ITV

Tag: Mahendra Mishra

  • TV9 Group appoints Barun Das as CEO

    TV9 Group appoints Barun Das as CEO

    MUMBAI: TV9 Group has appointed Barun Das as Chief Executive Officer to lead its plans for becoming a dominant national player in the broadcast and digital news space.  Mahendra Mishra, who was acting as the interim CEO of the group, would now be Principal Advisor to the Board of TV9.

    The Group, which enjoys leadership position in multiple languages in the South and West of India, recently launched TV9 Bharatvarsh in Hindi, its first national news channel.

    Das, a veteran of the media business, will be charged with the responsibility of driving synergies among all the channels and to build future-ready new businesses of the Group.

    Dasis an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata and the London School of Economics. His last corporate assignment was as the CEO of Zee Media limited where he worked for over five years. 

    Das has over 25 years’ experience and before Zee News, Barun worked in leadership positions in ABP News, India Today Group, Astro All Asia Network in Kuala Lumpur, ABP Group etc.

    Commenting on Barun’s new role, TV9 Board Whole Time Director and member Singa Rao said, “Our group is committed to the roles and responsibilities of the Fourth Estate. Given our leadership position in the southern and western parts of the country, we are now aiming at achieving similar success in the rest of the country and in the new media domain. We are confident that Barun, with his all-round and vast experience and track record, will power this foray. We welcome Barun on board.”

    Das said he was looking forward to the honour and challenges of the assignment. “I am excited about this new opportunity given the Group’s vision. Every new opportunity comes with fresh challenges and I wish to contribute my bit along with the team. Since TV9 has impressive leadership in the regions of its current operations, it will be my pleasure and privilege, to drive its expansion in the national arena.”

    Mishra commented, “ I am delighted to be a part of the next big leap that the organization is going to take in the national arena. I welcome Barun on board and I am confident that under his leadership our team would scale new heights.”

  • Dangerous trends in TV news broadcast

    Dangerous trends in TV news broadcast

    NEW DELHI: Talk shows, personality-driven news channels, outraged journalism and populist pressures tailoring news content. These are some of the dangerous trends visible in television news broadcasting across the globe.

    The TV news industry is, indeed, going through a tough phase as losses mount and ratings decide the revenue fortunes of channels, forcing content to become trivial, mediocre and commoditised to have mass appeal.

    Speaking at the 5th News Television Summit, TV Today Network news director QW Naqvi candidly admitted that content that should never have found space sometimes got carried on news channels due to commercial pressures.

    The taste of viewers has also changed. “We should stop looking from our own perspective. Content keeps changing and we have to keep changing,” said Naqvi.

    A bigger danger looms ahead when feedback from social media starts getting used by TV news journalists to decide on what kind of content they should be chasing. “We will fall prey to populistic pressures if we start covering stories the way our Twitter or other social media followers want us to,” Naqvi warned.

    Agreed IBN18 Network Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai. “I wouldn’t mind leaving space for entertainment and other kinds of news. But imagine what it will be like if we start yielding to populist pressure when we are dealing with serious and sensitive issues like India-Pakistan relationship,” he said.

    There is still, however, space for quality content. “Digitisation, hopefully, will allow space for premium content. In the current model, distribution cost is hurting us badly. Content is getting sacrificed in the process. There is very little of content differentiation,” said Sardesai.

    Commenting on content differentiation, NDTV Group Editor- English News, NDTV, NDTV 24×7 Barkha Dutt said the news channels will become more personality-oriented in future.

    Lamenting the deterioration in news, Dutt said she would probably have not joined the TV news medium if she had known how badly the standards would slip. She said that being the first generation of TV journalists, she didn’t join it for glamour.

    Sardesai admitted that journalists have stopped doing their homework. Quoting the example of the “Norway kids case” where every news channel blamed the government of that country, he said that no journalist cared to do the background check. He added that outrage is not journalism and suggested that journalists should keep a balance.

    On the use of social media, the panellists adopted a cautionary stance. While Dutt said that she sometimes used it as a lead, Naqvi pointed out that there is need to differentiate between news and non-news.

    The challenge will be to provide news through different platforms. Said Sardesai, “With social media, TV medium has to reinvent like print did. In about 12 months’ time, people will come to know the news headlines via social media. They will tend to come to TV for opinions.”

    CNN International chief of bureau South Asia Phillip Turner said that TV news is an exciting medium and is not going to be dead as predicted by many.

