SAB to reposition itself as family-oriented comedy channel

Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, Aug. 29 Multi Screen Media’s SAB TV is repositioning itself as a family-oriented comedy channel with the hope that men continue to watch its programmes for the comedy and women let them watch it. Because, at the end of the day, says Mr Anooj Kapoor, Business Head, SAB TV, it’s the woman who still holds control over the remote in the single TV household. SAB is hoping the exercise will differentiate itself amongst advertisers.

The channel will have all new programming during prime time come October. It has already introduced three new programmes on its prime time slot, 8-10 p.m., and is to announce one more that will replace the youth-targeted drama Left Right Left. The channel has realised that youth programming is very restrictive, says Mr Kapoor. “And there are too may distractions and options for the youth today. And in the single TV household, the remote is still wielded by the housewife,” says Mr Kapoor.

Its audience research indicated that the SAB brand was often associated with the comedy programmes that it had hosted in the past. So the thrust is on daily family comedies with linear story lines, with strong women protagonists. “The number lies with the female audiences,” explains Mr Kapoor.

“Men are active viewers of comedies, and women passive. And it’s the reverse for family soaps. We are hoping to combine both, and draw in the entire family to our new programming,” he says. Work is on all kinds of fiction comedy including a horror-comedy and a hospital-comedy. It has also started airing Charlie Chaplin series on Fridays and the dubbed version of international comedy shows like Home Improvement and My wife and kids. Weekends will also see both Hindi comedy movies, which, Mr Kapoor pointed out, have done very well at theatres in the recent past and dubbed English comedies too.

Mr Kapoor believes the new programming will attract home appliance makers, holiday package sellers and FMCG advertisers. “We would be promoting the positive aspect of a joint family, the values that you saw in Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Sooraj Barjatya films, which would be a seamless fit with the communication of brands like Whirlpool, Kurkure or Tata Tea,” says Mr Kapoor.

The channel claims to have maintained its TV rating points over the last six months. Though the channel share has dropped, Mr Kapoor points out that the pie has grown with the entry of the new general entertainment channels such as Colors, 9X and NDTV Imagine.

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