Crorepati To Go Regional

Kaun Banega Crorepati is going regional now with its stupenduous success in Hindi. Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star TV has sought permission from the producers of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", on which KBC is designed, to replicate the game show in Tamil.

This moves comes at a time when the Hindi version of KBC, hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan on Star Plus, has sent TV rating points soaring helping Star Network enjoy a leadership position compared to Zee Net- work and Sony.

According to Hong Kong-based sources in Star TV, the company has sought permission from the producers of the Millionaire programme for the Tamil rights. Star already has the rights for doing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in mandarin.

 

But Bachchan is not likely to be the host for the Tamil version of KBC as a local personality has to be taken.

The sources pointed out that at present the Chinese producer of the proposed programme is in India to study and see how KBC is produced in Hindi. The

Hindi version is produced and directed by quizmaster Siddharth Basu.

News TV India Ltd, the Indian arm of Star TV, yesterday said the month of July has seen the Star Network channels take a lead over Zee Network.

The average channel share of the Star channels has gone up from 8.5 average for June to 15.4 for the first three weeks and has seen the Zee Network slip from an average of 14.7 in June to 11.4 in the first 3 weeks of July.

The channels considered for the analysis included Star Plus, Star Movies, Star News, ESPN, Star Sports, NGC & Channel V, Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee English, Zee English Movies, Music Asia and Zee News.

Though Star claimed within three weeks of going all-Hindi Star Plus has become the top performer as per AC Nielsen/TAM People Meter data, Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms Ltd maintained Zee channels are still the market leaders as five Zee programmes feature on Top 10 list.

Moreover ZTL follows the Intam figures which, it said, are more reliable.

Star has pointed, as per TAM, the prime time ( 8 pm - 11 pm ) audience share of Zee TV Star Plus and Sony across nine cities is as follows : Zee 6.3%, Sony 6.8% and Star Plus 15.7%.

The 24 hour channel share is : Zee 6.5 per cent, Sony 7.0 per cent and Star Plus 7.3 per cent.

According to Peter Mukerjea, chief executive News TV India, , "KBC on Star Plus is working for us in establishing the channel as the people's choice for Hindi."