MUMBAI: In its fifth and latest season, Colors’ adrenaline pumping adventure reality show, Khatron Ke Khiladi, has not only grabbed the attention of television audiences, it seems to have made much headway on the digital platform as well.
Ever since the promo went on air, it has sent social media platforms into a tizzy, what with likes, tweets, re-tweets, the works.
Colors digital head Vivek Srivastava says the current season has broken all past records in terms of digital media. “It has outdone itself with over 100 to 150 per cent increase on almost all counts. The effort from our side has also been that much higher. As you look at the content of the show, it is variable. You watch the show for reaction and that is what really catches on in all digital spaces. More importantly, for us, the engagement ratio and the engagement on these pages has been very high,” he informs, adding that engagement has been nearly 60-70 per cent higher than the average engagement that one can see on a fiction show on Colors.
Going by statistics, KKK season five’s official Facebook page has added two lakh fans since the time of launch, taking the total tally of likes to 714,000. The page itself has grown in content, with many more contests, polls, posters, teasers and snippets than before.
Twitter is possibly the best thing to have happened to the show with hashtags including #KKKonCOLORS, #KushalonKKK, #GauaharonKKK, #GurmeetonKKK and #GaushalonKKK trending across India since 19 March.
According to Srivastava, as many as 69,000 unique conversations were generated on one of these hashtags on the day of the launch. In addition, participants interacted with their fans, chatted with them and shared experiences, driving a lot of conversation on the show.
On YouTube, the show featured in the top 10 videos ever since its launch.
The focus has been on two kinds of activity - content-led and talent-led with the former including putting up videos, discussing different phobias with people and celebs interacting with fans. The latter includes contestants interacting with fans and sharing their experiences on the show.
“From our strategy stand point, our role has been to really liven the experience which television is providing in the digital space. Whether the experience comes through a game or from a repeat viewing (on YouTube or website medium), it really is about extending the vision of the franchise onto a digital medium,” explains Srivastava.
“On this show, talent has been a big root. The content itself is meant to be viral so that people want to see it again and again. Strategy has been really to ensure that people can take the experience of television onto the digital space. And at the same time, ensuring the key imperative always is engagement. As long as we can engage our audiences both at a program level and both when the show is on and not on at an experience level,” adds Srivastava.
TVT-wise, compared to the last season, season five has been a blockbuster. While season four opened with 4.4 TVTs, the current season opened at 7.6 TVTs. The average ratings for the first four weeks were 3.2 TVTs and this season, it is 6.9 TVTs. Taking a leaf from 24, for which Colors had introduced an interactive 3D mobile game, the channel has launched Khatron Ke Khiladi - The Game which featured among the top 10 free game app downloads on iTunes ever since the launch of KKK season five.
