Rivals and media experts are still not convinced. The argument is that MTV's music-programme ratio is almost 50:50.
"How do you expect it to make money? Splitsvilla and Roadies are costly, especially with Roadies now being shot in Australia," says the head of a rival channel. Patil counters that since it's an in-house production, the channel keeps the costs under control.
Though Channel V's head, Prem Kamath, admits that Roadies is a runaway success, he feels the channel will require at least five or six such shows for its appointment viewing strategy to be successful.
Media agency Dentsu's COO, Sanjay Chakrabarty, points out that Roadies' success has not really allowed the channel to raise its overall ad rates. "It is still at par with the other music channels," he comments.
MTV Vice President (consumer products) Sandeep Dahiya says there's nothing unusual about a channel riding on a couple of shows. "That's how most TV channels operate. The big thing is that we are in the GEC league now."
The flip side is, MTV will have to contend with new rivals soon.
Image: Roadies anchors Raghu Ram and Rajeev Laxman. | Photograph, courtesy: MTV
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