ITV

Tag: Udaya TV

  • TAM TV Ratings: Sun TV tops regional genre

    TAM TV Ratings: Sun TV tops regional genre

    MUMBAI: The regional genre observed maximum traction coming from the Tamil general entertainment channel (GEC) space in the week 27 of TAM TV ratings. The genre witnessed a rise of 2 per cent in viewership levels in this week.

     

    Registering a 4.5 per cent rise in the viewership level from the previous week, Sun TV was the top contributor of the genre as it registered 1,277 GRPs, up from 1,221 GRPs. Vijay TV spotted the second position with 366 GRPs, up from 346 GRPs followed by Z Tamil which noted 128 GRPs, up from 124 GRPs.

     

    Overall Malayalam GEC genre witnessed a rise of 7 per cent in viewership levels in this week. Asianet and Mazhavil Manorama were the major contributors with 4 per cent and 19 per cent rise respectively. Asianet at number one reported 928 GRPs, up from 890 GRPs followed by Mazhavil Manorama which registered 266 GRPs; up from 224 GRPs. Surya TV garnered the third spot with 205 GRPs, up from 196 GRPs.

     

    In the Telugu space, Maa TV dropped to the second spot from its leading position with a drop of 8 per cent in viewership, this week. Gemini with 521 GRPs took the leading position with a rise of 3 per cent in viewership levels.  Maa TV recorded 508 GRPs, down from 555 GRPs. Z Telugu stood at number three with 493 GRPs, up from 460 GRPs.

     

    Lastly, the Kannada GEC category has maintained its viewership threshold level with a minimal drop this week. Udaya TV garnered 5 per cent rise in viewership this week when compared to last week and registered 421 GRPs, up from 402 GRPs. Colors Kannada spotted the second position with 399 GRPs, down from 404 GRPs. Suvarna TV maintained its third slot with 248 GRPs, down from 251 GRPs.

  • Maa TV maintains its dominance in Telugu market: TAM TV Ratings

    Maa TV maintains its dominance in Telugu market: TAM TV Ratings

    MUMBAI: The week 25 of TAM TV ratings in the regional general entertainment space saw a further growth in the share of Telugu GECs: from 40 per cent in week 24 to 41 per cent, this week.

     

    Maa TV has maintained its dominance in the genre with 616 GRPs, up from 548 GRPs. Gemini, stands at number two with 504 GRPs, up from 492 GRPs.

     

    ETV has surpassed Z Telugu in week 25. It has seen a rise from 398 GRPs to 464 GRPs.  Z Telugu observed a drop in the viewership and noted 458 GRPs, down from 469 GRPs.

     

    In the Kannada GEC space, Udaya TV topped the chart with 449 GRPs, down from 488 GRPs.  Colors Kannada stood second with 401 GRPs, down from 411 GRPs.

     

    However, Suvarna and Z Kannada witnessed a rise with 260 GRPs, up from 227 GRPs and 238 GRPs, up from 216 GRPs respectively. 

     

    The analysis was conducted by S-Group, an analytical arm of TAM Media Research. 

  • 7UP to launch reality show on Udaya TV

    7UP to launch reality show on Udaya TV

    MUMBAI: Taking a step towards advertiser funded programming (AFP), PepsiCo India’s brand 7UP is all set to launch a six-week reality show titled 7UP UPstarters, which will feature original talent from South India.

     

    Featuring budding dancers, singers and actors, the first episode of 7UP UPstarters will premiere on 7 June on Udaya TV at 5.30 pm.

     

    The contest saw huge participation from aspiring singers, dancers and actors during the on-ground auditions across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and through a unique wild-card system on Facebook.

     

    With talent including brake-dancers, classical singers, beat-boxers and acting enthusiasts among others, seven teams will fight to finish through a series of week-on-week performances. The winning 7-member team will win a cash prize of Rs 7 lakh.

     

    The grand-finale of the six-part series will be judged by actors and 7UP brand ambassadors Dhanush and Puneeth Rajkumar.

     

    PepsiCo India senior director marketing, social beverages Ruchira Jaitly said, “7UP UPstarters is not just another reality show but a search for the next generation of original, authentic talent from Karnataka. The entire journey from audition to the finale has been packaged into six action-packed episodes to bring viewers closer to the actual experience of each contestant.”

