On the other hand YRF's television venture (or adventure) with SONY seems to be unsuccessful in generating even initial viewership, worse part is not many seems to even look at it the second time leaving blockbuster movies on weekends. Sony is focussing too much on its old proven properties (CID, AAHAT, Comedy Circus and GRP's are falling even for this shows), even with herculean effort they are not being able to bring up even one daily soap in top 100 shows of the week.
SONY and YRF should understand that all show doesn't become a CID and to format a show keeping the success of CID in mind and that also on the same channel could be disastrous. YRF can make a 3 hours bullshit with Tashan, Dil Bole Hadippa, Rab Ne..... etc and still make money out of it, because success of movies now are heavily dependent on first weekend and advanced booking, but in television to keep a person hooked for an hour with slow crappy programming can't work and won't work. They better polish off or else ........
SAB though is a niche GEC, it has a very loyal viewership (Tarak Mehta has almost reached cult status) and after a long time it has been able to make another show successful (sajan re jhooth mat bolo). They are also venturing into interesting territory like silence comedy and if I know them well, I can assure you there are lot more to come.
SAB has consistently created intelligent marketing and communication campaigns and once it overtakes Imagine serious money will come in. Once money starts pouring in I am sure they will be able to attract more viewers with reality shows, better programming, better production values and gain pan india acceptance (GRP's will have multiplier effect once acceptance is gained). Historically it has been seen that once a nation starts prospering comedy shows and channels with differentiated content scores heavily over others and I am sure same would be repeated here as well and the biggest comedy brand of India, SAB will gain the most from it, if they doesn't do something really stupid.
Though I think the whole process will take probably 1.5-2 years, but I would put my money on the fact that 1st week 2012 SAB would have overtaken SONY and would be either 3rd or 4th most watched channel in India.
