MUMBAI: Even though Max is gearing up to launch the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on 4 April, the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) seem to be relaxed and unaffected.

The executives of these channels believe that it will be working as usual this time, and are not showing any concern because of the IPL 5.

This is despite the fact that India is still a single TV household and IPL is known for starting a trend of attracting housewives and kids to watch matches. And, the GEC genre has been seeing a drop in its share during the time of IPL.

However, this time there have been apprehensions about the response for IPL because Indian cricket team has not been performing very well. Yet, it poses a challenge for the GECs when it comes to audiences? preference.

The GEC genre had shrunk by 4.35 per cent during IPL 4 (in the All India market), as compared to a 9.07 per cent drop it had witnessed in the first season of IPL.

GECs are gearing up to launch new shows also during the time of IPL to attract more eyeballs, even if the rest of the plan remains the same.

Colors, for instance, has launched a new fiction today at 7 pm band by the name Kairi. .

According to Colors CEO Raj Nayak, "Today there is so much of cricket all through the year. IPL for us is just another good cricket tournament in the annual calendar. The genre share does not get impacted severely, so for us its life as usual. And it is reflected in our approach, we are launching a new program- Kairi in the launch week of IPL. We have a programming strategy in place. Our focus will be to continue to give our viewers differentiated and a broad variety of fiction and non fiction content."

Zee TV, with its newly found vigour will be launching three new shows. It is bringing back its dancing reality show, DID lil Masters soon. Additionally, it is launching a new fiction show Phir Subah Hogi.

Zee Entertainment Enterprise (Zeel) marketing head - national channels Akash Chawla said, "We are ready to combat IPL this time too."

Chawla noted that the impact of IPL-2 was far less significant than that of the IPL-1. "Last year, the GECs received a 10-15 per cent rating hit because the IPL event was held after the board exams. Two things emerge clearly. One, that regular GEC shows are growing in terms of audience numbers despite IPL. And two, the return on investment, as a result, on the IPL is much lower than on the GECs for advertisers. The five times premium advertisers paid on the IPL is not delivering as much return."
Star Plus, the leading Hindi GEC is planning to take two of its shows, ?Sasural Genda Phool? and ?Maryada?, off-air. The channel is expected to introduce two new fiction properties Ek Dusre se Karte Hain Pyaar Hum and Pyaar Ki Naukri.

Star India business head Hindi channels Nitin Vaidya also feels that IPL will not be able to shake the GEC genre stability. He said, "IPL effect has been declining over a period of time. Star Plus? programming strategy does not depend on IPL. We follow an annual calendar and all programming strategies are implemented accordingly. In the past as well we have launched programs that have done pretty well."

Turner International India chief content officer Vivek Bahl, who looks after the content of Imagine TV also, added, "Anything that brings up decent numbers does affect other?s ratings to an extent. Though the IPL ratings have been dipping each year, non-fiction shows get more affected than fiction shows by the same. Especially fiction that?s been a habit tends to get lesser affected during the IPL. Guess the above is due to the simple fact that the core non-fiction viewers are also those who watch the IPL.

"IPL target audience could be different but to lure that audience does a channel try to incorporate some activities around IPL in their popular shows. We don?t believe in tweaking our content in the face of any outside events or competition. The only ones we cater, & try to stay true to, are our viewers."

Meanwhile, Sony Entertainment Television and Sab, being the sister channels of Max, are not launching any new show. But post IPL, Set will launch singing reality show the sixth season of Indian Idol.

Life OK, Star India?s second GEC will be launching Aasmaan Se Aage on 23 April.

MUMBAI: Colors is launching a fiction show, ?Kairi ? Rishta Khatta Meetha?, at 7 pm from 2 April.

Produced by Shashi-Sumeet Mittal, the show will air from Monday to Friday. It will replace ?Havan? , produced by Rajan Shahi?s Director?s Kut.

The story of the show will revolve around the lives of the sweet tyrant mother-in-law ? Imarti Devi, her daughter-in-law - Ambi?s struggle, and her son Anuj who?s living an indifferent life in the midst of the son/husband dilemma. The show emphasises on what transpires in a household when two strong and contrasting personalities clash under the same roof.

Colors fiction head Prashaant Bhatt said, ?The storyline of Kairi is different in its presentation and characterisation. By introducing Kairi in the 7 pm time band, we are now providing differentiated content to our viewers in all time slots, thereby satiating their need for distinctive entertainment options."

