As Sony Entertainment Television or SET?s marquee show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) Season 5 draws to a close, the channel faces the challenge of sustaining its viewership, which shot up by 100 gross rating points or GRPs in the last four months.
?Gross viewership of the channel drops immediately after a high-profile show like KBC,? says Sneha Rajani, senior executive vice-president and business head, SET. ?But our existing fiction shows and the new ones replacing KBC will balance it out.? Media consultants say KBC brought good traction to Sony and the channel will be able to retain a large part of its viewership in the coming months. ?Anchor properties like KBC allows a channel to build other shows around it,? says Jehil Thakkar, executive director ? media & entertaiment, KPMG India. ?Just like anchor stores drive footfalls in malls, KBC has engaged viewers with other shows too.?
?After KBC, Bade Achhe Lagte Hain will serve as the anchor for the channel and there will be lot of movie premiers to keep the viewers? interest going,? Thakkar adds.
According to media buyers, this season of KBC which ran 56 episodes, is estimated to have generated revenues in excess of R200 crore for the broadcaster. Sony sold 10-second ad spots for the show at a premium of R3.5-4 lakh. However, whether KBC?s performance will have a spill-over effect on ad rates of other shows, is left to be seen.
?About 80-85% of the channel inventory is sold at the start of the year to advertisers who look for annual deals,? says R Gowthaman, leader ? Mindshare, south east Asia. ?The unsold inventory could sell at a high as media buyers are looking at KBC?s impact on the viewership of other shows on the channel.? Ad inventory is the advertising time on a channel sold on a per 10-second basis.
KBC 5, which went on air on August 15 this year, catapulted Sony to the second position in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space. Star Plus leads the genre, with Colors and Zee TV occupying the third and fourth slots respectively. Two weeks prior to the launch of KBC, Sony occupied the fourth position in the GEC ladder with 187 GRPs, according to data from television audience measurement agency, TAM. In the run-up to KBC as promos went on air, the channel?s viewership increased to 195 GRPs taking it to the third spot.
As KBC opened to 5.24 TRPs, the highest for a reality show in 2011, the channel?s viewership increased by 50 points in a single week taking it to the second position behind Star, with 245 GRPs.
On the week ended November 5, the channel stood at 287 GRPs. For its episodes on November 1 and November 2, which saw a contestant winning the total prize money of Rs 5 crore, viewership stood at 7.2 and 8.03 TRPs respectively, the highest for any reality show since 2009. ?The 5-crore episode was a high but this season?s average viewership has also been better than that of last year,? adds Rajani, SET?s business head. KBC?s average viewership in 2010 was 4.2, while that in 2011 improved to 4.7.
