By: Yohan P Chawla
With the new Tariff Regime waiting to kick in in just over two weeks, television channels have upped their game.
Strengthening its weekday and weekend programming line-up, Sony SAB has started promoting its two new weekday shows, Bhakharwadi and Baavle Utaavle, and two new weekend shows My Name Ijj Lakkhan starring Shreyash Talpade, and Band Baaja Bandh Darwaza, which the channel introduces as a show especially pumped up on content, story line, casting and great production quality.
The weekend shows will be of only 26 episodes each – expandable, of course, once a show manages to run the gauntlet of building considerable brand equity. Early days for that, yet, but the promos of the new shows look pretty promising. Have a look.
My Name ijjLakkhan Promo Link:
Band Baaja Bandh Darwaza promo link:
I caught up with Neeraj Vyas, Business Head – Sony SAB & PAL, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN),one of the oldest and most experienced hands at, and a pillar of, the network in India, on SAB’s plans in the rather uncertain and nervous times the next two months are bound to bring every channel and network. He dwelt at greater length on the weekend programming plans for 2019.
For Vyas, the key priorities with Sony SAB are focusing on the content and viewer engagement; obviously the best areas, because everything else will fall into place. As it is, if one’s not mistaken, Sony SAB has been giving a much higher ROI than its older, elder sibling, and has always maintained a loyal audience drawn by its clean family entertainment led by comedy.
Vyas clarified that Sony SAB is not just a comedy channel. “The word comedy is very restrictive, and we stand for a lot more than that – we talk about hope, happiness, and positivity. Most of the shows on Sony SAB are way beyond the comedy language. Comedy, “ he avers, “is essentially is sit-com and stand-up.”
He said that the channel is doing a lot more with stories, content, plots, and is creating characters which have much longer linear paths and are extremely relatable. “Fun and happiness is what we stand for today.”
Importance of 2018 for Sony SAB
Over the last year, Sony SAB saw a 10% increase in time spent – from 110 minutes to 121 minutes. They were successful in hooking on newer and younger male audiences between ages 15 and 21 and led the charts with 31mn viewership.
“2018 was a very critical and important year for us,” Vyas said. “ Essentially because there were two things we were trying to address – first was that SONY SAB as a brand was disposed slightly more towards the older audiences. And there was the other impression that people had – that life wasn’t going beyond Tarak Mehta… These were the two major challenges we had at the start of last year.”
“I think by getting Varun Dhawan to be the brand ambassador, creating Tenali Raman as a show which was primarily not in the SAB terrain, doing an Alladin and a Jija Ji were all risky ways to dramatically change and alter the perceptions of our viewers and overcome the challenges. We simply went with the conviction that it’s a brand that was loved by people.”
“2018 got newer eyeballs into the eco-system, and a lot more advertisers came on board. Brands which had never advertised with us came on to the channel.”
Vyas said, “On a personal level, I am more than happy with what we have done in the last year.”
No reality shows for Sony SAB on weekends
Sharing his thoughts on the weekend programming line-up, Vyas said, “We were very clear that whenever we planned the weekend programming, we would not go the reality show way, because I think it’s better to do something else than be another me-too. Also from a cost point of view, it’s prohibitive beyond a point.”
“One or two-odd shows out of ten actually work. In the last year we have seen lots of these large format reality shows with big movie starts as anchors and stars doing comedy stand-ups… all these things have failed. Which is why we have a show like My Name ijj Lakhan starring Shreyash Talpade and Band Baaja Bandh Darwaza where the storytelling is linear, and is episodic but its completely differentiated from the kind of storytelling that’s happening now… and it’s limited – just 26 episodes, and done.”
Long Running Shows – Tarak Mehta
Vyas said, “I think there will always be two or three long running shows, because they are not shows anymore, they are brands. For consumers they become like vitamin pills; more like a habit. These shows are very important, to be honest, and we are blessed to have a show like Tarak Mehta, and I truly mean it. It’s a show that is deep into the hearts and minds of so many families… not individuals, but families, and we are blessed that way.”
“However, with the current amount of content choices that people have in a fragmented eco-system where one has multiple devices, platforms, screens and sources, I don’t think any new TV show can run for a very long time. The show can come back in seasons after some time, but to sustain is going to difficult.”
New Tariff Regime and consumer education
Vyas said, “I am very happy with the new tariff regime; it gives us a flying start. It’s going to be very critical to be differentiated, innovative and be recognized for qualities which are unique to you as a brand. We as Sony SAB are the only ‘dessert’ in a room full of main-courses, and I think that’s a true blessing. It’s an advantage that probably nobody has. We have a campaign with Amitabh Bachchan playing across the network, educating customers about the new regime. As Sony SAB we have our own characters telling viewers about the shift of control. Consumers at this point are completely confused, but it’s a reset button after 25 years, and I am sure consumers will come around this very soon.”
Sony SAB’s new shows seem to tick most of the boxes for good content – across emphasis on storytelling and writing, casting, production quality and value, and most important, reliability.
So Sony Sab is all dressed up and hopefully has everywhere to go. Which it will, provided the audiences respond well to the new shows. What seems to augur well on that count is that Vyas and his team know their audiences with whom the channel has had a good relationship over the years, and the Sony network is a lage and well oiled machine to market the new weekend programming. If that last bit works well, 2019 too should be a good year for Neeraj Vyas and his team.