Shashi-Sumeet Productions? Shashi Mittal and Sumeet Mittal added, ?Kairi is a light-hearted take on the sweet and sour relationship shared by a ?saas? and her ?bahu?. While discussing the concept of the show and the script, our main aim was to ensure that the lead characters created interesting moments that would connect with the viewer. Audiences can be rest assured that Kairi will move beyond conventional saas-bahu dramas as the relationship between a saas, her bahu and their common love ? the son, is explored in deep."

MUMBAI: Colors is experimenting with the social thriller genre with the launch of a fiction show, Chhal - Sheh Aur Maat.

Depicting betrayal and mystery, the daily show will go on air on 19 March at 9 pm. It will add to Colors? programming lineup representing dramas, romantic comedies, sports entertainment and scripted reality.

Produced by 24, it will air from Monday- Friday.

Colors fiction head Prashaant Bhatt said, "This is the first time we?re exploring the social thriller genre and we are happy to have Abbas Mustan supporting our first step. Chhal in our way is a tribute to their kind of film making which forces audiences to think and keeps them on the edge of their seats."

Chhal - Sheh Aur Maat is the story of a newlywed bride who is entwined in a situation where her life changes dramatically. While on honeymoon, a strange man stakes claim on her as his wife leaving behind a mystery on her marriage and life ahead. The story takes the viewers through the trials in the girl?s life as she tries to demystify the truth.

"It may sound like a simple story of a newly-wed bride, but on the contrary, it will take you through twists and turns that have been carefully woven to create the web of mystery and thrill," said Bhatt.

24 Frames producers Bhairavi Raichura and Nandita Mehra added, "Chhal?s story involves a lot of action, where audiences can expect to see an interesting combination of suspense, thrills and daredevil stunts. It is a story that will force you to think and make you question whether what you see is really the truth. While discussing the script, we constantly tried to think like the audience to ensure that the story was not getting predictable at any point."

MUMBAI: Colors, the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Viacom18 stable, which is lagging behind Sony Entertainment Television (Set) in the numbers battle, is now strengthening its weekend programming to add more eyeballs and attract more viewers to the channel.

The channel is launching two new shows on 25 February, and will be airing special ?mahaepisodes? of fiction shows during weekend primetime.

The channel, which earlier used to air multiple movies, sometimes with one-break, in the weekends, has decided to curtail its dependency on the films.

And with Viacom18 deferring its plans of launching a Hindi movie channel, Colors offloaded many of its major titles in a bulk deal to Star Network.

?Viacom18 was on a movie acquiring spree, which was justified given the plans for a Hindi movie channel. However, when Star and Zee also entered in the fray aggressively, the business model went kaput. So, it was obvious for the company to defer the launch plans and to sell some of the movies to other players. What it also means is, that Colors will not have as many titles in the library to fill weekends,? a media observer said.

Colors is launching two non-fiction properties on 25 February. The first is the third season of its home-grown kids? comic reality show Chote Miyan while the second one is Zindagi Ki Haqeeqat Se Aamna Saamna.

Chote Miyan Chapter 3, as it is named for this season, will air every Saturday and Sunday at the 7 pm slot while Aamna Saamna takes the 10 pm slot.

Aamna Saamna will feature real life stories that harass the average man: issues like parents dealing with a child?s suicide, sibling squabbling over property, emotional torture faced by housewives dealing with greedy in-laws.

Colors had launched a sports entertainment reality show Ring Ka King on 28 January at 8 pm slot. Being aired every Saturday and Sunday, the show is slated to run for 13 weeks. Though it opened with 2.2 TVR, the show is averaging around 1 TVR.

Colors, since few months now, has been airing ?mahaepisode? (one-hour specials) of its fiction dramas on Saturdays. But, starting 25 February, the channel has assigned the 9 pm slot on Saturdays and Sundays for airing the fiction show?s special episodes only.

This week it will air special episodes of Balika Vadhu on Saturday and Parichay on Sunday.

Also, the channel will be airing one big awards show/ event every month. In January it aired Colors? Screen Awards; in February it aired Umang while in March it will be airing Apsara Producers Guild Awards.

Traditionally, Set leads the weekend slot followed by Star Plus. Zee TV and Colors have been chasing for the third spot in the weekend programming ratings. It has been seen that Colors has seen a peak in GRPs (gross rating points) in the weekend by airing either movie or special programmes.