Life OK revamps Sunday line up; adds Police Dial 100 to its portfolio

Life OK has finalised on special content for Sunday programming from June 23. It will launch Police Dial 100, produced by Endemol India, this Sunday.

While a majority of the Hindi general entertainment channels rely heavily on singing and dancing-based shows to grab eyeballs during weekends, STAR India's second Hindi GEC Life OK has taken a different route.

The channel, which is in the second year of its existence, has successfully run crime-based shows like Savdhaan India- India Fights Back, Shapath, and mythological show Mahadev. Taking a cue from the success of such properties, the channel has decided to extend the duration of the airtime of its crime based shows during Sundays.

In order to strengthen the Sunday programming, the channel has announced the revamp of content from 12 noon to 12 midnight. It is pertinent to note that the channel is making extra investments as it has the confidence in the properties and the channel's performance in the past few months have been proof of that.

Ajit Thakur, general manager, Life OK, says, "Lots of things have happened in the past six months -Phase I digitisation, inclusion of LC1 markets, and roll out of Phase II digitisation in 38 cities but we have seen that our channel has only grown. Our market share was 10 per cent in September, which is now 12 per cent."

Life Ok has started creating special content of Savdhaan India in addition to its usual episodes. The channel has gone ahead to make two-hour movies on Savdhaan India. While the producers for the show remain the same, the movie is on a bigger scale. Thakur explains, "The 'Savdhaan India' maha-movies will have a different set of directors, writers and technicians, though the production house will be the same. The movie will have more of action and adventure. Also, the scale at which we are making it is bigger."

The channel is also set to launch a reality property on June 23. Titled 'Police Dial 100', the show will air how the real life police officers solve a case. The channel has tied up with the Delhi Police for this and will show their daily routine and the challenges they face while investigating on a case.

Similar to American reality legal series 'Cops', 'Police Dial 100' will have the channel crew follow the police officers during the patrols and other activities they do related to the case.

Thakur says, "Police Dial is a genre breaker and this is the first time that such a show is being aired on Indian television. Our crew will go with the Delhi police on raids, accident relief, rescues and everything will be captured live. If we are starting a case and missing out anything in between, we are not changing it, and will continue with what we get. We are missing on a few segments also because the police didn't let us cover it. We are working closely with Delhi Police for this show and I am grateful for what they have done. We have exercised caution and have not shown some stuff because of security reasons. We have taken all due permissions on the ground, on air otherwise."

Police Dial 100 is being produced by Endemol India and will be aired twice on Sunday evenings - 7 pm and 11 pm. While the timing will tap two different sets of audiences at the two slots, Thakur adds that the violence will toned down for the 7 pm airing, to make it more suitable for younger viewers.

The channel has been working on the show for six months and has already shot for around 30 days with cops in Delhi. "The show is far more thrilling than the usual crime-based show because its reality. It's about the techniques that are used to solve a case and people will definitely notice again that Life OK has done something different," an optimistic Thakur says.

The test runs for the show have been done in Delhi, Mumbai and UP, and the show has got some positive feedback from the regions. To market the show, the channel is looking at testimonial-driven communication. Instead of displaying ads, the channel will use editorials. It used cricket as a window to promote the show (during Champion's Trophy). Viral activities and promos on all channels of the STAR network, and promotions through online communities are also a part of the communication. There are public service messages being carried out, and there will be print ads on the launch day.

In addition to the Savdhaan India movie (12 noon and 5 pm) and Police Dial 100 (7 pm and 11 pm every Sunday), Life OK will also air movies from STAR's library, including Gangajal this week at 2 pm. A special episode of Mahadev (8 pm) and Shapath SuperCops vs Supervillains (9 pm) are also in the line up. The line up will remain almost the same every Sunday. While the movies to be aired from STAR's library will change, the maha-episode of Mahadev could also be replaced by a special episode of some other series.

The new offering of the channel, Police Dial 100, will compete against crime-based shows like Sony Entertainment Television's Crime Patrol and Colors' Shaitan-A Criminal Mind at the slot.