Channel’s star shines with SRK

HAS SHAH Rukh Khan saved Star Plus? It is too early to tell. But the first indicators suggest that the superstar may have rescued the beleaguered network from a seemingly unstoppable ratings slide that began a year ago and culminated in all three of the channel's top bosses quitting within a week in December. Star Plus launched as an all-Hindi channel in 2000, riding on the first Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), which became India's all-time top TV show with a rating of 10.59 (in the three met- ros) on the first day, rising steadi- ly before peaking at 26.55. The success of KBC led to a situation in which, at one stage, Star Plus had 50 of the Top 50 programmes on TV . In the last few months, howev er, Star Plus' supremacy has been threatened by the rise of Zee, which routinely has at least 15 of the Top 50 shows. Consequently, the channel has lost market share and is said to be anywhere between 30 to 40 per cent behind its own revenue targets, leading to panic in Hong Kong and at Newscorp headquarters in America. An attempt to recapture that old success with KBC2 ended in failure. Though the show began with a strong opening of 19.75, it quickly sank and ratings hovered between 6 and 7 when Star fell out with anchor Amitabh Bachchan and the show went off the air. With Star Plus's decline the talk of the TV business, Shah Rukh Khan was expected to in crease the channel's ratings in the crucial 9 to 10 pm slot.