The FAILURE of ZEE Sawaal Dus Crore Ka

7/29/2019 The FAILURE of ZEE Sawaal Dus Crore Ka

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THE FAILURE OF ZEE'S SAWAAL DUS CRORE KA

Case Code- BSTR004Publication Date -2001

"If you want to counter a successful product like KBC, you have to be doubly prepared.

Increasing the prize money alone will not do."- Anupam Kher, commenting on the debacle of SDCK.

FLOP SHOW

December 2000 was a time of sweet victory for STAR TV's1 Indian arm. Archrival Zee TV's(Zee) desperate attempt to cash in on the gameshow2 craze with their 'Sawal Dus Crore Ka'(SDCK), was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

SDCK, launched to counter the success ofStar's pioneering gameshow effort in India,

'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC)3, never reallymanaged to hit it off with the audience. Thefinal humiliation for SDCK came in the form ofthe termination of the contracts of its twoanchors, Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala4.Commenting on this, Zee sources said, "Bothanchors continued to lack the rapport andharmony ever since the launch of the show andit is sad that their individual ego should have

marred or impaired the world's largest to beentertainment show."

Soon after the termination, Anupam Kher filedan injunction suite in the Mumbai High Court

against the channel claiming that the channelcould not air the show without him as host.However, the court rejected Kher's plea.Reacting to Zee TV's comments on SDCK'sfailure being due to his and Manisha'sincompetence, Anupam Kher said, "When theyhave anyway thrown the two of us out, why notgo on with the existing format if we alone areto be blamed for its failure?"

Manisha Koirala also came out strongly against SDCK and Zee in the media. She remarked,"When I first caught the telecast of SDCK in the second week of November, I was appalled byits poor and tacky production. There were flies sitting on the participant's faces and many of

them were sweating not because of tension but heat in the studio."

Though plans of revamping SDCK and of signing new anchors to host the show were madepublic, Zee TV eventually pulled the program off the air. Having drawn criticism from allquarters, Zee TV was forced to rethink its strategy to win the Indian television TRP5 wars.

THE BACKGROUND

Zee TV, a Hindi television channel from Zee Telefilms Ltd. (ZTL) was launched in October1993. ZTL was originally incorporated as Empire Holdings Limited in 1982. The company dealt


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mainly in leasing, hire purchase and other financial services until 1992, when the companywas reincorporated after its memorandum of association was modified to include newbusinesses. The company was then re-christened ZTL.

In the 1990s, the Government did not allow private channels to uplink from India. Therefore,Subhash Chandra, CEO, ZTL, co-promoted Asia Today Limited (ATL) with a capital base of $11 million, contributed by a consortium of NRIs. ATL was incorporated in Hong Kong to

broadcast ZTL's channels. ZTL's channels included Zee TV, Zee Music, Zee English, Zee MGM,Zee News, ZED TV, Zee Cinema, Siticable and the Alpha range of regional language channels.

Launched in December 1991, Star Plus was the fifth channel from the STAR TV Network.STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation , was Asia's leading multi-platformcontent and service provider. STAR TV channels included Star Chinese Channel, PhoenixChinese Channel, Star Plus, Star World, Channel [V], ESPN, Star Sports, Star Movies, StarGOLD, Phoenix Movies, VIVA Cinema and Star News, in addition to distributed channels FoxNews, Sky News and National Geographic Channel.

In July 1993, News Corp acquired 63.6% stake in Star, and a further 36.4% stake in February1995. In January 1994, News Corp entered into a strategic alliance with Zee and bought a49.9% stake in ATL. This alliance agreement limited Hindi programs on STAR to a maximum of50% of its total program time. Similarly, Zee was to limit its English programs to 50% in its

channels.

In 1999, Zee bought News Corp's stake in ATL, Siticable and Program Asia Trading Co. (Patco)for a consideration of Rs 1.26 billion, making the three companies wholly owned subsidiariesof ZTL. In February 2001, STAR TV was re-christened to STAR.

[1] Satellite Television Asian Region.

[2] Interactive television shows, which awarded prizes (money, assets or both), based on theperformance of

the contestants in quizzes or other games.

[3] Gameshow based on the format of 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'

[4] Leading Bollywood actors.

[5] Television Rating Points (TRP's) is a measuring tool, based on surveys, to assess thepopularity of television programs

[6] News Corporation Limited was one of the world's largest media companies with totalassets of

approximately $ 38 billion (December 2000 figures) and total annual revenues ofapproximately $ 14 billion.

News Corporation's diversified global operations in the United States, Canada, ContinentalEurope,

Australia, Latin America and the Pacific Basin included production and distribution ofmotion pictures and

television programming; television, satellite and cable broadcasting; publication ofnewspapers, magazines

and books; production and distribution of promotional and advertising products andservices; development

of digital broadcasting; the development of conditional access and subscriber managementsystems; and

creation and distribution of popular on-line programming.