  • ‘Bindaas Challenge’ engages viewers of Udaya TV

    ‘Bindaas Challenge’ engages viewers of Udaya TV

    MUMBAI: The Sun Network owned Kannada general entertainment channel (GEC) Udaya TV has been hosting a new quiz TV show. Christened Bindaas Challenge, it airs at 10:30pm from Monday to Friday in which viewers get prizes in response to correct answers to questions.

     

    Created by Brain Share Creations, the show comes with the tag line ‘your win is guaranteed’, thus stating that every participant gets a prize in the form of either shopping vouchers or brands. Launched on 18 August, the entire series consist of 40 episodes, of which 20 have been shot.

     

    Hosted by Chandana Devaraj, Bindaas Challenge has four sponsors Kanva Mart, Indus TMT, Sasi Soaps and Kurvez. Lucky viewers get prizes worth Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 while others get points that are accumulated and can make one a weekly or monthly winner. The consolidated mega winner of the entire series gets a Tata Nano. Questions are based on general knowledge. Viewers are then directed to go to the Facebook and YouTube pages to know their scores and winners of the quiz.

     

    The production house says that the initial response has been to the tune of 75,000 responses. This is due to its intense promotion through social media, SMS and print media in Karnataka, being done by Innovative Advanced Media.

     

    The programme is technically supported by cloud servers and IVR that can handle 9000 calls and 4 lakh SMS per second. The brainchild behind this show, Madhusudhan says that the USP is that the ratings can be analysed on the basis of the responses.

     

    Targeted at viewers above 14 years of age, the set location is Bengaluru. Currently being telecast only on Udaya TV, talks are on to telecast it in the other south states as well.

  • South Indian GECs push fiction to include Saturday

    South Indian GECs push fiction to include Saturday

    Television viewing has always been about appointment viewing – catch up with your favourite shows on a particular day at a particular time.

    While airing fiction shows from Monday to Friday and comedy and movies over weekends has been somewhat the norm, a clutch of channels down South, particularly in Karnataka, has taken a shine to fiction shows spilling over to Saturdays as well.

    Asianet Suvarna, Star’s GEC channel in Karnataka, took this route about six months ago when it started airing fiction shows for six days a week.

    Star’s Malayalam GEC Asianet followed suit with a few prime-time fiction shows extended to Saturday.

    Recently, Sun TV, the Tamil GEC from the dominant Sun Network, joined the fray with its prime-time fiction shows replacing a movie and a game slot on Saturday.
    Not to be left behind, Sun Network’s Malayalam GEC Surya TV added Saturday to the telecast of the crime thriller Satyameva Jayate and its Kannada GEC Udaya TV also traversed the same path.

    So, what prompted these GECs to include Saturdays in their fiction line-up? Apparently, the channels believe airing soaps on a Saturday is more profitable as compared to airing movies, which they used to earlier. “Producing a half-an- hour fiction serial would mean investing about Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 whereas acquiring a movie would mean spending at least Rs 2-5 crore depending on the movie,” says Asianet Suvarna business head Anup Chandrashekaran.

    Another factor is that while Tamil Nadu is probably and arguably the best movie market in the south, the Karnataka film industry isn’t prospering too much, according to many channel executives. Hence, neither advertisers nor the revenue from Kannada movies is consistent as compared to that from shows. Again, movie repeats depend on the premiere performance. A good movie can fetch anywhere between Rs 40 lakh to Rs 60 lakh  as ad revenues from its first telecast. This means that for recovery it has to be telecast several times but repeats don’t get the same value.

    It also states that the number of films certified from Karnataka has dropped from 162 in 2008 to 128 in 2012. Whereas, the number of films certified from Tamil Nadu has grown from 175 to 262 in the same time span.

    A month ago, Zee Kannada too joined this elite club with fiction shows between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm extended to Saturday. “Production of Kannada films has come down and for a movie to premiere on TV takes nearly a year unlike Bollywood where the gap between the theatre premiere and TV premiere is just two or three months,” says Zee Kannada nonfiction programming AVP Balaraj S.

    Balaraj says that Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are better off since movies do well there

    The Deloitte report also stated that though Tamil and Telugu films are adopting better technology to match Hollywood standards, the same is lacking in the other two markets.

    It also highlighted that since the beginning of this year, broadcasters in Karnataka and Kerala have become selective in acquiring rights of small budget movies due to the use of low quality digital cameras resulting in poor visual appeal on TV.

