New Delhi: The buzz, the hype and the star power of the Indian Premier League (IPL) seems to have won over Bollywood super hero Shah Rukh Khan’s personal charisma.
The star’s much-publicized game show, Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain (Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?) that debuted on 25 April on Star Plus, the flagship general entertainment channel of Star Network, failed to draw as many eyeballs as IPL, being broadcast by Sony Entertainment Television (SET), has so far. Khan also co-owns an IPL team and has been actively visible during the tournament.
Paanchvi Paas managed to get an average television rating of 2.2% and an average market share of 10% between 8pm and 9pm time slot during April 25 and April 27, the first three days of the debut, according to Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd’s overnight TV audience measurement system, aMap.
But, even as Paanchvi Pass was being aired, IPL remained ahead with a television rating of 2.26% between 8 pm and 9 pm, and a market share of 13.1% for the entire duration of the game during the same weekend, according to data from aMap, which measures TV viewership in more than 30 million households across India.
The launch weekend of IPL also delivered healthier numbers for SET than they did for Star Plus. Between 18 April and 20 April, the first three days of the IPL launch, SET secured an average television rating of 3.67% and an average market share of 16.4% between the 8.30pm and 11pm, the peak hours of the game. Further, while Star Plus had an average of 7.5 million viewers tuning into their television sets over the weekend for the show, SET nearly had double that number at 14.9 million viewers.
The weaker performance might come as a setback to Star Plus’ advertisers, who are paying Rs4 lakh for a 10-second ad spot on the channel as against Rs2.5 lakh paid by initial advertisers on SET. “We subscribe to TAM Media Research (the leading Mumbai-based audience measurement agency) for our ratings and would not like to comment on how Paanchvi Pass has done until that comes out,” said a Star spokesperson.
The presenting sponsor for Star, Bharti Airtel Ltd, has committed close to Rs50 crore for the sponsorship rights to the 36-episode show, which is around 60% more than Rs20 crore paid by SET’s presenting sponsor Vodafone Plc, according to a senior media buyer, who didn’t want to be named.
“We expected a positive response from viewers on IPL,” said Harit Nagpal, marketing director, Vodafone. “I’d like to call IPL the biggest reality show in the country.”
V. Ramachandran, director, sales and marketing, LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd, said: “A brand’s decision to advertise on any show is taken prior to the launch of the show. The decision is based on how it fits the brand plan and its target consumers,” adding that the company decided to advertise on Paanchvi Paas because “we wanted to target the family with our communication and cricket may attract a different audience.”
Star is owned by News Corp, which also publishes The Wall Street Journal which has an exclusive content deal with Mint.