Tag: TV TRAIL

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

It’s been a category dominated by female viewers and female fiction characters. Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GECs) have behaved more like Hindi Female Entertainment Channels for more than a decade now.

 

The stronghold of the women on the remote continues. But the other type of female dominance – that of female fiction characters – has been challenged. As per the latest Ormax Characters India Loves report (May 2014), for the first time since we started tracking character popularity in 2009, the top 10 fiction characters list has more male characters than female characters!

 

Three years ago, this would have been unthinkable. The contribution of male characters has traditionally been a token one, rarely crossing two out of ten. In the last two years, three out of ten seemed more gettable, but the female dominance remained. Last month, the balance finally tilted, with five male characters in the Top 10 and ten in the Top 20. And remember, we are talking only of fiction characters. The top 5 non-fiction ‘characters’ are all men in the same period of tracking.

 

What has led to this turnaround and what could be its possible implications? A significant part of the answer lies in the list of popular characters. The five male characters who made it to the top 10 list in May are Jethalal (Taarak Mehta), Maharana Pratap, Akbar (Jodha Akbar), Krishna (Mahabharat) and Inspector Daya (CID). The list offers a good mix of history, mythology, comedy and action-thriller genres.

 

Contrast this to the female characters in the top 10: Jodha (Jodha Akbar), Sandhya (Diya Aur Baati Hum), Ishita (Yeh Hai Mohabbatein), Anandi (Balika Vadhu) and Gopi (Saath Nibhaana Saathiya). Lack of genre variety is striking. Most of these characters, and others in the top 20 list, are women on a journey, facing challenges on the way. It’s a template that was created starting with Tulsi in 2000, and then redefined with Anandi in 2008. Over years, this template has been exploited to create hundreds of daily serials and characters.

 

The idea of a woman’s struggle-heavy journey and her eventual victory is a powerful one for female audiences, and shall remain so in the years to come. The problem is, of course, in the same-ness of execution. It’s as if the idea is so powerful that nobody seems to care about the quality of its depiction anymore.

 

The only female characters in the Top 30 who do not fit this template is Daya (Taarak Mehta) and Dadi Sa (Balika Vadhu). Everyone else is on a ‘journey’, all the time. And while the destinations may be different, the routes are strikingly similar.

 

Beginning to feel disenchanted by content that is highly relevant but unimaginative, female audiences have increasingly started preferring male characters. Mahadev’s dreamboat looks, Akbar’s attitude and Krishna’s life lessons are the new cool.

 

GECs would do well to act on both fronts. For one, they should capitalize on the growing interest in male characters by creating some differentiated ones. Amitabh Bachchan’s Yudh is well-timed in this regard. Two, they should consider pushing the envelope regarding female characters. We need women who take the road less travelled in their journeys, while remaining relevant to the mass audiences at large.

 

Up for the challenge?

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

Television weeks can be fairly routine, except in periods like the Elections recently, or the week of a big-ticket cricket series. An odd launch here and there, like Satyamev Jayate, can spike interest. But in most weeks, it is the staple diet that dominates.

 

In contrast, the last six days have been wildly engaging. I don’t remember a week that offered so much to watch and talk about, driven by politics but certainly not restricted to it. The gossip around the shift in power at Network18 has provided the off-screen masala too. But I shall restrict myself to on-screen material only. Here are my picks of TV events that dominated the week that was:

 

1. The Swearing-In Ceremony: Swearing-in ceremonies can be dreadfully boring. But the upbeat mood around the new Government ensures that anything involving them gets people interested. The Monday that went by kept the news channels busy, first with conjectures on portfolio allocation, then with the informal but actual list of portfolios, and finally with the live telecast of the actual ceremony. The entertainment was provided by an alert President, who rebuked two ministers for skipping the oath-taking protocol.

 

2. What A Match: The Mumbai-Rajasthan game last Sunday provided such a big dose of entertainment, it may have over-compensated for a low-key IPL. I don’t remember seeing a match ever, where a team won despite not meeting the originally-announced target. The math of it had most commentators stumped, even though it was fairly elementary, and in fact, should have been a part of the talk even while the chase was going on. The IPL is in its last leg this week, and game last Sunday will ensure this year’s IPL ends on a high – something we were not so sure about a month ago.

 

3. Ministers In Office: In a first, media has covered ministers in the new Government taking charge better than ever before. A more pro-active Prime Minister and a young, media-savvy Council of Ministers has helped. If this week is anything to go by, we seem to have found our most media-friendly Government ever.

