MUMBAI: Music channel 9XM, pledged to consistent programming innovations, recently launched '9XM Selfiesh', a show that gives the common man an opportunity to not just get his favourite song played on TV, but also to get featured on the channel. 

The pre-requisites - one has to Whatsapp a selfie video requesting for their favourite song to 9XM on 7718001968 and the channel would not just play the song, but also the requested video.

The show got a dream start with 25000 entries flowing in the launch week of '9XM Selfiesh'. “As a channel, we have been trying to interact with our viewers through our shows. Last year, we did something similar with #Ask Track and this year it’s ‘9XM Selfiesh’,” 9XM and 9X Tashan cluster head-programming Baljinder Mahant told Radioandmusic.com.

#AskTrack that was launched last year, gave an opportunity to audiences to select a song from the playlist offered to them by 9XM. The viewers had to select the code of their favourite song and send it to 9XM through Whatsapp, Twitter or Facebook.

Mahant added, “The entries have also been coming in from small towns where 3G and 4G aren’t available. They have been sending their videos through 2G.”

The channel has also managed to rope in well-known Bollywood celebs to get selfish with ‘9XM Selfiesh’. Thus, the viewers will also get to watch Bollywood actors sending in their selfie videos requesting their favourite movie songs.

“The celebrity selfie videos are a part of the promotional plan. We are also posting these videos on social media. Apart from this, we are also targeting media agencies. We have been asking a few media agencies' -- Mediacom, Lodestar, Lintas, OMD, Group M, Madison -- employees to send in their selfie videos to us. On selecting these videos, we would not just play their song, but we will also send in a guitarist to their workplace to play that song live to them. So, we are promoting this show heavily,” said 9XM marketing head Kapil Sharma.

The channel is not looking at the traditional way of promotion for ‘9XM Selfiesh’ as Sharma believes that the nature of their new show is digital. Digital promotion thus is key in pushing the new shows on 9XM.

However, online promotion is not the only route that the channel will adhere to in the future. Sharma states that it will all depend on the nature of the show. “When we launched ‘House Of Dance’ we promoted it in 100 night clubs. In #AskTrack case we had more digital activities. In fact, for ‘9XM Selfiesh’ we got to trend ourselves on Twitter. Our attempt is to get the audience to interact and have fun with us.”

‘House Of Dance’ was a two hour show on 9XM that aired every Friday and Saturday. It aired an EDM playlist curated by DJ Chetas. These playlists were played in 100 night clubs across India.

Mahant revealed that the overwhelming response for ‘9XM Selfiesh’ is now pushing them to make it a two hour show. The channel is also looking at taking the same property to 9X Tashan. It will mostly be launched some time next month.