For the last 45 days, TV channels awaited the closing ceremony of the IPL with the same eagerness of school kids looking forward to the end of their annual examinations.
MUMBAI: For the last 45 days, TV channels awaited the closing ceremony of the Indian Premiere League (IPL) with the same eagerness of school kids looking forward to the end of their annual examinations.
Now that the first season of the immensely popular cricket league is over, they are breathing a sigh of relief and ready to unleash a star-studded programming line-up.
Sameer Nair, CEO, NDTV Imagine says that, as cricket lovers everybody became a fan of the tournament, but “as broadcasters, we can definitely breathe a sigh of relief”.
“It’s been a fantastic tournament. But then all good things must come to an end and so it did. So the slew of programme launches, must be in accordance with the conclusion of the IPL,” he says.
The T20 cricket format, which became a rage amongst the masses, had eaten into viewership of TV channels, with viewers tuning in after 4 p.m for the first match of the two matches daily, and at 8 p.m for the second, for the last 45 days.
Television Audience Measurement (TAM) data indicates that although weekday soaps did not report drastic drop in viewership, weekend programming delivered ratings that were far below expectations.
Apart from 9X, which grew week-on-week, crossing the psychological 100 GRP mark during IPL, most channel ratings plateaued.
Experts, however, caution that comparison of gross rating points (GRPs) of a channel like SET Max to general entertainment channels (GECs) like Zee TV, Star Plus, NDTV Imagine, 9X is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Keertan Adhyantaya, GM and EVP, Star Plus says that IPL affected all genres of television and not GECs alone. “In fact it affected men’s channels like news, movies much more than it affected general entertainment. On a weekly basis, Star Plus lost only about 20 GRP’s to IPL. So now that IPL is over, we are not expecting a bonanza in terms of ratings. We do have a content pipeline with some very exciting shows, but none that are launching in the next couple of weeks.”
Ajay Bhalwankar, programming head, Zee TV says, “Shows like Rock n Roll Family, which had stars like Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Tanuja as judges for the first time on television, did not attract viewership as much as we would have liked them to. But now that the IPL is over, we are expecting to spend more time on our channel and have several new programmes in the pipeline.”
In fact, come Friday and all major broadcasters have a big-bang programming line up for weekend prime-time. Zee TV has a weekend reality show Ek Se Badhkar Ek, hosted by Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kisshen, while NDTV Imagine has Hrithik Roshan as goodwill ambassador on Junoon Kuchh Kar Dikhaane Ka.
Sony, meanwhile will bring Salman Khan to host 10 Ka Dum, a show which it promoted heavily during the IPL. Star Plus will continue with Shah Rukh Khan hosted Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain.
The post IPL relief is not confined to television alone. Even Bollywood, trade analysts say, will queue up at-least 2-3 movie releases every week, over the next two months.
This is because most big-budget films’ release dates got postponed by almost a month, creating a bottleneck.
“Most distributors try to push for releasing their films in summer, since its holiday season. However, this summer, box office collections are only 20% of what it was last year. Multiple films releasing on the same day, henceforth will eat into each other’s collections,” says trade analyst Amod Mehra.
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net
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