Exclusive | Channel V's Kamath on a 'Correct Hai' drive...!

The refresh bug seems to have bitten the STAR India network. Post the refresh of STAR Sports earlier this month, the network owned Channel V is also following the same suit. Starting November 25, the channel is all set to don a refreshed logo along with an unusual tagline, new packaging and fresh new show line-up. It was just about 17 months ago, that Channel V had moved from a youth music and entertainment channel to becoming a youth general entertainment channel.

Adgully caught up with Prem Kamath, Head, Channel V to know more about the refresh and the other activities happening around the same.

Speaking about the change that happened in July 2012 for Channel V, Kamath said, “July 2012 is definitely a landmark date for the channel. But 2009 is when the journey of change actually began. From 2009 onwards, we started reducing our music content and started to do new shows, but music was still about 75 – 80% of our content till then. So from then on, our music content had been coming down quarter on quarter, until July 2012 when we stopped playing music completely. Hence from then on, we are focusing on youth centred shows. This strategy worked for us, because that differentiated us from other music-focused channels that were usually considered our competitions. So from then on, we have seen six-fold growth in market share and revenues as well.”

The current refresh, Kamath said, is a replacement cycle, where some shows are being replaced with new ones, in order to cater to the demand on variety with an aim not only to bring in new viewers, but retain the old ones as well. “There will be four new shows on the channel from the 25th of this month. 'Sadda Haq' will be a daily show that would air from Monday to Friday at 6:30 pm, 'Confessions of an Indian teenager', 'Paanch' and 'Relationship Status-It's Complicated' will be telecast twice a week. Except ‘Sadda Haq’, the other shows are bi-weekly short formats and will wind up in 26 weeks. The bi-weekly format is, we believe a new format to be explored on Indian television space. This move works two –ways; since its a finite period show it is beneficial to the producer who can contract people at different rates to complete the shoot in a smaller time frame which in-turn helps in scaling the channel’s economy. Secondly, there is an urgency of sorts that is needed within the youth segment.  The need for refreshing and new stories and content is at a much quicker pace than a regular Hindi GEC. So, shorter format shows would help us catering to this need and help us bring more variety on the channel along with the liberty to experiment with multiple genres”, Kamath said.

'Suvreen Guggal' and 'Crazy Stupid Ishq' go off air making way for the new shows at the same time slot. Confessions of an Indian Teenager, is about a young boy Vaibhav, who takes the viewers on a journey to meet teenagers and share their dilemmas that result from the peer pressure in this ‘first life stage’ of growing up. The show will be aired Monday & Tuesday at 6PM. Paanch - Don't get Mad, Get Even, is about the shy 18-year old Roshni, who enters a college in Mumbai to 'right some wrongs'. To avenge a deep wound from the past, she transforms herself into someone she isn't: unforgiving and brutal. This will aired on Wednesday and Thursday 6PM. Relationship status-It's Complicated is about three boys and three girls who land into each others’ life when they become next door neighbors. Once their initial euphoria settles, they discover that there is a lot more to their relationship that needs to be understood. This show will be aired on Friday and Saturday at 6PM. Sadda Haq, is about a young Delhi girl Sanyukta, who challenges the patriarchal world around her and breaks all the stereotypes. Despite hailing from a very conservative family, she makes her way to a premier engineering college and thus begins her journey in the challenging all-boys world, where less than 10 per cent of the students are girls. The show will be aired from Monday to Friday at 6.30 pm. Buddy Project, Dil Dosti Dance and Gumrah will continue to be aired on their current slots.

Speaking about the new tagline and refreshed logo, Kamath said, “The logo colour remains the same pink, with a top left fold saying ‘All new Channel V’, but the 

The channel has already begun communicating the change through their Facebook page which has crossed over 3mn fans. They have also created a blog for the show 'Confessions of an Indian teenager' where they have received good response. “We are focusing mainly on television and digital as our lead mediums to reach out to our audience as we believe that the viewer needs to ‘feel’ the message and not just ‘see’ an outdoor hoarding or a flashy newspaper front page! Hence all our marketing activities revolve around this notion.” The channel has also invested heavily in brand films (shot by Chrome films) with a clear aim to highlight and promote the core insight of the refresh ‘Correct Hai’.