    Talking about the regional scenario, TV9 Kannada and News9 director Mahendra Mishra said in regional markets, especially in South India, there are many channels backed by politicians or people with deep pockets who have money to waste. “The main motive of the channels is to gain power and influence and not necessarily run a profitable business,” he averred.

  • Let’s differentiate ‘News Channels’ from ‘Views Channels’ to save real journalism: TV9 Karnataka & News9 director Mahendra Mishra

    Let’s differentiate ‘News Channels’ from ‘Views Channels’ to save real journalism: TV9 Karnataka & News9 director Mahendra Mishra

    That there is a political-promoter-news channel nexus in the South of India is something that we have been aware for quite sometime. In all the four states-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – hardly a day goes by without the politician promoters using her/his media vehicle as a mouthpiece. After money and muscle, it’s media’s turn across South for politicos who seem to have gained mastery over the game. For them, the news channel appears to be the strongest weapon to run the political business.

    Now the big question is what happens to the sanctity of news if politicians convert the newsroom into their party office as we come across quite often…

    The words that define news are – independent, unbiased and factual. Clearly these words don’t reflect the character of these ‘news channels’.

    As a news channel, we are supposed to be the ‘conscience-keeper’ of the society. Also, we are the pillar on which the democracy rests. Aren’t we going to do just the opposite by adulterating ‘news’ with our personal agenda?

    We tend to believe that aam aadmi is intelligent enough to understand the design behind such attempts, but what we forget is that it’s the same aam aadmi that is spending time to consume (if not digest) the ‘adulterated’ news content being put out by these channels.

    It eventually leads to the dilution of the ‘real’ news consumption which sounds demoralising for the journalistically-driven news channels. It’s surely not a healthy sign for the growth of Indian news television, especially in the regional space.

    Secondly, these ‘adulterated’ news channels spoil the fearless, uncompromising and unyielding breed of journalists who are out there to make a real difference. Once you have worked with one of these news channels, it’s highly unlikely that your journalistic fire will still be alive.

    Essentially, these ‘views’ channels thrive on the propaganda, leading to a nearly deoxygenated journalistic environment. How do we expect fearless journalism to flourish in such a debilitating ambience? It’s a serious challenge we are going to face in the years to come.

    To top that, since these channels hardly command ‘sizeable’ viewership in their respective markets, they resort to underselling the channel. It means that real ‘news’ channels are also under pressure to sell the ‘air-time’ at comparable rates. This is the reason why most of the regional ‘views’ channels are bleeding badly across south today, but in the process, they have ensured that the real ‘news’ channels also suffer.

    Another important point is that the national television content regulators like News Broadcasters Association can’t really monitor the newscasts of these channels as most of them have deliberately stay away from being part of any such regulator. It poses serious risk for the audiences who may easily fall prey to their ‘luring’ tactics.

    Generally speaking, south India has around 20 news channels-directly/indirectly promoted by politicians, mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka while there are just a few which can be classified under the non-political and unbiased category.

    As TAM data suggests, the viewership share of regional news channels has grown by 15-20 per cent in south India in 2011, unlike other genres, as compared to the previous year and interestingly, this trend looks to continue in the years to come. The striking point here is that most of the growth has come from the political news channels being launched/or running across all languages in south.

    Is it clean, pure journalism that is driving this growth in South India? The answer is a straight ‘NO’. Then, can we call it a positive trend?

    Take Karnataka for instance. The state saw three major launches of political news channels-Janashri (Janardhan Reddy), Samaya 24/7(Karnataka’s Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani with Ex-CM B S Yeddyurappa’s backing) and Kasthuri Newz 24(H D Kumaraswamy).These channels put together have grown to occupy around 20 per cent of the total news viewership in Karnataka in 2011.

    I don’t see any reason why these channels shouldn’t exist or grow.These channels have as much right to telecast or show what they want as anyone else. But I believe that it’s unfair to call them a ‘news channel.’ My contention is why should a ‘views channel’ be allowed to run in the garb of a ‘news channel’.

    Let’s create another category for such channels and spare people getting confused with ‘news channels’. Let there be a different mechanism to handle this category. The idea is to ensure that people must not be fed ‘views’ in the form of ‘news’. Let’s not fake things. Let’s grow up and accept the facts as they are.

