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| Reality shows should stay 'real' to succeed, say experts |
| Sharmistha Mukherjee / Mumbai Mar 18, 2010, 00:55 IST |
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Television reality shows need to keep their ‘reality quotient’ alive to retain their lead over soap operas in grabbing eyeballs, feel experts.
Recent reality shows have shown an uptrend in viewership and many have managed to get higher viewerships than the Saas-Bahu sagas. However, data shows reality shows continued to get more viewers only till the time the content and the format of the show did not turn fake.
A case in point is last year’s reality show on Imagine TV, Rakhi Ka Swayamvar. The show got gross rating points (GRPs) of an average of 133 during the weeks the programme was aired, from a modest 106 in the pre-launch weeks, according to data from TAM Media, a TV viewership monitoring agency.
Interestingly, though, the ratings in the concluding week fell by around 11 per cent, to 123 points. Siddharth Basu, chairman and managing director, Big Synergy Media, said: “Reality shows touch a chord with the audience when they reflect what is true. Fake reality such as wedding shows not culminating in marriage or when engagements get called off, not only strike a discord with consumers but also result in rating systems getting questioned.”
Ronnie Screwvala, CEO of UTV Group, said: “Reality shows are here to stay as long as they remain participative.”
Of the total television content aired in India, non-fiction accounts for roughly 15 per cent. Reality shows constitute around five per cent of this pie. If reality shows are to retain and enhance their share, industry experts say the content has to be kept as real as possible.
Innovation in formats is another area that reality shows have to experiment with, so that fatigue does not set in. Sanjay Reddy, senior vice-president, Gemini TV, said: “When international formats are used for Indian reality shows, the channel reach increases.”
Tried and tested formats have been shown to get higher viewerships said Ashvini Yardi, Head-Programming, Colors, “Shows like Big Boss or Fear Factor, which are based on foreign formats, typically got premium rates in advertisements, as they were widely watched.”
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