Broadcasters discover that sharing TV shows could multiply TRPs
Aamir Khan made media plannerssit up and take note when hemade his TV debut with his chatshow Satyamev Jayate. Not known toplay by the rules, the actor released theshow not only across the Star Network,but also on the national channel Doordarshan.
Taking this trend a step further are general entertainment channels, evenrivals, Colors and Sahara One. The two channels have made a landmark deal by deciding to simultaneously telecast Sahara One’s non-fiction, singing show Sur Kshetra.
The show, an Indo-Pakistan musicalcontest produced by Gajendra Singh of Saibaba Telefilms and Sahara One, isa competition between an Indian team captained by Himesh Reshammiya anda Pakistani team captained by singer Atif Aslam. This is the first time two players from the Hindi general entertainment space have tied up to present content tothe audience across the spectrum.
Suresh Mishra, Assistant Director, Sahara One says, “This is the first time two channels from different networks have partnered for a show. We wanted the show to get the highest number of eyeballs and so this alliance was deemed necessary.”Mishra says the launch date and show timing are being fixed sothat both channels benefit from the partnership.
Evaluating the teams and judging themusical prowess of the contestants willbe Asha Bhosle (India), Abida Parveen (Pakistan) and Runa Laila (Bangladesh).The show will be hosted by Ayesha Takia.The star-studded episodes will alsofeature musical stalwarts like Ghulam Ali, Hadiqa Kiani and Sajjad Ali fromPakistan, and Suresh Wadkar, Ismail Darbar, Alka Yagnik and Sapna Mukherjee from India.
Sur Kshetra will mark Colors’s forayinto the singing genre, non-fiction content segment and hopes it will be a fruitful debut. Sahara One has a smaller reach compared to Colors, which is rated among the top three GECs in India,according to the Television AudienceMeasurement agency TAM. And in keeping with some media planners, thispartnership will take the show to a larger audience.
Colors already has quite a strongfiction line-up, with almost three of its shows securing some strong positions among the top 10 programmes, accordingto data sourced from TAM subscribers for Week 26 (June 24 – June 30). Balika Vadhu has consolidated its positionat No 2, fetching an average TVR of4.4; Sasural Simar Ka has made it to thetop 10 for the first time with an averageTVR of 3.0 TVR; and Uttaran is at No 10with 2.7 TVR this week.
Media planners are hoping that Sur Kshetra will help the channel’s ratingssoar in the non-fiction genre as well. Thechannel’s other ongoing non-fiction property,dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa judged by Madhuri Dixit, Karan Johar and choregrapher Remo D’ Souza, opened with an average TVR of 3.2. Overthe weeks, the ratings dropped. Lastweek, the show was pegged at 2.8 butthis week the ratings for the show havedived to an average TVR of 2.3.
But new things are always happeningin the entertainment space and, hopefully,the Sur Kshetra experiment will hitthe right note.
