MUMBAI: Star India has chalked out a differentiated programming strategy for its new general entertainment channel (GEC) -- Life OK -- which is going on air on 18 December.

Firstly, the channel will have shows on all seven days of the week, unlike 4-5 days programming, followed by the rival GECs. Moreover, unlike half-hour and one-hour episodes, the channel will have 20-minute and 40-minute episodes.

Life OK will have a three-hour daily primetime slot from 8-11 pm. In weekends it will also air movies.

Additionally, Life OK has roped in Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit as the face of the channel, who will come once a day and play the role of the "sutrdhaar" or narrator for the shows.

Indiantelevision was first to report that Star India is closing down Star One and will replace it with the new channel Life OK.

"Life OK is a unique name which is in itself a statement of its philosophy, compelling content that flows from that philosophy and an unprecedented focus to cater to the viewer?s needs," Star India CEO Uday Shankar said in a statement.

"We found that viewers wanted better value for their time. Hence the stories on Life OK will be told seven days a week and will feature three stories every hour. People often said that they did not understand why we were doing a certain story and hence Madhuri Dixit will be the Sutradhar-a completely novel introduction on Life OK. Everybody that we spoke to said that they wanted shorter ad breaks, so Life OK will have the shortest ad breaks for any channel anywhere in this country," he further added.

When asked why the company has decided to drop the "Star" brand, Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, "We didn?t want to have the name Star. This is our second entry in Hindi GEC and the second entry is always considered as the younger brother/ sister. We have Star Plus, which is the leader and everything that is launched with Star Plus is always compared with Star Plus first. Neither did we want to take the benefit of the name nor the negative of it. So these are the two reasons that we are going with ?Life Ok?."

Gupta agreed that the decision of scrapping the seven-year old Star One was because of its non performance. "When it was launched it was the most iconic brand. It had the most different set of shows. But it didn?t sustain for a long time. It had a lot of changes in direction and finally during the past two years it was doing very averagely so there was a need to do something for Star One and hence we decided to start afresh," he added.

The channel kick-started the promotions on 12 December. The four-week long plan is focussed on the philosophy of the channel. The brand film for the channel, depicting the same, is created by O&M.

Apart from Youtube, Yahoo and Life OK web page, the company has penetrated deep in the Hindi heartland with hoardings across 100 towns. The channel is also being promoted on the Star Network.

"Recognising the importance of youth the brand will be launching via a week long digital engagement plan and the biggest online concert ever with an eight-hour long Life OK Rockathon exclusively for the web," Gupta added.

Also Read:

Star One makes way for ?Life Ok?

NEW DELHI: The broadcasting industry today made a strong plea to the government to notify the self-regulatory mechanisms of the news broadcasters as well as the general entertainment TV channels - the News Broadcasters Standards Authority and the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council.

This was reiterated by various broadcasters including Indian Broadcasting Foundation president and Star India CEO Uday Shankar and News Broadcasters Association president and NDTV vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao.

Addressing a session on Content in the one-day ‘CEOs in Broadcasting‘ meet organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and later addressing a press meet, Shankar said that notification will enable the two bodies to also exercise self-regulation with regard to channels which were not members of these two bodies. He pointed out that the Advertising Code drawn up by the Advertising Standards Council of India had been notified under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act and therefore it had official sanction.
 
He said the TV industry had never opposed regulation, but had always held the view that the regulator should be an independent body and not the government. "We wanted neutral qualified people and not controlled people from the government". He and Rao were satisfied that the government had supported self-regulation and given it a chance to work.

Shankar said we cannot curb creativity, but have to prevent "dirt" from coming in. He said the BCCC had already proved to be very effective in this regard as channels had complied with the verdict of the Council headed by Justice AP Shah.

Referring to the quality of talent on the channels, Shankar said that with high carriage fee and other expenses, channels were left with little money to get high quality talent.

Rao said the NBSA had been in existence for over three years now and had worked very well, with channels generally complying with the directives of Justice JS Verma. He said the NBSA was not just a complaints body but unit for improving standards. Around 3000 complaints had been dealt with satisfactorily so far in an exemplary fashion, even with penalties being imposed.

Actor Shabana Azmi, who is a member of the BCCC, said that the Council had been working very satisfactorily so far and broadcasters also took it seriously. She said the members had also gained experience in understanding the responsibility of being part of a self-regulatory body.

She said it was interesting that the Government tended to forward to BCCC complaints relating to kissing scenes or scenes of that kind, while the complaints received from the public tended to relate to excessive violence.

Centre for Media Studies director PN Vasanti, who had been instrumental in drawing up the Content Code on behalf of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in 2007, said a monitoring body working with the CMS had come across over 3000 violations.

