By Ajay Chacko
President, AETN18 Media
Much before launching the History channel, one of our first thoughts was to do a lot of local programming because of network capability and availability of talent. But we consciously decided not to fill up the hours with local content. Viewers are not looking at local content only. When it comes to programming selection, whether a particular kind of history will work on our channel or not is an important thing to consider. Besides average male viewers, the target audience of a factual entertainment channel like History is also women and young adults; including those between 15 and 20 years of age. Before launching the channel, we undertook three sets of research connected to about 3,500 to 4,000 people over a period of six months. The intention was to try and dispel some of our own myths, and we discovered an interesting phenomenon among Indian viewers, especially the female audience. We used to wonder why women are important for the factual entertainment genre in India - around 35% of women watch shows of this genre. We used to wonder ‘what is going on’? Why should this genre be watched by Indian women? During our research, we came across a very interesting fact. We got feedback from respondents, especially in small towns of India, that women were under increasing pressure from their husbands and children to watch something more intelligent. Therefore, they slowly switched to infotainment or factual entertainment. The position of this infotainment width is interesting because people think that if you watch a show of this genre, then it is a relatively intelligent exercise. But when women actually watch it, it is as much fun as watching a GEC. This is true for all sections of the population in India. It is not just a fact in North India, but also in South India. It was neither a part of our research, not a part of our agenda. But when we dug deeper, we realized that between 3 pm and 5 pm, there is a spike in the viewership pattern. It is because women watch these shows. This is also the time when children and college-going kids return home. These children insist that their mothers watch something of this genre. College-going kids and children also want to watch such shows. Broadly, evening time is prime time on all channels across India. But because of this interesting viewership pattern, there is a late afternoon prime time as well.
