • Zee TV to defend turf with ‘Cinestar ki Khoj’, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge’

    Zee TV to defend turf with ‘Cinestar ki Khoj’, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge’

    MUMBAI: Zee TV is planning to launch the second season of its reality talent hunt show Zee Cinestar Ki Khoj in September-October 2006. The channel also has plans to bring back the 2006-2007 edition of its landmark property, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge, this year itself.

    “Zee TV will be launching the second edition of its reality talent hunt Cine Star Ki Khoj. The channel is targeting September-October for the launch of the new season. Zee will be taking the property to the market very soon. Also, inspired by the success of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, the channel will be bringing back the flagship property Challenge this year,” says a source close to Zee.

    When contacted for confirmation of the developments, Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra agreed that plans were on to bring back Cine Star Ki Khoj and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge. However, he was quick to add that no time frame had been fixed as yet on the launch.

    “We have plans to launch Cine Star Ki Khoj’s second season this year. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge may also come back in 2006. But, we are yet to finalise the details,” says Mehra.

    According to reliable sources, Zee has awarded the production duties of Cinestar Ki Khoj 2 to Optimystix Entertainment. The production house has earlier produced the Manoj Bajpai-anchored gameshow Kam Ya Zyaada for Zee TV. The winning couple of the contest will be awarded title roles in a movie.

    Race, the movie which stars the winners of the first season, is presently nearing completion, according to a Zee TV executive. Zee has associated with Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts for the film. Zee owns the world rights for the film while Mukta owns the India theatrical rights.

    THE STRATEGY
    Why would Zee TV exhaust all its key properties in the last quarter of the calendar year? Though settled comfortably in the second spot behind Star Plus in the Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) space, the channel is in no mood to rest on its laurels. Reason? Competitors are gearing up to launch some key prime time properties in order to set off a fight-back.

    Sony Entertainment Television will be launching the Indian version of the popular international reality show Big Brother in November this year. The upcoming Champions Trophy, to be telecast on Max and Sab, will also be there in the running for the prime time stakes as the matches will be played Day/Night.

    Star One, on the other hand, has already announced its intention to launch the second seasons of two of its most successful properties Naach Baliye and Remix. However, the immediate priority for Zee TV would be to beef up its 8 pm slot, which is presently occupied by the long running soap Tumhari Disha. The channel will wind up Tumhari Disha in the first half of August with a new prime time property Dulhan.

    The latest Tam data for C&S 4+, HSM, shows that, the rest of the Zee TV properties have already established in their respective time bands. As per the Tam figures provided by the channel for the period of 3 July to 10 July, Saath Phere has recorded a rating of 6.54 TVR in the Zee TV charts, followed by Kasamh Se at 6.11 TVR. In the 8:30 pm slot, the soap Jab Love Hua has recorded a rating of 2.4 TVR. Shabaash India, at 10:30 pm, has delivered a rating of 2.7 TVR, while the 10 pm show Johny Aala Re scored 2.4 TVR. The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’iL Champs is averaging at 2.7 TVR.

  • Zee TV takes lead in weekday 9-10 prime time

    Zee TV takes lead in weekday 9-10 prime time

    MUMBAI: It’s been a long time coming, but Star Plus’ vice like grip on prime time has been breached. Zee TV, which has been methodically building its narrative programming and taken a firm handle on the number two slot, has now made its first major assault on Hindi entertainment’s lead channel.

    And critically, this has been achieved not by a format show but two soaps working in tandem. Powered by the career best performances from Saat Phere and Kasamh Se, the channel has gone ahead of the market leader Star Plus in the highly contested 9 – 10 pm prime time band for Week 21 (18 May to 24 May), according to Tam.

    As per the data, the top programme on Zee TV during the period was the 9:30 pm soap Saat Phere which recorded its best ever 6.61 TVRs on 25 May with a reach of 11.28 per cent and time spent/viewer of 24 minutes. Saat Phere also gave an above average performance on 22 May (4.7) and 26 May (4.68). In the 9 pm slot, Kasamh Se topped with 4.96 TVR on 24 May, 4.68 on 22 May, 4.27 on 25 May and 3.72 on 26 May.

    On the other hand, Star Plus’ counter soaps Kkavyanjali (9 pm) and Miilee (9:30 pm) for Monday to Thursday performed like this: Miilee – 4.77 TVR on 22 May, 4.17 on 25 May and 3.95 on 24 May. Kkavyanjali – 5.61 TVR on 22 May, 4.25 on 25 May, 4.19 on 24 May and 4.12 on 23 May. On Friday, 26 May, Prithviraj Chauhan recorded 4.24 TVR in the 9:30 pm time slot.

    To an extent, the good show from Saat Phere has been attributed to certain creative exercises the channel experimented on the soap. The consistent performance the soap had been maintaining over a long period gave the channel the opportunity to create, play up and reveal a suspense element on the soap and these efforts have now reaped it good fortunes.

    24, 25 and 26 of May were crucial for the soap as the suspense was revealed step by step during these days. And as the data reveals, the ploy has worked for Saat Phere and in the process the soap even emerged as the top show of the week in GEC in the 9-10 pm time band.

    “Saat Phere had been maintaining an upper trend if you look at the last few weeks data. We knew that the gap was closing. The suspense factor was just one of the reasons, but yes, it has helped the soap to record good numbers. However, this is just a one week performance and we have still got a lot of ground to cover to make our claims to the number one slot in this time band. Now the challenge lies in sustaining this good show,” states Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra.

    Star India senior creative director Shailja Kejriwal agrees that Saat Phere is doing a good job for Zee TV at present. “Zee TV has got two good shows in this time band and we agree that these shows are doing a good job. We have a healthy competition going on.”

    However Kejriwal is quick to warn Zee that Star Plus wouldn’t be sitting idle watching it stealing all the glory. “We are working on a strategy to beat it. Not only our newly launched or upcoming properties, but all the Star Plus prime time shows will play their roles in this process. This is a highly contested slot and we are confident of winning it back. In this particular slot, we have made fight backs earlier also. Earlier we have battled off the Sony soap Kkusum when it was going great guns in this slot. So we are confident of a comeback.”

    As already reported, Star Plus is launching a one hour soap Viraasat in the 9 pm slot, starting 12 June.

    The Tam data for the period also reveals that Zee TV has improved its position in the GRP (Gross Rating Points) space as well. In the 9 pm to 9:30 pm band, Zee recorded GRPs of 4.03 for the week, almost on par with Star Plus’ 4.04. But it was in the 9:30 pm to 10 pm slot that Subhash Chandra’s channel really made its play achieving average GRPs of 5.02 as against Star Plus’ 4.21.

    The channel as a whole recorded a GRP of 230 for the week 21, up by 34 points from 196 of the previous week. Meanwhile, the GRPs of Star Plus recorded a decline of 7 points, to 492 in the same week. Sony also went down by 5 points to stand at 103.

    What ammunition the “Empire” uses to strike back at the upstart that has intruded into its domain will be watched with interest. Whatever the final outcome though, it’s match on for the prime time ratings stakes.