Consider this: Zee's shares rose 19-fold in 12 months to a closing high of Rs 1,555.05 in February 2000, only to plunge 92 per cent over the following 12 months to Rs 116.85 at Friday's close on the BSE.

This time last year roughly six of Zee's programmes featured in India's top 10 rated shows. Now there are none.

Parent company Zee Network, which started nine years ago as a television content and marketing company, has long-term plans to use its cable network to provide a flood of information and services to customers across India.

But for now the plunging share price has forced the company back to the basics - television programming.

Zee Network comprises the listed company Zee Telefilms, which controls a television broadcasting, content and marketing business, and cable network, education and Internet services subsidiaries. The shares are traded as a proxy for Zee Networks.

Zee Network, controlled by billionaire Subhash Chandra, posted a 26 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 473.8 million ($10.18 million) in the October-December quarter, hit by stiff competition and slowing advertising revenue growth.

Jolted by former partner and now arch rival Rupert Murdoch's Star TV, which swept Indian audiences off their feet with a local version of the globally popular "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," Zee tried to play catch up with its own gameshow clone, and failed.

And even after the initial charm of its gameshow wore off,Star managed to hold the audience captive with appealing soaps that top Indian television ratings.

Zee is still playing catch-up and is betting on innovation. Declaring game shows a thing of the past, last Monday it announced a new genre of television programming - a reality show, inspired by the success of America's "Survivor" series.

Analysts agreed new programming was the way to go but said the impact on Zee's bottom line would not be clear until viewer numbers started to roll in."Zee is taking steps in the right direction. But we can't say that there will be substantial business turnaround unless these new programmes do really well," said Inquire Indian Equity Research analyst Subhabrata Majumder.

Analysts have recently been upgrading Zee, but mainly because its shares have fallen so far. The 19-fold rally had partly been fuelled by a leading stock market bull.

(Reuters)