We were the first to review the programme, [V] Popstars (Inside Media Weekend dated 22nd February, 2002), and now are the first to bring you the audience verdict- the viewership pattern as reported by TAM.

First, a quick bite into numbers. The programme TVRs on Star Plus (Thursday, 21st Feb- 9 to 10 PM) were close to 4% against the time-band leader Sony's over 10%. The Channel Share of Star Plus and other 4 bouquet channels doubled to 14%. And teens and youth (10-24 Yrs) showed marked preference with their share (of total audience) increasing by 50%. Looks like Popstars had a good debut!

Lets look at the channel shares first. On a typical week, Thursday 9 to 10 pm slot is dominated by Sony with the two programmes Kkusum and Kkutumb ruling the air-waves. Star though still behind Sony managed a better show as compared to the other weeks. Channel shares too show a higher value than the previous week. A week before, on 14th Feb, Sony had close to 35% channel share in the 15-24 F TG and Star (all five channels) had just about 7%. On 21st Feb when Popstars was aired, Star's share almost doubled to 14% with Sony declining to around 30%.

Within various Female Target groups Star Plus saw the maximum rise in channel shares in the 10-14 age group followed by the 35-44 age group. The only group in which channel shares fell was the 25-34 Yrs group.

What is more interesting to note is the swell in teens and youth viewership on Star Plus. As noted in the chart below, the share of 10-24 Yrs increase from about 35% to over 50% on the two weeks. Sponsors hoping to catch youth must be happy with this.

Perhaps, from the 'Simulcast' phenomenon, the most interesting insight is that the lead channel has eclipsed all the other four. The TVRs for each of these channels, in the chart below, is less than 0.2%!