The departure of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) has put Star Plus' dominance over the prime time band of 9-10 pm slot under threat. Game shows such as Kamjor Kadi Kaun, and other replacement programming such as Sanjivini has not exactly set the market on fire.
Competitor Sony Entertainment Television (SET) has thus gained over a per cent of share to cross the crucial 10 per cent channel share mark. Its channel share has increased from 9.86 in week 6 (February 3-February 9) to 10.57 in week 7 (February 10-16).
SET is hogging all the limelight, continuing its climb with two of its shows namely Kkusum and Kutumb gaining the top ratings in the 9-10 pm slot, giving Star Plus a run for its money. Kkusum (9 pm - Monday to Friday) and Kutumb (9.30 pm - Monday to Thursday) have touched all-time high television viewership ratings (TVRs) of 12.21 and 10.43 respectively (week ending February 16, 2002, across C&S audiences, 15-44 years, Sec: ABC markets - Hindi speaking belt; TAM data).
Zee TV's ratings, on the other hand, for week 7 (February 10-16) has seen some changes. Movies and live shows have perked up the ratings for Zee, thereby taking the channel share to 5 from 4.78 in week 6. Zee, after the spectacular success of Zee Cine Awards, has seen its TVRs coming back to normal this week. Kohi Apna Sa is the only programme in its 9-10 pm slot, and is seeing an average rating of about 3.4.
However, Star still remains strong in the other prime time bands. 10-11 pm is completely dominated by the channel as is the 8-9 band. Star's two most hot properties Kyunki... and Kahani... during the 10-11 pm band have been quite stable over the last year or so. In the 8-9 pm band too, Star has a strong property in Kasauti Zindagi Ki which dominates the ratings.
With TVR ratings being the key for all television channels now as it decides the fate of the channels, industry experts feel that, in a situation like this where one channel is gaining over the other in certain time slots, in all probability, there could be shift of advertisers as well.
Does this also mean a shift in media planner's perception of buying slots? Andrey Purshottam, managing director, Starcom India said: "To a certain extent a shift will occur. The loyalty of a media buyer is towards his client and, therefore, would look at buying slots where the reach is largest and the price is the best. If ratings go up, it also means that the audience share goes up, and if prices are right then media buyers will switch their buying from one channel to another."
Another media buyer explained: "Ratings are important. What is also of greater importance is whether newer audiences are coming in, whether older audiences are staying back, and whether the time these audiences are spending is on the upswing."
Most media planners also go in for incremental reach. Meaning, if they reach 60 per cent of television audiences through one of the "reach" channels -- that is, a channel like Star or Sony or Zee -- it is unlikely that they would spend another huge amount to capture the rest.
That is because most media planners opt for one or more of the "frequency" channels -- such as SABe, Sahara, ETC or B4U -- preferring to book slots on these with the same money that they would spend on another "reach" channel. Thus, rather than have a commercial run on two channels, a media planner can have it run on one big channel, and a few other channels.
