Changing Times For Indian Television

The primetime soap opera bubble seems to have finally burst. For the first time this decade the country’s biggest Hindi entertainment channel ‘STAR PLUS’ has amplified it’s efforts to once again win the ever present ratings war and it did so with a blockbuster announcement which has definitely signaled the heralding in of a new era for Indian television .It has decided to cancel the very show that helped it take the #1 spot a little over six years ago “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi(KSBKBT)”.It’s a bold move and one that has already set the show’s creator Balaji Telefilms on a legal warpath with the channel .

Setting the legal angle of this story aside, the fact has to be faced that Indian television has undergone a series of changes. In 2001 STAR overtook its nearest rivals, the ZEE group and SONY by targeting the primetime TV slot from 9 pm onwards. They had Amitabh Bachchan host the highly successful ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ but then did the one thing no other Indian channel had done before and that was to start airing soaps after 10 pm thus creating a new market for women and elder family members beyond 10 pm.

This resulted in a transformation never seen before. Soon every Indian channel decided to do the same thing. There was hence an explosion of soaps with their never ending, twisting storlylines.The channels were themselves happy because not only were viewers eating these up like hot cakes  but also advertisers who were queuing up ready to pay ridiculous amounts of money just for a 30 second slot while these shows were on.

However, STAR remained the number one channel and added more soaps to their inventory which finally led them to emerging the clear leader among Indian channels which is when the other channels started being defensive and looked for other options which didn’t seem to work.

In the middle of all this one company made as much if not more money than STAR and that was the publicly listed Balaji Telefilms.KSBKBT was the creation of Balaji and the first among a number of shows which bought the revenues rolling in for them. Such was the buzz around this company that its stock became a hot pick for intra day traders and long term investors alike.

But the recent trend of reality shows and diminishing viewer interest in stale storylines has set the company back quite a lot. They’re definitely searching for answers and today’s situation leaves them searching for a plan which will ultimately ensure their survival. For long they have relied on the system of packaged soap operas to bring in their revenues and now that this is changing, there is a need for them also to change.

While the fundamental market for soaps in India isn’t over there is a shift towards alternative programming like reality and adventure shows. New channels like 'NDTV Imagine' and the TV18 group’s ‘COLORS’ have hit STAR and Balaji Telefilms with a heavy dose of competition.

So at the end of the day STAR’s problem is relatively simple: Do what the competition is doing and do it better. Balaji on the other hand needs to shelve its one dimensional approach and rely on content apart from soaps. Only this will bring in advertising revenue for channels and revenue for themselves.