SRK, Salman, Akshay or Hrithik: they are the ones who are roped in to raise the TRPs on TV these days. This has become the game for TV channels, to grab the number one position.
And it’s easy. First, acquire satellite rights of any recently released films with a brilliant ‘A’ list star cast. Second, promote it aggressively on the respective TV channels. And result: become number one in TRPs that week!
Recently, Zee TV did the same thing. They bought the rights of this year’s blockbuster Chennai Express for a whopping fifty crore Rupees; and toppled Star Plus on TRP front. Zee TV became the number one all of a sudden! But, this position was short lived for Zee TV. It has now came back to it’s original number three position.
On the anvil is Akshay Kumar’s Boss on Colors, and YRF’s Shuddh Desi Romance on Sony Entertainment Television.
Well, this leaves us with a question. What is actually happening to the other content on TV? Why is it that the broadcasters have to resort to such measures to boost their ratings?
Instead of depending on movie stars and successful movies entirely, the broadcasters must raise the bar somewhere. Today, surf any TV channel – and in the name of daily soaps, all you get is same kind of story lines. The moment you start loving any show, they stretch it! Have you noticed this? It takes an entire week for a small incident on any show to complete. Plus, there are heavy ad breaks, in that already short episode.
Start watching international shows for a month, then shift back to Indian TV. You’ll understand the point! On Indian TV channels there’s a huge dearth of impactful story lines or characters, plus there’s no consistency.
Although, it isn’t a bad idea to show movies on TV channels. But if the intent is only to boost TRPs, then it’s very disheartening. If you look at the TV industry, it’s at par with film industry in terms of infrastructure and investments.
Even Bollywood turns to TV shows, when it comes to promoting their upcoming films. Most preferred shows are Zee TV’s Dance India Dance, Sony’s CID, Life OK’s Saavdhaan India, Colors’ Bigg Boss 7 and Comedy Nights with Kapil.
The TV platform in fact is a very powerful medium. Remember how Aamir Khan utilized it with Satyamev Jayate? All it needs is some kind of waking up! They must turn out equally powerful content, really.
Are the broadcasters listening?
