The deeper you dig southward, the more you get embroiled in TV channels. And, if you think it is only entertainment coated, you would be way off the tangent. News channels are increasing, Sun TV with news channels in Tamil, in Kannada, in Telugu and in Kannada rules the rooster.
Udaya TV with Kannada and Telugu, India Vision news channel in Kerala, Headlines Today (of Aaj Tak fame) which though not in a regional language, was primarily started off to make a dent in the southern news market and the ETV has also started exclusive news channel.
According to the FICCI KPMG report, India is emerging as the third largest cable TV viewing nation in the world after China and US with more than 65 million cable and TV households by the end of 2006 and the growth of TV channels and viewer ship has resulted in TV achieving the highest reach amongst the various primary media delivery channels, including press, radio, cinema and Internet.
And, the primary sources of revenue right now are advertising fees – subscription comes in a second. But this does not stop the media companies firming up plans to take on the south. Unbelievably, it is news channels that are raking up news these days.
Says Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV, "We get a significant amount of advertising coming in from the news and entertainment programming slots, and this is one segment shows the stickiness of the channel. According to our internal survey, if a viewer watches a news channel for a minute, then he continues watching that for at least 15 minutes unlike other non-news based channels which lack this kind of a stickiness."
According to Maran, that was the primary reason as to why the Sun TV started flooding of news channel. It was to take advantage of the southern affinity for hard core news, 24 hours a day. This is further reinforced by the fact that Sun TV also took the top ratings in the south when it launched its Sun News channel, about years back and then moved onto to a Kannada and other languages.
"We have seen a tremendous response from the viewers as well as the advertisers to our news channels, although most of the people in the north prefer the print media, we have seen in the south, the electronic medium having a larger reach," says Maran.
Meanwhile, the Tamil television industry will have another 24 Hrs information and entertainment channel, Imayam, from April 13. The channel, floated by Channel Bharat Entertainments Limited, would be available through the Thailand satellite Thai com.