    I think 2011 will be seen as a year when these ‘views’ channels threatened to adulterate ‘news’ beyond recognition. And it went almost unnoticed. It’s high time that the country, especially south wakes up to the underlying risks of ‘adulterated’ journalism. This is going to be the biggest test for the ‘real’ news channels in the years to come. If the sancity of the news has to be restored, this battle has to be won. That’s the only way out…

  • Sudipto Chowdhuri joins as SVP — national sales for TV9 Kannada and News9

    Sudipto Chowdhuri joins as SVP — national sales for TV9 Kannada and News9

    BANGALORE:TV9 group has appointed Sudipto Chowdhuri as SVP — national sales and brand positioning for TV9 Kannada and News9.

    Chowdhuri will be reporting to the TV9 Kannada and News9 director Mahendra Mishra.

    In his two decades of experience, Chowdhuri has worked with brands such as Tata Yellow Pages, India Today, Zee Network, 9X and Star News.

    Chowdhuri‘s last assignment was with Star News network based in Mumbai. He has worked across all markets in the country and is equipped with knowledge of corporate and retail advertising in both TV and Print.

    Mishra says, “As TV9 Kannada and News9 continue to grow as South India‘s most powerful media brands, we will look to Sudipto to take these channels to even greater heights.”

  • Politicisation of TV news content in South India – TV9 Karnataka and NEWS9 director Mahendra Mishra

    Politicisation of TV news content in South India – TV9 Karnataka and NEWS9 director Mahendra Mishra

    Though all the channels of these netas have a designated professional ‘editor‘, it is anybody‘s guess as to who calls the shots in selecting and playing the news items. There really are too many such characters to talk about! And they are mushrooming like Congress grass everywhere.

    If the news media is the fourth pillar of democracy, then there is no doubting the fact that in the four southern states, if not nationally across most of the regional television space, this pillar has gone into the hands of politicians or their proxies.

    There are two issues here; One, how are these channels going to sustain themselves financially as they generally have very low viewership and hence command extremely low advertising rates? 
     
    Secondly, even if they manage to last long, are they not going to cause a serious dent to the credibility of all news channels? Doesn‘t this dent the sanctity of news business? Doesn‘t it lead to serious credibility crisis among common viewers? Maybe 2011 will provide some answers.

    When we look at South India‘s television news business in 2010, the most important word that creeps in our minds is ‘politicisation of content and cable‘.

    Cable and content are inseparable in the TV news business. And this is something that netas in South India understand better than the most astute of businessmen today. Politicos‘ control content and cable both. Some of them own the news channels as well as the cable networks.

    While ‘paid news‘ and ‘TRPised news content‘ on TV news channels continue to be the major areas of debate for the entire news industry in general, 2010 in South India will be remembered as a year when netas tightened their grips on news content and cable networks.

    Andhra Pradesh

    Take a look at the numbers – there are currently 14 TV news channels in Andhra Pradesh. Except for two or three channels, all the rest are directly or indirectly controlled by politicians or their proxies. It‘s an open secret that most of them have officially become the tools of political agendas. One wonders why should they be called news channels at all?

    For example, when the TDP supremo went on a ‘fast‘ (hunger strike) demanding better compensation for Andhra farmers, four news channels supported by TDP or its party cadre- ABN Andhra Jyothi, ETV2, Studio N and Maha TV beamed every bit of ‘the action‘ live till the end, while at the same time, the Jagan Mohan Reddy-supported channels like Sakshi TV, NTV and TV5 made sure there was simply no coverage of the TDP Supremo‘s fast. And when Jagan Mohan Reddy went on fast on the same issue in Vijaywada, all the TDP-backed channels conveniently ignored him while Sakshi, NTV and TV5 telecast every moment ‘live‘.

    2010 saw the launch of another news channel, Raj TV in Andhra Pradesh by TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao. The channel has a very simple agenda: propagate the cause of a separate Telangana state and criticise all those who are opposed to it. The channel makes sure there are enough OBs in Rao‘s rallies, but when someone else holds a political rally in Telanaga, Raj TV coverage of the event is conspicuous by its absence.

    These issues raise serious concerns as to how ‘objectivity and fairness,‘ which are so critical to credible news, are becoming the biggest casualties of the politician-sponsored news media.

    Karnataka

    Karnataka is all set to take the ‘Andhra‘ route this year. Welcome to the land of the Reddys, the Kumaraswamys and the Jarkiholis…!

