The battle royale among the broadcasters to gain a greater share of viewership has witnessed an increasing activity in the last few weeks. With Star Plus and Sony having introduced new programmes like Sanjivani, Kisme Kitna Hai Dam, Dhadkan etc. in the prime time, the choice of programmes and genres within the programmes for the viewer has increased, giving greater choice to the viewers. For an advertiser, the task to track audiences has become a more uphill task. In this scenario, it becomes imperative to track changes in programme scheduling of channels, especially of mass channels. As a part of these channel dynamics, on 22 March, 2002, Zee TV introduced its celebrity based Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (JIKNH) in the Prime Time slot of Friday 2100-2200.

Background:
Prior to this programming change by Zee TV, the competitive environment in Friday 2100-2200 slot was:

Channel Share, a key performance indicator, shows that in Hindi Speaking Markets, Star Plus was the clear leader in the C&S 4+ audiences (Cable & Satellite 4 Years and above) with Zee TV achieving almost 1/5th share of the market leader-Star Plus.

Understanding the Channel Dynamics post the JIKNH launch:
First, a look at the details related to the programme launched:

Mumbai:

Trial Generation: The trial generation depicted by the reach numbers for the key market of Mumbai shows that the programme has proved to be a major success for Zee as the reach has risen by more than 100 per cent to 1.7 million viewers.

Viewership :
The share of viewership for Zee TV has increased by 82%. The time spent per viewer defined as the average minutes spent by the viewers (people reached by the programme) has remained constant, though the reach has increased by more than 100% (as shown in the chart 1). This indicates that the total amount of time spent by the viewers has increased as not only did more people trial the programme (high reach) but they also spent more time on the time slot. Also note that the proportionate increase in reach is more than the proportionate increase in channel share. For any programme launch, reach and time spent are the two major indicators. Ratings, a constituent of these two factors, builds up across a number of episodes as the stickiness (time spent) of the audiences to the programme increases.

Audience Behaviour:

With time spent being a key constituent for the computation of ratings, the environment in which a programme is telecasted plays a vital role for retention of audiences. The greater the number or duration of breaks, the higher is the chance that a viewer may zap to some other channel. The above graph of flow of audiences (Chart 3) in the JIKNH time slot between Star Plus and Zee TV in Mumbai depicts this phenomenon among the Cable & Satellite households. There is a high exchange of viewers between the two channels during the breaks. This could be a key reason that Star Plus has lost its channel share , while this has been a gain for Zee TV.

The above details in the Mumbai market helps one to understand the viewership pattern and channel dynamics.

Profile of audiences:
A fundamental question that one needs to be analyse is: Who are the audiences that saw the programme?

In the above graph, the Net index axis represents the ratings that consider the rating of Cable & Satellite 4 years and above (CS 4+) audiences as the base (100). This means that for every 100 rating index generated by CS 4+ audiences, CS Sec A generates a rating index of 172. This helps to analyse whether the programme is skewed towards any particular set of audiences. In Mumbai, the rating for CS 4+ individuals is 3.46 while that for SEC A individuals is 5.97. The composition of Cable & Satellite population in Mumbai consists of only 17% SEC A individuals while SEC D/E individuals consists of 30%. The programme, however, has low ratings (2.6) in the SEC D/E category. Almost all Hindi Speaking markets show similar profile for the programme.

- Hindi Speaking Markets ( Except Ahmedabad)

Trial Generation :

In the *Hindi speaking markets, the reach has gone up by 80% thus depicting a high trial generation. Out of this, Calcutta has shown a significant rise from 96,000 viewers to half a million viewers-a rise of 450% .The other significant gainers are Rest of Maharashtra (Maharashtra except Mumbai) increasing by 157%, Kanpur by 158%.

Viewership:

The above data indicated by shares and Reach shows that the channel - Zee TV - has doubled its numbers if compared to the same time slot (Friday 2100-2200) last week. The time spent by the viewers has also increased from 13 minutes to 15 minutes.
Profile of Audiences:
In this market, we again see the same trend as was prevalent in Mumbai. The ratings are the highest in SEC A audiences as compared to the other SEC‘s. In this market SEC A audiences consitute 22% of the total cable & satellite population.

Conclusion
Zee has achieved a favourable response for JIKNH and a strong base on which it can built up the audiences by capitalizing on the trial generation. A major share of the ratings is contributed buy SEC A audiences as the first episode of the programme is skewed towards SEC A audiences. However, if the audiences in other SEC‘s can also be captured by favourable marketing strategies, the ratings can only go in the upward direction. Certainly, high decibel promotions and highly popular star cast is the road to go ahead!