KBC 3's dominance in 9-10 pm slot

TAM ratings point to KBC 3's dominance in 9-10 pm slot Saurabh Turakhia February 2, 2007

The opening numbers of KBC3 viewership ratings are out and it has managed to dominate the 9-10 pm slot. The show opened with a rating of 12.3 and 10.4 TVR and 9.2 TVRs on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Wednesday saw a slight fall to 7.2 TVR on account of the India Vs West Indies match.

While overall Star Plus's show's ratings may fall and Zee's ratings may go up, Sameer Nair, CEO, Star Entertainment India is pleased that KBC 3 has met its objective of dominating the 9-10 pm slot.

Nair says, "Star Plus and Zee were neck to neck before KBC 3 in the 9-10 slot. However with the arrival of KBC 3, Star's share has gone up to more than 2.5 times the Zee share in the 9-10 pm slot."

The third season of KBC also reached 39 million households in its first week of launch.

When asked about the stiff competition from the forthcoming World Cup, Nair said, "When we were starting KBC 3, there were comparisons between Shahrukh and Amitabh Bachchan. Now that the show has grown, people are talking about cricket. Anyways, only a few Indian matches coincide with the KBC 3 timings. Only if India gets into semi-finals and finals, will there be a close contest."

A media release also said that of the balance airtime on KBC, there is no inventory available till the end of February.

However, an 'estimation of audience response' (EAR) post-launch study on KBC 3, done in two phases by Optimum Media Solutions (OMS), the Mudra group's independent media agency, only 44 per cent of respondents watched all the three episodes of KBC-3, while twenty-five per cent watched only the first episode.

The aMAP ratings too pointed to the decline in viewer interest - the opening rating was 5.3 but fell to 4.8 on the second day and further to 3.5 on the third day.

However, the 9-10 pm slot continues to be ruled by Star Plus.

Email Saurabh Turakhia: saurabh.turakhia@hindustantimes.com