 

4. Zindagi and Indo-Pak diplomacy: It can be termed as uncanny and highly coincidental. Zee’s new channel Zindagi, which plans to air content from Pakistan, was formally launched last week. As the campaign gained momentum this week, events engineered by our new PM led to Nawaz Sharif making a much-discussed India trip. Zindagi is bound to benefit from the sentiment of hope that Indo-Pak relationships may indeed improve under Modi. The photo-op between Sharif and the Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra was an icing on this rather intriguing cake.

 

5. The Smriti Irani controversy – Much ado about nothing: The Congress party has started the witch-hunt for chinks in the new Government’s armour. If their attempts at creating controversy around Smriti Irani are anything to go by, they will do well to take a break from these desperate measures. Smriti Irani, the youngest member of the Modi Cabinet, has all the makings of a great minister. Her rise from a TV star to a political heavyweight may just turn out to be one of the most fascinating political anecdotes of modern India.

 

6. Congratulations Tulsi: Did you see the Star Plus ads congratulating “hamari Tulsi”? A class act, in both idea and execution. That’s how leader brands grab opportunities that come their way.

 

What a week!

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

When KBC first launched in 2000, the term “reality show” was not a part of this country’s lexicon. The long-running Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (1995) was then referred to as a singing talent show, not a reality show. But by end 2004, reality shows were emerging as a formidable force, fuelled by the launch of Indian Idol and India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj that year.

 

The amount of activity this category saw in 2004-08 made one believe that its share of viewership would continue to rise year-on-year. But the reality shows genre in India has flattered to deceive. In 2008, 21% of viewers named a non-fiction show as their favorite GEC program. In 2014, this number remains in the 20-25% range, and that includes Comedy Nights With Kapil, which contributes to more than half the share.

 

Why did the category stagnate? This summary of 2014 tells a story:

 

1. Khatron Ke Khiladi Season 5 (arguably the best season of the show since season 1) ends this weekend.

 

2. Dance India Dance, currently airing in the Li’l Masters variant, is into its ninth cumulative season, if you could the main show (4 seasons) and variants such as Li’l Masters, Super Mom and Doubles (5 seasons).

 

3. Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Season 7 is slated to launch this June.

 

4. KBC 8 is calling for entries currently, and is slated to launch around August.

 

5. As an aberration, only the second season of Zee TV’s Cinestars Ki Khoj is scheduled for a mid-year launch, coming back after a decade.

 

6. Bigg Boss Season 8 should go on-air around October, like every year.

 

7. Being an annual fixture, India’s Got Talent is likely to be on-air this year too, in what will be Season 6.

 

You get the trend? All these properties are at least five years old.  All, barring one, are into their fifth to ninth seasons. We have fallen into a pattern. And the viewer is not exactly pleased with this turn of events.

 

Except the two Zee TV formats, all other formats are imports. Four out of seven are talent show formats. Clearly, India’s ability to create original, homegrown reality show formats is highly suspect. Many attempts have been made, but have been largely unsuccessful. Imagine’s unofficial adaptation of The Bachelor got good attention, especially in the first season with Rakhi Sawant. But overall, it has been a tough ride for the industry.

 

Doordarshan and Zee TV have been creating reality show formats even before the imports descended upon us. From Meri Awaz Suno in the 90s to Saanp Seedi, Antakashari, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and DID, these channels had a lot to offer, though most of it was in the talent and games show space. When the industry showed growth and the market became ready to import foreign formats, it emerged as a low-risk option to go for. In the process, the homegrown formats began to get step treatment from most channels, in terms of attention and budgets provided to them.

 

Today, the reality shows genre is facing imminent decline. The audiences who grew up watching these formats would have recently got married or are likely to get married soon. The impact of marriage on TV content preferences can never be overstated. And no young generation likes to inherit what the “oldies” liked. They want to create their own trends, their own hits.

 

With a culture and heritage as rich as ours, we should be bursting at the seams with reality show ideas. The time can never be more right!

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

Cricket World Cup & IPL finals. Blockbuster movie premieres. Grand finales of big-ticket reality shows. Over the last decade, almost all the high-rating TV ‘events’ can be classified into these three categories. India does not have an annual showstopper like The Super Bowl. Our television highs are rather muted, very rarely attracting a pan-India audience base that cuts across demographics and viewing taste.

