The Failure of Zee's Sawaal Dus Crore KA

"If you want to counter a successful product like KBC, you have to be doubly prepared. Increasing the

prize money alone will not do."

- Anupam Kher, commenting on the debacle of SDCK.

December 2000 was a time of sweet victory for STAR TV's1 Indian arm. Archrival Zee TV's
(Zee) desperate attempt to cash in on the gameshow2 craze with their 'Sawal Dus Crore Ka'
(SDCK), was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. SDCK, launched to counter the
success of Star's pioneering gameshow effort in India, 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'3 (KBC),
never really managed to hit it off with the audience.

The final humiliation for SDCK came in the form of the termination of the contracts of its
two anchors, Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala4. Commenting on this, Zee sources said,
"Both anchors continued to lack the rapport and harmony ever since the launch of the show
and it is sad that their individual ego should have marred or impaired the world's largest to
be entertainment show."

Soon after the termination, Anupam Kher filed an injunction suite in the Mumbai High Court
against the channel claiming that the channel could not air the show without him as host.
However, the court rejected Kher's plea.
Reacting to Zee TV's comments on SDCK's failure being due to his and Manisha's
incompetence, Anupam Kher said, "When they have anyway thrown the two of us out, why
not go on with the existing format if we alone are to be blamed for its failure?" Manisha
Koirala also came out strongly against SDCK and Zee in the media. She remarked, "When I
first caught the telecast of SDCK in the second week of November, I was appalled by its
poor and tacky production.

There were flies sitting on the participant's faces and many of them were sweating not
because of tension but heat in the studio." Though plans of revamping SDCK and of signing
new anchors to host the show were made public, Zee TV eventually pulled the program off
the air. Having drawn criticism from all quarters, Zee TV was forced to rethink its strategy
to win the Indian television TRP5 wars.

The Background
Zee TV, a Hindi television channel from Zee Telefilms Ltd. (ZTL) was launched in October
1993. ZTL was originally incorporated as Empire Holdings Limited in 1982. The company
dealt mainly in leasing, hire purchase and other financial services until 1992, when the
company was reincorporated after its memorandum of association was modified to include
new businesses. The company was then re-christened ZTL. In the 1990s, the Government
did not allow private channels to uplink from India.
Therefore, Subhash Chandra, CEO, ZTL, co-promoted Asia Today Limited (ATL) with a
capital base of $ 11 million, contributed by a consortium of NRIs. ATL was incorporated in
Hong Kong to broadcast ZTL's channels. ZTL's channels included Zee TV, Zee Music, Zee
English, Zee MGM, Zee News, ZED TV, Zee Cinema, Siticable and the Alpha range of
regional language channels. Launched in December 1991, Star Plus was the fifth channel
from the STAR TV Network.

STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation6, was Asia's leading multi-platform
content and service provider. STAR TV channels included Star Chinese Channel, Phoenix
Chinese Channel, Star Plus, Star World, Channel [V], ESPN, Star Sports, Star Movies, Star
GOLD, Phoenix Movies, VIVA Cinema and Star News, in addition to distributed channels
Fox News, Sky News and National Geographic Channel. In July 1993, News Corp acquired
63.6% stake in Star, and a further 36.4% stake in February 1995. In January 1994, News
Corp entered into a strategic alliance with Zee and bought a 49.9% stake in ATL.
This alliance agreement limited Hindi programs on STAR to a maximum of 50% of its total
program time. Similarly, Zee was to limit its English programs to 50% in its channels. In
1999, Zee bought News Corp's stake in ATL, Siticable and Program Asia Trading Co. (Patco)
for a consideration of Rs 1.26 billion, making the three companies wholly owned subsidiaries
of ZTL. In February 2001, STAR TV was re-christened to STAR.

