The Failure of Zee's Sawaal Dus Crore Ka

The Star Offensive - KBC Contd...

Star Plus sought the help of research agency MARG to improve its TRP ratings. MARG stressed on a new brand positioning for the channel to garner more viewership. On MARG's advice, Star Plus launched the biggest game show in Indian television history 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC)⁷. It was hosted by none other than Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Overnight, KBC pushed Star Plus into the leadership position.

Channel audience share peaked to a high of 8.7% during the eight weeks beginning July 2nd 2000, compared with Sony TV's 7.2% and Zee TV's 6.8%. By September 2000, the channel had 12 of its shows on the top 50 charts.

In the top 20 program list, Star Plus had 8 programs, versus Zee's 9 and Sony's 3, as compared to the pre-KBC figures of 12 shows for Zee, 5 for Sony and just 3 for Star Plus.

From November 2000, Star managed to occupy 12 top slots in the TRP ratings. Post KBC, the image of Star Plus as foreign channel changed considerably with viewers switching in hordes to the channel. Riding high on the success of KBC, Star Plus launched follow-up programs for KBC to sustain viewer interest in the channel.

The prime time slot was changed from 9-10 to 9-11 with two family dramas⁸ being aired right after KBC. This succeeded in retaining the viewership of the channel. Putting KBC in the prime time slot (9-10 p.m.) paid off for the channel, largely at the expense of Zee TV's prime time slots. Sony also suffered to an extent and had to revamp its prime time serial slots, but it was Zee, which faced the maximum erosion in its primetime viewership ratings.

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7] A game show offering prize money of Rs 10 million to participants successfully answering a set of 15 general
knowledge questions. The participants were given three lifelines (help options) and were allowed to withdraw from
the game once the lifelines were exhausted.

8] The shows 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki' and 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' went on to very popular with the latter's TRPs
surpassing even KBC.

Case Details

Case Code : BSTR004
Themes: ---
Case Length : 9 Pages
Period : 1991-2001
Organization : Zee TV, Star TV
Pub Date : 2001
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Media and Entertainment

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