MUMBAI: Just as the fortunes have started favouring Zee Group, founder-promoter Subhash Chandra lost his mother today.
Tara Devi passed away at around 5.30 pm.”She was ailing for some time now,” says Zee spokesperson Ashish Kaul.
“Her body will be taken to Hissar in Haryana on Wednesday morning and the cremation will take place at 2.30 in the afternoon,” he adds.
MUMBAI: Films and Shorts the production house for Zee TV’s latest mythological series Ravan has roped in Mumbai based Interactive Realities International Pvt. Ltd. (IRIPL) with the aim to spice up the visual effects on its show and infuse international quality visual and special effects into the serial. Interactive Realities has recently created the illusion of Ravan’s ten heads for the serial.
Announcing the association, Interactive realities head business development Santy Mendes said “Zee TV’s Ravan offers us a great platform to showcase our work to a wide audience. Our Special Effects Division is backed by state-of-the-art technology, rich experience and in-house expertise to generate international quality motion picture graphics. The use of realistic special effects will help create a true to life and visually delightful experience for the viewers of Ravan.”
“We have finished work on creating the visual illusion of Ravan’s ten heads, which is actually an effect created by the reflections from a many-faced gemstone on Ravan’s necklace and are currently working on the visual effect requirements of the young Ravan.” added Mendes.
Film and Shorts producer Gulshan Sachdeva said, “We were really impressed with the kind of work done by Interactive Realities and immediately realized the value they would add to Ravan. Special Effects are a very important element of mythological shows such as Ravan and the quality of work that the Interactive Realities team has demonstrated is world class. All episodes of Ravan will now have the visual and special effects as created by Interactive Realities.”
In addition to Ravan, Interactive Realities also provides design and animation services for Antariksh a weekly serial on Star Plus. However, this show will soon be taken off the channel.
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) today asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to look into the issue of transponder capacity as raised by direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Tata Sky as a limiting factor.
The Tdsat has also asked Trai whether it would like to regulate prices for channels on DTH operations, as it has done in the case of cable operations in the Cas regime, or let market forces operate as they are now, in terms of broadcasters fixing their own prices.
Trai had been asked to state the time they would need to do so, and their counsel wanted two weeks. Trai has been asked to file an affidavit by 19 January.
Tdsat was hearing the ongoing case between Tata Sky and Zee-Turner, regarding the fixing of channel offered by the latter, which Tata Sky found too high. Tata Sky had filed the case earlier also because according to it, Zee-Turner had not acceded to its request to stream signals over the issue of prices, violating Trai regulation.
The matter came to head when Tata Sky alleged that Zee-Turner was indulging in cartelisation, since it was not only a MSO, but also part of a broadcaster on behalf of Turner.
While the Tata Sky counsel was addressing the court, the Zee counsel intervened to say that though Tata Sky was challenging Zee’s contentions on the ground that it was an arm of broadcaster Turner, the same was the case with Tata Sky, which had an agreement with Star television, and could simply not seek to plead as just a DTH operator.
Tata Sky had said during the arguments that it had to operate through various transponders, and the total capacity of these was limited; but Zee rebutted that over and above the channels Zee was giving Tata Sky, the latter was still able to beam local channels, so the issue of a limited capacity of transponders did not hold good.
This is when the court decided to rise and discuss the issue between the brother judges.
On resumption of hearing, the court, instead of allowing the parties to continue arguments, directly addressed the Trai counsel and said that there are “larger issues that are worrying us”, and asked Trai to come out with their position.
While the counsel for Tata Sky referred to an earlier judgement of the same court (July 14, 2006), the court said certain issues may have been overlooked and hence, it was only Trai that would first need to state its position.
NEW DELHI: The Indian television market has been steadily eating into the advertising revenue and has sliced off a significant chunk from the traditional advertisement giant, newspapers and this is likely to grow, but for a one per cent slump expected in 2008, says the Credit Suisse report, “Opportunities of Hollywood in Bollywood.”
And a large share of the advertisement revenue for TV will be shared by the top two, with Star and Zee dominating, and the former expecting to make up on recent slump because of their blockbuster game show KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) being off the channel for sometime now. The pick-up is also likely to be because of KBC returning on the channel.
