MUMBAI: Star India's Tamil general entertainment channel Vijay TV has said that its performance in the late night primetime band of 10 pm to 11 pm has considerably improved over the last four months.

Inspired by the success, the channel is planning to extend the band, apart from targeting other primetime bands with new properties.

"Given the fact that this band has shown considerable performance, we would look into expanding it. We are having a new game show coming up and also a new soap early next month to further strengthen our prime time properties," says Vijay TV DGM Harsh Rohatgi.

The channel claims the turnaround was triggered by two shows Kuttram (10 pm - 10:30 pm) and Kathu Karrupu (10:30 pm - 11 pm). The channel had launched Kathu Karrupu at the beginning of 2005.

Rohatgi says there was a conscious effort from Vijay’s part to bolster its late primetime band.

"We felt there was a substantial audience who watched our show Kuttram that has been airing successfully over a year and leveraged this band with a super natural thriller Kathu Karuppu early this year. This show is also throwing good numbers now," he says.

Quoting TAM data for the period starting from week 4 to week 19, Vijay projects a data which shows that in the respective time band, it maintains an average channel share of 10.3 against nearest competitors Raj TV's 3.4 and Jaya TV's 2.6.

Both Kuttram and Kathu Karrupu were launched simultaneously early this year when the channel initiated a major reshuffle in the line up. According to the TAM data provided by Vijay TV, the initial phase of the show launch saw the channel share recording a 60 per cent jump - from 8 per cent to 13.4 per cent.

Kuttram, a social awareness show that focuses on crime, is aired from Monday to Friday. It highlights and gives an insight into the various crimes, socially incorrect happenings and other unfair practices in the various districts of Tamil Nadu, says an official statement from the channel.

A super natural show Kathu Karrupu is aired Monday - Thursday. Fictionalised for TV and led by an anchor who narrates the story introducing the characters and the basic plot, the show unfolds with critical pieces being dramatised and re-enacted realistically leaving an open end for the viewers to believe it or not.