The Star Offensive – KBC

When Star Plus was launched, it offered drama, comedy, talk shows, documentaries and
mystery movies solely in English. However, the channel failed to become as popular as the
channels offering programs in Hindi. Star realized that it was handicapped by its image of
being a foreign channel catering only to the cosmopolitan English speaking population. To
increase its presence in the Indian market Star began a daily two-hour Hindi program band.
Star Plus' move to 'go Indian' met with a mixed response from the viewers.
While fans of the earlier programming mix lashed out strongly against the channel, the
media described this as Star's desperate attempt to garner viewership. Though initially the
move was criticized, Star Plus' smart and consumer oriented programming (a mix of soaps
and Bollywood based programs) won over the viewers. Soon, Star Plus and Zee TV emerged
as the hottest contenders for the Indian satellite television market leadership.

Rivalry between the two channels on the TRP and ad revenue fronts became a routine
feature in the media. Zee TV's programs consistently fared well in the TRP ratings war.
According to Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) Peoplemeter ratings, in August 1998,
even Star's popular programs such as The News, Tu Tu Main Main and Saans had taken a
beating from Zee's top 10 programs like Amanat and Hum Paanch.
Star Plus sought the help of research agency MARG to improve its TRP ratings. MARG
stressed on a new brand positioning for the channel to garner more viewership. On MARG's
advice, Star Plus launched the biggest game show in Indian television history 'Kaun Banega
Crorepati' (KBC)7. It was hosted by none other than Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
Overnight, KBC pushed Star Plus into the leadership position. Channel audience share
peaked to a high of 8.7% during the eight weeks beginning July 2nd 2000, compared with
Sony TV's 7.2% and Zee TV's 6.8%.
By September 2000, the channel had 12 of its shows on the top 50 charts. In the top 20
program list, Star Plus had 8 programs, versus Zee's 9 and Sony's 3, as compared to the pre-
KBC figures of 12 shows for Zee, 5 for Sony and just 3 for Star Plus. From November 2000,
Star managed to occupy 12 top slots in the TRP ratings.

Post KBC, the image of Star Plus as foreign channel changed considerably with viewers
switching in hordes to the channel. Riding high on the success of KBC, Star Plus launched
follow-up programs for KBC to sustain viewer interest in the channel. The prime time slot was
changed from 9-10 to 9-11 with two family dramas8 being aired right after KBC.

This succeeded in retaining the viewership of the channel. Putting KBC in the prime time slot
(9-10 p.m.) paid off for the channel, largely at the expense of Zee TV's prime time slots.
Sony also suffered to an extent and had to revamp its prime time serial slots, but it was Zee,
which faced the maximum erosion in its primetime viewership ratings.

The Zee Defensive – SDCK

KBC's success changed the ground rules in the TRP race between the television channels.
Zee TV had to pool all its resources to combat the effect of KBC. Zee even changed the
timings of its popular prime time soaps. To lure back the audience lost due to the KBC
effect, Zee launched its Malamaal9 interactive contest. However, the promotion did not do
the trick for Zee, and the KBC menace continued to eat into its TRP ratings and ad
revenues. It was at this time that Zee TV decided that it had to come out with a program,
which could match KBC. Thus was born Sawal Dus Crore Ka (SDCK).

Zee seemed to have hit the wrong note from the very beginning, when it decided to make
SDCK a replica of KBC with Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala as anchors. To lure away KBC
viewers, Zee decided to feed on their greed by offering prize money of Rs 100 million to the
winner, as against KBC's Rs 10 million, giving the show a tremendous response initially.
SDCK had inaugural TRP ratings of 7.9 when it was launched in October 2000. However, it
slipped down to 3.7 within 3 weeks. During the same period, KBC moved up from 9.3 to
10.5. SDCK was never able to reach the rating of its inaugural show in its short lifespan.
SDCK failed to sustain the viewer's interest in the show from the very beginning. Also, its
anchors could not match the charisma and screen presence of Amitabh Bachchan. SDCK
was aired on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. putting it in direct
competition with KBC, which was aired on all weekdays, except on Friday10, between 9:00
and 10:00 p.m. Media analysts commented that SDCK had failed to capture the imagination
of the audience. The me-too image of the show was seen as a major hindrance to its
popularity.

