Profile: Media Watch - Can Zee leverage cricket rights to regain India TV crown?

Zee TV, once India's most popular pay-TV station, is once again mounting a challenge to regain its crown. Last month, the channel transformed its afternoon time band with what it described as "an unprecedented initiative", foregoing soaps and repeats for a new magazine show aimed at modern housewives, Zee Woman, notably free of ads for its first two hours.

Rumours are circulating in India's TV industry that the channel also plans to revamp its evening fare, which at the last count failed to crack India's 50 most popular shows.

In the space of just five years, Zee TV has slipped from first to third place, languishing behind rivals Star Plus and Sony Entertainment Network.

Zee's most recent changes should add some extra zest to its ratings but whether they will help redirect it back to the top is another matter.

Previous attempts failed to reverse Zee's decline - in 2001, having just been deposed by the rapidly rising Star, it unveiled more than 20 new programmes to regain the initiative, while recently, it hoped for better things last year from 'Thursday Premiers', a slot for first-run Bollywood movies.

It could be third time lucky for Zee which, as Media went to press, was hotly tipped to land a surefire ratings winner - the broadcast rights to live international cricket matches for cricket-mad India for the next four years. Should it succeed, Zee says it will utilise its current network before launching a dedicated sports channel.

"(Zee has) been trying to find a programme which is a channel driver," comments Pradeep Iyengar, vice-president of national buying for Carat Media Services India. "But it has not been able to find that programme."

Both its rivals have - Star with Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who wants to be a millionaire, while Sony is currently enjoying a revival of its fortunes on the back of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, a story of a contemporary and witty young woman that has struck a chord with Indian audiences.

"Some of our programmes that get a very good response have not been able to do a KBC or a Jassi when compared to the competition, but at the same time they cannot be discounted," says Zee spokesman Sanjay Arora.

Sony went through six duds before striking gold with its latest hit, Arora points out. "A programme like Jassi has been able to revive Sony. With Zee, we have a strong line of programmes that viewers would definitely like (coming up) in the near future."