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THE STAR OFFENSIVE-KBC

When Star Plus was launched, it offered drama, comedy, talk shows, documentaries andmystery movies solely in English. However, the channel failed to become as popular as thechannels offering programs in Hindi. Star realized that it was handicapped by its image ofbeing a foreign channel catering only to the cosmopolitan English speaking population.

To increase its presence in the Indian marketStar began a daily two-hour Hindi programband. Star Plus' move to 'go Indian' met with amixed response from the viewers. While fans ofthe earlier programming mix lashed outstrongly against the channel, the mediadescribed this as Star's desperate attempt togarner viewership. Though initially the movewas criticized, Star Plus' smart and consumeroriented programming (a mix of soaps andBollywood based programs) won over theviewers. Soon, Star Plus and Zee TV emerged

as the hottest contenders for the Indiansatellite television market leadership.

Rivalry between the two channels on the TRPand ad revenue fronts became a routinefeature in the media. Zee TV's programsconsistently fared well in the TRP ratings war.According to Indian Market Research Bureau(IMRB) Peoplemeter ratings, in August 1998,even Star's popular programs such as TheNews, Tu Tu Main Main and Saans had taken abeating from Zee's top 10 programs likeAmanat and Hum Paanch.

Star Plus sought the help of research agency MARG to improve its TRP ratings. MARG stressedon a new brand positioning for the channel to garner more viewership. On MARG's advice, StarPlus launched the biggest game show in Indian television history 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'(KBC)7 . It was hosted by none other than Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

Overnight, KBC pushed Star Plus into the leadership position. Channel audience share peakedto a high of 8.7% during the eight weeks beginning July 2nd 2000, compared with Sony TV's7.2% and Zee TV's 6.8%. By September 2000, the channel had 12 of its shows on the top 50charts. In the top 20 program list, Star Plus had 8 programs, versus Zee's 9 and Sony's 3, ascompared to the pre-KBC figures of 12 shows for Zee, 5 for Sony and just 3 for Star Plus.From November 2000, Star managed to occupy 12 top slots in the TRP ratings. Post KBC, theimage of Star Plus as foreign channel changed considerably with viewers switching in hordesto the channel.

Riding high on the success of KBC, Star Plus launched follow-up programs for KBC to sustainviewer interest in the channel. The prime time slot was changed from 9-10 to 9-11 with twofamily dramas8 being aired right after KBC. This succeeded in retaining the viewership of thechannel.

Putting KBC in the prime time slot (9-10 p.m.) paid off for the channel, largely at the expenseof Zee TV's prime time slots. Sony also suffered to an extent and had to revamp its prime timeserial slots, but it was Zee, which faced the maximum erosion in its primetime viewershipratings.


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[7] A game show offering prize money of Rs 10 million to participants successfully answeringa set of 15

general knowledge questions. The participants were given three lifelines (help options) andwere allowed to

withdraw from the game once the lifelines were exhausted.

[8] The shows 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki' and 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' went on to very

popular with thelatter's TRPs surpassing even KBC.

THE ZEE DEFENSIVE - SDCK

KBC's success changed the ground rules in the TRP race between the television channels. Zee

TV had to pool all its resources to combat the effect of KBC. Zee even changed the timings ofits popular prime time soaps.

To lure back the audience lost due to the KBCeffect, Zee launched its Malamaal9 interactivecontest. However, the promotion did not do thetrick for Zee, and the KBC menace continued toeat into its TRP ratings and ad revenues. It wasat this time that Zee TV decided that it had tocome out with a program, which could match

KBC. Thus was born Sawal Dus Crore Ka(SDCK).

Zee seemed to have hit the wrong note fromthe very beginning, when it decided to makeSDCK a replica of KBC with Anupam Kher and

Manisha Koirala as anchors. To lure away KBCviewers, Zee decided to feed on their greed byoffering prize money of Rs 100 million to thewinner, as against KBC's Rs 10 million, givingthe show a tremendous response initially.

SDCK had inaugural TRP ratings of 7.9 when itwas launched in October 2000. However, itslipped down to 3.7 within 3 weeks. During thesame period, KBC moved up from 9.3 to 10.5.SDCK was never able to reach the rating of itsinaugural show in its short lifespan.

SDCK failed to sustain the viewer's interest in the show from the very beginning. Also, itsanchors could not match the charisma and screen presence of Amitabh Bachchan. SDCK wasaired on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. putting it in directcompetition with KBC, which was aired on all weekdays, except on Friday10 , between 9:00 and10:00 p.m.

Media analysts commented that SDCK had failed to capture the imagination of the audience.The me-too image of the show was seen as a major hindrance to its popularity. SDCK setslooked similar to KBC's with the same seating arrangement and similar blue lighting. But therewere undefined arches under which the contestants seemed to disappear. Even the audience


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section was badly lit.

