Producer Abhigyan Jha, who has written films like Krishna Cottage and created shows like Movers & Shakers, Jay Hind!, Qubool Hai 2.0, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, and Janani – AI Ki Kahani, to name some, believes that even time-slot distribution done in a mindful way can promote good TRPs even with the IPL season on.
“Most IPL ends by 10 p.m. Previously, programming people used to expand time slots. Today, they are shrinking it. Any and every kind of programming is being pushed at any time slot without any thought. Last time, we had a show that went on a channel which was not supposed to go at that time slot. We kept telling them that it’s an early evening show. Do not put this show beyond 8.30 p.m. That’s not where the audience is for this show. But they still put us beyond 10 pm. And whatever rating we got, it was slightly higher than what the slot was getting earlier. But it was still low. We were not satisfied with it because the show timing was wrong,” he said.
“Before that, we had Pishachini. And we kept telling them to give us a time not later than 9 p.m. It’s not some horror show but a supernatural one like Naagin. Look at Naagin; its time slot has always been 8 pm, and it has been doing well. Pishachini should have been at 8-9 p.m. And they put us at 10 p.m. So, except for the first episode, because there was so much interest in the show, we did not get good ratings. After some time, they put us at 9.30 p.m. It did much better at 9.30 p.m. But still, it should have been an 8-8:30 p.m. slot. And suddenly, they experimented and put us at 8.30 p.m. And it did well. But on those days, they also ran us at 10 pm, which divided the ratings. So, there is no thought about what the slot is,” he added.
He feels that the genre of the show and the time slot play a huge role in its success. He said, “You need to understand that each slot is different and there is a different type of audience for each slot. Last year, there was a mythological show, and it was at 10 pm. 10 pm is not the time to put on a mythological show. People have peak dinner time in metros. Most people are maybe even getting a drink at that time.”
“Mythological shows, if you have to run on a daily basis, they have to all happen at the latest by 8 pm. There should be no mythological show after 8.30 pm. But there is no understanding of that, and right after that, there was a horror show, which was full of sexual encounters. So, both shows were getting an audience problem,” he added.
He questions how shows will compete with IPL, which is so well thought of. He said, “BCCI has taken the trouble to think about what will work. The way the teams are divided, they know which cities will contribute to TRP. It is not randomly done. When you see IPL, you realise you can have pan-Indian programming. But why is nobody trying pan-Indian programming in fiction? There are pan-Indian films being made that are doing well.”
Abhigyan stressed that Hindi channels should also work on making pan-India shows. He said, “Even if I get some viewers from Chennai, then why would I give up Chennai? You think there is nobody in Chennai who is Hindi-speaking at all? Or why don’t you dub it and run it? Instead of running separate regional channels, why don’t you just dub your main shows directly and run them? Make it a big show.”
“Use the budget of all your multiple regional channels and make at least one big show. That attitude of market expansion is not there. They are reducing the market every day. They are making the slots smaller,” he ended.
