GEC battle: Sony, Colors, Zee heat up competition for 2nd spot
MUMBAI: There is no business like Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel) business.
Mumbai: Star Plus is launching the second season of the singing reality show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar from 31 March. The show will air every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm.
Star Plus has roped in Clinic Plus as the title sponsor of the show, while it?s being powered by Lotus Herbals.
The show will see the face-off between champions and runners up of various singing reality shows in the country. It will see participation of 18 contestants of which 6 will be champions of other reality shows and 12 will be runners up of the same.
The new season aims to explore a whole new spectrum of music fusion, cross-cultural exchange of music, renditions of classical songs and a platform that?s completely open to experimentation.
Hosted by Mandira Bedi, the jury of the show comprises of Shaan, Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire.
Star India business head, Hindi channels Nitin Vaidya said, ?India is a land renowned for its musical geniuses, face-offs amongst musicians being tradition. ?Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar? brings alive this tradition in a more contemporary setting. That?s the hallmark of Star?s content, keeping the best of the old alive and giving it new meaning."
MUMBAI: Colors, the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Viacom18 stable, which is lagging behind Sony Entertainment Television (Set) in the numbers battle, is now strengthening its weekend programming to add more eyeballs and attract more viewers to the channel.
The channel is launching two new shows on 25 February, and will be airing special ?mahaepisodes? of fiction shows during weekend primetime.
The channel, which earlier used to air multiple movies, sometimes with one-break, in the weekends, has decided to curtail its dependency on the films.
And with Viacom18 deferring its plans of launching a Hindi movie channel, Colors offloaded many of its major titles in a bulk deal to Star Network.
?Viacom18 was on a movie acquiring spree, which was justified given the plans for a Hindi movie channel. However, when Star and Zee also entered in the fray aggressively, the business model went kaput. So, it was obvious for the company to defer the launch plans and to sell some of the movies to other players. What it also means is, that Colors will not have as many titles in the library to fill weekends,? a media observer said.
Colors is launching two non-fiction properties on 25 February. The first is the third season of its home-grown kids? comic reality show Chote Miyan while the second one is Zindagi Ki Haqeeqat Se Aamna Saamna.
Chote Miyan Chapter 3, as it is named for this season, will air every Saturday and Sunday at the 7 pm slot while Aamna Saamna takes the 10 pm slot.
Aamna Saamna will feature real life stories that harass the average man: issues like parents dealing with a child?s suicide, sibling squabbling over property, emotional torture faced by housewives dealing with greedy in-laws.
Colors had launched a sports entertainment reality show Ring Ka King on 28 January at 8 pm slot. Being aired every Saturday and Sunday, the show is slated to run for 13 weeks. Though it opened with 2.2 TVR, the show is averaging around 1 TVR.
Colors, since few months now, has been airing ?mahaepisode? (one-hour specials) of its fiction dramas on Saturdays. But, starting 25 February, the channel has assigned the 9 pm slot on Saturdays and Sundays for airing the fiction show?s special episodes only.
This week it will air special episodes of Balika Vadhu on Saturday and Parichay on Sunday.
Also, the channel will be airing one big awards show/ event every month. In January it aired Colors? Screen Awards; in February it aired Umang while in March it will be airing Apsara Producers Guild Awards.
Traditionally, Set leads the weekend slot followed by Star Plus. Zee TV and Colors have been chasing for the third spot in the weekend programming ratings. It has been seen that Colors has seen a peak in GRPs (gross rating points) in the weekend by airing either movie or special programmes.
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