| MUMBAI:
The build-up was gradual, the revamps were many, and the wait was beginning to
tire. But after nine long years of trials and tribulations, Subhash Chandra has
got his flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) back to the top in
an otherwise volatile market. The
winning margin for Zee TV is still too narrow to start popping the champagne.
But there is enough to cheer about after being knocked out by a game show Kaun
Banega Crorepati (KBC), hosted by Bollywood Badshah Amitabh Bachchan, and the
three 'K' soaps from Ekta Kapoor way back in 2000. Chandra has built Zee TV on
the back of fictions, staying away from the high game of movies, and so sniffs
more stable power.
Zee TV has pushed its perch 16 points up over the previous week to grab 243.1
GRPs, according to the latest Tam data for the week ended 27 June. However, the
race-gap with Colors, the second in command this week, is only in decimals. Colors
is at 242.8 GRPs. Star Plus, meanwhile, has fallen to the third spot with 218
GRPs (242 last week). Zee's
foraying into the number one zone surely comes on the back of its primetime programming,
contributing 134 GRPs to the total channel score. The
push has majorly come from its fiction shows Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo,
Choti Bahu, Pavitra Rishta and Betiyan…Ghar Ki Lakshmi with peak
TVRs of 4.8, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.5 respectively. Meanwhile,
non-fiction show Saregamapa Lil Champs, with a peak TVR of 3.6 during the
week, has also given the channel a further boost.
GRPs have also come in from the afternoon band as Tam data reveals that, in this
segment too, the channel stands first for the week with 34 GRPs. Colors follows
next with 30 points and Star Plus with 29. Says
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) COO national channels and Zee TV business
head Nitin Vaidya, "We have reached here not by fluke but by design. Our
concentration always was to create GRPs and not to buy them. Our win today has
come from our multiple programmes and not just one." So,
now that the channel has managed to get back its leadership after almost a decade,
how does it plan to sustain its position? "We
have never compromised on our business fundamentals and have always stuck on to
our own formats. Even now our core focus will remain on programming and our endevour
will also be to increase the GRP gap between us and the other players," Vaidya
adds. For
Colors, the primetime GRPs stood at 118 points while for Star Plus it was 109. The
story on the film content front, however, remains to be a constant. Colors, with
10 films during the week that included Fashion, Bhoothnaath and Hum Dil De
Chuke Sanam, continued to score the highest in this segment with 40 points.
Zee
has grabbed 31 GRPs. The channel had shown four movies during the week - Hum
Saath Saath Hain, Chandramukhi, Pardes and Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Star
Plus, meanwhile, pocketed 24 GRPs from five movies. These include Fashion,
Bhoothnath, Krodh, Main Hoon Na and Suhaag. A
peep into the performance of the other GECs: 
"While
Colors, Star Plus and Zee TV are fighting at the top, the mid-tier fight is emerging
between NDTV Imagine and a revamped Sony Entertainment Television," says
a media observer. | 
