It’s showtime for television channels

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: that should make viewers and advertisers equally buoyant. Star Plus, for example, has replaced the prestigious 9 pm-10 pm prime time slot where KBC3 was running until April 19, with a Fox TV Studio presentation—Meri Awaz Ko Mil Gayee Roshni and a Balaji soap (Kasturi). To perk things up, Sony will start airingIndian Idol 3 from May and SET Max has begun airing the Amitabh Bachchan film festival from Monday.

Says Harsh Rohatgi, general manager (content and communication), Star India: “KBC3 gave us the eyeballs we wanted. In a post-CAS scenario even a TVR of 12 is very good. Actually 2007 has been a monumental year for TV—with CAS, the new TAM panel which fragmented the market considerably.”

Budgets of shows have clearly shot up in keeping with changing demands from advertisers. Zee TV’s ‘Saregamapa, Challenge 2007’ series has been mounted on a lavish scale and as Ashish Kaul, vice president, Zee TV says, “Saregamapa is one of the most expensive and expansive shows of Indian television.”

Zee, which has had a smooth run so far and is Star’s nearest rival in the TVR battle claims that the financial year 2006-07 has been outstanding. “Zee Network and Zee TV in particular have recorded growth of over 31% in ad revenues over the previous year.

Significant and major advertisers have taken a long-term position on Zee TV.” According to industry estimates, Indian TV homes could grow from 112 million to 200 million. Even the pay TV market is poised to grow from the present 70 million to all TV homes.

Despite setbacks, there are a few bright spots in 2007. In the niche channel category, for example, as per TAM all India viewership data for the Q1 of 2007, Discovery Channel garnered higher viewership than English films, news, entertainment and music channels, including Star Movies, HBO, MTV, NDTV 24x7, Channel V and CNN-IBN. An upbeat Rajeev Bakshi, associate director, marketing, Discovery channel and Discovery Travel & Living, admits that while “ad spend and show budgets have shot up like never before these are good times for international channels like us. We have a 18% market-share and reach 33 million homes”.