Has reality TV lost the plot in India?

The reasons for the lukewarm response were many; for one, the Indian Premier League, which had been delayed by the pandemic, grabbed a major chunk of the young, male audience, leading to a loss of eyeballs in prime-time slots for much of the T20 tournament’s two-month duration. Meanwhile, linear television had been gradually losing urban Hindi-speaking audiences who, locked up at home, had discovered the joys and convenience of consuming content online. Making matters worse, the decline from pre-covid viewership continued into 2021, sinking by 25-40%.

Things were slightly better last year, with Bigg Boss (on Colors) seeing TRPs of 1.4-1.5 on weekdays and 1.9 on weekends compared to 0.91 the year before. KBC (on Sony Entertainment Television), also touched the 1.3-1.4 mark versus 0.9 in 2021. But this was nowhere near enough.

Simply put, the reality television show business is struggling and stagnating. Entertainment industry experts point out that flagship properties such as KBC, Indian Idol and Bigg Boss, have been on air for nearly 20 years now, if not more, and have seen no growth in viewership or ad rates. The contestants are boring and the shows often feel scripted. Plus, costs are too high to ensure great returns given the celebrity hosts and huge production budgets. Most titles only manage to recover 80% of their investments, making no case for newer formats to be introduced at all. When someone does try, it bombs. A case in point is The Big Picture, hosted by actor Ranveer Singh. This major property, launched by Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd and telecast on Colors, received a tepid response.

While some OTT-specific spin-offs like Bigg Boss have emerged, along with aggressive bets on non-fiction web originals, the question is: can the reality television genre in India reinvent itself?

Fiction rules

Currently, for Indian reality television, it’s clearly a case of high costs, limited returns and minimal experimentation. Also, there is no formula for success, given that there are leading channels that have brought reality shows that did not work. According to media experts, ratings are likely to remain on the lower side, irrespective of how much channels may invest in non-fiction, given the undeniable emergence of the digital medium.

In fact, while a few top fiction shows have either come back to their pre-covid viewership levels or delivered better, that isn’t the case with non-fiction. One reason could be the increasing appeal of web offerings but there could also be a content angle to it, said industry watchers. The reality formats have been around for long and perhaps broadcasters need to revamp them to keep audiences engaged. With regional language versions and guaranteed sponsorships, many of them arrive on small screens annually around the festive season and complete a standard run of three to four months.

Fiction, on the other hand, has a loyal fan base and audiences usually develop connections with individual characters whose journeys they want to follow.

That said, industry observers believe the dip in ratings for many of these reality shows could also mean the viewership has diversified, and that the target group for non-fiction has shifted to a second device. It is likely that some viewers watch these shows on streaming platforms and connected televisions, but viewership on these devices is not measurable yet.

High costs, low returns

India remains a market driven by fictional content that is high on drama and emotion, according to industry experts. The only non-fiction category that really works is sports, in particular, cricket.

“When these non-fiction shows started 20 years ago, the audience was looking for a change in content formats because they had only seen the first wave of fiction in the late 1990s and early 2000s and all the offerings that came on air post KBC in 2000 sold like hot cakes," said Mansi Darbar, a media and entertainment consultant.

The success of the Amitabh Bachchan game show opened the door to several others, with many international adaptations following in its wake (including Indian Idol, Bigg Boss, and Khatron Ke Khiladi). Nevertheless, the audience for non-fiction content in India has always remained miniscule.

To a large extent, this content has aimed to cater to male audiences, who until the surge of OTT content very recently, did not have much to watch beyond sports and news. However, given its unusual skew towards male viewers, non-fiction has never been the bread and butter of television broadcasters, Darbar said, and is in fact, a value-add, at best.

Further, the return on investment on these shows has never matched the cost of production. Despite their typically short stint of two to three months, such shows can cost a television network ₹2-3 crore per episode and ₹100-150 crore per season, given the presence of celebrity hosts and judges.

“These are steep costs that don’t really make for a profitable business format. So, most networks have stopped attempting new shows and have stuck to the tried and tested formula by bringing in tentpole properties (such as Bigg Boss or KBC) that have a loyal fan base and existing relationships with brands," Darbar said.

Shark Tank India on Sony Entertainment Television is the exception, but that could be driven by the fact that the format was well-known, at least in urban India, and given that the country is in the midst of a huge surge in startups. In fact, the show fares far better on the company’s digital platform SonyLIV than on its linear network. But the fact that most new formats haven’t caught on works against the category in general, disincentivizing broadcasters from trying anything new.

