Mumbai: Star Plus that had opened the Sunday morning slot with Amir Khan?s Satyamev Jayate is replacing the big-budget show with another show that focuses on issues of social consequence, ?Lakhon Mein Ek?.

Starting 5 August the show will air every Sunday at 11 am. Satyamev Jayate, which went off air on 29 July, rated an average of 2-2.5 TVR.

?Lakhon Mein Ek? will feature stories of real life people who rose above the ordinary through choices they made - be it a young girl helping her widowed mother find marital bliss yet again or a father, who lost his son to ragging, start a sustained campaign against such abuse or a mother lend her womb to bear her daughter?s child. The person behind the story would be introduced at the end of each episode. The show will feature inspiring tales of courage that has the potential to change entrenched mindsets, the channel said.

Produced by Big Synergy, the show will be hosted by Pooja Gor who plays lead in Star Plus? fiction property ?Mann Ki Awaaz Pratigya?. Being the ?Sutradhar? of Lakhon Mein Ek, she will be introducing each story and guiding viewers with the key message from each episode.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, "Excellence and distinctiveness are values that are very often ignored. Satyamev Jayate reinforced what we knew about our viewers. They have an appetite for compelling stories that are built around the communities that we live in and that have a material impact on the kind of country we want to build and live in. Lakhon Mein Ek is consistent with that philosophy. The show itself is part of Star?s efforts to use TV?s reach and power to shape society?s outlook and mindset by making examples out of individuals who influence change."

Star Plus head Nachiket Pantvaidya added, "It?s Star doing its best to deliver content that helps transform mindsets through programmes that are sensitively made. Lakhon Mein Ek showcases people who are real heroes and who have dealt with difficult circumstances. Star Plus is committed to talking to masses and hence we are coming up with another show that relates to them. This is a new slot we are investing in and we want to create an area where we tackle issues that will touch people?s lives in multiple ways."

MUMBAI: Taking a cue from Star Plus, Zee TV is now gearing up to offer original content in the Sunday morning slot.

Starting 12 August, Zee TV will air mythological - Ramayan every Sunday at 11 am.

Ramayan, produced by Sagar Arts, will directly compete with Star Plus? Lakhon Mein Ek, which is being launched on 5 August in the same time slot.

Zee TV wants to reach out to the young viewers who had not watched the Ramanand Sagar-produced Ramayan aired decades ago. It also aims to foster family viewing of television programmes.

Interestingly, this is for the fourth time that Ramayan will be aired on television and second time on Zee TV. After its epic run on DD, Zee TV tried with a remake of Ramayan with BR Chopra. However that did not work well with the audiences then.

Later, in 2008, Imagine TV (then NDTV imagine) was launched with Ramayan as one of its flagship primetime properties.

Ramayan and Lakhon Mein Ek will be the only original shows to air in the Sunday morning slots on Hindi GECs. Lakhon Mein Ek will replace Aamir Khan?s Satyamev Jayate, which highlighted social issues ranging from corrupt doctors to female foeticide. The last episode of Satyamev Jayate was aired on 29 July.

Earlier, Colors had launched All Is Well with Dr. Ahluwalia for Sundays but had failed to attract viewers. This programme was aired at 12.30 pm every Sunday.

Zee TV head-fiction programming Sukesh Motwani said, "As a story, Ramayan is timeless and will never lose its relevance. It is rich in the core values, ideals and principles that form the crux of the Indian culture and upbringing."

"We have roped in the only team in India truly equipped for the task, the Sagars. Ramanandji (Sagar) did it brilliantly once. Moti ji and Minakshi, who have inherited Ramayan as a part of their core DNA, are all set to recreate the classic," Motwani added.

It is learnt that Colors will launch a mythological programme based on Goddess Durga, which is also being produced by Sagar Arts. However, the launch date and time slot is not known.

Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali (Sahara One) and Devon Ke Dev... Mahadev (Life OK) are the other mythological shows currently running on Hindi GECs.

MUMBAI: Star India business head - Hindi channels Nitin Vaidya has put in his papers after a short stint of 14 months.

He had joined Star India in May 2011 and was heading Hindi TV channels - Star Plus, Star One (which is now discontinued), Star Gold and Star Utsav.

"Yes I have quit. It was an interesting and excellent experience," Vaidya told Indiantelevision while confirming the development.

Prior to Star India, Vaidya was Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) COO - National channels and Zee TV business head.

MUMBAI: Olympics takes first priority over cricket as pubcaster Doordarshan decides to give the upcoming India-Sri Lanka series a miss.

DD declined to telecast the bilateral series which coincides with the London Olympics that will see the largest ever Indian contingent taking part in the world?s biggest sporting event.
?We approached Doordarshan with a bid for the India-Sri Lanka series but they have refused since they will be focusing on the London Olympics,? Zeel chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal tells Indiantelevision.com. The Sri Lanka cricket series falls under the mandatory sharing of telecast rights provision under which private sports broadcasters will have to give the live feed to DD.

With DD out of the fray, the bilateral series involving five ODIs and lone Twenty20 match will be televised exclusively by Ten Cricket, the cricket dedicated channel from Zee.

The India-Sri Lanka series, which will be played from 21 July to 7 August, will clash with the London Olympics starting from 27 July and closing on 12 August.

Zee is looking at an advertising revenue of Rs 800 million from the series. Ten Cricket, the official broadcast rights holder for cricket in Sri Lanka, has roped in five broadcast sponsors. Hero MotoCorp is the presenting sponsor while talks are on with a telecom operator to take the other presenting sponsorship slot.

The broadcaster has roped in Royal Seagram, Lenovo, Reliance Netconnect, and Manipal University as associate sponsors. Besides the official sponsors, there are 20 other advertisers who have bought airtime on the property.

?We have got good response from advertisers. The fact that it?s a short series involving ODI and T20 format of the game and will be telecast only on Ten Cricket is working in our favour,? Sehgal says.

Hindi general entertainment channels like Star Plus and Colors have also shown interest in buying airtime to promote their shows, Sehgal adds.

The channel has got three more on-ground associate sponsors in addition to Royal Stag Cricket Gear which includes Hero MotoCorp, Zuari Cement and Renault. Handset manufacturer Micromax is the title sponsor of the series. Sources say Micromax has paid Rs 50-60 million to take the title sponsorship.

One India. One Jersey. marketing campaign

Ten Cricket?s overall marketing spends on promoting the series will be around Rs 55-60 million, including promotions on network channels.

The sportscaster is giving the series an aggressive marketing push through its One India. One Jersey. marketing campaign.

The campaign celebrates the fact that the India team is coming together after a long gap through a series of four TVC based on real life experiences.

The creative idea showcases how cricket unites people from various walks of life despite all the differences that exist. It will be driven primarily through television promos and digital initiatives.

?The campaign is based on various contradictions in life and how we as a society are divided on various things but when it comes to cricket we are all one so it could be politicians from two opposition political parties with different views but they have same views when it comes to cricket (Indian team),? Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande says.

Pande believes that the campaign needed to have a strong theme since there was lot of negativity around the Indian team due to back-to-back defeats against England and Australia.

?We are primarily focusing on television particularly News channels because this property has got a male skew. We are also looking to reach out to female viewers through channels like TLC and lifestyle channels. Then we have our network channels to drive it we are topping this with a digital campaign,? he avers.