Based on the TV viewership share for the month of June, within 2-months of its launch Zee-Turner's fashion and lifestyle channel, Trendz, has become more popular than FTV. Across 5 cities in late prime time from 10pm-2am, Trendz had 0.32% channel share viz-a-viz FTV's 0.18%. Alongside, even 5-months after the launch, adventure channel, Reality TV, is yet to take off in India. The adventure, lifestyle and fashion genre is more popular in Kolkata compared to Delhi and Mumbai.

For the study purpose, TAM data for the period 1 June - 28 June 2003 (weeks 23 - 26) has been considered. The markets analyzed are Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The target group profile is male, 15-34 year age group from Sec A, B and C in C&S category. The channels studied are Trendz, FTV, Reality TV, AXN, HBO and Star Movies. The time bands are divided into afternoon (12noon-4pm), evening (4pm-7pm), prime time (7pm-10pm) and late prime time (10pm-2am).

Late night is for adventure, lifestyle and fashion
Though adventure, fashion and lifestyle genre is yet to grab any significant chunk of the Indian C&S TV viewership, late nights truly are the best time for this genre. The late night time band from 10pm-2am is the best time to catch the action on adventure, lifestyle and fashion channels. Across 5 cities, Trendz had a share of 0.07% in afternoon. But in the late prime time, the channel's share went as high as 0.32%. The same holds true for AXN also but the upward curve is not as steep as in the case of Trendz. AXN had an average share of 0.75% in late prime time against 0.61% in the afternoon. HBO had an average share of 1.19% in the afternoon (12noon-4pm) in June whereas in the late prime time (10pm-2am), HBO's share went upto 2.24%.

Trendz goes past FTV, and Reality TV yet to take off
As clearly shown in the above graph, Trendz has come up with a spirited performance. In just 2-months of its launch, a soft one, the channel has overtaken FTV. Both the channels experience similar kind of viewership share from afternoon to prime time. But in the late prime time when the viewership for these channels are the highest, Trendz leads FTV by a wide margin. Across 5-cities, Trendz had an average share of 0.32% against FTV's 0.18% in June. Trendz's popularity could also be attributed to some extent to its extensive promotion across Zee-Turner's bouquet of channels.

Like FTV, Trendz also relies heavily on the foreign content. But local programming is becoming its focus now that the channel has established itself quite well in the Indian market. Lakme India Fashion Week's coverage on Trendz is one example. Let's see how far the mix of local content is going to help the channel's cause in the coming months.

On the other hand, despite its presence in the country for the past 5 months, the Reality TV based on real life human dramas is yet to take off. Across the 5-cities in different time bands, Reality TV's didn't make any dent on the viewership share. In late prime time across 5-cities, its viewership share was just 0.02% whereas for AXN it was 0.75%. It's only in Kolkata that Reality TV makes some impression with a share of 0.09% in late prime time. Reality TV needs to take a serious look at its programming and promotion of the channel to create any impact in the market.

Kolkata love adventure, fashion and lifestyle
Contrary to popular perception, viewers in Kolkata favours the adventure, fashion and lifestyle genre more than Mumbai or Delhi. In late prime time, AXN had a share of 1.06% in Kolkata whereas it was 0.79% in Delhi and just 0.23% in Mumbai. Similarly, Trendz had a share of 0.48% in Kolkata and it was 0.38% in Mumbai and 0.25% in Delhi. In case of FTV also, Kolkata has a decent share of 0.36%. But Delhi loves FTV more with a slightly higher share of 0.42%. FTV doesn't find favour in Mumbai and had a share of 0.05% only.

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