• Are general entertainment programmes promoted differently then English entertainment?
• Do programmes follow recency theory?
• Is promotional activity on press and TV similar or is there a stark contrast?

Correlation between programme viewing and promotions:
For all these programmes, the first episode viewership is higher than weighted TVR across one month episodes, 'Exhibit-2' illustrates that programmes are promoted heavily on the launch day, driving the viewership up.

Since it is been clearly established (Exhibits-1 and 2) that a positive correlation exists between promo and first episode reach, this study will try to track promotional activity of general entertainment programmes on TV and press. The study will try to showcase similarities and differences in the behavior of English and Hindi entertainment programmes. This study will also try to answer the following aspects: -

• How are programmes promoted?
• Are general entertainment programmes promoted differently than English entertainment?
• Do programmes follow recency theory?
• Does promotional activity on Press and TV start simultaneously?

Do programmes follow recency theory- Activity on press v/s TV?
'Exhibit-3' depicts that the activity on press shoots up closer to the launch date of the programme and specifically on the day of the launch of the programme, highlighting the push by channels for greater trials of the programme. A few variations can be noticed within the English entertainment genre. For example, the promotions carried out for Sex and the City had no promotional activity on the launch date of the programme.

Exhibit 3

On the other hand, considering English entertainment (Exhibit-5), there is no set trend as far as the press promotions are concerned. It is observed that Hindi programmes are promoted more heavily on press as compared to the English programmes.

Another interesting observation can be made in the case of Jassi, where it is noticed that the weighted TVR of the first month is much higher than the first episode viewership (Exhibit 1). This could have been largely for the reason that the content grew on the audiences and hence the increase in the subsequent episodes. Another possibility could be that the promos were sustained even after the launch of the programme or could have been due to word of mouth promotion. To sum up, it may perhaps have been a case of hype, word of mouth promotion coupled with good programming that led to this phenomenon.

Two interesting observations: -

1) Sex and the City: activity on press was carried out in magazines such as Femina, Cosmopolitan and Elle.

2) Mad about you: There was no activity on press either before or after the launch of Mad About You (Hallmark). However, Mad About You is also featured (since 2002) on Zee English and the press activity was heavily carried out in the Andra Pradesh and the West Bengal market.

Mad About You and Sex and the City leave us with the following questions in mind: -

The press promotions of Mad About You are only carried out in the Andra Pradesh market. Does this mean that press promotions are used to target a specific market?

Programmes such as Friends, Mad About You and Xena are featured on more than one channel for example; Mad About You is featured on Hallmark as well as Zee English. Therefore do channels benefit from barter programme promotions? For instance does Mad About You on Hallmark benefit from Zee English's promotion on press?

We will further answer these questions in our upcoming analysis.