    The year-long political tamasha now finds a 3-D reflection in the news business this year as the Reddy brothers‘ gear up to launch their news channel ‘Janasri‘. Their jaunt in news television will be followed by JD (S)‘ state president H D Kumaraswamy‘s much awaited news channel.
    The Reddys and the Kumaraswamys have another important muscle to flex; while Bellary‘s complete cable business is in the hands of the Reddys, Hassan‘s cable networks are held by the Kumaraswamys‘. This naturally gives the Reddys‘ and the Kumaraswamys‘ the advantage of influencing news content on different channels. Their message is clear: You can‘t show what we don‘t like, at least not in Bellary and Hassan!

    Karnataka already has Congress leader Sathish Jarkiholi‘s ‘Samaya‘ in the state. Looks like these netas‘ own news channels to guarantee them a better audience than the sprawling Vidhan Soudha does!

    TV9 Kannada continued to be South India‘s No1 news channel followed by TV9 Telugu in 2010 in terms of total viewership (Source: TAM). The fact that TV9 Kannada‘s viewership has grown by 15-20 per cent after channels like Samaya launched shows that politician-backed channels have contributed to our growth positively.

    Karnataka remained the highest English news consuming market in the country, ahead of Kerala this year, largely because of NEWS9.The channel extended its services to the rest of Karnataka markets where it became an instant leader. NEWS9 has remained a leader in the Bangalore market where its viewership is more than the combined viewership of NDTV, Times Now, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today and NewsX. We are planning to expand NEWS9 operations in other southern markets gradually.

    Tamil Nadu

    The Tamil Nadu market remains largely untouched by new news channels largely due to the complete control over cable networks by politicians (the Marans). Though the state‘s vibrant retail advertising offers a great opportunity for the independent media organisations, the Marans‘ cable monopoly continues to be a big deterrent. This is the state where politicisation of content and cable has already happened. One can expect no major changes in the year 2011, except for a few fireworks on Jaya and Sun News as in the state assembly!

    Kerala

    The real action in the news television space is going to take place in Kerala this year as the state gears up for the assembly elections in May 2011.

    Kerala is going to witness a flood of new news channels before these elections. While the Indian Union Muslim League plans to launch its own news channel, K. Muraleedharan, former Member of Parliament and son of senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran, also plans to come up with his own news channel.
     
    Mathrubhumi, Kerala Kaumudi, Madhyamam and Mangalam are also expected to venture into 24-hour TV news business this year. There are at least half a dozen news channels already on air in the state, mostly backed by political parties either directly or indirectly.
    The message seems to be quite clear: if you want to grow in politics, own a news channel and be the editor-in-chief!
     

  • TV news consumption in the south – TV9 Kannada and News9 Karnataka director Mahendra Mishra

    TV news consumption in the south – TV9 Kannada and News9 Karnataka director Mahendra Mishra

    The news television in each state in southern India has its own typical character that doesn‘t resemble each other. It‘s so hetergenous and state-centric that most often one state doesn‘t know how the neighbouring states behave.

    The reason is not difficult to understand. Each state has its own distinct langauage, culture and social system. There is hardly any similarity among these states except for the Idlis-Sambhar-filter coffee that they all seem to be pretty comfortable with. But again Kerala is an exception. Here coconut rules more than coffee. Clearly, it‘s unfair to put all the states in one basket and analyse their respective media behaviour in 2009.

    Andhra Pradesh

    Let‘s begin with Andhra Pradesh.The sleepy state until 2008 woke up to a new reality in 2009. Till 2008 there were a few news channels that you could count on fingers. TV9, ETV2, NTV and TV5 were the only news channels in the market. Saptagiri of DD, ETV, Gemini TV, Teja TV, Maa TV and Zee Telugu were the entertainment channels. Some of the entertainment channels telecast news too. Like Gemini, Teja, Maa, and Vissa channels had couple of news slots after dedicating major space to entertainment.

    As 2009 Lok Sabha and assembly elections neared and Tollywood megastar Chiranjeevi announced his entry into active politics, a new tsunami of news channels hit AP within a couple of months.

    The new channels that 2009 saw included Sakshi TV, HMTV, HYTV, I News, Maha TV, Studio-N, Zee 24 Gantalu and ABN Andhra Jyothy. All these channels are in Telugu except HYTV and HMTV that run English and Urdu bulletins in addition to Telugu. But these channels have very little, almost insignificant viewership.

