Adgully Exclusive | Redefining History: History TV18's Ajay Chacko

The collaboration was done with the distinctive presence of the Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief IBN18 Network, Ajay Chacko, President, A+E Networks | TV18, Ritu Kapur, Head of Programming, AETN18 along with Salman Khan who unveiled the initiatives.

Speaking to Adgully on the occasion, Ajay Chacko, President, A+E Networks said, "The initiatives truly exemplify what HISTORY TV18 stands for - the celebration of human spirit to succeed & achieve against odds - to make History. While 'HISTORY HAR DIN' celebrates the human spirit through achievements of regular people, "The Greatest Indian' commemorates those who have made invaluable contribution to the nation, through popular vote. Through these initiatives, we believe we will make significant inroads towards our objective of broad basing the genre."

"HISTORY HAR DIN', is an innovative UGC (user generated content) concept where viewers are invited to share instances from their life when they too have made history. The pioneering format is a first by any factual entertainment channel in the country and is based on the channel's brand position of "History Made Everyday'. That 'history' is more about achievement and is made every day by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Through this initiative, viewers are invited to share images or videos that capture their life's biggest successes, turning points, most inspiring & endearing moments or just plain fun experiences - anything which they believe were points in time when they truly created 'History'. Entries can be submitted through a simple process by visiting HistoryHarDin.in.com. The best "history making' stories will be telecast on HISTORY TV18 in the coming months. Unveiling this initiative,Salman Khan shared an image from his personal collection.

Explaining the concept of "History Har Din', Chacko said, "Before launching this platform we did a lot of work on ground and went to the people to understand how we can involve them. One of the ideas that we did was that, we went and ask them who they think is the most impactful figure in the history. We actually went to 1000-2000 people and one constant answer that we received was that "it does not matter much to me what someone else has done but I have done this thing at some point of time in my life and that is history for me.' So, the whole genesis of the idea is based in the insight that its very personal thing; this history is not only about the achievements of others, it's also about their own achievements. For outsiders, those achievements could be small but for an individual it's big. People believe that they have been impacted by history more personally and that's why we thought to create this platform for people to share what they believe is historical in their life or what history they have made or what history people close to them have made."

Adding further he said, "Today in India almost 65-70% population are under 30 and for them 1990's been the past, for them it's not relevant that they can think on daily basis. Here we are trying to say that, history is all about achievements and can be of anyone. The whole programming proposition is about achievements, and we are not changing the definition of 'history' but changing the lens. Our core audience are younger audience, 15 plus to 30 who will consume it. We have half a million Facebook community now that something couldn't have happened if we do not change the lens. The channel is about unexpected things and more than that is about, fun, action and adventure as well."

While HISTORY HAR DIN is about regular everyday people, HISTORY TV18's first joint production with CNN IBN "The Greatest Indian' features India's best known faces. The initiative is set to trigger a national debate on the one question: Who is the greatest Indian after Independence? The show format is based on a path-breaking series featured on BBC called "The Greatest Briton'. Launched in 2002 in the UK, the initiative reached out to millions of viewers and broke significant viewership records there. An astounding 21 countries have successfully adopted this format since then, and it now promises to create History here in India too!

Commenting on the partnership with HISTORY TV18, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief IBN18 Network said, "At CNN IBN, we have always believed in celebrating the idea of India with all its unmatched diversity. What better way than to partner HISTORY TV18 in this path-breaking program to find out who is the greatest Indian after Gandhi. In today's world of social media, every Indian has a chance to be part of this inclusive debate and we hope that millions will join us in this exciting adventure." Speaking about the same, Chacko said, "The idea is that we would be using CNN IBN as the platform for debates, like if even a name thrown up by vote, then why should that person. Debate would be for the 'Greatest Indian' where a person would be voted not just for fame but also for his/ her contribution towards society. CNN IBN is at the best to have this kind of debates."

Having been available in 6 languages, besides English, HISTORY TV18 will now be available in Urdu as well, thereby making the channel's content available in 8 languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangali, Gujarati, Marathi & Urdu) , a first for any international channel in the country! "In India 27 million people watch Urdu and language availability is very simple these days due to DTH. So, places like Jammu Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh which are huge Urdu speaking communities, we basically want to target them by giving them option of watching Urdu. When I say younger audiences that doesn't mean that we are going to alienate the older audiences, this is one of the ways to get them involved who were not there with us because of language issues or other. Our language experiment is all towards broad basing the genre even further and that's the objective of this. Through our languages we are looking at Indian sub continentals as well such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and various other places too", he said.

Adding to the event's 'glam quotient' was Salman Khan who said , "HISTORY TV18 successfully created a special place for itself in the minds of the Indian audience with its edgy, lively, fast-paced and differentiated mix of programming content. The channel has already begun to whet the audience's appetite for more of its kind. With the launch of these two initiatives, HISTORY TV18 is all set to engage with viewers in more ways than one."

For History 18, getting advertisers and subscription revenues are the two challenges that they face, as India begins to get digitized even on television today and the developments on technology sectors like 4G coming in. "People today do access content on their mobiles, tablets and such handy devices and this will continue. To get people aware through traditional media like Print, TV, hoardings is not only the way as the brand has to have its presence in social media, like Facebook. We are building communities on Facebook and till now I think we are the only factual community to have half a million people on our Facebook page", concluded, Chacko. | By Ranjana Gupta [ranjana(at)adgully.com] & Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]