Television has revolutionised the way we as an audience accept content. There was a time when we were forced to watch shows what Doordarshan, the sole broadcaster produced. We had no other choice, no ways to change or criticize content. But now the scenario has completely changed. With Digitization being made mandatory all over, we are offered more than 500 channels to watch with a broad range of content. We have choice to switch channels when we don't find the content what we like or what we expect to be delivered. We have all possible means to change or at least influence channels to change story lines by interactions on social platforms like Facebook pages. But the point here is the sustainment of a channel with its content amongst the other 499 channels. Here i would like to give an example of the channel "STAR ONE". What went wrong for Star One ????
STAR ONE was the Hindi GEC ( General Entertainment Channel) from the Star Bouquet owned by News Corporation and Fox International Channels. It was launched on 1st November 2004 with an amazing content targeting the upper class niche audience. It was the only channel at that moment to keep its target audience a niche. The strategy and the content did wonders for the channels launch. Some of its remarkable shows that helped star one gain foothold amongst the competitors at the launch were Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai's produced by Hatsoff Productions, Remix produced by Rose Audio Visual productions, Hotel Kingston, Guns and roses, Special squad and India calling. Amongst these, Sarabhai's and Remix were the top most rated and awarded shows for Star One getting the channel immense popularity. When Star One was at its best, it made the most worst decisions ever. Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai went off air due to some financial issues between the channel and producers. Slowly all of its best shows including Remix and Hotel Kingston were pulled off and suddenly Star One switched itself from niche targeted channel to a youth channel.
Naturally the TRP's fell. But Star one returned with a bang with the launch of Instant Khichdi, Dill Mill Gayye, Miley Jab Hum Tum and some others making it best channel under the youth segment. Amongst it, Dill Mill Gayye gained the maximum TRP's of 1.8 for the channel followed by Miley Jab Hum Tum. But Star One did it once again. It swayed away from the youth category and got shows like Rang Badalti Odhani and Geet which later though gained immense popularity for the channel. So now it was a mix of youth and saas-bahu drama. Star One loosed a large audience every time it played with its content. The greatest audience loss was when its super popular show Dill Mill Gayye went off Air due to lagging Storyline. Which was followed by Miley Jab Hum Tum. The newly launched Vampire saga Pyaar ki yeh ek kahaani and geet could not fetch the required TRP's for the channel and it always stood at number six with maximum grps between 50-80.
Finally Star One pulled the plug on all of its shows. It was supposed to be Re-Branded into completely new channel. Viewers were disappointed as all of thier favourite shows were gonna end abruptly. Pyaar ki yeh ek kahaani and Geet hui sabse paraayi were the last two shows aired by star one on 18th December 2011 after which it ceased operations in India. And then Life OK was born.
Here we can see that how a single wrong decision can decide the fate of a channel. Had Star One sticked to its original content and re-gained its super popular shows, it would definitely be one of the top TRP grosser amongst the youth category at least. Star One failed to understand its audience and what it demanded. The constant shift of genres and content ultimately lead to death of the channel.
