SABe TV, promoted by the Adhikari brothers, is planning a major programming push timed to kick off 14 May. Film heroine Karisma Kapoor will be promoting the Hindi entertainment channel as its brand ambassador.
SABe TV, which claims it holds the number four spot in the Hindi channel stakes after Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television, is hoping its new initiative will raise a serious challenge to the Big Three.
And how is it going about it? Appointment viewing is what all the channels are looking for and SABe TV hopes to drive home (a car is just one of the prizes to be won) to the viewer that there are rewards in tuning in to the channel. To add to this, there are also a number of new shows that the channel is introducing.
Questions relating to the programmes on air will be asked at the end of each show to which viewers will have to send in their answers. The fix is that the questions will relate to what transpired during the episode that just aired and will not be general questions. Therefore to win anything participants will have to watch the programmes in full.
A month of regular watching will get the viewers familiar enough with the plot lines of the shows on air to make them want to continue watching them is the premise SABe TV appears to be working on.
There are a whole host of prizes to be won during the promotion. The bumper prize will be an apartment in Mumbai. The other big prizes include a luxury car, an all expenses paid foreign trip for two families and a diamond set. Raj Travels is sponsoring the trips and the diamonds are from Sparkle. Adhikari says talks are still on for a sponsor for the apartment as well as the car but whether it comes through or not these prizes will definitely be handed over to the winners.
Apart from the main prizes, other prizes include a week's stay at the Holiday Inn in Goa, and various home appliances which will be given away on a daily basis during the on air event period which is 14 May to 10 June.
Keeping with the theme of the more you watch the more you win, it will be the participants with the maximum number of correct entries who will be in line to take home the big prize, Adhikari points out.
NEW PROGRAMMES: A drama serial Dulhan produced by Rakhee Tandon and directed by Ravi Kemu will go on air from 17 May slotted at 8:30 PM every Thursday. Dulhan is about a contractual marriage and raises critical questions about the institution of marriage, according to a company release.
Whole new episodes of the fantasy and costume drama Alif Laila, based on the Arabian Nights, will go on air from 21 May at 7:30 PM and will be telecast Monday to Friday. Sagar Arts have been commissioned to produce 786 new episodes, which have never been shown before on any television network.
Two mega historicals - Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra and Sati Savitri have already started on SabeTV from 6 May airing every Sunday between 11 am and 12 noon.
To round of the list, the channel plans to introduce two new daily dramas by the end of June. It is also in the middle of conceptualising a new genre of programmes (Adhikari said he didn't want to reveal anything about what it involved at the moment) which will be launched some time in the second half of the year.
SABe TV's effort is to increase viewer recognition of what the channel has to offer. And what effect the new programming push will have on TRPs will be closely watched.