The report says that the advertisement market share of newspapers in 1994 was 61 per cent, while that of TV was 30 per cent.
That scaled up for TV to 43 per cent over the next five years (2004), while newspapers slumped to 49 per cent.
The current year’s figures for newspapers and TV are 42 and 44 per cent respectively, but while the former has stayed at 42 per cent since 2004, TV has improved one per cent over the figures for the same period.
Interestingly, Credit Suisse predicts that while newspapers will retain their market share at 42 per cent in 2008, TV shall lose one per cent of the share for the same period.
The top 10 advertisers on TV are Hindustan Lever, Paras Pharmaceuticals, Proctor&Gamble, Radio Benckiser (India) Ltd, Dabur India Ltd, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico, Nokia Corp., L’Oreal India Pvt Ltd and Colgate Palmolive. While the FMCG sector has remained the largest contributor of advertising revenue, the report sees a certain change coming up with telecom, auto and financial (credit cards, mutual funds) companies becoming good players in the market. And Credit Suisse expects that with the lowering of barriers for foreign companies to enter the retail market, packaged food items (which have already started making a mark) are likely to contribute a bit more than it does now.
The report says that Star TV is the leading broadcaster, with the largest distribution of all cable networks, having a footprint of 44 million households. It gets paid for 10 million households, though, due to underdeclaration by cable operators. But this is still double the amount that other broadcasters get paid for, says the report.
“In FY07E to date, Star has suffered for not having Millionaire (KBC)…Q2 of FY07E is expected to have the added difficulty of Champions Trophy Cricket taking revenue out of the market,” the report predicts. Adding, “Easier comps are predicted for H2 when Millionaire is likely to return to the schedule. However, the difficult comparisons of H1 are likely to slow advertising revenue in FY07F growth rates versus FY06 growth rates.”
Zee Telefilms’ domestic serials is giving some competition to Star, but its market position “remains exceptionally strong, with double the gross ratings points that of Zee and four times that of Sony.
While Star’s future programming is likely to revolve around regional channels, rival Zee – the largest listed media company in the country – will be there too and for the same reason: that is where the most rapid growth is expected in terms of households, and already, that is where a third of the TV ad pie goes: local language channels.
Interestingly, Star is already there with Star Vijay and Star Ananda, Telugu and Bengali channels already doing well.
Disney has cornered the best of the kiddies segment in Hindi, and is strategically increasing its locally produced content. During vacations, its locally produced content peaks to about 25 to 30 hours out of the 168-hour week, while during school periods it goes down to 12 to 13 hours. It has leadership (50 per cent) in the kids space, says the report.
Sahara One is the fourth player in the TV market after Star, Zee and SET. Times of India owns six per cent of shares and Siva owns 14.9 per cent. However, it is being reportedly eyed by Viacom and the management is interested to dilute the 51 per cent ownership. It is set to launch six new programmes as part of a revamp, but none of its programmes happen to be in the top 100.
SET (61 per cent Sony Pictures, 31 per cent Indian shareholders and eight per cent Capital Group), is likely to see some changes in the ownership pattern as well, “to provide for an exit option for the Indian shareholders” and this is likely in the form of IPO, the Credit Suisse report suggests.
MUMBAI: With new sports channels coming in it is inevitable that new formats will also come in. One such format is a cricket based reality show called Cricket Star.
This is an initiative to find a budding cricket star who has been bypassed by the system. The idea is the brainchild of Investors In Cricket (IIC) a firm that looks at sports rights relevant to the Asian subcontinent. This will be in the form of a reality hunt and will air as a television event for 11 weeks from 14 January 2007 on DD and Zee. DD and Zee Sports will each week simulcast three episodes. Zee TV will air an episode each week.Miditech has been roped in to produce the show. Airtel and HLL are the presenting sponsors. Aspiring cricketers can apply by calling 5052727 from GSM mobiles, 1277777 from MTNL landlines or 1255527 from MTNL and BSNL. One can also send an SMS CSTAR to 7575.
Eight selection centres are open and one has to showcase one’s skills there, whether it is batting, bowling or wicket keeping. From there the chosen ones go to a pre academy phase. Finally 23 contestants will go to the Academy. There will be a countdown and thus an elimination process to find the winner.
