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TV serials or cricket time?
Will the World Cup affect prime time band of General Entertainment Channels (GECs)? Will cricket beat daily soaps? BT explores...
For cricket lovers, the exciting roller coaster '50 over' ride is just a few days away. The entire nation is waiting for the World Cup action to begin next Saturday. It is going to be a clash of the titans. But we aren't referring to the pitch. We are talking about the battle Indian homes will witness. Yes, the fight will be over the remote and the battle between cricket matches and daily soaps. That will be kahaani ghar ghar ki! "Of course! I know my husband and I are going to have bitter fights around this time," says housewife Neha Kulkarni. "I have to watch my daily serials and he will insist on the matches. Let's see who wins. I guess sometimes I'll win and sometimes he will," she adds.
Ravi Naik, a cricket lover is planning to buy another TV to keep his wife and children happy. "They are so used to their TV shows that they'll drive me mad if I switch to cricket. So getting another TV set is the only option," he says.
Audiences apart, what do people who are associated with the television industry have to say about this? We ask actor Arjun Bijlani if he has some jittery feeling about world cup broadcast affecting his newly launched serial Pardes Mein Mila Koi Apna Sa. "Cricket is a religion in India and World cup is eagerly awaited," he says. "In fact, I am a hard-core cricket fan and will look forward to catch up on team India's matches. My show is in the late night slot, so it won't be affected. However, there would be a little variation in case of final overs' excitement catching up. But overall, those who like the soap will manage to watch it."
But actor Manish Paul thinks differently. He says, "World cup broadcast will affect the TRPs of prime time band. More so because this is seemingly Sachin Tendulkar's last World cup. In our country love for cricket and Tendulkar cannot be overlooked and certainly this will shift the eyeballs from GECs to cricket telecast."
TV producers surely strategise during this mega event of cricket. When asked actor-producer JD Majethia, who himself is an avid cricket-lover, says "Most of the team India matches are slotted between Friday to Sunday and thereby it just won't affect the regular prime time band. Although if there're some interesting matches from good cricket teams like Australia, Pakistan, England, there would be upto 15 per cent drop in TRPs which is quite natural." But, he thinks the loyal audience will stick to the soaps in any case and according to him a 100 overs' match is no more grasping. Now that's a point to note down in T20 matches era!
When asked Kunal Mukherjee, AVP Marketing of a channel group, he says, "Cricket World Cup is definitely something we have to take seriously while strategising and with every channel the strategy will change. Like for our movie channel, we're focusing on strengthening the late night band to a prime time band while planning. Postmatch viewers will prefer watching good line-up of films and that will make it up for affected TRPs of prime time band." He adds, "For entertainment channels, those who miss out the prime time episodes, might look forward to the repeats of the shows/soaps. And in case the episode is important, I don't think audiences would mind giving up a few overs of a match as well!"
It seems like cricketers are gearing up to win the battle, but the GECs are working out strategies to maintain the TRPs. Now it will be exciting to watch in whose hands lies the remote. Wait till you know the result of TRPs.
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