SDCK sets looked similar to KBC's with the same seating arrangement and similar blue
lighting. But there were undefined arches under which the contestants seemed to disappear.
Even the audience section was badly lit. On the program content front, SDCK's elimination
rounds were confusing - making things long and dull for the viewers. The language of the
questions seemed to be complicated to the viewers. It seemed as if even simple questions
were complicated, and this seemed to create confusion in the minds of the audience.

Instead of the 'three lifelines' of KBC, SDCK had three trumps; instead of 'lock kiya jaye,' it
was 'freeze kiya jaye.'11 There seemed to be no spontaneity in the show as the anchors
failed to strike a comfortable relationship with the participants. Lack of a healthy working
relationship between the two anchors also marred the show. Some analysts felt that the
presence of two anchors created confusion. Viewers seemed to be irritated when both
anchors spoke at the same time.

Gajendra Singh, Director, SDCK commented, "They had massive ego clashes and I think it
showed on screen." The anchors failed to win over the audience, whereas KBC's anchor, with
his immense popularity, had completely won over the viewers. There was an also lot of
audience interaction in KBC, which seemed to be missing in SDCK. Before launching KBC,
Star Plus had spent months preparing Amitabh Bachchan for the show. However, according
to Anupam Kher, they could not rehearse for even three weeks before the shooting of the
show commenced.

Meanwhile, KBC gave SDCK a tough time by airing 'special' shows with Bollywood celebrities
on the occasion of Diwali and New Year. Considering the show's miserable TRP ratings, and
the fact that it was drawing flak from all quarters, Zee TV announced the termination of its
contracts with both Anupam Kher and Manisha Koirala after 26 shows were aired. It said it
was doing this because the poor working relationship between the two had affected the show
badly. The channel also announced that it was discontinuing the present format of SDCK.
It said it planned to re-launch the show with new anchors after re-conceptualising and re-
formatting it. Media reports indicated that Zee TV had actually worked out on an altogether
new format12 with a mega-appeal interface between anchor and the contestant. However,
the rising popularity of another game show, this time on Sony, named 'Jeeto Chappar Phad
Ke,' (JCPK)13 forced Zee to scrap SDCK permanently.
Reality Bites
In January 2001, all the Star channels were blocked for two weeks by cable operators
getting their feed from Siticable, cable network. Media reports indicated that SDCK's failure
had prompted Zee to use its arm Siticable, to harm KBC's TRPs by preventing it from
reaching viewers. (Another view was that Star, riding high on the success of KBC,
demanded higher payment for relaying its channels and stopped feeding them to operators,
mainly Siticable, who refused to oblige.) Though Star's viewership did suffer as Siticable
commanded 17% of the cable business, it stood its ground, forcing Zee to make peace.
Following this, Siticable officials had a meeting with Star officials and reached an agreement
to restore Star channels. Having finally accepted the fact that SDCK was a bad dream to be
forgotten, Zee seemed to be moving on. The channel announced plans to launch a totally
new concept in Indian television with the first homegrown reality television show,14 'Prisoner
of War' (PoW). PoW was based on reality shows like Survivor, which were being aired in
Hindi and English by AXN channel. POW was supposed to test the endurance and ingenuity
of nine contestants, and was to be shot entirely on location at a specially constructed, huge
set at the Subhash Chandra owned EsselWorld in Mumbai.

Sinha, Vice President (Marketing), Zee TV remarked, "Reality TV show has already proved
its credentials in the West, becoming the most popular genre of television ever. We are
today presenting the future of Indian television." Zee TV planned to launch PoW in the near
future. With KBC still going strong on the TRPs front, it remained to be seen whether PoW
would succeed in dethroning KBC from the number one slot.