The channel has roped in Kapil Dev and Saurav Ganguly as judges. The flamboyant Ajay Jadeja will be the expert analyst. IIC chairman Manoj Badale points out that after the event in India is finished it will travel abroad to the UK and Pakistan among other countries. “This marks the first time a cricket based reality show is launching in India. This marks the first time a reality show that has originated from India travels abroad. Normally it is the other way around.
This idea has taken a while to put together. We wanted the best possible reach, which is why we approached DD and Zee. DD as the national broadcaster can reach the small towns. Zee with its multi lingual channels will also help get the message across.”
The winner gets an all expenses paid contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club and cash. The final 11 contestants will also get a chance to participate in the rollout of Cricket Star in the UK next Summer and in Pakistan. Also, Cricket Star aspirants will play a series of 20:20 matches.These will air on Zee Sports.
When the 23 chosen contestants enter the cricket Star Academy each week the judges will nominate the four bottom performers out of whom two will be evicted by the participants., When it is down to the final 11 viewers will be able to vote by phone or through SMS. The final episode airs at the end of March 2007.
Miditech CEO Nikhil Alva points out that the challenge begins from today as the lines are now open. Whether or not it is as big as Indian Idol will depend on the response. “We are confident that with our previous experience we will be able to handle the logistics of the event. There will certainly be drama as viewers get to know the human side of the candidates in addition to their cricketing abilities.
Zee Sports business head Himanshu Mody says that this is the first time a format has brought cricket and television together in an entertaining manner. “We aim to find the hidden wonders in India’s villages and towns And showcase them to the country along with their travails and struggles. At Zee Sports it has always been about showcasing sports and sportspersons from India. As they say may the best man or woman win.”
Jadeja says that more than just a show this will also be a coaching platform for aspirants. Kapil Dev and Ganguly will offer advice to aspirants on how to improve their skills.
Ganguly sees this endeavour as a way to give back to the game for the opportunities it has given him. Dev says that every youngster who is passionate about the game should at least be given an opportunity. It should not be that a youngster feels that he/she could have made it but an opportunity was not given.
Airtel marketing director Gopal Vittal says, “In India cricket and Bollywood share a passion that cuts across geographies, cultures and religions. Today every street, nukkad or galli in this country has an enthusiastic budding cricketer waiting for an opportunity to perform on a bigger stage. Cricket Star offers them an opportunity to perform at the highest level.”
HLL is involved through its product Faior And Lovely Mens Active. HLL VP Skin Care Ashok Venkatramani says, ” Our product has already changed the story of male gooming in India. This association will catch the fancy of every male in India who aspires to get that opportunity to see themselves as the next Cricket Star.
This is our contribution to Indian cricket and we are certain that this will help discover the Sachin’s Dhoni’s, Pathan’s Sehwags etc. Our support is a sure way of changing the story of Indian cricket and taking it to greater heights of glory.
MUMBAI: As the action on Nick heats up with the launch of the month long ‘Masti Dosti’ contest, the channel has sought new avenues to reach its target 4-14 year olds. Nick is looking to capitalise on multiple mediums to build awareness of its latest initiative that runs along the “best buddy pairs” theme promoting three key properties Spongebob Squarepants, Ninja Hattori and The Munnabhai Show.
Specific to Mumbai city, Nick has been authorised by 18 schools to paint schools buses with Nick themes, as well as on bus backs for Best buses that follow various school routes in the city.
Apart from the city oriented plans, the channel is also looking to take the 30 second commercial beyond Nick to include several GEC’s such as Zee, Zee Cinema, SET Max and Discovery, which is often frequented by kids. Regional channels like ETV Bangla and Gujrati will also be targeted.
In addition, the channel has joined hands with several local cable TV operators in metros and smaller markets, to showcase the 30 second promotion in between blockbusters aired.
Nick has also devised a plan for the innovative use of print, through a tie up with Diamond comics that will advertise the contest across both the Hindi and English editions. The campaign is focused in going all the way to capture the attention of kids via mediums that are a ‘sure shot’.
