By Sapna Nair
Media

Colors is 'Khiladi No. 5' within launch week

'Colors', the newly launched GEC from Viacom-18, had a roaring start, as per TAM Media Research

Viacom-18's general entertainment channel offering, Colors had a colourful beginning. With a channel share of 7 per cent, as per TAM Media Research (C&S, 4+, HSM), the channel stands at number 5, along with 9X, leaving behind SaharaOne and SAB. STAR Plus and Zee retained the top spot; while Sony Entertainment Television regained the third spot, followed by NDTV Imagine and STAR One at number four.

‘Fear Factor- Khatron Ke Khiladi’ was the channel's trump card. It has raked in the highest viewership of 2.27 TVR, followed by Balika Vadhu which got 1.26 TVR. Balika Vadhu is a refreshing story on the issue of child marriage. The channel’s mythological offering, Jai Shri Krishna, followed close and garnered a TVR of 0.92.

Colors is 'Khiladi No. 5' within launch week
Fear Factor was the driver show on Colors and media observers believe that all the marketing effort and money pumped into the show has paid off. In fact, it has gained the necessary sampling that a new channel could ask for, or even more than that.

Interestingly, the adventure reality show added more viewers everyday. From a TVR of 1.72 on the launch date, it moved to attracting a TVR of 2.27 on the fourth day.

Divya Radhakrishnan, senior vice-president, TME, which is the media agency for Colors, informs that Colors might have pulled in viewers from GEC supreme, STAR Plus. “Among all the GECs, STAR Plus has lost maximum channel share,” she says. In Week 29, STAR Plus had garnered a channel share of 31 per cent and in Week 30, it slipped to 27 per cent.

Colors is 'Khiladi No. 5' within launch week
Akshay Kumar with Yana Gupta in Fear Factor
Kajal Malik, vice-president, Interactions, a Lintas Media Group agency, calls it an encouraging feat and a result of a smart marketing and programming strategy. “Colors ran the risk of airing a reality show from Monday to Thursday and it has paid off,” she says. Barring a few shows such as 'Sajid's Superstars', all others have gained healthy numbers, she observed.

Fear Factor is scheduled to end soon. Post that, Colors is prepared with its next reality dynamite, 'Bigg Boss Season 2', which will launch on August 18. After Akshay Kumar, the channel has roped in Shilpa Shetty – who made headlines on the show’s international version, 'Big Brother' – as an anchor.

The other factor that has helped the channel is its distribution strategy. In fact, at the time of the launch of the channel, Rajesh Kamath, CEO, Colors had told afaqs! that his channel would treat carriage fees as part of the marketing budget. And this strategy seems to have worked for the channel.

As of now, Colors has painted a rainbow in the GEC space. While its reality shows are a hit, it will be interesting to see how its daily soaps fare with each passing day. If they fail to deliver numbers, Colors might end up being just a one-show wonder. “It will be a soap-versus-reality conflict on Colors. The challenge will be to sustain viewership for all its other shows,” Malik states.

One will have to wait and watch for the channel to show its true colours.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com