On the program content front, SDCK's elimination rounds were confusing - making things longand dull for the viewers. The language of the questions seemed to be complicated to theviewers. It seemed as if even simple questions were complicated, and this seemed to createconfusion in the minds of the audience. Instead of the 'three lifelines' of KBC, SDCK had threetrumps; instead of 'lock kiya jaye,' it was 'freeze kiya jaye.' 11

There seemed to be no spontaneity in the show as the anchors failed to strike a comfortablerelationship with the participants. Lack of a healthy working relationship between the twoanchors also marred the show. Some analysts felt that the presence of two anchors createdconfusion. Viewers seemed to be irritated when both anchors spoke at the same time.Gajendra Singh, Director, SDCK commented, "They had massive ego clashes and I think itshowed on screen." The anchors failed to win over the audience, whereas KBC's anchor, withhis immense popularity, had completely won over the viewers. There was an also lot ofaudience interaction in KBC, which seemed to be missing in SDCK.

Before launching KBC, Star Plus had spent months preparing Amitabh Bachchan for the show.However, according to Anupam Kher, they could not rehearse for even three weeks before theshooting of the show commenced.

Meanwhile, KBC gave SDCK a tough time by airing 'special' shows with Bollywood celebritieson the occasion of Diwali and New Year.

Considering the show's miserable TRP ratings, and the fact that it was drawing flak from allquarters, Zee TV announced the termination of its contracts with both Anupam Kher andManisha Koirala after 26 shows were aired. It said it was doing this because the poor workingrelationship between the two had affected the show badly. The channel also announced that it

was discontinuing the present format of SDCK. It said it planned to re-launch the show withnew anchors after re-conceptualising and re-formatting it. Media reports indicated that Zee TVhad actually worked out on an altogether new format12 with a mega-appeal interface betweenanchor and the contestant.

However, the rising popularity of another game show, this time on Sony, named 'JeetoChappar Phad Ke,' (JCPK)13 forced Zee to scrap SDCK permanently.

9] Malamaal involved two questions a day based on two prime time serials. The first question,put out at

8.15 p.m., was about the serial being aired at 9 p.m., while the second one, at 8.55 p.m.,was on the 9.30

p.m. soap. Viewers could leave their answers at the designated call center numbers tillmidnight. Two

winners were announced the next day and each one won one lakh rupees.

[10] Recently KBC had been aired only on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

[11] Lifelines/Trumps were given to contestants to help them answer questions with externalhelp. Locking/

Freezing were terms used to register the final answer with the computer.

[12] The new format was to have five contestants, instead of the earlier twenty-one and theconcept of

lifelines was also changed. Contestants were to be given a chance to select a subject oftheir choice from

six categories, namely, history, mythology, films, music, science and general knowledgeas subject of

their choice.


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[13] JCPK was launched in January 2001, with popular Bollywood actor Govinda as anchor. Itwas aired only on

weekends to avoid direct competition with KBC. The anchor's immense popularity and theinteresting

modifications in the original KBC format were largely responsible for JCPK's success.

REALITY BITES

In January 2001, all the Star channels were blocked for two weeks by cable operators gettingtheir feed from Siticable, cable network. Media reports indicated that SDCK's failure hadprompted Zee to use its arm Siticable, to harm KBC's TRPs by preventing it from reachingviewers. (Another view was that Star, riding high on the success of KBC, demanded higherpayment for relaying its channels and stopped feeding them to operators, mainly Siticable,who refused to oblige.) Though Star's viewership did suffer as Siticable commanded 17% ofthe cable business, it stood its ground, forcing Zee to make peace. Following this, Siticableofficials had a meeting with Star officials and reached an agreement to restore Star channels.

Having finally accepted the fact that SDCK was

a bad dream to be forgotten, Zee seemed to bemoving on. The channel announced plans tolaunch a totally new concept in Indiantelevision with the first homegrown realitytelevision show14, 'Prisoner of War' (PoW). PoWwas based on reality shows like Survivor, whichwere being aired in Hindi and English by AXNchannel. POW was supposed to test theendurance and ingenuity of nine contestants,

and was to be shot entirely on location at aspecially constructed, huge set at the SubhashChandra owned EsselWorld in Mumbai.

Sinha, Vice President (Marketing), Zee TV

remarked, "Reality TV show has already provedits credentials in the West, becoming the mostpopular genre of television ever. We are todaypresenting the future of Indian television."

Zee TV planned to launch PoW in the near future. With KBC still going strong on the TRPsfront, it remained to be seen whether PoW would succeed in dethroning KBC from the numberone slot.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. In spite of the huge prize money offered and a strong media push, Zee TV did not succeedin the gameshow war with Star Plus. Discuss the reasons for the failure of SDCK.

2. How far do you think the usage of prize money, to lure viewers is correct? Would the TRPsso generated be sustainable in the long run? Give reasons to support your answer.

3. Do you think reality shows like Prisoner of War (POW) will help Indian channels to increase

their TRP's? How?


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14] Shows that put participants in real life situations and broadcast televise the

proceedings, which are then

broadcasted without much change. Reality TV shows like Survivor, were immenselypopular in US and

other countries

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The FAILURE of ZEE Sawaal Dus Crore Ka