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| Sony does a STAR Plus |
| Ashish Sinha / New Delhi Jun 01, 2009, 00:35 IST |
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The battle for prime-time eyeballs has just got bigger. Sony Television, which has been struggling to retain its slot among the top five Hindi entertainment channels, is putting all its marketing and programming muscle behind six new TV shows, five of which are being telecast between 8 pm and 11 pm, when advertising and sponsorship rates are the highest.
It’s a gamble Sony had to take, as the channel has already slipped to the fifth position after STAR Plus, Colors, Zee TV and NDTV Imagine, according to viewership ratings by media agencies. That’s something it could hardly afford, as the Hindi entertainment channel space accounts for nearly 45 per cent of TV’s annual advertising revenue of Rs 8,000 crore.
That also explains Sony’s high-voltage campaign – Badal Rahe Hain Aap, Badal Rahe Hain Hum – to reinforce the channel’s promise of adapting to the changing times, along with the viewers.
Media agencies are already comparing Sony’s move to what market leader STAR Plus did in 2000-01 – launching two of the biggest and most popular television soaps, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kasauti Zindagi Ki, riding on the success of the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). The two popular 'K' soaps along with KBC helped Star Plus reach and retain the leadership position among general entertainment channels for the past nine years.
Multi-Screen Media (MSM)’s Sony TV is also hoping that the six new shows will ride on the back of this year’s most watched television property — Indian Premier League — on its sister network SET MAX channel. It ran on-air and on-ground campaigns to market the new shows throughout the 36-day IPL tournament.
Will history repeat itself? The initial feedback is not-too-encouraging as the viewership ratings generated by Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap) show that the first few episodes of the new serials have not resulted in any major gains for the channel.
According to aMap ratings for the prime time band from May 25 to May 28 — the first four days — the average per programme ratings stood at 0.5 to 0.8 per cent in cable homes and among viewers above four years of age — the target demographic for advertisers using Hindi entertainment channels. During the same period, STAR Plus had an average programme TV rating of 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.
Some media agencies are already worried. Anita Nayyar, CEO of Havas Media, a Gurgaon-based media agency, says she is not excited by the programming mix Sony has used.
But these are early days. After all, it was only on May 25 that Sony launched the new shows — Palampur Express, Bhaskar Bharti, Ladies Special, and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. And the response to the biggest of them all — the second season of game show Dus Ka Dum hosted by film actor Salman Khan – is awaited.
Sony, which has pumped in Rs 4-5 crore on creating fresh programming and another few crores towards marketing and promotions, is confident that the shows would bring back the viewers. N P Singh, chief operating officer of MSM, says the shows were launched because viewers wanted them. “We have not had as much success from fiction as we got from our non-fiction and reality shows. So we decided to revamp the entire channel," he says, adding the three-pronged offering of the channel will be novelty, variety and content.
Some others agree that Sony, which has always struggled with the right programming mix, may have finally set its house in order. “It’s an interesting marketing move – the way Sony used the popularity of IPL to announce the revamp of its prime-time band,” says Shashi Sinha, chief executive of Loadstar media, a leading media agency.
Sinha wants to give Sony some time before making any real assessment of the revamp strategy. “We should wait for four to six weeks for viewers to sample the new shows. If the ratings are still below the desired level, it may be tough for the channel. For the moment, advertisers are coming and they do see promise,” he says.
That may be true as Sony has managed to rope in brands like Fair & Lovely, Samsung, LG, Reliance Big TV and Infocom and Nestle, among others, says Danish Khan, marketing head, Sony TV.
Media agencies are also waiting for the TAM ratings data which are used as the currency for judging the popularity of any television show. Many agree that a lot will depend on the success of Dus Ka Dum.
Will Salman Khan do the magic for Sony? Watch this space.
(With Upasana Kaur)
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