The changing dynamics of GECs

However,like soap queen Ekta Kapoor who still manages to walk tall,looks calm and gives sweet media bytes whenever it suits her,channels too have perfected the art of looking beautiful while some of them live precariously.

But then beauty is skin-deep and even sarees some- times reveal a few hidden things or tell a different health story over a period. Consider this. Just nine months ago,in week 25 June 13 to 19,2010,Star Plus recorded its highest GRPs in over three years. At 443 it stood tall over Colors at 276,Zee231,Sony125 and SAB93. Four months later,in week 42 October 10 to 16,2010,Star Plus was ahead of Colors by 100 GRPs 361 and 261 respectively; Sony was lifted by KBC to 221 and Zee fell to 178 while SAB stood at 99. Week 9 of 2011 February 20 to 26 witnessed another surprise 8211; Zee raced ahead of Colors by 8 GRPs 233 and 225 respectively,while Star fell below 300 and SAB left behind its elder sibling Sony 153 and 136. Its not surprising that while SAB which had thrown a party on reaching the 100 GRP mark last year refrained from making its 150-GRP achievement a big event.

If there has been a churn in pecking order and channels have jumped up and down on GRP charts,at prime time too they have been fighting to hold their ground. Over the last six months,weekday prime time GRPs of Star Plus have ranged between 185 and 145,the range for Colors and Zee has been between 100-plus to 150 8211; 118 to 145 for Colors and 108 to 141 in the case of Zee. On the other hand,during the same period,weekend original programming prime time GRPs for Star Plus have been between 19 and 23,while the range been between 10 and 22 for Colors and 7 and 11 for Zee. What really made the difference for some channels are the GRPs contributed by events and movies on weekends. Thats where the few extra pounds have come from,making them look like well-endowed ladies.

Star Indias COO Sanjay Gupta admits that there has been variation in ratings and GRPs but feels it is unfair to judge individual channels or GEC genre on a daily or weekly basis. Not just the GECs but I think the entire TV industry is judged far too frequently than required, he protests. Elaborating further,he adds,Quarterly measurement is a fair way to judge any industry. If one judges the GECs quarter-on-quarter you may not find much variation. Speaking about Star Plus,he says in April-May-June quarter of last year,Star Plus averaged around 320-330 levels while in the subsequent two quarters the average was around 340 to 360. But only in this quarter the entire GEC genre has not grown but come down, he admits. The reason,according to him,could be any. There is no real reason. It could be the World Cup because cricket impacts and takes away eyeballs, he adds.

While Star Plus,still a leader with about 45 to 50 GRPs,has lost as many points over the past six months,Colors gained and lost extra pounds and has retained its share with the help of movies and events which dont come cheap. On the other hand,after slipping below 200,Zee has managed to recover lost ground. Interestingly,its the only channel which has stayed away from big movie premieres,big ticket reality shows and big Bollywood stars. According to Akash Chawla,head of marketing Zee TV and Zee Cinema,Zee has been growing consistently and the growth has come across prime time as well as non-prime time. He elaborates,Movies and events are important for a GEC but the health indicator of a GEC is not the movie ratings but ratings from fiction and non-fiction shows which give us sustained numbers.

Talking about developing monetisable GRPs,Joy Chakraborthy,Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.s chief revenue officer,says advertisers dont buy GRPs but want relevant ratings. Zee is the number one revenue channel. It gets maximum campaigns and advertisers spend due to two key reasons: consistency in ratings and effective leverage of a huge network. Also,we sell more on plain vanilla-free commercial time with few but quality innovations. While our rival networks have taken to very expensive programming,we have delivered with soaps and reality content without flashing Bollywood stars. We have also stayed away from buying GRPs through movies. Our focus is profitability. A lot of channels are running break-free content. Whats the use? An afternoon GRP is not the same in value as prime time GRP, he explains.

If Zee has a strong revenue model,so is the case with Star Plus which also has fair bit of consistency and network leverage. However,while most Tier I channels have had their ups and downs,SAB is the only Tier II channel which has largely bucked the trend while its Tier II sibling Sony has been all over the place. From 19 to 35 to 100 and to 150 GRPs recently,SAB has its eyes set on the 200 GRP mark. Apparently,its working on entering the big league on twin-pronged approach 8211; invest in expanding the channels reach and increase programming from five to six days a week.

However,be it SAB,Star Plus,Zee or any other GEC,the road ahead is not easy. With competition from within and outside the GEC space,taking content cues from research and creating stickiness through innovative programming 8211; instead of shouting for shows through celebrity power and buying expensive movies 8211; will provide consistency and yield better result.

Currently,consistency is what is largely missing.