"Still a long way to go": Rajesh Kamat

Viacom-18’s general entertainment channel, Colors, ended STAR Plus’ eight year reign as  the No 1 GEC.

Rajesh Kamat (pictured), CEO, Colors chose to downplay the performance. "It has just been a week and we have a long way to go as a channel with more programming bands yet to be launched. It is still a long battle ahead. But what is heartening is the fact that Colors has been the most watched channel in primetime for the past few weeks and it entertains the maximum number of viewers every week. We hope to continue delighting our audiences."

Colors delivered 292 GRPs (TAM, HSM, CS 4+ week 15), 25 GRPs ahead of STAR Plus' 267. Colors’ performance, despite the channel having gone pay two weeks ago, must indeed be a concern for STAR Plus.

STAR Plus’ woes are compounded by the performance of Zee TV, which delivered 236 GRPs for the week under review.

“Finally their programming strategy is working well and bearing fruit. The GEC genre is now clearly a three player game, with the difference between Colors and STAR Plus being equal to the difference between STAR Plus and Zee. Overall, Colors' performance now makes the GEC space a consumer’s delight, as the consumer has better program options to choose from in this three horse race. One or two programs can change the pecking order in this segment,” says R. Gowthaman, leader, South Asia,  Mindshare.

Other numbers for the week are NDTV Imagine with 90 GRPs, Sony with 78 GRPs, STAR One with 60 GRPs, SAB with 49 GRPs, Sahara One with 48 GRPs, STAR Utsav with 26 GRPs, 9X with 23 GRPs and Real with 19 GRPs.