proud to be ghar ki laxmi fan-zee no.1

MUMBAI: The build-up was gradual, the revamps were many, and the wait was beginning to tire. But after nine long years of trials and tribulations, Subhash Chandra has got his flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) back to the top in an otherwise volatile market.

The winning margin for Zee TV is still too narrow to start popping the champagne. But there is enough to cheer about after being knocked out by a game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), hosted by Bollywood Badshah Amitabh Bachchan, and the three 'K' soaps from Ekta Kapoor way back in 2000. Chandra has built Zee TV on the back of fictions, staying away from the high game of movies, and so sniffs more stable power.

Zee TV has pushed its perch 16 points up over the previous week to grab 243.1 GRPs, according to the latest Tam data for the week ended 27 June. However, the race-gap with Colors, the second in command this week, is only in decimals. Colors is at 242.8 GRPs. Star Plus, meanwhile, has fallen to the third spot with 218 GRPs (242 last week).

Zee's foraying into the number one zone surely comes on the back of its primetime programming, contributing 134 GRPs to the total channel score.

The push has majorly come from its fiction shows Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, Choti Bahu, Pavitra Rishta and Betiyan'Ghar Ki Lakshmi with peak TVRs of 4.8, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.5 respectively.

Meanwhile, non-fiction show Saregamapa Lil Champs, with a peak TVR of 3.6 during the week, has also given the channel a further boost.

GRPs have also come in from the afternoon band as Tam data reveals that, in this segment too, the channel stands first for the week with 34 GRPs. Colors follows next with 30 points and Star Plus with 29.

Says Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) COO national channels and Zee TV business head Nitin Vaidya, "We have reached here not by fluke but by design. Our concentration always was to create GRPs and not to buy them. Our win today has come from our multiple programmes and not just one."

So, now that the channel has managed to get back its leadership after almost a decade, how does it plan to sustain its position?

"We have never compromised on our business fundamentals and have always stuck on to our own formats. Even now our core focus will remain on programming and our endevour will also be to increase the GRP gap between us and the other players," Vaidya adds.

For Colors, the primetime GRPs stood at 118 points while for Star Plus it was 109.

The story on the film content front, however, remains to be a constant. Colors, with 10 films during the week that included Fashion, Bhoothnaath and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, continued to score the highest in this segment with 40 points.

Zee has grabbed 31 GRPs. The channel had shown four movies during the week - Hum Saath Saath Hain, Chandramukhi, Pardes and Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

Star Plus, meanwhile, pocketed 24 GRPs from five movies. These include Fashion, Bhoothnath, Krodh, Main Hoon Na and Suhaag.

A peep into the performance of the other GECs:

"While Colors, Star Plus and Zee TV are fighting at the top, the mid-tier fight is emerging between NDTV Imagine and a revamped Sony Entertainment Television," says a media observer.