The contest will culminate on 29 December and apart from winners and their best friends pocketing goodies, Nick has lined up a special telethon that will span three days – 30 and 31 December 2006 and 1 January 2007, each day running 9 hours of back to back episodes of the three shows.
MUMBAI: Tata Sky is increasing the monthly subscription rate of its direct-to-home (DTH) service to Rs 300, sources in the industry say. The revised rate, up from Rs 200, is likely to come into effect from 1 December.
Tata Sky, however, has decided not to offer “tiered” channel packages at this stage of the DTH market. “Bundling channels and fixing different rates is confusing to the consumers. The mobile telephony market has shown that to everybody in this country. Tata Sky will continue to offer a single package unlike its competitor Dish TV,” sources add.
When contacted for a comment on the developments,Tata Sky CEO Vikram Kaushik remained noncommital.
Tata Sky offers 102 channels (including Star, Sony, Zee, Discovery, Cartoon Network, Disney, ESPN Star Sports and National Geographic) and six interactive services (Actve Khabar, Actve Newsroom, Actve Star News, Actve Games, Actve Sports and an on-screen guide).
Tata Sky had stuck to the introductory offer price of Rs 200 even after Zee Turner’s 32 channels had hopped on to the DTH platform in late September. As the interim pricing of these group of channels (fixed by The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal till the dispute gets resolved) was Rs 75, a rate revision was in the pipeline. But the debate was whether Tata Sky would subsidise the content cost to the subscribers in the wake of CAS (conditional access system) being introduced on 1 January with a la carte choice of channels that would pull down cable TV rates.
Tata Sky claims to have a subscriber base of 250,000 and says it is on target to achieve one million within a year of operations. The southern region continues to be a weak spot with the Sun group of channels yet to join the platform. Tata Sky has moved the TDSAT, hoping to get a positive verdict which would ensure the supply of the channels from the Sun stable.
The Tata Sky set-top box (supplied by News Corp owned NDS), hardware and installation cost has been priced at Rs 3,999 (inclusive of taxes) with a full service warranty for one year.
Violence, subtle and physical, has permeated the soaps of the small screen, according to a recent study.
In a monitoring study that spanned 30 episodes of various soaps on Star Plus, Sony and Zee in June 2002, the Delhi based Centre for Advocacy and Research found that there is a high presence of physical, verbal and psychological violence on screen. Most of this is directed at women. Marital discord, male female conflicts, male aggression and family honour are the reasons for the high quantity of violent acts on television, notes the study.
During the seven day study, the CFAR viewers‘ panel also looked at regional language channels like Alpha Bengali, Alpha Gujarati, Asianet and Sun TV. In the monitored sample, the panel noted 10 scenes depicting domestic violence in which women were the victims and men the aggressors. The nature/act of violence was physical or verbal. However, the psychological impact of the violence was to a major extent borne by the female victims, the study avers.
Whether marital discord, anger and frustration of the man in his professional life, a misunderstanding or the honour of the family, the women were always at the receiving end, notes the study. The relationship between the aggressor and the victim is seen as mostly marital or through marriage, but in a few instances, even a brother was an aggressor.
The study also finds that women are often shown submitting to maltreatment and lacking the conviction to defend themselves. The ‘family court’, found the study, is a common occurrence. The woman is ‘accused’, judged and convicted by this ‘family court’ which consists of the woman’s in-laws. She has no recourse to any other agent, legal or otherwise.
Although bigamy is illegal in India, it is often depicted – with the onus on the wives. It is dramatised in a sensational and voyeuristic manner, without any respect for or mention of the law.
In many instances, male and female characters are forced into marriage against their wishes. This results in domestic violence or extra-marital affairs. As upholders of the family honour, women are always expected to place the family ahead of their personal aspirations, claims the study.
Most of the viewers CFAR spoke to have said that a serial need not be violent in a bloody or in a destructive way without reason. Conflicts should be depicted in a ‘reasonable’ way and appropriate to the situation and not just to heighten the suspense and hook viewers. Violent situations are usually a way of creating excitement and expectations, viewers said.
Citing examples, the study mentions Kasauti Zindagi Kay (Star Plus), in which Shivani, just married to Anupam, is slapped by him when she discovers a fraud he had committed. The new bride is shown howling when her brother visits her. The brother takes up the matter with her husband and her in-laws. But Shivani‘s in-laws don‘t intervene. Shivani folds her hands and pleads with her brother to leave.
