Media Dinner as a Means of Attracting Audience: A Case Study on “Befarmaid Sham” (Come Dine)

By broadcasting entertaining programs in local languages, the satellite TV channels attract the viewers to the unsolicited messages produced in these channels.   “Befarmaid Sham” (Come Dine), a program broadcasted by “Manoto 1” satellite TV channel, lends itself to be studied to explore the questions of why and how such a program manages to attract the audience. In a theoretical approach, the theory of cultural proximity introduced by Joseph Straubhaar and the audience satisfaction theory were employed. The study has explored the reasons for attraction of audience using the qualitative content analysis of the studied program further complemented by a survey of the comments of viewers on the web in general and on Facebook in particular in an attempt to elaborate on the findings. The findings suggest that cooking and dining are used merely as a means towards creating an atmosphere in which the participants interact, while several other factors also play an effective role in attracting the audience. An analysis of the comments posted by the viewers  show that the program is especially appealing to various groups of viewers for such varying reasons as the show conductor, deliberate timing of the show, a charming and witty narrator, appeal in form etc.