Sony Entertainment Television is all set to take Star Plus head on. Its serial Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin appears to be doing a Kaun Banega Crorepati impact for Sony.
A sharp increase in Sony's viewership, primarily the prime time viewership, has led to a 30-40 per cent growth in the channel's advertisement revenue all because the serial which began from September.
According to TAM data, SET's average slot share at the prime time slot 9:30 pm to 10 pm (when Jassi is on air) zoomed to 31 per cent during week 9-12 (October-end to mid-November) of Jassi's launch from 8.2 per cent pre-Jassi.
As a consequence, Star Plus saw a sharp dip in average slot share from 81.8 per cent in pre-Jassi days to 56.3 per cent in November-December.
The channel's prime time (8-11 pm) market share has zoomed to 20.3 per cent in November from an average 14.9 per cent in April-June, representing a growth of over 36 per cent. Its average market share in October stood at 18.8 per cent, the data show.
Star Plus, on the other hand, has seen a 7.5 per cent drop in prime time market share from an average of around 69 per cent in the April-June quarter to 63.7 per cent in November.
Zee's market share was up at 9.5 per cent in November compared with 8.2 per cent in October, but it is still 8.4 per cent lower when compared with its average April-June market share of 10.4 per cent.
Sunil Lulla, executive vice president SET India, said, "Jassi is our rocket engine. Our prime time ad slots are completely sold out for the next 8-10 weeks. We are investing in other prime time properties such as Kusum, Kya Hadsa Kya Hakiquat, Devi, CID and designing the texture of our programming in line with the viewer choice. We have profiled the channel programming keeping in mind the 25-35 year age group."
"Our Hindi movie line-up will further fuel growth," Lulla added.
A senior executive at Star said: "We keep analysing competition performance on a regular basis and according design counter strategies. While competition has gained ground to some extent, we must also keep in mind that the overall viewership has gone up."
SET's all-day performance, measured in terms of gross rating points, in November stood at 204 against an average of 181 in the April June period, up 11 per cent while Star Plus GRP is up merely 1.8 per cent from 672 to 684 in November.
SET's prime time (8-10 pm) performance, in terms of weekly GRPS, was 109 in November, up 4.9 per cent from an average of 76 units during the April-June quarter while Star Plus witnessed a 6.6 per cent drop in share.