The CFAR study raises the point that while the wife is mistreated by her husband, she is made to apologise instead of being consoled or the husband being chastised for his behaviour. Such scenes show women as submissive to any maltreatment and lacking in the ability to stand up for their rights, the study says.
In another episode of Kasauti Zindagi Kay, Kajol is threatened and emotionally blackmailed by her boyfriend as well as her family. The parents and her elder brother are against her alliance with the boy. When the elder brother catches her red-handed with her boy friend, he pulls her away angrily and takes her to home. She is brought to the ‘family court‘ where the brother screams at her and threatens her with dire consequences unless she behaves properly.
Citing other similar cases, CFAR raises another issue – The ‘family court‘ is used in many serials like a “court martial”. The ‘accused‘ is judged and convicted by this ‘family court‘ which consists of her in-laws, without recourse to any other agent, legal or otherwise. Should such family courts be held and given the authority to judge an individual who has no one to fall back upon?
In Sanjjhi (Zee TV), Amar Singh uses physical and verbal means to threaten both his wives and their families when the first one files a suit of bigamy against him while the second testifies against him. He taunts and threatens his first wife, Kanak, by reminding her of her inability to bear a child. CFAR in its study asks whether such violations of the law be depicted in such a dramatic, sensational and voyeuristic manner, without any respect or mention of the law, which clearly prohibits bigamy?
In Hubahu (Sony TV), Aditi‘s husband roughly pushes her towards the door and asks her to leave the house because he feels that she is not allowing him physical intimacy. The study points out that though the serials did not project a lot of physical violence against women, there are many instances of extreme and repeated mental pressure, threats, screaming and shouting and anger directed towards women. Women were shown constantly under a lot of stress and anxiety, the panel felt.
Tradition and societal pressures act as an aggressor in their own way, points out the study.
Anamika in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki is shown to undergo tremendous mental and societal pressure in trying to decide between her role as a wife (which is to protect her husband at any cost) or to side with the truth (and thereby reveal his crime). At no point does any family member counsel her. In Kkusum, Kasauti Zindagi Kay, Tu Kahe Agar, the three leading women are shown to be under constant stress and mental pressure owing to either their husband‘s affair with other women or due to some familial problem. In Bhabhi, Tilak and Pushpa pretend she is his wife. In one scene, he pushes her towards the wall and warns her never to tease him. 
In Kasauti Zindagi Kay, Kamolika is under constant physiological stress because she suspects that her husband, Anurag, is still in love with the girl he wanted to marry in the first place.
In all these instances and in other serials, the wife is placed under tremendous mental duress and even abuse because marriage is often founded on a misunderstanding or for some reason that is unacceptable to the man. Often her husband is in love with another woman and marries her under pressure from his family. What is supposed to be one of the happiest milestones in a woman‘s life, becomes a source of unhappiness and uncertainty and of future conflicts between the couple from the very first day of their marriage and justifies the husband‘s ill-treatment of the wife, the study notes.
In Choti Maa..ek anokha bandhan (Zee Tv), Kasauti Zindagi Kay (Star Plus), the boyfriends of the female characters physically, verbally and psychologically carry out violence against them. Koyna in Choti Maa becomes the victim to physical abuse by her boyfriend who takes her to a pimp.
In another example, an apparently progressive character who takes up cudgels for his sister in law against his own brother is also shown taking recourse in brute force. In Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki (Star Plus), Om uses both verbal and psychological pressure along with his tough body language to force Anamika to reveal the truth about her husband raping a blind girl. She is reduced to hysteria in her pregnant state, and finally, breaks down. When she testifies in court, her husband Devan starts screaming at her. She cries and walks out of the courtroom all by herself. The CFAR study raises the pertinent issue of whether a family member be given the license to continuously pressurise or “torture” a woman on the justification that the ‘truth’ has to be established.
