Remember the days of Ramayan and Mahabharat on Sunday mornings? People would have finished most of their daily chores at least 5 minutes before the telecast. And if there was any work left then the work had to wait for an hour at least. Because it was the time when the entire family would sit and watch their favorite mythological show.
Sunday morning in those days was considered as a weekend prime time slot. Of course those were the DD days and one ad spot on these shows used to give you very high GRPs.
With the advent of satellite TV in India, TV viewing has gone through a sea change. Weekday prime time has got extended to 11:30 pm and we discovered the potential of week day afternoon slots. However, one slot that has not seen enough action is the Sunday morning slot. I would say that the slot has been NEGLECTED by the broadcasters and as a result it’s become a dead slot.
No broadcaster is willing to invest in this slot and I really don’t understand why? Colors made an effort with some costume dramas in the morning but that certainly was not the best content they had. Some of the channels will argue that there is not enough viewership on that slot and hence it doesn’t make commercial sense to invest there. The question that I would like to ask is that do we really need to look at the TAM numbers in this case? The ratings are low because there is no good original content being aired at that time.
Isn’t it common sense that majority of the people are at home at that point of time probably relaxing or doing some weekend work. Yes there will be a segment from the metros that will go out of home for recreation but that is a very small segment. The fact is that if you put up a good show and promote it well you can get ratings that are higher than you weekday prime slot. Don’t we get a good rating for an India cricket match if it’s on a Sunday morning?
I would like to cite the example of the hindi movie blockbuster premiers. Traditionally all channels used to premier e movies on Saturday night. However one of the movie channels experimented with the Sunday afternoon slot and today all premiers happen on Sunday afternoons.
Now my questions is… if there are audiences available at home to watch the movie at 1:00 pm, wouldn’t this segment watch a good show at 10:00 in the morning too?
Yes it will be challenging to decide what kind of content would work?- Mythos, kids programing, reality shows .. or something compeletly new ? However one thing is certain …. If a channel gets the right content and puts the right weight behind its promotion it will change the game for the industry
I will wait and see as to who takes that first step….
