Alokananda Chakraborty
Media

Kahin To Hoga: Capitalising on a late night audience

Balaji’s new show has performed well on the ratings chart despite premiering at the 11.00- pm time slot

Normally, a production house would have cringed if a show not in the thriller genre, veering instead into the more mainstream issues of romance and relationships, was to premiere at 11.00 pm. Traditionally, late night prime time, specifically, the 11.00-pm time slot, is when general entertainment channels roll out their thrillers or niche properties, which do not call for a family viewership.

On STAR Plus, this dictum translated into thriller show Kahin Kissi Roz, which was telecast from Monday to Thursday at 11.00 pm. Choosing to buck the trend and set new parameters in prime-time viewership, the channel along with Balaji Telefilms, launched Kahin To Hoga, a youth show, at 11.00 pm, on September 8.

Revolving around the life of young Kashish and her four sisters, Kahin To Hoga, opened well on the ratings chart averaging a TVR of 5.6 on September 11, 6.02 on September 18 and 5.8 on September 23 (Source: TAM Media Research; base population: C&S four plus, all India).

According to Tarun Katial, senior vice-president, content and communications, STAR India (Katial has reportedly quit the media group post this conversation with agencyfaqs!), the show's launch at the 11.00-pm slot was in accordance with a strategy. "There are enough young people at 11.00 pm," he says.

For Balaji, Kahin To Hoga's performance is a shot in the arm, considering that the show comes after a two-year hiatus since the last crop from the production house was launched on the channel.

Kasautii, Kyunki and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki continue to dominate prime time with scores of 9.3, 10.4 and 9.9 for the week ended September 27. The week before, that is, September 14 to 20, 2003, the average TVR of the shows were 11.81 (Kyunki), 10.82 (Kahaani) and 10.16 (Kasautii).

At a broader level though, the only other recently-launched show to have registered well during prime time for STAR Plus is Saara Akash. Produced by Miditech, this one-hour weekly drama telecast every Thursday, has been hovering between 6 and 7, since launch on August 7.

The show opened with a TVR of 7.3 on its debut day, dipping to 5.8 on August 14 and picking up again on August 21 and 28 with scores of 6.4 and 6.9 respectively. In September, the show began with a score of 5.5 on September 4, eventually plateauing between 6 and 6.5 with scores of 6.1, 6.2 and 6.4 on September 11, 18 and 25 respectively.

With STAR attempting fictional programming on Saturdays and the impending launch of a new weekly drama Jeet on October 10, it is to be seen whether the channel can replicate its weekday success on weekends as well. © 2003 agencyfaqs!

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