Impacts –
Several female viewers interviewed by CFAR observed that many of the so-called safe family serials, which hook the viewers with very identifiable situations and characters, have their share of problems. Not only is the depiction of men and women lopsided or one-dimensional, it is highly exaggerated, unrealistic and inconsistent, the study claims. Besides, some female characters are portrayed in an extremely unconvincing manner, especially when portraying a scheming, unscrupulous and dominating character. Men are portrayed in a highly negative manner too and such negative behaviour is often glorified.
In many of these serials, extramarital affairs, bigamous relationships are shown as a matter of routine, and in some cases extremely casually. This gives children the impression that these are normal, acceptable or even desirable situations and expected adult behaviour, says the study. Mothers also found adverse impact on children’s lifestyles and their quality of life, and felt that children are getting increasingly prone to aggression. They constantly demand attention, exhibit severe mood swings and in some cases are prone to addictive habits. Finally, they behave in a highly precocious fashion, acting and behaving much older than they actually are, adopting adult postures and mannerisms. In most Indian homes, the mothers are at the receiving end of such behaviour.
This presumes greater importance because research studies show that most of the children are hooked to adult programming. According to CFAR’s recent five-city study on Media Habits of Children, it was found that 50 per cent of the most favourite serials mentioned by the children in the age group of 6-12 years fell in the category of adult programming. Delhi topped the list of children viewing family drama with Shaktimaan (Doordarshan) the only exception.
The study says that most soaps are exploiting reality to justify domestic violence – not normally condemned. Therefore, shown as ‘normal‘ within a family. The TV family is thus one in which violence is a day to day occurrence. No effort is made to correct this highly offensive and prejudicial behaviour. This justifies violence in real life and desensitises us to it and a future generation who will tend to believe that such personal liberties and violations are permissible in marriage and personal relationships, the study notes.
Legal steps are seldom shown, the study notes. “Family courts” are held instead, in which might is the norm. Violations of individuals and their legal rights are openly shown. They allow a whole host of individual violations as if it is acceptable behaviour. People, including children, are shown eavesdropping, violating people’s privacy, inflicting physical and verbal violence, taking recourse to hate-filled speeches etc, as if it is their individual prerogative to abuse as long as the person you are abusing is within the family, the study observed.
Finally, says the study, it gives men the power to resort to violent means to control their wives and teaches wives to submit to the violence in the larger interests of the family, which is at the core of these serials.
The one week sample included –
| Serial | Number of episodes | |
| Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki | 5 | |
| Kasauti Zindagi Kay | 4 | |
| Bhabhi | 3 | |
| Kkusum | 4 | |
| Saanjhi | 1 | |
| Kitne Kool Hai Hum | 1 | |
| Choti Maa | 4 | |
| Tu Kahe Agar | 1 | |
| Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi | 4 | |
| Kuntee | 2 | |
| Hubahu | 1 |
NEW DELHI: Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra today announced his group’s entry into the English news channel space.
Zee will be launching an English news channel for the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and the channel will be headquartered in Dubai, Chandra said, at a media briefing in New Delhi.
“The news channel for the GCC countries should be on air in the first quarter of 2007, Chandra said.
The Gulf foray with a news channel follows Zee Telefilms’ forays into Russia, China and Indonesia in recent times.
Chandra also admitted that work is continuing on a global news channel that will present to international audiences the Asian/Indian perspective.
“The same way CNN and BBC present the American and British perspective, it’s my dream to have an English news channel to present the Asian and Indian perspective,” he added, reminding all that he had announced the initiative two years ago.
In Indonesia, the Zee channel’s content is sourced from the flagship channel Zee TV library and localised with Bahasa Indonesia dubbing and Bahasa Melayu subtitling, to reflect the different language, lifestyle and viewing habits of audiences in the three countries Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) space is back in the spotlight. Strategies, counter strategies, experiments and innovations enchant the market, though audiences remain cautious while deciding their staple programming diet.
The ongoing churn owes a lot to the manner in which Subhash Chandra’s Zee TV made its comeback to the reckoning. Because, this turnaround has forced the channel’s rivals (both leader Star Plus and trailing number three Sony Entertainment) to re-think their strategies and hence, we have a real humdinger of a ratings battle going on these days. This exciting range of happenings has inspired Indiantelevision.com to examine the GEC arena a bit more closely, as it completes its 2006 calendar year’s third quarter.
