Press Release

Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart

30 September 2013

Star India CEO Uday Shankar and his team have reasons to cheer. The initial viewership numbers for Mahabharat, their Rs.100 crore show on Star Plus, have been extremely encouraging. The show garnered an opening viewership of 8445 TVTs (television viewership in thousands), which means that around 8.4 million people watched it on September 6, the day it debuted. The show has garnered a weekly rating of 6356 TVTs (6.3 million viewers).

A Star India spokesperson claimed Mahabharat has garnered the highest TV ratings among all TV shows of the last three years. The company bet heavily on Mahabharat and is known to have spent close to Rs.20 crore on its marketing alone. On the sidelines of the Business Today CEO Power Breakfast on Tuesday (September 24), CEO Uday Shankar had mentioned that the show had received good response on online platforms as well. "Our aim was to reach out to the youth through Mahabharat and with online receiving good traction, we have succeeded in our attempt." The Mahabharat ratings have taken Star Plus overall viewership numbers to 534569 TVTs (53.4 million viewers), while Colors, the No. 2 player in the Hindi General Entertainment genre is a distant No. 2 with 479,902 TVTs (47.9 million viewers).  Unlike most marquee properties for which broadcasters charge a premium for a 10-second ad spot, Star Plus chose to go with its usual 10-second rate of Rs.2 lakh to 2.5 lakh for Mahabharat. Given the ratings, advertisers should expect a rise in ad rates. A 10-second ad spot on Sony TV's Kaun Banega Crorepati costs Rs.5 lakh to Rs.6 lakh.

Source: Indiatoday.intoday.in

Show me everything from anytime

Mad in India: STAR's answer to Comedy Nights

Ashish Golwalkar, programming head, non-fiction, Star Plus, says, "If the content is strong, people really don't care about anything else as long as you are making them laugh. People keep drawing comparisons and we are aware of it. But, if you look at 'Mad in India' closely, it is a very different show. It will talk about day-to-day problems that we face but will have a funny take on all of them. It's not a satire, not a political comment, not a show taking digs on people, it's a show for, by an

Star Plus to attempt reclaiming the weekend prime time with ‘Mad In India'

Star Plus - Marketing and content strategy Head, Nikhil Madhok said, “Comedy was on our mind since a long time. But we didn’t want to come up with anything just for the sake of it. We waited to come up with something that we believe in." Madhok who also wanted to make Sundays entertaining for the viewers, added, “The show was conceptualised after we decided to extend our weekend programming till Saturday. While our fiction shows are more women-oriented, we wanted to make Sundays family oriented.

Is the Media in trouble? Mumbai Press Club holds discussion on subject

Uday Shankar, Star India CEO said, “Just because the media has become capital-intensive, doesn’t mean that it has to compromise on your integrity. Every business has to have a value system, and the editor needs to be sensitive to that. Journalists need to wake up to the economic reality, and it can’t be denied. On the other hand, those who recognise that are willing to swing to the other extreme and do anything. That also is neither healthy nor sustainable.”

Imagine more
Id: 5952