Star perks up weekends

Ajay Vidyasagar, senior vice president (marketing & communications) at Star Plus is so busy building the channel's weekend viewership that he often skips lunch these days.

To boost Star Plus' share of viewership, he's lined up a couple of events "" the Star Parivaar Awards, the IIFA awards followed by the much-awaited Kaun Banega Crorepati which begins on August 5.

"Unlike last time, KBC will now be aired on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays," Vidyasagar admits. Among the Hindi entertainment channels, Star Plus' share of viewership on weekends is 45 per cent. "The attempt is to double that," he says.

For starters, the annual Star Parivaar Awards will be held in the first week of June after a six-week build-up to the event. "Last year, Star Parivaar Awards was Hindi entertainment channels' highest rated event with a TRP of 14.9. It is one of our biggest properties," claims Vidyasagar.

In fact, the awards show's ratings were higher than that of the Indo-Pak cricket match's peak rating of 7.4 this year. Small wonder then that Dabur India is its third time title sponsor, pushing its Vatika shampoo brand through the event.

For the awards, the channel shortlists characters from various Star Plus serials who win on the basis of votes by the people. The event generated roughly Rs 13 crore for the channel last year.

The second event that's been lined up is the IIFA awards. "We are the global satellite partners for Wizcraft's IIFA awards. The idea is to light up our weekends," says Vidyasagar.

The event will be built over four weeks with the finale at Amsterdam. Star Plus is viewing it as a five-week activity cramped with weekend shows on the countdown to the event, party with the stars, among others.

On May 16, the KBC promotion also kicks off with the first of the 11 ad films that have been created to promote the show. The phone lines for participants will be opened soon.

"We are building a lot of frenzy for the show in June," says Vidyasagar.

Meanwhile, companies such as Faber, Maruti Suzuki - Versa, Philips TV, Godrej Penta Cool, Simba Chips, Ever Youth, Gelusil and Titan are associate sponsors for the Star Parivaar Awards.