Relative channel share- All Day, CS4+ HSM
A first look at the data gives an obvious picture. Star Plus leads the tally, followed by Zee TV, Sony, Star One, Sahara One and Sab TV (Average market share data, All Day, CS4+ HSM, 1 July to 30 September, Tam).
Star Plus, which maintained an above 50 per cent average when we did an April 2006 (All Day Part) analysis, has recorded an average market share of 46.1 per cent for the three month period (Average market share data, All Day, CS4+ 1 July to 30 September, Tam).
Though the channel made its best efforts to improve its position through various new launches during this period, the market share score missed the 50 per cent mark in this period. In September, it even dropped below the 45 per cent mark for the first time since the KBC phenomenon rewrote Indian television history. From 45.9 per cent of July, the channel improved its position considerably to 47.8 per cent in the month of August. However, in September, the share recorded a slight drop at 44.9 per cent.
However, Star One has recorded an improvement during this period, as compared to its April 2006 share. The channel, which struggled during the first half of the year due to affairs such as cable blackout in certain parts of the country, has now recorded an average channel share of 6.4 per cent, while the April score stood at 5.38 per cent. The channel is now banking on properties such as Nach Baliye 2, Paraaya Dhan and Kadvee Khatti Meethi to better its position by the end of 2007.
“We have launched about three to four shows during this period including Nach Baliye 2, Saathi Re & Paraaya Dhan (Star One) and Antariksh, Karam Apnaa Apnaa and Prithviraj Chauhan (Star Plus) and the effort is to take on any kind of competition in any time band. Star Plus is not going to sit pretty on its relatively strong position. Now, the effort will be to constantly improve the performance. There will be no let off from our side on this front”, says Star India EVP content Deepak Segal.
During this three month period, the number two channel Zee TV has actually improved its position – from an average market share of 19 per cent in April 2006 to an average of 22.9 per cent for the July to September period, according to Tam. The score reads like this: July 23.4 per cent), August (22.1 per cent) and September (23.3 per cent).
“The turnaround started with Saath Phere and Kassamh Se and the kind of innovations and experiments we employed in our storylines have really contributed to this good performance. This way, we managed to get the audience flow. We have steadied our soaps. The launch of Betiyann has completed our soap range for the year and now the focus is on various other genres. Hence, we will have now programmes such as the mythology Raavan and reality show Cinestars coming up. So, the strategy will revolve around non-soap genres for the next phase,” says Zee TV programming head Ashwini Yardi.
Sony’s position hasn’t undergone any drastic changes as the channel recorded an average market share of 12.5 per cent for the three month period as compared to its April 2006 score of 12.36 per cent.
Though flagship channel Sony may be still struggling, but sister channel Sab has been making a slow and steady improvement, on the other hand. The channel which scored an average channel share of 3.04 per cent for April in the All Day Part has improved the score significantly to 4.9 per cent for the June to September period.
Sahara One, which received an April ‘windfall’ in terms of cricket telecast rights and scored an average market share of 10 per cent during that period, has now gone down in the chart. The channel has scored an average market share of 5.3 per cent for the July to September period in All Day Part.
Rating Score Card – Prime Time
Kyunki Saas Bhi… continues to be Star Plus’ channel driver programme. The long running soap of Hindi television recorded its best rating of 14.17 TVR on 31 July, 14.31 TVR on 29 August and 13 TVR on 4 September. The channel has a fixed line up of shows occupying all the top four positions including Kyunki… and the shows are Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kasauti Zindagi Kay and Kahiin To Hoga. While in July, the fourth and fifth positions were occupied by Baa Bahoo Aur Baby and Kkavyanjali respectively, in August the positons went to special shows Nach Baliye 2 Muh Dekhai and Shaadi Ke Rang Bhabhi Ke. In September, Prithviraj Chauhan (best TVR 7.38) and Karam Apnaa Apnaa (best: 7.12 TVR) made it to the reckoning.
Zee TV has three different soaps recording the channel’s best ratings in the prime time in these three months. In July 2006, Saath Phere recorded the highest 7.32 TVR, while in August it was the Balaji Telefilms soap Kasamh Se (6.16 TVR). The top slot for the month of September escaped both the shows and went to the finals of Saregamapa Lil Champs (6.81 TVR).
