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MUMBAI: After almost eight years of struggle, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) seems to have finally found its mojo in the Tamil market.
While Sun TV’s hegemony remains unchallenged, it is Star India’s Vijay TV which has been impacted by Zee Tamil’s rise. It’s been three months now since Zee’s Tamil-language general entertainment channel has moved to the No. 2 position.
From being a 70-GRP channel 12 months ago to reaching the 350-GRP mark, Zee Tamil has indeed come a long way.
What makes Zee Tamil’s achievement significant is the fact that Vijay TV had occupied the audience mind space as an alternate to Sun TV for a long time.
While Sun TV enjoys mass popularity in Tamil backed by its strong fiction content, Vijay TV had occupied the premium space with a heady mix of fiction and non-fiction content.
“There was a status quo in the Tamil market for a very long time. We have changed that. We were a 70-GRP channel 12 months back. We have been at 350-GRP on an average for the last four weeks. In urban, we have started rating 400 GRPs. We have been No. 2 for almost a quarter,” Zee Tamil business head Siju Prabhakaran tells TelevisionPost.com.
Content strategy
Zee Tamil’s astounding growth is primarily due to its unique and differentiated content, explains Prabhakaran. Non-fiction has been a big pillar of growth for the channel. Fiction has also played a significant part in this growth. Movies have been used strategically to get sampling from new audiences.
“Our growth has been primarily on the back of content initiatives in the last 12 months. We get 200 GRPs from non-fiction content, 130-140 GRPs through fiction content and 10-15 GRPs through movies,” avers Prabhakaran.
Like any other GEC, Zee Tamil has fiction shows in the weekdays and non-fiction content in the weekends.
The tent-pole shows for the channel are ‘Mr & Mrs Khiladis’, ‘Junior Superstars’ and ‘Dance Jodi Dance’. All three are in the non-fiction genre and air during weekends. Another major non-fiction show for the channel is ‘Solvathellam Unmai’, which airs during weekdays. It is the only non-fiction to air in the weekdays.
“There was differentiated content on our channel. Our non-fiction shows were in new genres. There was an element of freshness to our content. We were able to offer what was not being offered by incumbent players,” says Prabhakaran.
The fiction piece revolves around ‘Thalayanai Pookaal’, ‘Iniya Iru Malargal’ (dubbed version of ‘Kumkum Bhagya’) and ‘Lakshmi Vanthachu’.
For Zee Tamil, the game-changer was the launch of ‘Mr and Mrs Khiladi’, a reality show featuring celebrity couples. However, it was ‘Junior Superstar’ that catapulted the channel to the No. 2 position. It is based on
Zee TV’s reality show ‘India’s Best Dramebaaz’. “’It is one of the most popular non-fiction shows in the market which delivers a 5.5 TVR for us,” says Prabhakaran.
To keep the growth momentum going, Zee Tamil launched ‘Dance Jodi Dance’, which is a celebrity and common man couple show judged by Gouthami, Neha and Sudha Chandran.
“These three shows were instrumental in getting our non-fiction numbers. They were launched in a phased manner over the last 12 months,” Prabhakaran notes.
As far as fiction content is concerned, the channel’s strategy was to build on the existing shows rather than going for a complete revamp. “In fiction, we had an existing show in ‘Iniya Iru Malargal’, which is a dubbed version of ‘Kumkum Bhagya’. Beyond that we also wanted to have our own original fiction content. ‘Thalayanai Pookaal’ is one show which has created buzz among the viewers and in ratings. We didn’t do a complete revamp of fiction content,” he says.
The channel is further augmenting its content line-up with new shows that are slated to launch in December. It will launch ‘SaReGaMaPa Little Champs’ in non-fiction space and a fiction show called ‘Darling Darling’.
“We have a very strong line-up of programmes which are going to come in Q3 and Q4 of the fiscal.
Read More Here
While Sun TV’s hegemony remains unchallenged, it is Star India’s Vijay TV which has been impacted by Zee Tamil’s rise. It’s been three months now since Zee’s Tamil-language general entertainment channel has moved to the No. 2 position.
From being a 70-GRP channel 12 months ago to reaching the 350-GRP mark, Zee Tamil has indeed come a long way.
What makes Zee Tamil’s achievement significant is the fact that Vijay TV had occupied the audience mind space as an alternate to Sun TV for a long time.
While Sun TV enjoys mass popularity in Tamil backed by its strong fiction content, Vijay TV had occupied the premium space with a heady mix of fiction and non-fiction content.
“There was a status quo in the Tamil market for a very long time. We have changed that. We were a 70-GRP channel 12 months back. We have been at 350-GRP on an average for the last four weeks. In urban, we have started rating 400 GRPs. We have been No. 2 for almost a quarter,” Zee Tamil business head Siju Prabhakaran tells TelevisionPost.com.
Content strategy
Zee Tamil’s astounding growth is primarily due to its unique and differentiated content, explains Prabhakaran. Non-fiction has been a big pillar of growth for the channel. Fiction has also played a significant part in this growth. Movies have been used strategically to get sampling from new audiences.
“Our growth has been primarily on the back of content initiatives in the last 12 months. We get 200 GRPs from non-fiction content, 130-140 GRPs through fiction content and 10-15 GRPs through movies,” avers Prabhakaran.
Like any other GEC, Zee Tamil has fiction shows in the weekdays and non-fiction content in the weekends.
The tent-pole shows for the channel are ‘Mr & Mrs Khiladis’, ‘Junior Superstars’ and ‘Dance Jodi Dance’. All three are in the non-fiction genre and air during weekends. Another major non-fiction show for the channel is ‘Solvathellam Unmai’, which airs during weekdays. It is the only non-fiction to air in the weekdays.
“There was differentiated content on our channel. Our non-fiction shows were in new genres. There was an element of freshness to our content. We were able to offer what was not being offered by incumbent players,” says Prabhakaran.
The fiction piece revolves around ‘Thalayanai Pookaal’, ‘Iniya Iru Malargal’ (dubbed version of ‘Kumkum Bhagya’) and ‘Lakshmi Vanthachu’.
For Zee Tamil, the game-changer was the launch of ‘Mr and Mrs Khiladi’, a reality show featuring celebrity couples. However, it was ‘Junior Superstar’ that catapulted the channel to the No. 2 position. It is based on
Zee TV’s reality show ‘India’s Best Dramebaaz’. “’It is one of the most popular non-fiction shows in the market which delivers a 5.5 TVR for us,” says Prabhakaran.
To keep the growth momentum going, Zee Tamil launched ‘Dance Jodi Dance’, which is a celebrity and common man couple show judged by Gouthami, Neha and Sudha Chandran.
“These three shows were instrumental in getting our non-fiction numbers. They were launched in a phased manner over the last 12 months,” Prabhakaran notes.
As far as fiction content is concerned, the channel’s strategy was to build on the existing shows rather than going for a complete revamp. “In fiction, we had an existing show in ‘Iniya Iru Malargal’, which is a dubbed version of ‘Kumkum Bhagya’. Beyond that we also wanted to have our own original fiction content. ‘Thalayanai Pookaal’ is one show which has created buzz among the viewers and in ratings. We didn’t do a complete revamp of fiction content,” he says.
The channel is further augmenting its content line-up with new shows that are slated to launch in December. It will launch ‘SaReGaMaPa Little Champs’ in non-fiction space and a fiction show called ‘Darling Darling’.
“We have a very strong line-up of programmes which are going to come in Q3 and Q4 of the fiscal.
Read More Here