She wanted the two self-regulatory bodies to create greater public awareness by putting all their verdicts on the websites. She also felt that the two bodies had to work with the government - ‘there are no two ways about it‘.

NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph said that the Electronic Media Monitoring Cell of the Ministry had also begun forwarding complaints to the NBSA.

NewsX Editor-in-Chief Jehangir Pocha wanted clarification on what is news and what constitutes views and said standards should be drawn up for this.

Broadcast Editors Association and NDTV‘s Pankaj Pachauri said self-regulation should not ‘merely work, but should be seen to be working‘. He wanted the bodies to increase the reach to non-members.

Times TV Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla said there was need to be more public about the action taken by the bodies.

Speaking at the press meet, CII Media and Entertainment Committee chairman Amit Khanna described digitisation as a huge step forward and said the byword would now be pay TV and channels would not be driven merely by advertising and the race for TRPs.

He pointed out that the government also stood to earn Rs 60 billion additional revenue with the coming in of digitisation. Piracy would also become difficult, he added.

He supported the stand of the two regulatory bodies for a statutory status.

Answering a question, he said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would decide the basic tariffs after digitisation, but this would be done after issuing a consultation paper and eliciting the views of stakeholders.

Den MD Sameer Manchanda expressed satisfaction that I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma had committed that the sunset dates would be met.

MUMBAI: They say the stars in the universe change our lives. But when two of the biggest stars come together, they change a lot more!

Star India will be hoping for just that. Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan is making his debut on the small screen as a talk show host for Star India?s network channels in eight languages, signalling the broadest launch ever on Indian television.

Khan will anchor a show based on social issues that will simulcast on Star Plus, Star World, Star Jalsha, Star Pravah, Star Vijay, Star Utsav, Asianet and Suvarna. Produced by Aamir Khan Productions, the show will go on air early next year.

The name of the show that will simulcast in English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam is yet to be decided.

"Over the last few years, I have been approached for various TV shows, but the offers never excited me. However, this show will be a journey of discovery of change, of emotion and human story which touch and inspire our daily life," Aamir said.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said that the show marks a big step and is audacious. "No Bollywood star has shown the ability to move the markets with experimentation as much as Aamir has done. Star India is doing a show with him to reinforce the same agenda of creativity and to come with something which is impactfull and engaging. It is a new show with the most successful film star. When you are the leader, there are responsibilities you have towards people. This drives me and the company each time we do something. There is social responsibility that comes with leadership. What we do defines how the industry is perceived. We change the agenda for how the TV industry behaves."

Khan said that the project had been in the pipeline for three to four years. "This began as a dream. Uday came to me to do television. There have been offers for gameshows which did not excite me. I like watching gameshows but to be a part of one everyday did not excite me. Television is a strong medium. Star has massive reach. Its stature and personality are right for this show. I wanted Uday to be involved with the show. What we are setting out to do is very ambitious. The idea is audacious and challenging. The show is about connecting with people, change, hopes and dreams. I told Uday that I wanted to use all his channels. I wanted it to be a pan India show."

Shankar said that the show is about real life situations and real life people. "It is not a fiction show. The show has been woven around Aamir. It will have the dramatic intensity of fiction with real life characters."

Indian television has attracted movie stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Hrithik Roshan, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan to act in different roles.

NEW DELHI: Star India chief executive officer Uday Shankar has been re-elected president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for the second term.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd MD and CEO Punit Goenka was elected treasurer. Times Television Network MD and CEO Sunil Lulla, who had been treasurer until now, was elected as the vice-president in the 12th Annual General Meeting.

The only change in the Board is that Madhavan of Asianet has been co-opted in place of G Krishnan, who had quit TV Today recently.

Earlier in the day, during the 12th Annual General Meeting, the following were elected as members of the Board of Directors for 2011-12:

1. Uday Shankar
2. Sunil Lulla

3. Punit Goenka
4. Network 18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla
5. Eenadu TV director I Venkat
6. Dish TV MD Jawahar Goel
7. MM TV director Jayant M. Mathew
8. NDTV executive vice chairman KVL Narayan Rao
9. Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh

10. Star CJ Network CEO Paritosh Joshi
11. India TV chairman Rajat Sharma
12. Siddharth Jain, Vice President & General Manager (Distribution & Business Operations), Turner International India & South Asia

In the subsequent Board meeting, the Board co-opted the following Directors to the IBF Board:

1. Asianet Communications MD K Madhavan
2. Sri Adhikari Bros. vice chairman & MD Markand Adhikari
3. Colors CEO Raj Nayak

It was decided that the following members would be special invitees in the IBF Board of Directors meetings:

1. Turner General Entertainment Network VP and GM Monica Tata

2. ESPN Star Sports MD Manu Sawhney