SAB TV to reposition to a comedy channel

Sony Entertainment Network’s youth orientated channel SAB TV is reverting back to being a comedy channel, come Monday 30th June.

The channel, which launched in India in 2005 (UK earlier this year) has undergone a couple of makeovers already but this time around its more serious than ever to concentrate on the comedy genre.

According to IndianTelevision, SAB TV will be launching a daily comedy soap called ‘Lo Ho Gayi Pooja Is Ghar Ki’ from 30th June. It will replace ‘Jersey Number 10’ in the 21:00 Monday to Thursday slot.

Other new additions to the prime time schedule will be dubbed Hollywood shows such as ‘Home Improvement’, ‘Wife and Kid’, ‘According to Jim’ and ‘8 Simple Rules’. It has also acquired comedy series of ‘Charlie Chaplin’ and ‘Laurel and Hardy’ which will be aired shortly.

American sitcoms in dubbed version ‘Home Improvement’ and ‘Wife and Kid’ will kick off in the first week of July from 19:00 – 20:00. The shows will be repeated between 23:00 and midnight.

SAB business head Anooj Kapoor says, “With our new repositioning we will highlight positive values of families. We will become a comedy channel skewed towards families with our target group being people aged four years and above.

“Until now we had showcased episodic comedies but for the first time we are getting a trend of linear family comedy,” avers Kapoor.

As a part of the entire revamp, the channel has also introduced a comedy track in its flagship show ‘Left Right Left’ (LRL).

“According to a survey that we did in our TG, shows like LRL and Jersey Number 10 had no more remained top of the mind recall for them. Our viewers could relate to only comedy with SAB,” answers Kapoor.

In the last few months the channel went on a spree of launching comedy based reality and fiction shows like ‘Krazy Kiya Re’, ‘Comedy Ka King Kaun’ and ‘Bhago KK Aya’.

SAB TV is a part of the MAX Mix pack on Sky Digital.