VOI wins TRP’s - article

While there is never a let up in the fight for the bigger share of the viewership pie among the three general entertainment channels, the competition for eyeballs is now being fought through the platforms of music reality talent hunt shows. Star Plus which launched its first talent hunt show Star Voice of India (SVOI) on May 18 has scored over Zee's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa within four weeks of its launch. In fact, Sa Re Ga Ma which opened with 3.5 TVRs against 3.67 of Indian Idol and made it to the top five programmes of satellite channels in week 21(May 13 to 19) has seen a slowdown in its ratings. On the other hand, Star Voice which is directly pitted against Sa Ra Ga Ma on Fridays and Saturdays at 10 pm has steadily risen on the TRP chart and has left behind its competitor with an average of 4.3 TVRs for week 23(June 3 to 9) against 4.15 of Sa Re Ga Ma.

says Star India's content and communication senior vice-president Ajay Vidyasagar, "Zee's show started directly with elimination rounds whereas we started with the auditions and ground events. The fact that within four weeks Star Voice has marched past Sa Re Ga Ma with audition episodes speaks volumes for the kind of talent we have on our show."

In fact, Zee conducted a sample survey in certain pockets of western and northern India and discovered that a lot of viewers gave the thumbs up for Star Voice. "The feedback is positive and once our show enters the elimination rounds it will get bigger and better with some real good talent coming to the forefront," adds Vidyasagar.

in just four weeks Star Voice has shown an upward trend in ratings. The TRPs gradually got better while Sa Re Ga Ma's ratings have been going down and Indian Idol has stagnated.

On the other hand, Sony's strategy to rest its daily soaps for a week for the piano round of Indian Idol in order to drive up viewership for its weekday prime time has paid rich dividends. Not only did Indian Idol bring in eyeballs for Sony on weekdays but the show also delivered better TRPs than expected. Opening with 2.7 TVRs on Monday, June 4, Indian Idol finished with 4.03 TVRs on Saturday, June 9.

Star Plus is not much worried about Indian Idol because the show is not in direct competition with Star Voice. But it sees its main competitor in Sa Re Ga Ma because not only are the two shows directly pitted again each other but Star Plus and Zee have been competing for eyeballs for the past one year which has seen Star's viewership share going down while Zee has recovered some ground in its group rating points.

Deccan Chronicle