The whole world is our play: Sunil Buch on Zindagi’s new strategy

Changes are afoot at Zindagi, the premium entertainment channel from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises stable. The channel recently underwent a revamp and is set to unveil a new primetime line-up from October 3, 2016. The fresh positioning of ‘Yeh Lamha Hi Hai Zindagi’ (earlier, ‘Jodey Dilon Ko’) impeccably resonates the content strategy which the channel has lined up post the revamp.

Zindagi went on air in June 2014 with its syndicated Pakistani telenovela ‘Aunn Zara’ and later delivered hits like ‘Shukriya’, ‘Bhaage Re Mann’, and ‘Aadhe Adhoore’, among others.

Commenting on the development, Sunil Buch, Chief Business Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said, “Our compelling content has always been our calling card. The Alpha Club numbers give us resounding encouragement that we are on the right path of providing premium entertainment. Zindagi will enhance its slate of shows from October 3, 2016.”

Key differentiators

Zindagi’s USP lies in three things:

• Quality of its content: With the rich global syndicated content from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, Zindagi has definitely opted for the niche route, where the target audience is clearly defined – the ones with a curious mind, global mindset, independent and evolved. Turkish shows ‘Feriha’ and ‘Fatmagul’ have been widely accepted by the Indian audiences.
• Finite series minus hauling tracks: What makes Zindagi unique is that the good content is sans heavy episodes which are heaved for obvious reasons – TRP trap net.
• Great storytelling merged with faultless execution.

According to Buch, “Creativity is not only about invention all the time. TV is a reflection of our society. At Zindagi, every show is not just a story, but a reflection of our life experiences. Each story is not only beautifully crafted, but also delivered with impeccable direction and utmost sensitivity and sensibility in terms of treatment and portrayal of the characters. Audiences relate to these endearing and powerful characters and index it to their own life journey, savouring every moment.”

New weekday programming

Zindagi presents finite world stories with bold narratives, which unveil universal emotions. This reflects in the new primetime slate that will launch from October 3. The new shows include a light-hearted Turkish drama, ‘Little Lord’; three Indian original shows that push societal thinking – Sunjoy Wadhwa’s Sphere Origins’ ‘TV Ke Uss Par’, ‘Khwaabon Ki Zamin Par’ by Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares and ‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’ by Gulshan Sachdeva’s Film & Shots. Bringing different cultures together is a co-production with Geo TV, titled ‘Teri Meri Jodi’. Turkish drama ‘Fatmagul’ will continue to entertain viewers.

Talking more about the duration of these shows, Buch said, “It definitely won’t follow the earlier trail of one-month duration as that proposition did not work. This time, the shows will last for around 3-6 months.”

With stories hand-picked from India, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Pakistan, Latin America and Korea, the content fare is a diverse one. Commenting on the global content, Buch maintained that this diversification was not with the intention of putting Pakistani shows at the backburner. “In fact, we aim to provide rich content from across the world. The whole world is our play,” he added.

Shedding more light on the production quality in India, he said that India had really evolved and added that our production quality was at par with other countries.

New weekend programming strategies

According to Buch, great content which has a great demand pool will always get distributed. Titled as ‘Zindagi Awesomes’, the channel will be showcasing world cinema premieres of critically-acclaimed movies such as ‘Ek Ruka Hua Faisla’, etc. To tap the festive fervour, Zindagi has lined up movies under the ‘Scintillating Cinemas’ property.

Channel positioning

Elaborating on Zindagi’s new positioning, Buch said, “‘Yeh Lamha Hi Hai Zindagi’ mirrors the essence of the word Zindagi. Anywhere in the world, life is a finite procession of moments and it is important that we live each and every one of them. There is no sense in doing Rewind – Play and lose our today, our moment in the quest of analysing/ living in the past. That’s the top line of the channel, literally. Again, a departure from traditional base lines associated with most brands/ channels and true to the thought leader grain of Zindagi.”

With even more shows on the palette, Buch is quite clear that the new shows are meant for the same set of audiences which had been defined earlier, that is, the elite classes who prefer to consume premium content and feel fatigue of watching the same shows on the channel.

He further said, “You need to define the primary audience. Our target audience would remain same, NCCS A+, 20+ among elite classes, with more women controlling the remotes of their houses. So yes, while our target audience is more skewed towards women, even men are not averse to watching them. However, we are not going mass and our primary markets would be the metro cities, with Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab being the major consumers of our content.”

Marketing

While pushing the content envelope further, Zindagi does not rest here. The channel aims to go a notch higher in terms of marketing too. The channel’s campaign will be initiated with a simple yet thought provoking catch phrase – ‘#ZindagiKehtiHai’ – which has been designed to create conversation around the life, our Zindagi. #ZindagiKehtiHai will dip in the currency of world happenings and reflect the sentiments of the people as they voice their views on everything that affects their lives. There will be a high impact roadblock across the Zee network of 33 channels on September 30. Engaging campaigns that will empower audiences will be visible across print, TV, DTH, digital, cinema, mobile and OOH.

While other channels opt for known faces to grab more eyeballs for their shows, Buch thinks otherwise. Supporting the philosophy that the story makes a star and not vice-versa, he added, “Character is always the fulcrum of any show. We have witnessed many shows retaining same TRP levels in spite of the protagonist quitting the shows. That proves that it is the story that plays a pivotal role.”

Ratings

Having garnered discerning and premium audiences, Zindagi, over the last 27 weeks has maintained its position as the No. 1 premium entertainment channel with 710 average GTVTs (Source: BARC Alpha Club ratings; TG: NCCS A1, 6 Metros, Period: WK5’ To WK 32’2016, AV GTVTs).

Buch said, “We are in the same league as Discovery and English GECs. So, the audiences who watch English GECs are not different. They come to our platform as we provide them the content which they have not seen before. And Zindagi has been the No. 1 premium Hindi GEC.”

For their bi-lingual premium audiences, Zindagi will soon be available in Hindi and English feeds. Sharing more details on it, Buch said, “Language has to merge with the content. We are the only channel to do casting for dubbing as well. And now, with an additional line-up of Indian shows, coupled with global shows, we are also planning to dub all these shows in English as well.”