Television Rating Points (TRP) wars have been started in India from the time the K serials took centre stage and General Entertainment channels became a business of big bucks. Advertisers flocked to these channels to get a handsome return on investment, at least based on the eyeballs these serials and channels attracted. Only cricket could over power the TRPs of these serials which had religious followings. TRPs became a part of general lexicon only after people came to know about it from newspapers.
With the launch of a slew of reality shows, and with celebrities riding the shows with huge budgets and sponsors, naturally the TRPs are going to play a role in deciding the winner. It being the only way to determine the ad rates which have reached exorbitant levels with Bollywood star power at the helm of affairs of these shows. Every week we have TRPs of shows stating the celebrity winner of the week. Just the way fate of each of these Bollywood stars change every Friday and you are as good as your last hit, similarly your television show is also as god as your last TRP.
The latest example of this is the ad in national dailies by Sony TV about KBC getting higher TRPs than Big Boss 4. It is understandable that Sony would use these ratings as a barometer to get higher ad rates from advertisers. But what is the use of saying it in print. Does the audience going to change its viewing just because KBC has higher ratings? The customer is too smart to fall for such self congratulatory messages.
The only rationale that seems from this communication is to bring about a perception among the general viewers and advertisers that our channel garners higher ratings because of this show which will have a spill over effect on its other shows. Quite wishful thinking I must say.
No comments:
Post a Comment