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TELEVISION: PRIME TIME
Sony Targets Big Ticket Events
Sony has a few
tricks up its sleeve too. "We're looking at a lot of new stuff,"
says programming head Rekha Nigam. It also has a bunch of big events lined
up and with good reason: big ticket events get both high ratings and lots
of cash. The Hrithik show, for instance, got it ads worth Rs 6.3 crore,
according to Executive Vice-President (advertisement sales and marketing)
Kacon Sethi. Later this month, it has a two-part film on Hrithik directed
by his sister-in-law Farah Khan-Ali.
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OLD FAITHFUL: Sony's Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye banks on
the mass appeal of family soaps and marriage intrigues. And the
serial's NRI twist makes it stand out.
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But ultimately, Sony's banking on its soaps because,
says Nigam: "Fiction is something whose appeal is never going to
dim." Specifically there are two new daily soaps: the ubiquitious
Balaji's Kkusum (that spelling thing again) and Reena Wadhwa's Kahin Diyaa
Jale Kahin Jiyaa. They'll be joining Your Honour and what is TV's first
lavish outdoor shot in Australia, Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye, both of which made
their debut this past month.
"Star Plus is virtually unbeatable on the
Monday to Thursday prime-time band with KBC and two strong soaps,"
says an industry source. "Rather than taking on Star Plus, Sony is
concentrating on the weekend slot."
The battle for prime time-between 7 p.m. and
11 p.m.-is understandable in the light of channel share. According to
A.C. Neilsen TAM ratings, the three major players-Zee, Sony and Star-currently
share 20.5 per cent of all cable and satellite TV viewers, up from 15.9
per cent last year. Before KBC, Star Plus was a bit player but after the
launch of the game show, it has the lion's share. On the other hand, both
Zee and Sony have lost audiences.
 The
first impact has been on ad revenue. An Org-Marg Research survey on TV
ad-expenditure based on tariff rates-usually heavily discounted-provided
by broadcasters shows Zee's ad revenue for January almost halved from
Rs 117.34 crore last year to Rs 63.65 crore this year. During the period,
Star Plus' ad revenues zoomed from Rs 34.94 crore to Rs 65.71 crore. Sony
too saw ad revenues jump from Rs 103.20 crore to Rs 139.07 crore (the
larger figure being explained by the huge amounts it mops up with events).
So confident is Star that it has even raised
subscription rates to Rs 30 for its bouquet which includes Channel [V]
and National Geographic. Despite protests by cable operators in Mumbai
and Kolkata, the channel has stuck to its enhanced rate. Meanwhile, Zee
TV which has so far been free to air has announced plans to go pay in
May: the entire network including Nickleodeon will cost between Rs 20
and Rs 30. Sony continues to remain free to air.
As television's titans slug it out in the battle
for eyeballs, viewers across the country are being treated to bigger and
far better programmes. Clearly, competition can work wonders.
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