GECs
Will KBC 8 sustain high numbers?
MUMBAI: The Indian adaptation of the original format, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, catapulted Star Plus’ popularity when it was launched in 2000 as part of the channel’s revamp, later after exchanging hands, it boosted Sony’s viewership and since then has worked its magic.
After 13 years, two channels, seven seasons, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) has come a long way.
It has been a tedious task to entertain people season after season and though the show started off like a rocket, it did have to face a few hurdles. The show couldn’t garner enough ratings as expected, season after season.
Nonetheless, produced by Big Synergy, once again climbed the upward trend in its eighth season, raking in viewership of 8.96 million TVTs for its grand premiere episode. The average weekday viewership of the show was 5.2 million TVTs in its first week.
This was the highest rated show in the week under consideration (17-23 August 2014), across channels. Moreover, it outdid other top shows like Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus), Jodha Akbar and Kumkum Bhagya on Zee TV. It also helped the channel to move from its number sixth position to be number four in the TAM TV ratings.
According to media planners what worked wonders for the show was its social connect with the audiences. Woven around the thought of ‘yahan sirf paise nahi Dil bhi jeete jaate hain’, the TVCs garnered many accolades.
Planners believe that through its new theme, KBC is going back to the roots. “This season, it has had a very strong social connect. They are bringing up a lot of social issues and women empowerment issues in the programme and that has caught people’s attention,” asserts Maxus managing partner north and east region Navin Khemka. Khemka further goes on to say that this time the social issues it is highlighting are topical and well told.
The three TVCs were launched in July, ‘Kohima’ was followed by the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ and ‘Community’, received positive responses from the industry pundits as well as viewers. The channel had bought around 10,000 ad spots in over 45 TV channels, including the MSM network channels.
Moreover, it was also promoted in 15 cities through 2,000 OOH sites in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and selected ones in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
On the digital front also, it was active than before. It launched an app called KBC Play Along, by which a viewer could play the game on his mobile and stand a chance to meet Bachchan on the sets. Taking the marketing efforts a notch up, it had also done a 100-city-on-ground activity.
Media planners believe that, though the channel saw a good opening response, a lot of KBC ratings was dependent on the social impact and celebrities it got hold on to appear on it. “Celebrity episodes drive the viewership. In the coming weeks, because it is the festival time, a lot of new shows will get launched. So if they are able to get good celebrities and good content, they should be able to hold on to the ratings,” says another media analyst.
This season also saw re-invention of KBC. The grand premiere of the Bachchan-helmed show was shot in Surat with a live audience of around 7,000 people. The evening’s proceedings included comedy acts by Kapil Sharma, the anchor of Colors’ Comedy Nights with Kapil, song and dance sequences and Bachchan’s interactions with the live audience.
Cadbury remains the presenting sponsor while Idea continues to be the ‘powered by’ sponsor. Samsung, Maruti Suzuki, TVS, and Cisca LED are the associate sponsors.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
