DC: Zee falls to new lows

A strong contender for number one position three years ago, Zee TV has lately been losing audience like never before. In the last six months, Zee has lost as much as six per cent channel share and its current 11.4 per cent audience share is its lowest in the last five years. The free fall in ratings of its prime time fiction and non-fiction shows has dragged the channel to a lowly number four. Zee's most successful show Pavitra Rishta has also hit rock bottom and its latest reality singing competition for celebrities Star Ya Rockstar opened with 0.6 TVR.

"Zee plays safe and doesn't experiment much. It hasn't had a single new hit show in the last one year. Meanwhile, other channels are taking risks with new formats," says a senior ex-Zee programmer. Group accounts director Anil Kumar of media buying agency Starcom Mediavest attributes Zee's fall to viewer fatigue and lacklustre programming. "Zee hasn't invested in new programming in the non-fiction genre, resulting in migration of viewers to other GECs," he says.

According to senior creative and technical TV analyst Sanjay Upadhyay, Zee has drifted down because of an identity crisis. "Zee started looking at others' success for inspiration and ended up doing shows which looked stale and had a hangover of certain successes elsewhere. Even in the middle of this identity crisis when Zee returned to its DNA with shows like Aap Ki Antara, 12/24 Karol Bagh, Agle Janam... and Pavitra Rishta, it regained its lost glory for a while but couldn't sustain the trend." Apparently, the channel is in corrective mode and the buzz is that Zee will axe most of its low rated shows over the next three months. Two new shows, Hitler Didi and Afsar Bitiya along with a few more are in the pipeline.