The Failure of Zee's Sawaal Dus Crore KA

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The Star Offensive - KBC Contd...

Star Plus sought the help of research agency MARG to improve its TRP ratings. MARG stressed on a new brand positioning for the channel to garner more viewership. On MARG's advice, Star Plus 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 peaked to a high of 8.7% during the eight weeks beginning July 2^nd 2000, compared with Sony TV's 7.2% and Zee TV's 6.8%.

By September 2000, the channel had 12 of its shows on the top 50 charts. In the top 20 program list, Star Plus had 8 programs, versus Zee's 9 and Sony's 3, as compared 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, the image of Star Plus as foreign channel changed considerably with viewers switching in hordes to the channel. Riding high on the success of KBC, Star Plus launched follow-up programs for KBC to sustain viewer interest in the channel. The prime time slot was changed from 9-10 to 9-11 with two family dramas8 being aired right after KBC. This succeeded in retaining the viewership of the channel. Putting KBC in the prime time slot (9-10 p.m.) paid off for the channel, largely at the expense of Zee TV's prime time slots. Sony also suffered to an extent and had to revamp its prime time serial slots, but it was Zee, which faced the maximum erosion in its primetime viewership ratings.

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 of its popular prime time soaps. To lure back the audience lost due to the KBC effect, Zee launched its Malamaal⁹ interactive contest. However, the promotion did not do the trick for Zee, and the KBC menace continued to eat into its TRP ratings and ad revenues. It was at this time that Zee TV decided that it had to come out with a program, which could match KBC. Thus was born Sawal Dus Crore Ka (SDCK).

Zee seemed to have hit the wrong note from the very beginning, when it decided to make SDCK a replica of KBC with Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala as anchors. To lure away KBC viewers, Zee decided to feed on their greed by offering prize money of Rs 100 million to the winner, as against KBC's Rs 10 million, giving the show a tremendous response initially. SDCK had inaugural TRP ratings of 7.9 when it was launched in October 2000. However, it slipped down to 3.7 within 3 weeks. During the same period, KBC moved up from 9.3 to 10.5. SDCK was never able to reach the rating of its inaugural show in its short lifespan.

SDCK failed to sustain the viewer's interest in the show from the very beginning. Also, its anchors could not match the charisma and screen presence of Amitabh Bachchan. SDCK was aired on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. putting it in direct competition with KBC, which was aired on all weekdays, except on Friday¹⁰, between 9:00 and 10:00 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 sets looked similar to KBC's with the same seating arrangement and similar blue lighting. But there were undefined arches under which the contestants seemed to disappear. Even the audience section was badly lit. On the program content front, SDCK's elimination rounds were confusing - making things long and dull for the viewers. The language of the questions seemed to be complicated to the viewers. It seemed as if even simple questions were complicated, and this seemed to create confusion in the minds of the audience.

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7] A game show offering prize money of Rs 10 million to participants successfully answering a set of 15 general knowledge questions. The participants were given three lifelines (help options) and were 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 the latter's TRPs surpassing even KBC.
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 till midnight. 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