It‘s not just Zee TV that has a lot riding on the new programming initiative that it instituted recently. Ronnie Screwvallah-promoted television production major United Television Ltd (UTV) has three of its shows in the Zee list and hopes they have the sort of impact that will take a bit of the spotlight away from Balaji Telefilms which presently has a lock on the hit lists.

Choti Maa... Ek Anokha Bandhan

All three new shows are key cogs in Zee‘s re-launch initiative and are already on air. Two shows in particular - Choti Maa Ek Anokha Bandhan (the remake of Chithi which smashed all TRP records on leading Tamil language channel Sun TV) and Sarhadein which has a storyline that is bound to raise conservative hackles (credit should go here to Sandeep Goyal, broadcasting CEO, Zee telefilms, who showed guts to accept and support the concept) - are very crucial to Zee as well as UTV. The third show Hip Hip Hurrray-II, sequel to the old hit series on Zee, will also be watched closely.

Choti Maa ....is being jointly produced by Radaan Mediaworks - producers of the original Chithi as well as Koteshwaran (a Kaun Banega Crorepati clone) which went off air recently and UTV. When asked about arrangement between the two, Radaan‘s M R Mohan Ratha says: ‘We provide the creative inputs for the show, and they are looking after production.‘ The rights for the show however, will remain with Zee TV.

The crew has already completed shooting for the first 30 episodes. As for the competition, the serial is pitted against Kkusum on Sony which has steadily been gaining ground on the ratings charts and the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted Kaun Banega Crorepati on Star Plus. While the enthusiasm for KBC has been flagging it is the Balaji-produced ‘Kkusum‘ that stands in the way of Choti Maa‘ making a mark. "We are looking at TRPs of 5 within the next three months. That much time is required for the serial to make its impact," BS Radhakrishnan, director, Radaan, said.

Vaishnavi, who plays the lead role in Choti Maa says: "I am making all efforts from my side to make this role a memorable one." Vaishnavi has had notable roles in Chingari on Zee and made a name for herself in the lead role of the hit serial Shaktimaan on national broadcaster Doordarshan‘s main channel.

Sarhadein

Sarhadein, set in Malaysia, is the story of an Indian girl who falls in love with a Pakistani boy. It is the story of hope and love and tries to draw on the essential similarities between the antagonistic neighbours. A radical plot line if one accepts the prevailing wisdom that the target audience of serials in India, is the upper middle class, upper caste north Indian housewife, 25-30 years old from the Hindi heartland. Though most programming heads would shy away from such a politically incorrect definition, that about sums up the core audience that is being addressed.

How Sarhadein will be received remains a question, especially at a time when jingoistic sentiments are at an all-time high and macho chest beating "patriotic" offerings like the Zee-produced Gaddar has smashed many a box office record.

Associate creative director Neeraj Naik is extremely positive that his show will work and says he deliberately chose a script off the beaten track. For the time slot it airs (11:00 pm) Sarhadein is doing very well thank you, he asserts. It is averaging 1.5 TRPs, he says and he firmly believes it will have an impact. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the 11:00 pm slot means it is 9:30 in the Gulf region, and 10:00 pm in Pakistan - prime time in those territories.

Provided that Naik can keep the story from falling between two stools in trying to cater to everybody, the success or otherwise of Sarhadein should prove interesting watching.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation, which met yesterday to discuss the TRP issue, has set up a committee to go into the issue, it has been revealed.
The IBF committee‘s brief is principally to investigate into the charges raised by Zee broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal that both the ratings agencies - ORG Marg‘s INTAM and AC Nielsen‘s TAM Research - have completely lost credibility and need to be overhauled before the data they dish out can be used.

ETC Networks, the only Hindi language channel broadcaster after Jain TV to get government clearance for uplinking from India, sees the teleport facility that it will be establishing in Mumbai soon as a strong revenue source.

Jagjit Singh Kohli, one of the promoters and managing director, ETC Networks, made the point at the company‘s first annual general meeting in Mumbai yesterday. "This uplinking business will be the fourth stream of revenue which we are looking at," he said. At present, the income comes from advertising, selling of commercial time and from sale of programmes (which was very low for year 2000-2001). As per ETC‘s annual report 2000 - 2001, ad revenues stood at Rs 324 million, commercial time sale fetched 150 million and programmes sale was 1.7 million.

ETC has identified three possible locations for its teleport in and around Mumbai‘s western suburb of Andheri. Close to RS 18.6 million has been put aside for establishing uplinking facilities. The teleport is expected to be up and running within this financial year, and ETC is confident that it will also be generating revenue from Day 1, Neelam Gupta, head corporate communications, said.

The channel claims leadership in the music channel segment with a market share of 31 per cent (4 plus all C & S homes) as per INTAM ratings.