Adgully Exclusive | We worked very closely on The Lady Gaga episode: Star World's Saurabh Yagnik

Star World with a renewed strength derived from its diverse programming line up, is writing new success stories. The channel boasts of being the number one channel across the digital homes in the English entertainment genre. Star World's recent launch of the mega-reality show MasterChef Australia 3 opened with a grand hike in rating and was the top-rated property in the 9 pm time-slot across English entertainment channels.

Talking about the show, Saurabh Yagnik, General Manager & Senior VP, English Channels, Star India Pvt. Ltd., tells Adgully, "MasterChef Australia 3 is going to be one of our driver shows for the period that it will be on-air. It is also our flagship property, so we are expecting that we should double our ratings compared to the show's season 2 ratings."

The channel is banking upon digital media in a massive way to promote the show. "Digital medium is the main and the wholesome backbone of our marketing strategy for MasterChef Australia 3. We have over 165,000 people following us on Facebook and so much of our content is discussed over Twitter. Especially MasterChef Australia is a very popular show on the digital space, so a large portion of our communication will be focused on digital media," he adds.

The channel is also looking at a consumer feedback tool, which will be soon launched. The tool will be a new Facebook app, called the Viewer Partner Program (VPP), to engage with the audiences.

The new tool will be a structured way of getting feedback. It will be an interactive Facebook application, which will facilitate a customized research on the channels programming content, relevance of advertisements, as well as initiatives such as customized show promos.

Yagnik adds, "We always have a two-way conversation with our viewers, we engage with our audiences, we take their views and we respond back to them. We have about 80% active Facebook fans. Moreover there is going to be an on-ground leg for all our properties."

Star World also raised quite a few eyebrows, some went up in surprise wile some seemed doubtful, when the channel ran promos with Lady Gaga speaking in Hindi. The show- Simi Selects India's Most Desirable's Lady Gaga episode finally went live on the 21st of August, where the lady with a masked identity was seen talking about love, fame and emotions that identify with the real person that she is. "We have gone about creating the necessary buzz that already got our viewers curious. We worked together on the format; it has not been very difficult to put together content which is acceptable to both the sides. The show is very differentiated and uniquely packaged," says Yagnik.

In October the channel will be launching Steven Spielberg's sci-fi tele series Terra Nova. The show will be launched in India within 10 days of it being launched in the USA.

Yagnik confidently adds, " We have a very wide variety and depth of content that we bring to the table."

While signing off he says that the DNA of the channel will always remain international and even the locally produced content will be a premium offering with a very Hollywood like appeal.

"Our objective is to build consumption by building relatability and relevance. We are looking at how we can take our shows on-ground or more closer to our audiences and amplify it," he adds. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]