The battle for the No 4 slot in the general Hindi entertainment channel sweepstakes is hotting up. Sahara TV has refocused itself and is readying for an aggressive marketing and programming assault, so can Sabe TV be far behind?

A press release from the company says that its FPC is being rejigged and a bunch of new shows are being introduced come the first week of September. Popular sitcom Office-Office will air thrice a week. A fun-based programme to be produced and hosted by Ravi Behl and Naaved Jaffrey of Sony Entertainment's Boogie Woogie fame titled Paisa Vasool will be introduced, featuring celebrities in each episode and mounted on a lavish scale. A cop-thriller Dial 100 will be shown four days a week from Mondays to Thursdays.

A spanking new one-and-a-half hour afternoon programming band featuring women oriented programmes like a Cookery Show, a Pop Countdown, Swayam (the woman achiever), Utsav, and Drishtikon is also to be introduced.

Additionally, a popular cartoon strip for children will be shown daily from Monday to Friday in the evenings. Variety programmes such as Brahma Vishnu Mahesh, comedies like Daddy Samjha Karo and Yes Boss and dramas like Karam and Sambandh will be featured on the 9.00 pm slot.

With the introduction of fresh programming, Sabe TV's FPC will include a daily cartoon strip, a daily sitcom, Aflatoon at 7 pm, the fantasy Alif-Laila at 7.30 pm, comedy Office-Office at 8 pm thrice a week followed by Paisa Vasool, the daily thriller Dial 100 at 8.30 pm and varieties like mythological dramas and weekly comedies at 9 pm and the comedy Shriman Shrimati at 9.30 pm.

Sabe TV, in the release, claims that it has overtaken major players like Sony and Zee in the five major cities (excluding Mumbai) in the key western Indian state of Maharashtra. Market research agency's AC Nielsen's latest TAM data for the week ending 28 July 2001 shows that Sabe TV has generated higher Gross Rating Points (GRPs) - for the Top 25 programmes in all segments like All 15+ AB, 15 + Female AB, 15 + All ABC and 15 + Females ABC - than Sony Entertainment and Zee TV, the release states.