Indian Idol 3’ opens with 3.66, but SET still at number 3

Indian Idol’, Sony AdvertisementEntertainment Television’s (SET’s) prize horse, is back on the track. Expectations were high that the show would help SET regain its number two slot among the general entertainment channels (GECs). Though the show, which opened with a TVR of 3.66 on May 4, certainly helped the channel increase its share in the time slot, it couldn’t catapult SET out of the number 3 slot.
As per TAM Media Research (C&S, 4+, HSM), the show managed a TVR of 3.67 with the second episode on May 5, and its channel share in the 9-10pm slot on Friday and Saturday went up from 8.33 per cent in the previous week to 28.16 per cent in Week 18 among GECs. But overall, for the whole week, the show could increase SET’s market share by only a few marginal percentage points from 12.55 per cent in Week 17 to 13.33 per cent in Week 18, the week when the show was aired.In comparison, the other two lead channels – STAR Plus and Zee TV – garnered a channel share of 37.25 per cent and 24.71 per cent, respectively.
Close watchers of the industry expect the competition to heat up for ‘Indian Idol’ once STAR’s ‘Voice of India’ is on air. “It’s already competing with ‘Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ on Zee TV, which is also a talent hunt show for singers,” says Tarun Nigam, executive director, North, Starcom.Analysing the reasons for ‘Indian Idol’s’ not so great performance, a senior media planner says, “The first two episodes of ‘Indian Idol 3’ had too much reality in them, probably the promoters served too much ‘masala’, which might have killed the appetite.”