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History TV18 bets on late primetime slot

The channel is pegging the best of its shows at 10 PM for a later, fresher primetime for factual entertainment

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History TV18 seeks new avatar with 50% local content

History TV18 channel bets on late primetime slot

The channel is pegging the best of its shows at 10 PM for a later, fresher primetime for factual entertainment

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | April 28, 2014

history-newWith soaps and reality shows ruling primetime, there was always a need for something fresh to take over from there. History TV18 claims that they have found the answer in a new primetime slot, meant especially for the factual entertainment genre.

"Entertainment can be of two types - fiction and non-fiction. We are all bored with the overdose of fiction. And the environment for non-fiction itself is created, thereby defying the purpose. On the other hand, if we keep speaking about infotainment, it just sounds boring - like documentaries and stuff to learn. So, when the term factual entertainment was coined in the Latin Americas it focused more on entertaining. And the information was given in such a subtle manner that viewers didn't even realise that they were gaining knowledge," said Sangeetha Aiyer, VP and Head of Marketing, History TV18.

The factual entertainment market is still in a nascent stage in India. While in developed countries they boast of a market share of 30 per cent, in India they hardly get over 1.35-1.4 per cent of all TV viewing. The bulk of the pie is taken by Hindi and English GECs. However, it has seen growth and is the only genre which has seen 30-35 per cent year-on-year growth since 2010. People are getting hooked to this genre where they get a welcome break from the reality music and dance shows or the run-of-the-mill soaps. Factual entertainment shows ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and this seems to have worked with the audience.

History TV18 claims that this genre has some challenges in India. It is a snacking genre where appointment viewing has still not been achieved. On top of that the perception that it is a niche channel impacts their revenue pie. The average rates are capped for such channels, in spite of getting higher TVTs at certain times of the day than, say, an English movie channel.

Sangeetha Aiyer Sangeetha Aiyer

And that time, according to Aiyer, is the emerging primetime slot which starts at 10 PM. She explains, "Most of the households in India are still single television households. The remote remains with one person who watches soaps and reality TV during the traditional primetime. The largest audience for GECs have always been in this time band. It was true for us as well till a few years ago. Now, we have noticed that after 10 PM, the remote shifts hands and they tune in to factual entertainment. This trend has been noticed in the last one year - that a chunk of the day's viewers for factual entertainment comes in at 10 PM and stays till 11.30-12. This is the new primetime."

As much as 11 per cent of History TV18's entire day's ratings come from the 10-11 PM time band. Which means there is certainly more to the time segment than bored people flipping through channels.

Keeping this in mind, the channel has redone its programming plan and will be introducing 'Mega History' on the channel at 10 PM every night. The shows in this property will be slightly male skewed - big productions from mostly international themes. There will be new seasons of 'Baggage Battles' and 'Duck Dynasty' to look forward to as well as internationally acclaimed 'World War and Bible' which will be introduced later in the year. Realising the need for more local productions, the channel will also show two Indian shows in the same segment. They will look at gradually increasing local production with concepts that are relevant and fit into the values of History channel.

Catering mostly to the 15-45 year target audience, they are hopeful that their high repeat strategy will help them catch the younger audience as well who may not be awake for a later primetime show. They hope that the various regional language options will help them to cut across a wider geography. Incidentally, History TV18 had to shut its Gujarati and Urdu language services and now continues with five language feeds - English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telegu.

Keeping in mind that the LC1 and LC2 towns may also have similar challenges, the channel has thought of various marketing strategies. The huge network strength they enjoy with TV18 and Viacom in the picture will be used to bring more viewers to the picture, without any cannibalisation. With penetration of internet and social media, History TV18 hopes to reach more people than ever before. Incidentally, social media has always been a strong point for the channel, with them previously arranging a Twitter Q&A with magician Dynamo. A similar interaction was organised for their biggest show 'Pawn Stars', which will also come in the Mega History slot. The channel is also getting ready to launch their mobile platform shortly.

"We plan to aggressively promote the new time band. The biggest tent-poles will be shown around this time. And the pre- and post-primetime shows will also be good so that we can create a larger block for our audiences. We will also be looking at increasing advertising yields. The bigger shows will have to be made worthwhile," pointed out Aiyer.

Sohini.Sen@bestmediainfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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