Sony refocuses 8.00-pm strategy

As Sony yanks the much-touted Kahin naa Kahin Koi Hai off air in October, channel officials will have to go back to the drawing boards to rethink the 8.00-pm strategy. If for nothing else, to put in motion the plans of Sunil Lulla, executive vice-president, Sony Entertainment Television (SET), who says, "We are aiming to keep the channel continuously fresh at the 8.00 pm band."

To begin with, Sony TV replaced its repertoire of repeat programmes on the 8.00-pm band with a host of new weekly shows, beginning September 19. Essentially the channel brass is pinning its hopes on two new shows launched this month, both of which, incidentally, are adapted from popular shows abroad. The first one is pitched directly at women. The channel has licensed the popular comedy show Bewitched from sister company Columbia TriStar. The Indian adaptation Meri Biwi Wonderful, which debuted on September 19, 2002, is aired on Thursdays at 8.00 pm.

Meri Biwi Wonderful has Tanaaz Currim (playing Angela) and Dilip Joshi (playing her husband, Raj) in the lead. This serial has been produced by Neela Telefilms and includes comedian Rakesh Bedi (best remembered for his performance in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and Shrimaan Shrimati on DD/SABe TV) in the cast.

Incidentally, this is SET's second effort at adapting a popular Columbia Tristar production, the first being Bachke Rehnaa Zara Sambhalna, adapted from the popular game show Russian Roulette. In an earlier interview to agencyfaqs!, Nachiket Pantvaidya, vice-president, programming & production, SET, had explained the role of such adapted shows in the channel's programming strategy, "The scenario today demands a faster turnaround of shows making it impossible to ideate in vacuum. Which is why we have a mix of adapted and original shows with the objective of refreshing our programming every so often so that we don't fall out of sight."

Lulla, however, has a different take on this issue. He says, much of the television we see today has been adapted in some form or the other from movies, fiction or life. "I don't think they are serious issues as far as viewers are concerned," he says. "When providing entertainment to our viewers, we like to provide quality fare that is innovative and different, whether in the form of original or adapted shows. We have a healthy balance of adapted and original shows and my contention is that if a show has done well abroad and if it seems like something that can work in India then why not go ahead with it. It makes sense to do it because there is a rulebook written on how to do it and it makes for an efficient, economic plan to do it in that manner."

He, however, contends that Kahin naa… should not be written off as a total failure. Lulla claims, "KNKKH has given us two and a half times the audience that we've ever had at 8.30 pm in the last one year. To me that's reasonable success. May be market expectations from it were significant." The channel brass also feels that the calling off of Kahin naa… and the relook at Sony's 8.00-pm strategy should not be construed as a sign of desperation.

"Sony never pitched KNKKH as the only breadwinner for the channel. We have a number of marquee products including Kkusum, Kutumb, Henna, CID, Boogie Woogie, Shree Ganesh in the morning, Disney Hour and Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat. It is a fairly wide basket," explains Lulla. "In my opinion, our format of television or the entertainment that we provide cannot be confined to one or two shows. It has to be distributed across time bands. Prime viewing of television takes place between 8.00 pm and 11.00 pm. We have strength during the 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm slot and we will obviously strengthen this portfolio first before we go on to strengthen other time bands." © 2002 agencyfaqs!