Vijay TV re-focuses on fiction and mythos

    
Star’s Tamil GEC offering Vijay TV has fine tuned its programming mix and begun refocusing on the fiction space by bringing in a medley of drama, thrillers and mythological series in a bid to build primetime viewership during the 6.30 to 9 pm time band. The channel is targeting women and family audiences in the Tamil space.

The weekday primetime now consists of 5 fiction shows that occupy the 6.30-9 pm block on prime time, thus creating a healthy mix of fiction and nonfiction shows. Says Vijay TV General Manager K Sriram, “We have done a lot of ground work in understanding the psychographic profiles of women across Tamil Nadu, conducted focus group studies and have discussed numerable storylines before launching the fiction shows. It is very encouraging to note that the band is gaining momentum and we hope to keep building on the same."
   
“Fiction is the bread and butter of any GEC,” explains Sriram. “We have had good support from both the local and the national advertisers. Generally the local advertisers seize the opportunity first and get onto a show and the national advertisers follow,” he adds. Among the first few changes in Vijay TV’s fiction kitty is Maharani, a soap which captures the life of two orphans who were best of friends who turn to be the worst of enemies. Next, the channel launched a mythological series based on Lord Mruga - Yam Irukka Bayam Yean, (Where I am, there is no fear) for the 7-8 pm band on weekdays.

Vijay TV came up with its third fiction series in Mahan, (Greats) for the 6.30 p slot, a series based on saints. Mahan is a serial that talks about the birth, the calling, the sacrifices, the miracles, and the saintly life led by the saint. Vijay TV had planned about 60 episodes on Sri Guru Ragavendrar for Mahan, but looking at the popularity of the show, may extend it to about 90 episodes, reveals Sriram. The Tamil dubbed version of Sai Baba had been quite popular, and Vijay TV is planning about 40 episodes initially of a new Tamil production, Mahan. Based on the audience and advertisers response, the channel may increase the number of episodes. “I think we will limit the number of episodes to 90 for any saint,” adds Sriram.

The strengthening of the fiction band was completed with the launch of Meera and Yen Peyar Meenatchi (My name is Meecatchi) last week in the 8-9 pm band, thereby creating a mix of genres like mythology, super natural thriller and intense family drama. Earlier, Vijay TV had built its fiction space by bringing in leading film celebrities like Kushboo in Marumagal (Daughter-in-law), shot a soap Chamba extensively in Rajasthan and brought in innovative storylines in Kavyanjali and Nee Naan Aval (You, me and the other girl).

It ran nonfiction shows such as Kalakapovathu Vaaru, (roughly translated as Laughter Challenge) Super Singer, Jodi for the 9-10 pm time band. It’s been running the Airtel Super Singer for about three years now. Post 10 pm, the channel now targets male audiences with an investigative journalism show on current affairs, Nandanthadu-enna (What Happened) For the weekends, the channel is targeting the entire family with a mixture of non-fiction and format shows.

It is targeting the slightly older woman audiences with a cookery show at the 6-6.30 pm time band. Apart from this Vijay TV says that it is constantly exploring newer time bands in the afternoon and late prime for positing fiction shows. Adiparashakthi the miracles of Goddess Amman captured as a one-hour series on Fridays started from September 24 in the afternoon band.

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