Technoglitch
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Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) is making investments and is honing its strategy to make a mark in the Tamil market. With Sun TV Group no more dominating the cable TV distribution business after the emergence of Arasu Cable, several broadcasters are hoping that the market will open up for them. Tamil general entertainment channel Zee Tamizh is steadily building its programming line-up with the launch of more dubbed and original content.
The channel will be adding the historical saga ‘Jodha Akbar’ to its line-up and is all geared up to launch two original shows in the month of April. Zee Tamizh’s dubbed strategy Zee Tamizh currently airs seven dubbed shows on the channel, which include shows like ‘CID’, ‘Om Namashivaya’, and ‘Fear Files’ from Zee TV’s content library. The addition of ‘Jodha Akbar’, which is launching on 17 March, takes the number to eight. Just last week, the channel added ‘Om Namashivaya’ to its line-up, airing at 6 pm on weekdays. The epic historical drama ‘Jodha Akbar’ will air on weekdays (Monday to Friday) in the primetime slot at 6:30 pm. The channel is also set to air two special episodes of ‘CID’ featuring Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on 13 and 14 March at 11 pm. The special episodes will have Khan joining the CID team to solve the mysterious ‘Red Suitcase Murders’. A similar episode was aired by the Hindi GEC Sony to promote Khan’s thriller ‘Talaash’ on its show CID. The two episodes have been taken from the episodes aired on the original ‘CID’. Replacing dubbed shows with original primetime programming the strategy ahead Zee Tamizh business head NS Easwaran told TelevisionPost.com that it is just a matter of time and dubbed content will soon be reduced on the channel. Currently, in the primetime band, three slots are dominated by dubbed shows. The channel is gearing up to strengthen its fiction line-up and is currently in talks with producers for different stories. The channel currently airs around 20 per cent dubbed content, with 70 per cent being original programming. The rest 10 per cent are attributed to film airing on the channel. “If a channel needs to break the barriers in the Tamil market, it has to be strong on fiction and that is our focus this year. We don’t want to go the dubbed way in fiction and aim to have pure original shows in our primetime. We are working on good, real stories to get different content and no the run-of-the-mill tear-jerkers. Once the slot is established, sometime next year we might replace some of the dubbed shows with original programming,” he said. One of the stories the channel is working on is based on the concept of re-birth, while another one is being adapted from a popular film. Currently averaging at around 150 GRPs on fiction, the channel aims to take it to 250 GRPs by April 2015 and attain the No. 2 position by taking on Star’s Vijay TV. A recent strategy adopted by the channel to take the path was when it acquired the rights to a popular Sun TV show ‘Anandham’ from the producers. “We understood that Sun TV shows are owned by producers and not the channel, so we acquired the rights to one of their popular shows which used to air on the channel quite a few years back. And that show is now getting us good traction,” claimed Easwaran. The dynamics in the Tamil market for channels has changed over the past few years. Earlier, a market completely dominated by Sun TV, channels like Vijay TV started a trend by crossing the 200 GRP mark and reaching the No. 2 position on the back of strong movie acquisitions and beefing up its fiction programming. Fiction programming has been one of the weak points for most of the players. Market leader Sun TV garners 800 GRPs from fiction within its total of 1,300 GRPs. Thus, Vijay TV and Zee Tamizh are now laying a strong focus on fiction to grow the genre. Other players like Polimer TV and Raj TV, which mainly air dubbed shows, have not created much of an impact on the market in recent times.
http://www.televisionpost.com/television/zee-tamizh-honing-strategy-to-make-a-mark-in-the-tamil-market/ | TelevisionPost.com
The channel will be adding the historical saga ‘Jodha Akbar’ to its line-up and is all geared up to launch two original shows in the month of April. Zee Tamizh’s dubbed strategy Zee Tamizh currently airs seven dubbed shows on the channel, which include shows like ‘CID’, ‘Om Namashivaya’, and ‘Fear Files’ from Zee TV’s content library. The addition of ‘Jodha Akbar’, which is launching on 17 March, takes the number to eight. Just last week, the channel added ‘Om Namashivaya’ to its line-up, airing at 6 pm on weekdays. The epic historical drama ‘Jodha Akbar’ will air on weekdays (Monday to Friday) in the primetime slot at 6:30 pm. The channel is also set to air two special episodes of ‘CID’ featuring Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on 13 and 14 March at 11 pm. The special episodes will have Khan joining the CID team to solve the mysterious ‘Red Suitcase Murders’. A similar episode was aired by the Hindi GEC Sony to promote Khan’s thriller ‘Talaash’ on its show CID. The two episodes have been taken from the episodes aired on the original ‘CID’. Replacing dubbed shows with original primetime programming the strategy ahead Zee Tamizh business head NS Easwaran told TelevisionPost.com that it is just a matter of time and dubbed content will soon be reduced on the channel. Currently, in the primetime band, three slots are dominated by dubbed shows. The channel is gearing up to strengthen its fiction line-up and is currently in talks with producers for different stories. The channel currently airs around 20 per cent dubbed content, with 70 per cent being original programming. The rest 10 per cent are attributed to film airing on the channel. “If a channel needs to break the barriers in the Tamil market, it has to be strong on fiction and that is our focus this year. We don’t want to go the dubbed way in fiction and aim to have pure original shows in our primetime. We are working on good, real stories to get different content and no the run-of-the-mill tear-jerkers. Once the slot is established, sometime next year we might replace some of the dubbed shows with original programming,” he said. One of the stories the channel is working on is based on the concept of re-birth, while another one is being adapted from a popular film. Currently averaging at around 150 GRPs on fiction, the channel aims to take it to 250 GRPs by April 2015 and attain the No. 2 position by taking on Star’s Vijay TV. A recent strategy adopted by the channel to take the path was when it acquired the rights to a popular Sun TV show ‘Anandham’ from the producers. “We understood that Sun TV shows are owned by producers and not the channel, so we acquired the rights to one of their popular shows which used to air on the channel quite a few years back. And that show is now getting us good traction,” claimed Easwaran. The dynamics in the Tamil market for channels has changed over the past few years. Earlier, a market completely dominated by Sun TV, channels like Vijay TV started a trend by crossing the 200 GRP mark and reaching the No. 2 position on the back of strong movie acquisitions and beefing up its fiction programming. Fiction programming has been one of the weak points for most of the players. Market leader Sun TV garners 800 GRPs from fiction within its total of 1,300 GRPs. Thus, Vijay TV and Zee Tamizh are now laying a strong focus on fiction to grow the genre. Other players like Polimer TV and Raj TV, which mainly air dubbed shows, have not created much of an impact on the market in recent times.
http://www.televisionpost.com/television/zee-tamizh-honing-strategy-to-make-a-mark-in-the-tamil-market/ | TelevisionPost.com