 

The big day of election results, May 16, can be a rare exception. It has emerged as the most promoted television date by far in our television history, largely because it has become a political refrain. Across parties, “We shall talk on May 16” has been the default political response to many tough questions posed by journalists.

 

Conducted over nine phases, these General Elections have been a long-drawn exercise in political theatre. And it will all climax in a matter of hours next Friday morning. News channels are set to start their live telecast from as early as 6am. The first leads will begin to come by 9am. And these days, they don’t trickle in; they come as a deluge. Before noon, the big question would have been answered: Will Modi-led NDA cross the 272-mark?

 

Back in the 80s, this three-hour process would take three days. Doordarshan would entertain you with patriotic cinema (mostly Manoj Kumar films) with constant ticker updates and a news bulletin every two hours or so. EVMs have changed it all. Some from the old school may argue it’s taken the fun out of the counting process, but for me, EVMs remain one of the most significant (also one of the most under-rated) achievements of the Indian democracy.

 

Coming back to May 16, the second half of the day will be more about reactions and analysis, even as the results begin to sink in. In the event of NDA falling short by a significant margin, the ‘event’ may extend itself beyond May 16, into the weekend, even the following week.

 

Two factors, however, will stop May 16 from becoming a record-breaking viewership day in Indian news television history. One is the day itself. It happens to be a working Friday. I have strongly believed that all election result days should be Sundays. It will lead to higher awareness and participation in the democratic process over time. On a working day, TV viewership will take a beating, even though discussions around the results will continue to dominate offices across the nation.

 

The second factor is a marketing problem. Historically, news channels have continued to market the results-day largely through on-air promotions. It should be an ideal day to get new viewers to watch, but there is a lot of promotion on the home channel, and very little outside. This time, by the sheer talk value these elections have generated, awareness about the results-day is very high. Hence, it will be a lesser concern to get the fringe, non-news viewers in. Now if only it was a Sunday!

 

More than 20 news channels will fight a fierce battle on the results-day next Friday.  The results of this battle within the battle may have a long-lasting impact on our news television economy. So, fasten your seatbelts. And call in sick on May 16!

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

There was a time, not too long ago, when India-Pakistan cricket would bring life to a standstill across the country. When India played Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final on March 30, 2011, the country was unofficially shut on a middle-of-the-week working day. A rivalry that started in real measure with the Australasia Cup final in Sharjah in 1986, when Javed Miandad hit that famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma, has seen many highs over 28 years.

 

But there are signs that the battle is losing its edge. The recent Asia Cup ODI between the two countries (Sunday, March 2) rated less than what a moderately successful Hindi GEC serial does night after night. The World Cup T20 contest last week, scheduled well into the primetime on a Friday, rated about the level of a regular Diya Aur Baati Hum episode only.

 

When you begin to look at the ratings of other India matches, like India-Sri Lanka or India-New Zealand, the real reason is exposed. Cricket is not growing. There seems to be an audience that is moving away from the sport completely, irrespective of the format. This audience is the younger lot (12-24 years) in the big cities. This shift may have started happening over the last 4-5 years only, and is now resulting in real impact.

 

I have written several pieces in this column about the power of cricket in India. Lest I should be misunderstood, it is important to clarify that cricket’s de-growth does not make the sport irrelevant any time in the near future. We are still a one-sport nation, with football being a distant second. Cricket has a huge plus in the patriotic element it brings to the table. That is unlikely to be challenged by any mass sport for a long time.

 

But when you are the only one, your competition is with yourself. So cricket has to find ways of maintaining its viewer base. The big idea of 2008, IPL, is now under some real threat of disintegrating, because of power-hungry officials who care little about the future of the sport. As the audience that was brought up on cricket in the 1980s and ’90s grows older, they will begin to matter less and less in size. The new generation needs to be coaxed into watching the sport.

 

Star Sports seems to have understood this better than BCCI. Their online presence has been given the stature of a TV channel, no less. With quality Hindi commentary, they have changed the elitist mindset with which cricket coverage was handled for decades in India. They have the best platforms to market the sport, and the ability to create persuasive messaging to achieve the desired impact.

 

But when your target audience is a generation that is visibly high on distraction, and perpetually so, the task is a mammoth one. Cricket needs to find its cool-ness back. An overhaul may be required sooner than later. But do those who are running the sport have the will to do it?

