After a bitter legal imbroglio over the suffix One last year, the year old Star One and Sahara One are nowhere close to the number one slot in the relative channel share. Star Plus is still the undisputed leader with a 53% share, followed by Sony Entertainment at a distant 14% and Zee TV with 12% share, as per the latest data by TAM Media.

Star One was launched on November 1, 2004 and Sahara Manoranjan was relaunched as Sahara One on the same day. Star One currently has a share of 9% and Sahara One is behind with a share of 7%. While Star One is a paid channel, Sahara One is free to air. A media analyst with a brokerage firm says, Sahara One had spent more sums in promotional campaigns than Star One, but has still lagged behind Star One. The TAM figures for October 2005 point out that Sahara Ones top programme Woh Rehne Wali Mehlon Ki has the highest TVR of 2.11. The other programmes average TVRs below 1.

On the other hand, Star One has come up with programmes like Nach Baliye and The Great Indian Laughter Champions managing TVRs as high as 5.7, giving a tough fight to Sony and Zee on primetime.

Sahara One chief operating officer Purnendu Bose says, Star One has hogged the limelight only recently with its shows like Nach Baliye and The Great Indian Laughter Champions. In the last six months Sahara One has also grown substantially.

Industry experts are also of the view that Star Ones recent content has helped boost the channels share. We have based our programming on Star One on a different genre so that we can position it as a backup to replace Star Plus as and when the viewership pattern shifts from the usual saas-bahu soaps, said Star India, COO, Sameer Nair.