MAM
Mixed debut for Hrithik’s Just Dance
MUMBAI: Hrithik Roshan shines on Indian television but not as much as the other Bollywood stars have done. And while his debut performance on flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Star Plus has been commendable, audiences on Star One and Marathi regional GEC Star Pravah have just not hooked on to the dance reality show.
Just Dance‘s debut episode on Star Plus earned a TVR of 3.7 while the Hrithik-powered show clocked 0.5 TVR each on Star One and Star Pravah (simulcast).
Collectively, the show has mopped up a TVR of 4.7, according to TAM data for Hindi speaking markets (C&S, 4+).
The debut episodes of other reality shows, with popular actors as hosts or judges, have rated higher on the Hindi GECs. Amitabh Bachchan’s return as anchor of game show KBC 4 on Sony Entertainment Television clocked a 6.2 TVR on debut, while Abhishek Bachcan’s entry on Bingo National Nights (Colors) got a TVR of 5.1. Khataron Ke Khiladi 4 with Akshay Kumar got 3 TVR (ratings was much higher in the earlier editions with Kumar as host), while the third season with Priyanka Chopra got a 5.5 TVR on the opening day.
“Hrithik has opened weaker on TV but this may not be a fair comparison. In the other reality shows, the Bollywood stars were right at the centre as hosts. Hrithik is part of the jury in this show. Besides, this is a weekend show. When Khataron Ke Khiladi 4 moved to the weekends with Kumar, the ratings were lower,” said a media analyst.
Star India COO Sanjay Gupta believes the strategy of simulcasting the show on three network channels has worked well. “Just Dance has demonstrated its combined impact in the 4.7 TVR that it has collected. It is the highest show opening for any non-fiction property in 2011. For instance, on Star Pravah the slot rating doubled versus the normal average, demonstrating the power of the content to transcend language and geography,” he said.
Several media observers, however, feel that Just Dance has to do much more on Star One and Star Pravah to make it a network success show. “Star One, for instance, has gone up by a single GRP to end the week at 38 GRPs. There has to be a stronger pull for the show on Star One and Star Pravah to term it as a success,” a media analyst said.
As for Star Plus, the show added 20 GRPs (gross rating points) to the channel’s kitty. For the week ended 18 June, Star Plus took its total GRPs to 284, up from 247 GRPs in the trailing week.
“We created high sampling of the show with a record 25.9 million viewers in the opening episode supported by a high decibel marketing campaign across multiple touch points and an augmented reality experience event. As the show progresses, we are sure it will attract a lot more interest and involvement, thereby making it the ultimate dance reality show on Indian television,” Gupta said.
The show on Star Plus has attracted 21.6 million viewers. The remaining 4.3 million viewers have come on Star One and Star Pravah.
“The show was aired just once in the week ended 18 June. We will have to give it more time to see where it settles,” said a media observer.
A peep into the other GECs: Zee TV, ranked No. 3, added 20 GRPs to its last week’s tally and came threateningly closer to Colors. Zee TV closed the week with 228 GRPs while Colors lost 9 GRPS to end with 230 GRPs.
For Zee TV, Pavitra Rishta did the trick once again. It stayed as the top-rated show with 6.2 TVR, according to TAM data.
Sony Entertainment Television remained stable with 161 GRPs (last week 163) while Sab reported 138 GRPs, a loss of 10 GRPs from the previous week. Imagine TV remained at No.6 with 89 GRPs (from 90 GRPs).
Sahara One fell by four points to end the week with 28 GRPs.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