    Most of the news channels were launched by politicians from different parties with low investment. Surprisingly, despite being recession and media companies resorting to cost-cutting, these channels not only survived but also gave unprecedented pay hikes to their employees. And all this meant that the IT state came to be known for something else – for having the largest number of dedicated news channels in the country, apart from having the largest cable TV penetration.

    There was an impression that people were hardly interested in news unless there was a controversy or a coup. But all that proved a misconception as the news channels kept garnering better TRP share than the entertainment channels in AP.

    The TRP war became so intense and cut-throat that sensationalism took a new high in the state. These channels went big on the general elections. Whether it was a road show of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi or a public meeting of a low-profile candidate, the channels gave live coverage to all the events.

    Despite the fact that some of the news channels were launched with low investments, they later managed to afford several OB vans and huge infrastructure in district headquarters to ensure that elections were covered live.

    Post election, the channels never ran out of their staple TRP diet, be it India‘s biggest corporate scam of Satyam Computers, tragedy with Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, worst-ever floods in the history of AP, months-long fight for CM post by Jagan Mohan Reddy or the Telangana issue. These major issues ensured that news channels gained numbers while the GEC channels suffered.

    2010 looks poised to witness even more news channels in Andhra Pradesh. With no local English news channel in AP, Reliance group and Deccan Chronicle are planning to come up with dedicated local English news channels. As far as potential for news coverage is concerned, there would be no dearth of news at least in 2010 as Telangana issue keeps everyone on the toes.

    Karnataka

    Unlike Andhra Pradesh, the TRP war wasn‘t too intense in Karnataka. TV9 Kannada remained the top channel not just in the state but also at the national level for a week (Tam). The Rajeev Chandrasekhar-promoted Suvarna news channel did try to make a comeback in a new avatar with a new team in place but failed to offer any measurable competition to TV9 kannada.

    The gap between TV9 kannada and Suvarna channel was as wide as before with minor flactuations intermittently. Udaya Varthegalu, run by Sun group, continued to be in deep slumber except for a certain period when Karnataka Premier League matches were telecast live by the channel, defying all the logic of being a news channel.

    It was more of a cable driven TRP war (rather than content driven which should be the case) in Karnataka as rivals made their best possible efforts to remove TV9 from its position on the cable networks in different parts of the state. They offered big monies to the cable networks to replace TV9 with their channels and succeeded in doing so to some extent but that didn‘t work in the long run.

    One of the most important tasks TV9 Kannada took up in 2009 was adopting 5 worst flood-hit villages in North Karnataka when the floods struck the state.The response was so overwhelming that the channel collected Rs 30 million for rebuilding the villages from all over the state. It was the largest collection ever for any social cause by any media company in Karnataka.

    The Reddy brothers turned out to be another big threat for the channels.They control cable networks in a large part of Bellary and neighbouring districts and most often the channels find themselves in trouble when the content is not favourable to the Reddy brothers. TV9 became a major target and it was completely cut off in the region by the Reddys when they didn‘t find the channel favourable during the state government crisis in September-October 2009.Now there are confirmed reports that they are planning to launch their own news channel that wil be officially used to build their image in public.

    As news channels became the favourite dish for politicians, they couldn‘t resist themselves from taking a plunge. For example, Belgaum‘s BJP MLA and Karnataka minister Satish Jarkhohalli decided to launch a Kannada news channel by Ugadi.

    TV9 launched India‘s first 24/7 city centric English news channel NEWS9 for Bengaluru market in early 2009. The channel was meant to provide Bengalureans the local content that makes sense for them, in addition to the regular national, international, sports, business and entertainment news. The channel was received so well that it took over as the city‘s most preferred English news channel in a very short span.

    The channel made it possible for Bengalureans to see their neighbourhood story on a massive scale and in a way where their voice was also heard by authorities who didn‘t care about anything so far. It became the city‘s voice quickly.The channel‘s growth saga continues as it plans to enter other markets in the days to come.

    Tamil Nadu

    It‘s the Marans‘ Sun network that rules Tamil Nadu, almost in a monopolistic manner. The year 2009 was no different just as before, and predictably, 2010 wouldn‘t be any different.

    The fact that the state has the lowest news consumption (around 2%) among all the four southern states, and it hasn‘t grown much over the last few years, speaks volumes of the way news television works in the state.

