Sun TV Network’s Telugu GEC, Gemini TV, has bounced back to top the rating charts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market, consistently for more than 6 weeks, posing a strong show with reinforced programming line-up that is likely to support the channel to remain in dominant position in the near future.
For a channel that dominated the Telugu GEC space for more than a decade and lost its dominance to its competitors in for a brief period of time, This development in a short span of six months is nothing less than getting its Midas touch back.
Prior to this the channel was starving for Fiction GRPs, the most crucial and cost effective factor that determines the overall positioning in rating charts, due to lack of strong fiction line-up in its prime time, thus forcing them to depend heavily on Movie GRP to put a brave face in Total Market scenario.
Breakthrough from Mogalirekulu repeat telecast:
But, all that was a thing of the past with one positive move by the channel heads and programming team in mid May, a crude idea of launching the repeat telecast of its yesteryear Blockbuster show “Mogalirekulu” in its 1:30PM time band, acted as major breakthrough for Gemini TV as the program opened with 3 TVR and went on to become a channel leader with an average of 5 TVR.
Soon, the team acted swiftly to strengthen the afternoon time band with the launch of Chat show Rachabanda hosted by Actress Roja in its 12 to 1:00PM time band by June month itself. This acted as the back-up follow for Mogalirekulu, as the show also opened with good numbers.
Naagini Factor:
While the channel has found an initial breakthrough in the afternoon, the next level of booster to Gemini TV to strengthen its prime time, came in the form of a larger perspective strategy by the Sun TV Network management to air popular Hindi finite fiction show Naagini in its Network GEC channels. Naagini was aptly placed at 9:00PM as half an hour show on Gemini TV. The show opened with 3 TVR and went on to grow enormously to become the slot leader for the channel. Naagini kept growing week by week breaking new records and during week 35, it has delivered an whooping average of 9.4 TVR.
Moreover, the strategy to repeat telecast Naagini in its afternoon time band between 1:00 to 1:30 PM has further reinforced the Non primetime band of Gemini TV as the same started delivering an average of 3 to 4 TVR.
Reconstruction of Prime Time band:
With a breakthrough in its afternoon band initiated by Mogalirekulu and Naagini in Prime time, the channel took quick calculative measures to build a ladder of strong fiction line-up by bring in slew of new launches back to back. The replacement of its old war horse Sravana Sameeralu with Keratalu in its 8:00 PM was a major hurdle for the channel, as it was pitching against Zee Telugu’s top rated time band. Keratalu managed a successful transition as the same has opened with +4 TVR and went on to grow further to 7.89 TVR (week 35)
The Prime time ladder building exercise continued with Sapthamathrika in its 7:30 PM that was launched in the 3rd week of August opened with 2.4 TVR and went on to grow to 4.9 TVR in week 35. Similarly, Thalambralu launched at 9:30 PM during the 4th week of August opened with 2.3 TVR (against previous avg of 1.5 TVR)
With the above changes in quick succession, the channel has managed to fortify its Prime time band with a strong fiction line-up. Gemini TV also bolstered its Non-fiction offerings in the weekdays and weekends with the line-up of big properties like Memu Saitam and Boom Boom.
Scaling up in Channel Positioning:
During the month of April 2016 Gemini TV was cutting a sorry face with a constant No. 4 position in Telugu GEC space and struggling to survive the competition with Movie GRPs alone, while its fiction GRP stood at an average of 71. By August 2016 the same has seen a 300% jump to reach 254.
Similarly, the Nonfiction GRP of Gemini TV also has witnessed a 110% growth from 59 GRP in April 2016 to 139 GRP in August 2016.
Today, Gemini TV stands as a topper in all kinds of TG. The four week average of AB 4+ yrs TG – the channel tops the chart with 682 GRP (against Zee Telugu’s 654 GRP), In ABC 4+ yrs TG – the channel tops the chart with 667 GRP (against ETV Telugu’s 602 GRP), In AB 15+ yrs TG – the channel Gemini stands tall with 749 GRP (against Zee Telugu’s 742) and in ABC 15+ yrs TG – Gemini TV tops with 740 GRP (against ETV Telugu’s 691 GRP)
Strategy behind the success story:
The recent success story of Gemini TV was due to the successful implementation of couple of important strategies such as:
Designing FPC as per the audience availability: Instead of taking the competition head on by launching new fiction and non-fiction shows one after the other in an usual pattern of GEC programming. The strategists of Gemini TV has carefully analysed the viewership pattern of Telugu audience and designed an FPC according to the audience availability, thus identifying the potential and audience cultivable time bands and they carefully launched a customised line-up to find a breakthrough in pockets where the opponents are too keen to concentrate.
Cultivation of Appointment Viewing: With the launch of Mogalirekulu re-telecast, Rachabanda and Naagini repeat, the channel managed to cultivate an appointment viewing habit among the audience and managed to develop an afternoon strip.
Ploughing the audience from afternoon to prime time: With a customised FPC design, Gemini TV managed to cultivate an appointment viewing among the audience in its afternoon time band, later the channel managed promote its new launches in prime time with intensive on-air promotions and managed to successfully divert them to sample their prime time offerings. With the help of quality shows like Naagini, Keratalu, Sapthamathrika and Thalambralu, the channel managed to Plough the afternoon audience in to prime time too.
This kind of in-depth understanding of the audience was possibly only when you have a vast experience and knowledge of a particular market. When the channel roped in K Subramanyam (a) Subbu in February 2016, tvnews4u.com highlighted the fact that Subbu was a local guy with more than two decades of experience in Telugu GEC market and it seems the local guy has played his role perfectly by guiding the channel to get back its Midas touch….!
