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The first of his gambles was with movies. He bought a bunch of
them- all recent releases with big star casts - paying top dollar
for the telecast rights. Some said he was frittering good money
after a bad idea. After all he was seeking to air Hindi movies at
prime time on a weekday (Thursday), something which had not been
attempted before.
That gamble seems to be paying off. At least if one goes by the
day after recall study amongst 300 respondents done by market research
agency ORG-Marg across six cities - Mumbai, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Jaipur,
Bhopal and Meerut for each movie starting with Mujhe Kuch Kehna
Hai. The interviews were conducted among Adults from SEC A,
B, C having a C&S connection.
The study has come up with some heartwarming results for the doughty
Chandra. That the channel has got enviable penetration and that
the audience profile of Zee TV may be changing as its attraction
for younger audiences grows and that both men and women are watching
the movie action.
For starters, the ORG-Marg study revealed that Zee TV as a channel
is available across SECs and across cities. Sony was slightly less
tuned on in smaller metros and in Mumbai. Star Plus was of course
the leader excepting that it trailed Zee TV in just one city Jaipur.
More than that what was of greater import to Chandra is how the
movie gamble was panning out. Very good says, the recall study.
Consider its viewer findings for Zee TV's Thrusday prime time movie
block:
Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai
* 40 per cent of households (HHs) across the six cities watched
the movie.
*In every HH almost three people watched the movie making the viewership
much wider.
* In Mumbai, 49 per cent of the HHs watched the movie.
*In Meerut the viewership was as high as 52 per cent and in Jaipur
43 per cent.
*42 per cent viewers watched the entire film while 80 per cent watched
at least half of it.
*The mean age of a person watching the Tushaar Kapoor starrer was
29.6 years.
Om Jai Jagdish
* The movie was watched by over a third of all the HH's.
*47 per cent HHs in Mumbai and Lucknow watched the movie.
* 39 per cent watched the entire movie while 80 per cent watched
at least half the film.
* The mean age of the viewer was 30.1 years.
Mujhse Dosti Karoge
*The movie had the highest viewership of 42 per cent.
*It had more than 50 per cent viewership in Mumbai and Jaipur
* In all other cities the viewership was more than one third of
the HHs.
* 46 per cent watched the entire film while 81 per cent watched
at least half of it.
* The mean age of the viewer was 29.1 years.
Little John
* The movie had a viewership of 24 per cent.
* It had the highest viewership in Mumbai and Meerut.
* The mean age of the viewer was 27.9 years.
The study revealed that in the case of all movies more than 60
per cent of the viewers were less than 30 years old. In the case
of Little John 73 per cent of the viewers were less than
30 years old. (The movie was targeted at kids and was shown on 14
November, Children's Day.
As far as who controlled the remote during the movies, the survey
has revealed that for Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai and Little
John, both women and men tuned in almost equally across all
the cities and SECs. Slightly more women tuned into watch Om
Jai Jagdish and Mujhse Dosti Karoge., which was also
the case for Mumbai and Ludhiana for all the movies.
Now all that Chandra has to do is continue to attract and retain
viewers and repeat the same legerdemain on other days too. While
observers say it will take some doing, others point out that nothing
can be put past the bidi-smoking, goateed rice-trader-turned-media
entrepreneur.
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