Colors adopts the 'day-branding' course to up weekend viewership

Branded as 'Shandaar Shanivar' and 'Super Sunday', the content line-up for Saturdays and Sundays will exhibit a vertical format.

Colors, the second-in-command of the Hindi GEC district, has decided to take the day-branding route in a bid to add more variety to its content line-up during weekends.

Branded as 'Shandaar Shanivar' and 'Super Sunday', the content line-up for Saturdays and Sundays will exhibit a vertical format. "This means that the original content that will be run on Saturdays will be different from that of Sundays," explains Ashvini Yardi, programming head, Colors while speaking to afaqs!.

Colors begins its day-branding initiative on Saturday, February 26, when Shandaar Shanivar's original programme line-up will see the launch of two new one-hour properties Wanted - High Alert, and Andhera.

Wanted - High Alert, the crime-based reality show, will occupy the 10 pm slot. It targets the male and youth audience set, while Andhera, a supernatural thriller, will be telecast at 11 pm as part of Colors' gameplan to pump in more adrenaline with some edgy content for viewers. Andhera, is being produced and directed by Vikram Bhatt, with Anita Hassnandani as the lead protagonist.

Currently, at 8 pm on Saturdays, the channel has on air the one-hour 'maha episodes' of its fiction properties, while its dance reality show, Chak Doom Doom is screened from 9-10 pm.

Says Yardi, "We needed to add variety and more genres to our current programming line-up.

Therefore, we chose the day-branding route in order to get more audiences on board."

Colors will launch its 'Super Sunday' in March with its recently acquired international property, Guinness World Records -- Ab India Todega. The property will be supported by a movie title for that day.

"While we run approximately 22 hours of original content currently, we will be extending our line-up to about 25 hours with these new properties," informs Yardi.

The channel will use 'Wanted' as the tent pole property to market its other new and upcoming weekend shows. Produced by BAG Films, the show will be hosted by film and television actor Sushant Singh and will feature real cases of convicts on the run.

"We expect the show to pick up gradually through content, word-of-mouth and brand recall," says Yardi.