English Entertainment
StarOne re-defines itself as light entertainment; launches ‘Super Sale’ on 15 August
MUMBAI: 7:30 is what StarOne’s next ‘game’ is. As already reported by Indiantelevision.com, Super Sale – the Indian adaptation of an old Fremantle format that originated in Australia titled Sale of the Century, will debut on 15 August.
With a sleek Saajid Khan adorning an Italian hairdo, Super Sale is essentially a game show that challenges the contestants to heap up as much moolah as they can, so as to buy attractive items at special ‘Super Sale Prices’ (SSP) – at the lowest ever conceivable prices. The show is slotted as a strip show from Mondays to Fridays at 7:30 pm.
Internationally, Sale of the Century has always been positioned in a comfortable slot.The Australian series took a serious mode to the quiz show, while the British version (aired on Sky, 1989-1991) took on a more fun persona. Star One has decided to adopt the British style.
What is interesting is the fact that both Star Plus and Sony from 7:30 – 8 pm are relatively free slots with Star Plus airing chartbusters and Sony airing re-runs of Devi. Zee, on the other hand has slotted Sindoor, which was launched in February.
From that sense, Star One has strategically placed it at 7:30 pm. The other fact worth noting is that the repeat telecast has been slated for 11 pm.
Validates StarOne programming head Ravi Menon, “Post eight, it is a bigger game and content is very strong across the channels. We are focussing on a 17-30 yrs target group (TG).”
Menon also states that Star One is looking at broadbasing itself, and 7:30 pm would be ideal for small towns and semi-metros, while 11 pm would be suitable for urban India. Asserts Menon, “Star One’s prime time now starts with Saajid and ends with Shekhar (TGILC).”
Coming to sponsorship deals, Menon clearly states that currently all the prizes that will be given out will be borne by Star. “We are going to test the waters first and see how the show rates. Once its settles down we will pull in sponsors as Super Sale is a very sponsor friendly show.”
Menon pegs his estimates in terms of TRPs between 2 – 3.
So, where is Star One heading? Shoots Menon, “Star One is moving towards light entertainment. Intense viewing today already very cluttered and Star Plus takes care of that. Star One will offer easy going content which is not essentially urban.”
The channel has already started modifying its shows to ensure a broader reach ensuring its appeal to smaller towns as well.
Super Sale will also push Remix in terms of bringing in new audiences across TG’s from Mondays to Thursdays.
When queried about the Friday plan; Menon stated that the 8:00 pm slot was one that they were eyeing very carefully. Interestingly, Star One’s Bluff Master which was earlier slotted at 9:00 pm on Fridays has been pulled to Wednesdays at 9:00 pm. In fact, Menon has already started working on a sitcom for the 9:00 pm slot on Wednesdays post Bluff Master and has commissioned it to Hats Off productions.
Coming to the Star One’s cash cow, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (TGILC), which comes to a close on 9 September, the channel is now readying a show titled Laughter Champions which will consist of the same faces that TGILC saw but will be bigger, bolder and brighter. The new show will be launched immediately with the close of TGILC on 16 September to ensure sustenance of eyeballs.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
