MUMBAI: In the cash-guzzling Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space, the first six-months of the year remained fiercely competitive. Imagine TV closed down operations, the second position in the GEC hierarchy was hotly contested, realistic fiction shows gained attention and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan made his debut on television with a socially meaningful show.

On 12 April Turner International finally gave up its Hindi GEC business in India, shuttering Imagine TV after running massive losses. With Imagine TV, Turner?s ambition of having a presence in the GEC genre also ceased. Earlier it had made a futile attempt with Real, a channel launched with the Alva brothers as joint venture partners.

?We have already seen channels like Zee Next, 9X, Real and now Imagine TV exiting the space. GEC is a high investment genre. The players will have to constantly deliver innovative programming in fiction as well as non-fiction to be successful,? says a media observer.

Star India also closed its second GEC, Star One, and started afresh under the brand Life OK. Launched in December last year, Life OK climbed fast and crossed the 100 GRP mark. Sony also progressed strongly as its fiction properties started delivering.

?Life OK established very fast. Achieving and maintaining over 100 GRPs in less than six months shows a good plan there. Moreover, what it essentially means is that now from a five-player game, we have moved to a six-channel market,? observes Ormax Media co-founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor.

In the programming segment, there was a new focus towards fiction properties with a realistic perspective. Though the trend started sometime last year with shows like Bade Acche Lagte Hain (Sony Entertainment Television) and Diya Aur Baati Hum (Star Plus), shows like Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha (Colors), Parvarish (Set) and Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke (Zee TV) have capitalised on this need gap.

?There has been a definite movement towards light-hearted treatment of content. Stories may still be based around families and social change, but the treatment is less heavy and emotional than what it was before,? avers Kapoor.

Weekend entertainment programming had a mixed menu. While there were singing and dancing based reality shows (Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and DID L?il Master), a few channels also showcased Fear Files, CID and Crime Patrol (extended to 3 days a week).

?There is a significantly big universe opening up for crime / thrill based content, especially with the youth and the lower SECs,? a senior media executive observes.

Reality shows entered a tricky phase, with no fresh ideas coming up.?There is clearly a fatigue as far as reality shows are concerned. What we are seeing are seasonal properties while there are no good new formats. Even Survivor India on Star Plus couldn?t captivate audiences. We seem to have saturated the formats available to us,? the executive adds.

Hindi general entertainment channels also started exploring some of the unexploited time bands. Star Plus, for instance, launched the Aamir Khan show, Satyamev Jayate, on Sunday afternoons. Zee TV is also readying to air Ramayana on the same time slot.

Hindi GECs continued with the practice, started late last year, of reducing the movie airings. ?GECs have comparatively reduced the movie premieres for achieving spikes. But being a GEC, the need to showcase good movies definitely remain,? a media observer points out.

In recent times, both Star India and Zee have shifted their big ticket premieres on to their movie offerings (Star Gold, Movies OK and Zee Cinema).

Has the ad slowdown affected the Hindi GECs? ?FMCG will continue to spend big on GECs. So even if television as a whole may see 8-10 per cent ad growth, GECs will do better. Also, the automobile industry has a lot of launches lined up and they will increase their spends,? avers Zee Entertainment Enterprises chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal.

Agrees Star India president-ad sales Kevin Vaz, ?There will be categories and genres which will be impacted but Hindi GEC and movie genres will not be affected. The reason being that the core category ? FMCG ? is growing aggressively. All the players ? ITC, P&G, HUL, Marico, Dabur - are spending money. Moreover, automobile is also shifting focus from print to TV. In April-June quarter, all four telecom players have also upped their spends.?