Chennai: Sun TV has decided against winding up of its fiction show “Valli” which is being aired at 2PM (Monday – Saturday) by shifting the most popular show in the afternoon band to a newly created time slot at 3PM from 6th October onwards and as reported earlier, the new fiction show titled “Chandralekha” will be launched in the 2PM time slot.
Earlier, tvnews4u.com has updated the plans of the producer Sa Re Ga Ma on replacing “Valli” with “Chandralekha”, in which we have highlighted the fact that “Valli” was the top performer in afternoon time bands of Sun TV and younger most with telecast of less than 500 episodes only.
Industry sources acclaimed the Sun TV’s strategic move as a positive step in further strengthening of its afternoon time band, as the 11AM to 3PM stretch will get extended up to 3:30PM and achieving a sustained viewership from the previous time slot is quite possible, given the popularity of the show “Valli” enjoys and the move is also expected to help the channel to score additional fiction GRP.
Earlier, the channel was forced to wind-up two Private Producer owned sponsorship slots of 30 minutes each, one in the morning at 10:30 AM which got vacated due to the winding up of “Chellakkili” that forced the channel to launch an in-house comedy skit “Galatta Kudumbam” and another in the evening at 5:30PM which has fallen vacant after the winding up of “Pillai Nila” produced by Sa Re Ga Ma itself.
While, Sun TV is witnessing a growth in the post noon time bands (1PM to 3PM) of its non-prime time category, it may be noted that it is constantly losing its ground in the morning time band (11AM to 1PM) as the ratings of this particular area is witnessing a historical new low, day by day, despite an improved power supply scenario in Tamil Nadu.
For Instance the 11AM time band, which is considered as the gateway of morning slots, which used to open with 6 to 7 TVR (in Female TG) last year by this time, is struggling with 3 TVR and 2.5 TVR in the Female 15+ and MF4+ respectively and the trend of the gateway is reflecting across the morning time bands. It may also be noted that a decade before “Archanai Pookal” which was aired in the morning time band use to deliver 16TVR and also used compete with the ratings of Prime Time shows, that helped the other following up shows to score better ratings from that bench mark level.
Despite no sign of external competition in the morning time bands, the dropping trend is a matter of concern for the channel to look in to the issue seriously.
