The Soap Addicts- Femina

"When I get back home from work, the first thing I reach out for is the TV remote." Sounds like the hubby? But no, this isn’t him. Neither is this one who says, “I hate having people over for dinner or going out for weddings, parties or any other social functions from Sundays to Thursdays." Or this one: "Now we have two TVs at home, and I monopolise one."

These could well be your neighbours - that woman in the flat above who seems to be running around all day cooking, cleaning, working nine to five, that auntie down the road who co-ordinates her satsang timings so that she doesn’t miss her favourite soap, or that young, newly married girl who has moved in next door, and who doesn’t have a well-equipped kitchen or furniture in the living room but has just bought a new 29 inch TV...

Welcome to the world of television junkies. And women junkies at that!
A recent survey by TAMIndia (Television Audience Measurement India), India’s premier TV rating agency, showed up an unprecedented number of women viewers (46 per cent of total viewership) watching cricket during the World Cup.

The same agency commissioned a survey in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, only to confirm a well-known secret: Women on an average spend more time in front of the telly than men. And this is not merely restricted to our neighbourhood saas bahus ; the phenomenon apparently is global.

According to a Harvard School of Public Health survey which was conducted in the United States in 1997, an adult male spent approximately 29 hours per week watching TV, whereas an adult female spent 34 hours per week doing the same!

What Women Want
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Women are not content just watching cricket, they are suckers for adventure programmes too. Confirms Gregory Ho, Vice President, Marketing, AXN Asia, "Across Asia, including India, we find that about 45 per cent of our viewers are female, give or take a few per cent. It is a myth that action and adventure programmes appeal to men only. Our ratings have indicated that our action series, as well as adventure reality programmes, are extremely popular with our female viewers, especially those that have women as lead characters, for instance, in series like Relic Hunter, Alias and CSI to name a few.

"Anecdotally, I have been told that women love the show Alias simply because the character Sydney Bristow played by Jennifer Garner is just ‘so cool’ — she’s smart, daring, incredibly good looking and sexy in a sophisticated way epitomising in many ways the modern woman of today," adds Ho.

It is this modern woman who is being targeted by the Women’s Hour on Discovery channel. According to Aditya Tripathy, Director, Marketing, ‘’The programmes on Discovery’s Woman’s Hour are seen as a welcome change from the staple fare of women-oriented programmes on other channels. Educated urban women, who want not just tips on lifestyles and self-improvement, but want to know the world around them, are offered a bouquet of programmes like Wedding Story, Great Romances of the 20th century, Great Palaces of the World, Love & Beauty and Planet Food. ’’

Says Ashwini Pai, business head, Zee English and Zee MGM, "Zee English is positioned as a channel for the English-speaking and English-thinking populace in India. Research has indicated that women (in this kind of audience) tend to like more of light comedy like Full House, Friends, Mad About You, etc. However, She Spies, La Femme Nikita and Black Scorpion (all of the female crime fighting genre) are more popular with the men. Again, a serial like ER (which stars George Clooney) has more female viewers.’’

Why Is TV So Addictive