Divya Subramaniam / Mumbai Mar 15, 2009, 00:49 IST
The general entertainment channel (GEC) from Real Global Broadcasting Pvt Ltd (RPG), Real TV, a joint venture between Turner International and the Alva brothers, has managed to reach 17 million viewers by the end of its first week even as its GRP of 33.7 suggested a slow start to the much-hyped channel.
A GRP, or gross rating point, is the sum of all rating points for a channel or a show over a specific time period.
The reach on the first day was about 2 million. Compared with the launches of other GECs in the recent past, it is not a very good start. Colors, the Viacom-TV18 channel that shook up the pecking order, had launched in July with 86.7 GRPs. NDTV Imagine also did better with 50 GRPs. However, Real has done better than 9X, which managed only 27.9 GRPs.
Sunil Lulla, director of Real, emphatically said that he is not disappointed. “The performance of the channel is as per our expectations,” he said.
“We did not expect to suddenly catapult ourselves into the top slot because our programming is different from other GECs. If you look at the SEC A and B data for men and women, we have had a great opening and these are the sections that we are targeting anyway. It is not fair to read too much into first week ratings.
Lulla also refused to credit any one programme with being the main talking point of the channel. He also said that for a channel that caters to a niche audience, advertisers have to take their time to gauge their business.
“We already have a few advertisers and we are confident that we will have many more in a few weeks,” said Lulla.
According to Navin Khemka, senior vice-president, ZenithOptimedia, “I think that the channel eventually will be known for its reality shows rather than its fiction. And given that, there will be a lot of brands that will want to engage with the viewers through these shows. With the number of reality shows that they have, even if one of them clicks, the channel will do well. This will be the real deciding factor for the channel.”
“The kind of target audience that the channel is aiming at is a big pull for the advertising community. Since the times are bad, for the next few months the more cautious advertisers my stay away. But eventually my feeling is that it will work,” added Khemka
Meanwhile, Star Plus said that they have not been taking the competition lightly. They have been coming up with shows that are in keeping with the change in mood of the viewership. According to the Star Plus spokesperson, “New shows like Bidaai, Yeha Rishta, Aap Ki Kachehri are now part of the top five shows in the Hindi GEC segment. We have launched Sabki Ladli Bebo during Holi and are in the process of launching three more shows. Audiences are looking for positive, realistic, fresh and simple story-lines and we are providing them with bright, happy stories which will create consumer connect.”
Colors has been in a neck and neck race with Star Plus, which was the unshakable ruler for a long time with its saas-bahu formula serials. In fact, Colors was just one GRP below Star Plus during the week of 22-28 Feb. But this week the gap is now 20 GRPs and Star Plus rules the roost for now. How quickly Real can influence the dynamic of the industry remains to be seen.
REAL is having good variety of shows till now, it seems that they want to serve pure real entertainment to audience, unlike saas bahu serials. may be the beginning is slow but its not bad in this critical time.
colors hace done very well but in this diffcult time can they maintain such high cost serial like khataro ke khiladi and big boss. when the revenue is on decline. it is very easy to take the position but very diffcult to maintain the same in the long run, it happen with zee earlier and now with star. in the middle sony take the no 2 position but where is sony now.
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