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Star TV to spend Rs 50 cr to promote new-look

Rupert Murdoch-owned Star TV plans to spend in excess of Rs 50 crore in promoting its new-look prime channel Star Plus over the next one year. Another Rs. 30 crore is expected to be put in on-air advertising, including cross-promotions across Star’s bouquet of channels.

Of the total advertising pie for the channel, the prime-time Amitabh Bachchan-anchored Kaun Banega Crorepati will hog the limelight with an advertising budget of up to Rs. 15 crore over the next one year. News Television India (Star’s India arm) senior vice-president advertising sales and marketing (Star Plus) Sumantro Dutta said the all-Hindi Star Plus will account for around 70 per cent of total advertising spent by the company in India.

With Star TV planning to increase penetration into Indian homes riding piggyback on the popularity of the mega-show and the attendant hype surrounding Big B, Star Plus is expected to account for 70 per cent of the revenue kitty by 2001. The prime channel’s present contribution to the kitty is around 60 per cent. Dutta said Star Plus has experienced a 40 per cent growth in advertising and sales revenue in 1999-2000. This is expected to go up by 100 per cent in the current fiscal. "This is an investment year for us. From 2001-2002 we expect our revenues to grow at around 200 percent per annum," Dutta added.

With its renewed thrust in the Indian market, Star TV expects to more than double its viewership size over the next one year. "This will help us to be the number one channel in India, in the process bypassing Zee and Sony," Dutta said. The programming budget for Star Plus has also seen a step-up, shooting up nearly five times to that of last year, Dutta said.

The channel has received very good response for Kaun Banega Crorepati ever since it launched its promos towards the end of last month. "We have received over 30 lakh phone calls in the last one month," Dutta said. There will be four sponsors for the show, he added. Kaun Banega Crorepati will be aired four times a week, Monday to Thursday at 9 pm.

Dutta said the all-Hindi Star Plus will focus on being a family entertainment channel. The only news programme will be the one anchored by Rajat Sharma at 11 pm. Popular bilingual programmes like Fast Track and India Show may make a come back with an all Hindi-do at a later date.

Sudipto Dey