The programming putsch was put together after an intensive audience research exercise conducted by Quantum Market Research. After taking into account factors like who's watching what and when, age of viewer, male or female, rural or urban population and how new products would be benchmarked against the competition, Zee is introducing 24 new programmes covering the entire range of viewers' choice across genres and time bands.

Viewer feedback provided the fodder required, which had to primarily include the following ingredients: Exotic overseas locations, other marital relationships, music-based shows, tangled love stories and interactive show formats. All the 24 programmes being introduced incorporate one or more of the five factors.

The promotional spend for the new look programmes will be a whopping Rs 150 million spread over a month, the biggest budget spent by ZEE so far for marketing. This is in addition to the promotions running on all the channels of Zee group. "Outdoors, print, radio, the internet, cross promotion on our TV channels. We will resort to everything to ensure that the shows get top of mind awareness with viewers," marketing director Partha Sinha said.
 

 

The piece-de-resistance of the new programming line up will be India's first audience participation fiction show Aap jo bolein haan to haan,aap jo bole naa to naa. It is India's first interactive show, a daily live drama on morals, ethics, emotions and gripping turning points where the audience will use online voting to determine the end of each story, Goyal said.

 

Produced under licence from GloboTV of Brazil, is called You Decide It in its English avatar. The show will have three to four breaks with a total program running time of about 45 minutes. This program will air from 27 August, Mondays to Wednesdays at 10 pm.

 

 

When asked as to what had happened to the reality show launched with much fanfare as part of a 17-programme initiative in March, Goyal said the rains had held up the set shoot. He however refused to set a date on when the show could be expected to air.

The new shows are: Razzmatazz, a dance show, a musical extravaganza which will be compered by actor Arshad Warsi, premiers on Sunday 2 September at 11 am.