MEC forecasts 5.4 TVR for KBC in opening weekend

MEC forecasts 5.4 TVR for KBC in opening weekend

MUMBAI: Some more good news for Sony Entertainment Television. The channel‘s mega game show, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), which is kicking off its sixth season on 7 September, is expected to clock 5.4 TVR in its opening weekend, according to MEC‘s latest forecast.

This will be 10 per cent higher than the previous edition of the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted show. MEC, a leading media buying and planning agency and a founding partner of GroupM, has based its estimation among audiences above 15 years from SEC ABC in cable and satellite homes.

So what will give KBC a big boost this year? MEC believes Sony as a channel has grown its viewership base since the launch of KBC last year. The rise in base viewership for the channel will pump up the show‘s ratings this year.

The second beneficial factor is the shifting of the show to the weekends this year. This will ensure that KBC doesn‘t clash with the weekly soaps.

The buzz for the show gathered from search volumes is almost double of last season‘s, according to MEC.

Says MEC National Director, Analytics & Insight Geetha Shiv, "The performance of this season of KBC will be followed closely by media and clients given that last season had helped Sony displace competition. MEC‘s initiative in estimating ratings of such high expectation properties like IPL, World Cup and now KBC, is part of our endeavour to deliver insights that help our clients in formulating their investment decisions."

MEC outlines four key influencing factors: program promotions on the channel, network and also other channels; promotion across other media like radio and newspapers; search volume index as a measure of viewer buzz; and the base channel share of Sony.
MEC, which had earlier estimated ratings for the Indian Premier League, has again partnered Meritus Analytics India to estimate KBC ratings.

According to MEC, the approach used for KBC was based on past learning from IPL estimation and the fact that increase in TVRs for a new program is due to a combination of increase in PUT (People Using Television) and people already viewing Television moving to the new program from their regular programming. MEC and Meritus built a statistical model using a set of TV shows to understand the factors affecting PUT and channel share for such non-sports programs.

Says Meritus Analytics managing partner Sunder Muthuraman, "For big properties where the cost of association is high, the rating the program delivers can be looked at as a very simple measure of ROI. We have used best in class statistical methods to estimate KBC ratings. Our finding that KBC advertising on other channels had the highest impact on the increased PUT of the program time slot seems to suggest that substantial part of the increased rating is likely from viewers of other channels and time bands tuning into Sony during KBC."