    This is the only state in the country where one network commands over 85-90 per cent of eyeball share in the overall TV viewership, be it news or GEC. Others did try to make an entry but in vain. This is largely due to the Sun network‘s monopoly in cable business (through Sumangali Cable Vision) across the state.

    Any channel has to be at the mercy of the Sumangali cable network. And the network has been extremely selective when it comes to distribution. It has traditionally chosen to carry only those channels which don‘t compete with Sun network. But it has been accommodative enough to carry its harmless rivals like DMK-run Kalaignar Seidhigal, Jayalalithaa‘s Jaya Plus and Raj News channels due to their internal political equations. Since these channels happen to be from different political families (except Raj News), they end up being the political tools to serve the interests of their bosses.

    Raj News did try to be an independent voice but failed, all thanks to Sumangali‘s monopoly.The crux is that majority of the Tamil viewers are deprived of choices and the Marans continue to drive the eyeballs in the state.

    The reason why the Tamil-dominated, culturally rooted Chennai still remains the nation‘s second most English news consuming market after Bangalore is that the average urban Chennaiite doesn‘t have any choice but to depend on the English news channels for an independent, unbiased story.

    NDTV-Hindu was another non-political, independent media vehicle that launched in 2009 but it couldn‘t make any significant impact.

    You hate it or love it, but you can‘t afford to ignore the Sun network, largely because you are hardly left with any choice minus this network. So the story ends here.

    Kerala

    The state always looks hungry for more and more political news. Even if there is an ordinary story, people are eager to explore a political angle to that. This is the reason why Kerala is one of the highest news consuming states not just in south but in the country (over 6%).

    In 2009, Kerala was second to Andhra followed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It‘s also among the largest English news consuming states in the country.

    Other than political news, Gulf related news rules the state, especially in the northern part of the state. Looks like the trend is here to stay.

  • TV9 targets September-October launch of Kannada news channel

    TV9 targets September-October launch of Kannada news channel

    MUMBAI: TV9, the Hyderabad-based media firm promoted by venture fund i-Labs Associated Fund and Chennai-based Unify Wealth Management, is all set to enter the Kannada market with a news channel. TV9 Kannada is aimed at a September-October launch.

    “TV9 is all set to launch its news channel in the Kannada market. We are tentatively targeting a launch date within the September-October period. The dry run is already on,” says TV9 Kannada director Mahendra Mishra. TV9 already runs TV9 Telugu, a news channel in the Telugu language.

    TV9 Kannada will be joining Sun Network’s Udaya News, the only other news channel in the market. And the timing of the launch will be very crucial for the channel, since the Rs 2 billion market is also awaiting the launch of Kannada Kasturi, the infotainment channel promoted by the Bangalore-based Kasturi Media Pvt Ltd (KMPL). Kannada Kasturi is targeting a November launch.

    TV9 Kannada will be following a ‘market expansion strategy’ rather than setting up head-on collision situations with the rival channels. “Our plan is to expand the market further. We are looking at building a new market. News as a genre in Kannada hasn’t been really explored by the existing players as yet. Our effort will be to fill this vacuum with a very different kind of programming,” Mishra says.

    TV9 is projecting the Kannada channel as “Kannada’s national channel”. “The plan is to give Kannadigas a national channel, which speaks their language. We will be raising the bar in Karnataka, by bringing in the national standards and quality of news coverage and presentation. Our focus will be on local-oriented news, but the packaging will be completely of national standards,” Mishra explains the strategy.

    The free-to-air channel will have the retail advertiser segment playing a crucial role in its plans, Mishra adds. “Retail advertising is a huge area of activity in Karnataka. It is really booming and we will be exploring this segment to the fullest.”

    The otherwise sleepy Kannada television market is expected to witness a lot of action this year with the entry of TV9 Kannada and Kannada Kasturi. The proceedings have already been kicked off by Zee Telefilms, which launched its entertainment channel Zee Kannada in May this year.

    Says Zee Kannada business head Venkat Giridhar on the key learnings the channel had in this three-month period: “Unlike any other South market, Kannada is open to all the other languages, whether it is Hindi, English, Tamil or Malayalam. Hence, it is kind of a complicate market for a new entrant. Our effort has been to educate the viewer on genres other than films and soaps. We are going ahead with our plans and will be launching a lot of new programmes which would fit into categories such as talent hunts and reality shows in the coming days.”