But the good times, it appears, may be slowing - too many clones and too much clutter is turning growth stagnant, forcing broadcasters to think harder about more sophisticated segmentation.
Industry observers cite increasing competition from news, kids and regional channels for diluting GEC growth - TAM's latest figures display a slight decline in GEC viewership from 24 per cent in 2004 to 23 per cent in 2006. Hindi-language offerings within the segment have seen ratings drop by up to 15 per cent over the last year. "The overall pie of Hindi mass entertainment is not growing," confirms Sony Entertainment Television EVP Rohit Gupta. "It has become a crowded space, with channels clawing into each other's shares."
The space is likely to be further crowded when NDTV eventually makes its much-touted foray into the Hindi GEC space over the next year. According to TAM director of communications Siddhartha Mukherjee, it points to the category's enduring appeal, even if share is declining.
"Programming has become very expensive," says Gupta. "Often, the costliest programming does not yield returns, either. Sahara One has not managed to get into the top league, despite spending fat sums on big ticket stars like Sridevi, Karishma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon."
Key Hindi GEC players - Star, Zee, Sony, Sahara and SAB - are now studying the emergence of the kids category, which grew from 2.7 per cent to 5.6 per cent from 2004 to 2006, and news, which increased from 3.7 per cent to 4.5 per cent over the same period.
According to Star TV president of advertising sales and distribution, Paritosh Joshi, it is the rise of these alternative offerings that is making the GEC players consider better segmentation. "The elite men and women, tweeners, youth and even niche segments like the retired male cannot be ignored anymore," says Joshi.
He notes that broadcasters must improve youth offerings - apart from music stations and niche channels such as UTV, few have seen much success in wooing a youth audience. Meanwhile, tweeners have deserted GEC stations in droves, enticed by the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon. Other attempts to segment are expected to focus on affluent urbanites, a viewing base that has tended to favour channels such as Star World and AXN. While advertisers may favour the benefits of being able to better target specific audiences, MindShare MD R Gowthaman remains concerned that the ultimate mass audience - housewives - may become more elusive.
"At this point in time, every single share point from GEC is being moved to news:niche:sports in the ratio of 60:20:20," Gowthaman says. "News is being currently used as an alternative, quick reach-builder for most male-targeted brands. The concern is on communication targeted at housewives, where the efficiency of TV plans are being greatly affected."
