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Purvita Chatterjee

To strengthen distribution; expects increased ratings from TAM

Mumbai March 15 Riding on the strength of airing the World Cup's Hindi feed, SAB is expecting a 25 per cent surge in its audience reach post the event. The general entertainment channel from the Sony stable, which has been temporarily converted to a cricket channel, expects to get catapulted into the top league among the GEC channels especially among the non-metro towns and cities.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Vikas Bahl, Business Head, SAB, said, "Post the World Cup, we expect to keep our audience share and expect to increase our reach in our key markets by 25 per cent."

With plans to strengthen its distribution during the course of the World Cup, it is also expecting increased ratings from TAM, which has opened up new markets as part of its audience share analysis.

SAB's key markets at present comprise States such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. "Cricket would help us reach the markets we would not have reached otherwise," says Mr Bahl.

Sampling

With extensive sampling of its popular shows during the air-time breaks, the general entertainment channel expects to lure its audiences post the World Cup.

"A good part of the airtime is being used for sampling our shows and this is what will hold our audiences later on. We believe in heavily marketing our shows during the World Cup," claims Mr Bahl.

The channel has been airing its popular shows such as Love Story (made by Anurag Basu) and Left Right Left, with the hope of retaining its audiences post the World Cup.

The trend of single TV households with cricket viewing being skewed in favour of male audiences, SAB is hopeful of getting the overlapping audiences post the event.

"While there would be lapses, there would also be gainers from the event," says Mr Bahl.

With the youth as its main target audience, SAB is also hoping that advertisers would realise the potential of the channel's positioning. "The youth is a potent audience and we hope to reach the advertisers with our profile," he explains.

Meanwhile, Sony has sold its airtime packages for the World Cup as a combined deal to advertisers. "We have sold combined packages for SAB and MAX for the World Cup. SAB is not being sold independently as channel," specifies Mr Rohit Gupta, EVP, Sales & Revenue Management, SET.

Growth in viewership

Expecting SAB to get a leg up from the World Cup, Mr Gupta further adds, "Just like MAX went ahead of Zee Cinema during the last World Cup in spite of having a late start, we expect the same for SAB. Cricket is going to have a rub off on the channel and we see a growth in viewership."

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