Exclusive | True to its positioning: History TV18's Sangeetha Aiyer

HISTORY TV18, the leader in the factual entertainment genre has exhibited a spectacular performance once again. Besides leading viewership numbers in key markets, four of HISTORY TV18’s primetime shows feature in the top 10 shows of the genre namely; INVENTION INTERVENTION, DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH, PAWN STARS, and LAST WOMAN STANDING.

 

Invention Intervention was the 3rd top rated show with 0.17 TVR, Digging for the Truth ranked fourth with 0.15 TVR, Pawn Stars stood 6th with 0.14 TVR while Last Woman Standing was at the 9th position.

 

The most interesting part happens to be that each of these shows belongs to a different sub-genre.

 

Invention Intervention is a very different and interesting show which builds a connect with the young male audiences. Invention Intervention is exactly the kind of show where it goes to houses and figures out what kind of experiments people have tried and what they have invented in their very own backyard. It brings to forefront such gadgets and that too in an entertaining manner. Last Woman Standing is not what is expected of a typical women based show. It is a show that appeals to urban young female audiences. The show is about five athletes who are experts in their own skills and provides a dose of adrenaline rush to the audiences. Pawn Stars actually goes deep into details of how old a particular article is, what its value is today and the whole bargaining of pawnstars. Pawnstars is relevant to the Indian scenario as Indians love to negotiate and HISTORY TV18 has played upon this aspect in its communication strategy for the show. Digging for Truth unearths famous archeological mysteries.

 

“Irrespective of what the genre is, we always find a way to come up with content that Indian audiences can associate with. The best part about our programming is variety and the spectrum of content rather than the depth of content,” says Sangeetha Aiyer- General Manager, Marketing, and History TV18.

 

Talking about the novel programming approach adopted by HISTORY TV18; she says, “When we launched seven months back, the whole idea of entering the genre was to clearly grow the genre. Factual Entertainment is the only genre that has grown by 30% year on year since 2008.”

 

She further explains that HISTORY TV18 saw potential in the factual entertainment genre and decided to take it forward. Their approach has always been to not wear the niche hat with factual entertainment and to make it relatively mainstream as a content and as an entertainment option.

 

HISTORY TV18 has maintained its stance of providing fresh and never seen before kind of content effectively. Their tagline Kuch Naya Dekho –History Bante Dekho has been implemented and not merely remained on paper. The content what viewers saw on History TV18 was proof of this, in the sense that it was completely different from what other players in the genre had to offer.

 

HISTORY TV18 has created history by becoming the leader in the factual entertainment genre in 6 metros market cluster continued its  domination with an average 31% market share vis-à-vis Discovery’s 28% and Nat Geo’s 15%, while strengthening its position in the 1Mn+ markets. HISTORY TV18’s launch has also helped grow the genre by an unprecedented 60%.

 

HISTORY TV18 has been the new kid on the block when it comes to refreshing the factual entertainment genre.

 

A few years back factual entertainment was very educative covering a vast range of topics such as science, technology etc. The genre was also overfed on a dose of survival. It was at this juncture, that HISTORY TV18 arrived with different genres of adventure thrill, technology. It approached the genre with a fresh and different approach through programmes like “Food Tech”, “Sliced” etc

 

Staying true to the positioning of “Kuch Naya Dekho”  and bringing in fresh content HISTORY TV18 has introduced newer sub-genres treated very differently to audiences. It has provided exciting, relevant and most importantly Indian content with the production values matching up to international standards - a benchmark which no other player in the genre has been able to achieve.

 

HISTORY TV18 has always strived to create a more mainstream approach for factual entertainment.           “We have been available on every digital platform and cable network since the start. We have left no stone unturned. We reach out to 23 million users every week on an average. This talks about the approach that we have to the genre which is also reflected in the rating that the shows receive,” Sangeetha points out.

 

“The factual entertainment genre has immense potential and in the near future; it will be perceived as an healthier entertainment option,” noted Sangeetha.

 

She points out that the market today is extremely fragmented and to reach out to similar number of audiences, the investments have to be increased. “The fact that a channel like History TV 18 is today available in 8 languages breaks the language and geographical barriers of the factual entertainment genre. Thus, we are able to reach out to more people and provide them with content in their own language,” she remarked.

 

Commenting on future goals, Sangeetha Iyer said, “Our endeavour at HISTORY TV18 is to make factual entertainment a more relatively mainstream option. Today, as factual entertainment contributes 1.8 to 2 % as market share; as channel share we would love to see the digits go higher and that is what our objective would be.” | By Aditi Popat [aditi(at)adgully.com]