Moreover, most new advertisers are wary of the format and while networks spring an impressive list of sponsors every year, the brands are mostly part of the same pool, made of names that are now familiar with the viewership and appeal of non-fiction, and comfortable associating with it year after year.

Soap fatigue

That said, the two or three properties that are known to work make for a good change for any general entertainment channel (GEC) that otherwise runs entirely on daily soaps. However, women, who are the primary target audience for television, aren’t interested in non-fiction and many daily soaps now run all seven days of the week. “Non-fiction will continue to play an important part for a true-blue GEC, which is, by definition, a multi-expression channel with soaps, mythology, spirituality, crime, food and music and dance shows," said Neeraj Vyas, business head–Sony Entertainment Television, Sony SAB, PAL and Sony MAX Movie Cluster.

“However, across the landscape today, 80% of the content on GECs is soaps, perhaps because of financial reasons. Due to the reducing reach of television and the emergence of digital, the content being made for television is also being viewed on digital. But if television has to sustain, these reality shows have a key role to play because they get fresh eyeballs," Vyas explained. “It’s a lucrative reality even from an advertiser perspective. But very clearly, we have to innovate; there is a lot of sameness in the shows and all of it needs a shake-up."

This could translate into either newer formats or shortening seasons of existing shows so they can be brought back after a break, he said.

“We need to get smarter about the cost, we need to get realistic about how much to mount the shows. Even the talent involved will have to be realistic about what to expect, the celebrity quotient needs to be innovated with and the emotional quotient re-examined," he explained.

That said, there is no denying their appeal given that these shows return to television year after year, according to Deepak Dhar, chief executive and founder, Banijay Asia, a content studio known for shows such as Bigg Boss and The Kapil Sharma Show. “The trend of appointment viewing (when people watch a show that has a fixed time, usually on television) has changed; India is no longer a single-television household market and ratings are now split between television and OTT," Dhar pointed out. “However, despite the presence of multiple devices, people are still consuming these shows because they love that dose of alternative content."

The last season of the Hindi version of Bigg Boss, Dhar said, was its best ever in over 15 years, with average TRPs of 2.5 across the season and 3.7 in the finale.

Meanwhile, the second season of Bigg Boss OTT, which aired earlier this year on JioCinema, the video streaming service owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, performed on par with the typical monthly viewership of a Hindi GEC show, a platform spokesperson had told Mint in a recent interview. The show recorded more than 100 million viewers over the season and 30 billion minutes of watch time. It had garnered impressive viewership on mobile handsets as well as larger television sets, the person had added, calling it the largest entertainment property on digital, with 42-43% of all viewers involved in voting or other interactive activities. The finale of the show was livestreamed to 23 million viewers.

Banijay has launched 145 formats in India and Dhar said changing viewership -measurement parameters, television penetration, OTT explosion and many other factors are at play. So, technically, ratings can’t be compared year-on-year. Moreover, as streaming takes centre stage, many new formats are set to be introduced.

Last year, the company premiered Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls, an interactive show, on Netflix. At several points along Singh’s adventure, viewers were given two options to choose from on how the plot and characters moved ahead, thereby shaping the narrative. The company is also all set to bring adaptations of international formats such as Survivor to India, besides a reboot of Popstars, a music reality show that aired on Channel [V] in the early 2000s.

Streaming shift

The way forward for non-fiction in India is via the streaming model, said industry experts. The genre not only adds to the variety of offerings for platforms whose adoption has been accelerated thanks to the pandemic but also makes for easier investment as compared to long-format series (such as Farzi or Heeramandi) or full-length feature films.

Netflix has premiered dating shows such as IRL: In Real Love and What the Love! With Karan Johar along with docu-reality shows such as Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. Amazon Prime Video has comedy contests such as Comicstaan streaming alongside music shows such as The Remix.

“Standalone episodes of such shows can also be watched while leaving the viewers wanting for more. So, there is a definite growth story there," said Vaasudev Koppineni, the senior vice-president, head of content and non-subscription revenue business at aha, an OTT platform that primarily streams content in Telugu. aha, for which non-fiction is a huge focus area, has launched titles such as Nenu Super Woman, a business reality show for women entrepreneurs; Family Dhamaka, an adaptation of Family Feud, and Indian Idol Telugu.

The cost of reality shows can be controlled on OTTs by rationalizing talent fee and reducing the number of production days, said Koppineni. Unlike linear television, where shows often run for over 60 episodes, web originals can end with less than 30 episodes. Further, the unscripted genre lends itself to brand integrations, helping fund 50-100% of the budget, he added, noting, “It’s not an alien format for India. We’re just trying to serve it in a way audiences would now like."