Zee TV’s good show in the rating chart has a lot to do with the impressive opening week rating its new launches record these days. For example, Banoo Main Teri Dulhann recorded its best launch-month (august) rating of 3.5. TVR. And in September, Dulhann further consolidated its position with a best of the month rating of 4.37 TVR. Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann’s best of the month (September launch) rating stands at 4.99 TVR.
For Sony, CID continues to be the channel driver with an average rating of 3.5 TVR for the three month period, according to Tam (HSM CS4+). In September, newly launched reality dance show Jhalakk Dikhla Ja has made its appearance in the top 10 chart for Sony. The show has filled the second slot in Sony’s line up with its best rating of 2.95 TVR.
Betiyann Vs Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki + Naach Baliye 2
The month of September also witnessed an interesting battle between Zee TV and Star Plus in the coveted 10 pm slot. The story was about how Zee TV unpacked its biggest soap launch of the year — Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann and positioned it against Star Plus’ unchallenged 10 pm property Kahaani…
Giving the development to a total new twist was Star One’s strategy to launch Naach Baliye 2 on the same day that Zee scheduled Betiyann’s launch – on 25 September. Though Naach Baliye was slotted in the 8 pm post and it looked the launch had nothing to do with Zee’s 10 pm introduction of Betiyann, Star had different plans in mind. Star One telecast a 2.30 hours special episode of Naach Baliye 2 on 25 September in order to let the celeb dance show’s launch clash with the launch episode of Betiyann. Then on the other side, Star Plus had a spiced up episode of Kahaani…to counter the Zee TV soap.
Now, let’s see how all these three programmes finally delivered as per Tam ratings:
The Star ploy of countering Betiyann with Naach Baliye 2 special episode worked well for the channel. Betiyann’s launch ratings stood at 2.58 TVR, while Nach Baliye 2 opening episode recorded a rating of 4.86 TVR (CS4+ HSM). However, it looks like the ploy had backfired in Kahaani…’s case as the soap could gather only 6.14 TVR for the particular day. (Kahaani… normally records a rating of about 8 TVR on an average).
However, Betiyann recovered from the initial blow quickly and came up with an improved performance during the rest of the week: 3.24 (26 Sept), 4.18 (27 Sept) and 4.99 TVR (28 Sept). And the Betiyann figures also reveal Zee’s success in giving a jolt to Kahaani… in the initial week itself. The Star Plus soap had recorded an average rating of 8.75 TVR in week 38 (17 Sept to 23 Sept). And in the week that Betiyann got launched, Kahaani..’s average rating has slipped to 7.25 TVR, as per Tam.
Post Script:
So what is waiting the GEC market in coming months? One genre that is expected to make its presence felt during this period is Reality. Two big ticket reality shows, Sony’s Bigg Brother and Zee TV’s Cinestars, will be unveiled in November. Star One has just kicked off its Naach Baliye 2 and the show has competition from Sony’s celeb dance show Jhalak Dikhla Ja. So the space will have not less than four reality shows engaged in an eyeball war with each other in this quarter.
Strategy-wise, as Yardi has revealed, Zee TV’s focus will be now on non-soap programmes such as Raavan and Cinestars. Star Plus is looking at the kids genre in a big way and has even accommodated a kids-oriented superhuman show Antariksh in its weekday 8 pm prime time band. The channel has lined up another kids show Lucky for the same slot on Saturdays. As Segal puts it, “We are looking to develop kids also as a key viewer segment of ours. Star has always been popular for its quality kids shows.” Sahara One’s October-November plans will mainly revolve around the upcoming soap Solhah Singaar’.
As the market leader Star Plus is seeking a good break to go back to its old good days of undisputed leadership and Zee TV uncorking fresh concepts to win back its lost glory, the Hindi GEC space is going through one of its best times. Then we have international players such as BBC and Viacom (reportedly in talks with Sahara One for a stake in the channel) and then our own NDTV gearing up their general entertainment channel plans for the Hindi market.
So the big question remains: Will all these high profile suitors be able to come up with path breaking concepts and innovative positioning strategies to help the market really expand further?