Cochin : The late comer in the Malayalam GEC market “Mazhavil Manorama” from the stable of the publications giant “Malayala Manorama Group” is emerging as a tough front running contender by positioning itself as a strong No. 2 in the Kerala market.
The average ratings between week 26 to 30 shows that the channel has achieved this remarkable feet by generating 2364 TVTs ahead of other GECs in Kerala Market. The market leader Asianet stood at large with 4426 TVT which almost the double that of Mazhavil Manorama. However, the market sources acclaim the achievement as a significant realization due to the factor that Mazhavil Manorama entered the GEC market at a very later stage when other GECs like Surya, Amirtha and Kairali where having a strong ground with a secured loyal audience among them respectively and Mazhavil Manorama managed to carve a sizeable amount of audience from the existing market leaders and emerged itself as a strong player in the Kerala Market.
Surya TV stood at No. 3 with 1245 TVTs which almost half of Mazhavil Manorama followed by Kairali with 455 TVTs and Amirtha TV with 149 TVT.
Market Sources states that Mazhavil Manorama managed to achieve this position with their combined efforts in strengthening content line-up associated with an exercise to connect with multiple segment of audience. The channel has a strong fiction and nonfiction properties that helped the channel to secure a substantial amount of viewership loyalty. In Fiction side the channel has daily soaps like Amala, Bhagya Devatha, Balamani, Aniyathi as its prime properties and the channel managed to create promising Nonfiction shows like D4 Dance, Indian Voice, 1 Num 1 Num 3 etc.. and the comedy shows like Cinema Chirima, Thatti Muttam, Take it Easy, Marimayam and Breakilla Thamasa are serving as a back bone for the channel.
In a market like Kerala, which has plenty of GECs, it will be extremely difficult to score a reasonable start for the new launch properties. However, Mazhavil Manorama overcomes this issue with a very strong Promotion Campaigns with huge spending on alternate Mediums. Market sources states that the recent launch of the channel had spent around Rs 1.5 Cr towards OOH promotions and Rs 80 Lacs towards other mediums including online and social media promotions for its recently launched fiction show “Aniyathi”. The programs is growing week by week with encouraging numbers. The channel also has a huge library of movies titles in its Kitty and keeps acquiring new titles aggressively that helps the channel to garner decent amount of Movie GRPs.
Despite reaching the strong No.2, Mazhavil Manorama still has a Himalayan task before it to aspire for the Top position in the Kerala GEC market. The Channel need to constantly work on strengthen its fiction properties that can deliver numbers double that of the existing level and in Nonfiction area it need to rope in some strong format shows like KBC or Big Boss to secure historic number equal to that of Asianet. Apart from this the channel also need to work on strengthening viewership loyalty with a continuing efforts to increase a strong base of loyal audience.