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

 

Shailesh Kapoor’s ‘TV Trail’ column appears every Friday. Since he was travelling, the column due to feature last Friday (March 21) appears today. The next ‘TV Trail’ column will appear on Friday, March 28 – Ed

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

This week, Sunny Leone starrer Ragini MMS 2 opened to thundering audience response, especially in smaller towns across the country. Mastram, an adult-themed film based on the cult porn publication till about two decades ago, is set to release on May 1. Last year, an under-promoted BA Pass managed to find its audience and even critical appreciation. Sex is thriving in our cinema. Sunny Leone is a bigger star than the likesof Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham.

 

But even as the censor board gets liberal with cinema, allowing fairly explicit content, albeit with an A-certificate, our television struggles. Star World chose to telecast the Koffee With Karan episode featuring Nargis Fakhri and Frieda Pinto at 11pm instead of the usual 9pm, because of explicit (verbal only) sexual references.

 

About a decade ago, Zoom had launched Dangerous, a sex chat show at 11pm (again!), anchored by Kamal Sidhu and Sameer Kochhar. I was working with the channel at that time. Legal notices and complaint letters used to come in by the dozen. And then one day, we had to pull the content off air.

 

In today’s age of the internet, where kids have access to the most explicit porn at the click on a button, adult content is a part of our lives. What could be so unnerving, then, about an adult channel, that stays away from any explicit nudity but covers erotica and sex awareness in equal measure, finding an audience that is currently seeking adult content elsewhere?

 

The cinema argument is that when an audience goes to watch a film like Ragini MMS 2, they have made a choice by buying a ticket, while on television, you may just end up watching a channel involuntarily. But in today’s day of a la carte packaging, that argument does not hold true. An adult channel can be offered a la carte in the digital environment and cautious parents can exercise control features available with most digital service providers.

 

But what are the chances that such a channel will happen soon? Bleak, on the face of it. For one, we are a country of protestors and it is easy for moral police to play spoilsport. More importantly, I can’t imagine a government challenging the status quo and belling the cat. It will take a really progressive Government to do that. And a party that supports Article 377 isn’t going to provide that.

 

So, the idea may remain an idea for a while. But in an age when technology is challenging norms by the day, it’s only a matter of time. If not on the telly, then on the internet, we are sure to see India’s first 24-hour adult channel see the light of the day in the next few years. My bet is: Before 2020.

 

 

By Shailesh Kapoor

 

A little television trend has been developing over the last two years, of which (I suspect) the current TV ratings system has no solid evidence. It is about the increasing power male viewers are wielding while controlling the remote.

 

Multiple factors have contributed to this slow but definitive shift over time. The socio-economic aspect is perhaps the most intriguing, but also the most arguable. As gender inequality becomes less stark in urban India, because of higher literacy rates in the new generation of women and growth in the still-miniscule population of working women, female viewers are beginning to access more avenues of engagement and entertainment. As their dependence on television, currently too high to be termed healthy, reduces, so will their desire to control the remote at all times.

 

It must be mentioned that there is currently no quantification available for the trend above, and hence, the speed of this change is difficult to ascertain. But signs of change are evident, especially in post 9pm consumption behaviour. That the daily serials (barring a couple) have not managed to reinvent at the desired pace has contributed significantly to bringing in this change as well.

 

2014-15 may just end up being a year where we will see acceleration on this aspect like never before. The T20 World Cup starts this weekend. An IPL is round the corner. There is a busy cricket season round the year, ending with the Cricket World Cup in Feb-March 2015, which India will play to defend.

 

But the big event of this year comes in the form of the General Elections. Chaos and theatrics are par for the course in what are set to the messiest elections ever in India. News channels have been capitalizing the goings-on well. And we know it’s only the start. If we have a hung verdict, the drama may last well into June, even July.

 

Cricket and elections, coming together, are going to create unprecedented disruption in viewership patterns. Over three months, this can impact habits enough to create an impact over a long run. New daily soaps of the staple variety have anyway been opening low and struggling to find loyal audiences. The GECs will find it progressively difficult to change that this year. I suspect they are left with little choice but to innovate, on stories as well as story-telling.

 

Is a gender-balanced viewership a good thing? Definitely. Gender equality is good in everything. Period. And television viewership should be no exception. We are still a few years away from this “equality” in India, but this year can be the watershed in many ways.

 

So, all you men, hold on to your remotes this season and be a part of the change!

 

TV Trails is a weekly column written by Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor