Posted:
Maha Move!
TV producers set to leave Maharashtra and shoot in other states, even as viewers tire of watching re-runs, TRPs dip and losses mount
By Subhash K Jha and Runna Ashish Bhutda
Posted On Sunday, November 23, 2008 
Television viewers are tired of seeing TV serials characters going through all the motions and machinations again, in re-runs of soaps. TRPs have dipped dangerously (see box), revenues may dip too. The industry is in serious trouble.
And so the television workers' strike now threatens to have graver repercussions than one would have envisaged. Faced by a no-show situation for weeks now due to the deadlock, producers have now decided to shoot their serials outside Maharashtra - in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Delhi and West Bengal.
Broadcasters and producers have held closed-door meetings to examine the possibility of shooting serials in other states. Says a highly placed source from the television industry, "How long can the channels go without fresh inputs? Broadcasters are seriously looking at options of shooting serials outside Western India. This is our only option. The viewers are getting restless. The advertisers are also getting restless. Everyone thought that the strike would last a week at the most. But now when it's showing no sign of ending, an alternative crisis management plan is being formulated."
Uday Shankar, CEO Star India, said, "Even if the strike ends today, it will take ten days for fresh transmission to resume. The TV industry is in a terrible crisis."
What about the losses in revenues? One broadcaster says, "That's another battle waiting for us. We had requested advertisers not to put pressure on us. So far they've been very civil. They've neither asked for compensation nor refunds."
The situation, Uday Shankar admits, is now more tangled than before. "It's been almost two weeks. The pipeline has run completely dry. We broadcasters are very badly hit. Viewers are getting withdrawal symptoms. Advertisers' campaign plans are getting disrupted. The ordinary workers are losing wages."
Adding to the problem is the fact that TV software producers are terribly disorganised. Says a channel head, "Audiences get emotionally involved with the story of the soaps. If they lose thread it will be very hard to wean them back. We will have to start shooting in other states. The obvious choices are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh Kolkata and Delhi which have a developed television industry. The whole television industry in Maharashtra will get fragmented. For producers who are making multiple serials this arrangement will be hell. But we have to make the best of a bad situation."
Albert Almeida, Business Head Sony TV, said, "The demands are untenable. If they continue to make their demands unviable and unreasonable, our reaction would need to be equally so."
Losses Incurred
2. For a single show, a producer has to pay salaries that amount to about Rs 5 lakh. For 100 shows, it would mean an expenditure of about Rs 5 crore.
3. To date, the TV industry has been losing Rs 12-15 crore profit on serials, per month
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Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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