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New show will spin no magic for Zee, say analysts

NetScribes/Ganesh Ramamoorthy

The market is viewing Zee Telefilms' latest game show for housewives, Whirlpool Mera Magic Mera Home, as a programming strategy gone haywire. With two of its game shows disappearing without a trace and with much controversy, another game show is seen doing little good to the channel's fortunes.

Analysts tracking the company feel that Zee should adopt a wait-and-watch policy rather than come up with knee-jerk reactions to competition. "Zee is making a very big mistake by launching another game show. The very idea of fighting one game show with another is a wrong strategy," says Aman Budhwar of Khandwala Securities Ltd.

Zee needs to spruce up its strategy or risk losing more advertising revenues since other ventures such as the planned DTH service will only give returns after a year or two, he adds.

Analysts expect the success of Star TV's Kaun Banega Crorepati and Zee's failure at countering competition to be felt in the fourth quarter, when the dip in the company's advertising revenues begins to tell. "The fourth quarter could be bad for Zee even if revenues from other channels in the bouquet soften the impact to some extent," says Budhwar.

Whirlpool Mera Magic Mera Home, anchored by Ruby Bhatia, went on air on December 10. Sponsored by home appliances major Whirlpool of India Ltd, the programme will be telecast every Sunday at 11 am.

The show comes close on the heels of the recent Sawaal Dus Crore Ka (SDCK) flopshow. "KBC, backed by some aggressive marketing, hit Zee very badly. SDCK was a panic reaction from Zee and, therefore, lacked direction in presentation as well as packaging. The results, or lack of it, are there to see," says Budhwar.

Before SDCK, Zee had another no-show with the Malamaal contest.

"The new programme shows there is a lack of coherence in management policies. Already, they have burnt their fingers with two game shows. The third one is unlikely to make an impact," says an analyst at a leading brokerage firm.

"Instead of a game show, Zee should have thought of a fresh programming strategy. A game show cannot be replicated unless one has something new to add to it," says a senior analyst at Sushil Finance Consultants Ltd, a Mumbai-based brokerage.

The negative outlook towards the company was reflected on the the Zee scrip, which shed Rs 30.90 to close at Rs 297.15 on Friday. The scrip dipped 9.42 per cent from its previous close of Rs 328.05 with a volume of over 10 million shares. Analysts expect the negative outlook to continue with no upside seen in the short to medium term.

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