Indian idol hits ad revenues of saas bahu brigade

Backed by high TRPs reality talent hunt show 'Indian Idol,' aired on Sony Entertainment Television from October 2004 to March 5, succeeded in hitting ad revenues of saas bahu soaps beamed daily on Star Plus channel of Star TV. The Rs 1,750-crore advertising revenue market for Hindi daily soaps has fallen by about five percent in the last few months.

Apart from the grand finale, on March when it was the second most watched show on television after Star Plus' Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Th, the programme has been has been consistently achieving high TRPs since the first show was telecast.

Indian Idol garnered the maximum viewers in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. TAM figures reveal that 53 per cent of the total TV audience in North, West and East India watched the final episode of Indian Idol. The show saw a consistent rise in the ratings from October onwards and therein managed to increase the share of Sony. 21.8 on 7 January to 53.7 on 5 March.

Sony Entertainment television is gung ho on the response and is most likely to go in for a repeat of the programme.

With the success of Indian Idol analysts say daily soaps may be losing their popularity as viewer fatigue has set in. The broad product categories that are advertised in daily soaps are FMCG, banking, automobiles, food & beverage, telecom and lifestyle.