Quiz Shows in India Prove to be a Bonanza

International Herald Tribune – August 15, 2005

Saritha Rai – N.Y. Times

 

 

BANGALORE, India As a lark, 18-year-old Abhishek Gaurav text-messaged the answer to a quiz question flashing on his family's television screen. His response would take Gaurav, the son of middle-class parents in Bihar, an underdeveloped eastern state, to India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, and the set of the country's most popular television program, the game show "Kaun Banega Crorepati."

 

Having been selected to appear as an on-air contestant, Gaurav went on to win 640,000 rupees, or $14,700, and meet his long-time idol, the Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, the show's host. The Hindi-language program, whose title literally translates as "Who Will Be a Ten-Millionaire," is an Indian clone of the worldwide success "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire."

 

Gaurav is the type of viewer that India's cable and satellite television industry has been eager to attract, as the potential audience and advertising market continue to expand. Like many younger people, Gaurav has little interest in the weepy prime-time soap operas, reruns of Bollywood song-and-dance sagas and slapstick comedies that have long been staples of Indian TV fare.

 

The teenager, a student of the country's elite Indian Institute of Technology at Chennai, is just one of the 11.7 million Indians lured to watch "Kaun Banega," which made its debut in 2000, a year after "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" became a prime-time phenomenon in the United States on ABC.

 

"Kaun Banega," licensed from Celador, the British originator of the format, is carried by News Corp.'s STAR India cable and satellite network.

 

The apparent allure is watching contestants compete for a chance at the potential jackpot of 20 million rupees and the charisma of Bachchan, who is 63 and often dresses in leather and denim. Media analysts and advertisers are tracking the quiz show's popularity with more than passing interest. Since the new season began on Aug. 5, about 18 million Indians have registered in the hope of being selected to compete on "Kaun Banega," which runs during prime time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

 

The country's two large telecommunication companies, the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Bharti Tele-Ventures, have revamped their networks to handle the spurt of millions of calls from viewers hoping to register to compete on air or to try winning prizes from home.

 

India's television market has come a long way since the first season of "Kaun Banega" five years ago. At that time, cable and satellite television offered 165 channels and reached 30 million homes. Now, with more than 250 channels available, 61 million homes have satellite and cable television, the third-highest subscriber base in the world after China and the United States.

 

A total of 108 million homes have television, up from 70 million five years ago, but households without satellite or cable can watch only a few state-run channels whose programming many Indians find tedious. That means the cable and satellite business still has plenty of room to grow.

 

"We are in a marketplace where TV penetrates under 50 percent of homes, so there is still 50 percent of the market waiting to watch TV at home," said Peter Mukerjea, STAR India's chief executive. "There aren't too many countries in the world which provide that opportunity."

 

About half of those who called in to "Kaun Banega" on a recent weekend live outside the country's 26 largest cities. Even in the smallest of villages, ones with no running water, schools or hospitals, there are mobile phones and battery-powered television sets.

 

The original version of "Kaun Banega" helped secure STAR India's status as the country's top-rated network. But the much glossier revamped version, now in its second season, is crucial to the company's ability to remain No. 1 against programming competitors that include Sony Entertainment and Zee Network and to pull down the type of ratings that draw big advertisers.

 

"Kaun Banega's" recent audience rating of 19.7 far surpassed the runner-up, a midweek soap opera on STAR India with a 12.4 rating.

 

"Kaun Banega" has not led to the wave of reality television programming that "Millionaire" helped start elsewhere in the world. But the program has demonstrated to marketers that there are viewers for various sorts of fare, including 24-hour news channels and children's networks. In the television season that ended last March, overall TV advertising revenue in India exceeded $1 billion for the first time.

 

The advertising revenue goes only so far, though. Unlike most Western markets, in which satellite and cable subscription fees help subsidize programming, Indian providers can charge only minimal monthly fees - as low as $1.75 - in a country where nearly half the subscribers have monthly incomes of less than $100.

 

That is why the "Kaun Banega" phenomenon is so notable.

 

"Advertisers' expectations of Kaun Banega are high," said Ashutosh Srivastava, chief executive of the Indian unit of GroupM, a media investment and management company owned by WPP Group. Two of GroupM's clients, LG Electronics and GlaxoSmithKline, are sponsors of the program this season. Another big sponsor is the mobile phone maker Nokia India.

 

Meanwhile, untouched by the concerns of television ratings, reach or revenue, Gaurav is basking in his newfound celebrity status as a "Kaun Banega" winner.

 

"I am being recognized in public places," he said.

 

His biggest worry right now, he said, is dealing with the growing ranks of friends and family who are demanding that he share his windfall.