    ETV Kannada, which was the first GEC to extend its afternoon and evening fiction shows to Saturdays nearly two years ago, has seen better viewership since because most people are at home over the weekend.

    “It is a cost effective way of managing your Fixed Point Chart (FPC) or else you have to invest in movies or events. Fiction shows have appointment viewing and time spent on them is very high,” says Viacom 18 EVP and business head –Kannada, Bengali and Oriya- Ravish Kumar.

    For showcasing movies, the channel makes use of its existing bank rather than relying on new ones. Kumar believes that by the time the movie gets premiered on TV, the interest in it has already faded.

    Balaraj feels that the only good thing about premiering movies is a better sampling of viewers while Chandrasekharan says it is easier to get advertisers locked for six days rather than approach new ones every week for a Saturday.

    Ravish feels that having shows on Saturday gets more viewers due to it being a holiday for most

    So will this trend catch up with other states as well? Balaraj feels that it won’t affect Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh since the film community there loves producing and audiences gorge on movies. New Generation Media Corporation CEO RBU Shyam Kumar, who heads newly-launched Tamil GEC Pudhu Yugam, feels it is too early to speculate. “A movie acquisition runs into crores of rupees and recovery time is long and most channels have a separate movie channel as well,” he says.

    While the Deloitte report said of the total revenue of Rs 2,680 crore from the South Indian film industry in FY 2013, the lowest was from Karnataka with just Rs 150 crore as compared to Rs 1,190 crore from Tamil Nadu and Rs 1150 crore from Andhra Pradesh, the silver lining is that the report also estimates that the Karnataka market is set to grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent by FY 2017 to reach Rs 250 crore, the highest of all four.

    TV advertising market in south India was pegged at Rs 4000 crore during FY 2013 with Karnataka contributing Rs 710 crore. So clearly, television stands at a better position than film.

    The media planners we spoke to feel that as long as serials get good viewership, brands won’t have any problem advertising for an extra day in the week and Saturday anyway gets better viewership since it is the beginning of the weekend.

    Be that as it may, the weekends look to have rung in the end of weak and expensive movies on TV in Karnataka, and the dawning of cheaper fiction shows. 

  • Now a talent show for the differently-abled

    Now a talent show for the differently-abled

    MUMBAI: There are reality shows and then there are reality shows. This one’s about celebrating differently-abled people and showcasing their talents to the rest of the world.

     

    Already on air, Champions will be telecast in all four South Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada on the respective Sun GECs including Sun TV, Gemini TV, Surya TV and Udaya TV.

     

    The one-hour show will have four rounds where differently-abled people will display their talents such as singing, dancing, pantomime, martial arts, stand-up comedy, acrobatics, gymnastics and magic among others. Every second of every round will have a monetary value attached to it so that participants will take home some prize money, no matter which stage of the show they get eliminated at.

     

    Produced in-house, Champions has Aldam Jacob as its creative director along with individual directors for each of the four languages including Jeyakumar (Tamil), Saravanan (Telugu), Naufel (Malayalam) and Bhuvan Shastri (Kannada).

     

    The judges include Pattimandram Raja for Sun TV, Gauthami and Naga Babu for Gemini TV, Laxmi and MG Sreekumar for Surya TV, and Laxmi and Srinath for Udaya TV. While the anchors are: Tejeswani for Sun TV, Shamala and Abhinaya Krishna for Gemini TV, Deepa and Rahul for Surya TV, and Deepa and Anand for Udaya TV.

     

    Sun TV viewers can watch the 13-episode Champions on Sunday from 12:00 to 1:00 pm; Udaya TV viewers on Saturday from 7:30 to 8:30 pm; Surya TV viewers on Friday from 8.00 to 9.00 pm and Gemini TV viewers on Wednesday from 9:00 to 10:00pm.

     

    Exults Jacob: “Champions is the brain child of Sun Network chairman Kalanithi Maran. We want to make a positive impact in the lives of people who are physically challenged and celebrate them.”

     

    With SEC ABCDE 4+ as the TG, V Care and Dabur Vatika are the sponsors of Champions on Sun TV while the remaining three channels have Dabur Vatika as sponsor. Red FM, Suryan FM, Dinakaran and the whole of Sun Network has been roped in to promote the show. “We are also going seamlessly into season two,” Jacob rounds off.

     

    Whatever the audience reaction, Champions gets a loud hoot of approval from indiantelevision.com

  • Sun fixes share swap ratio of Gemini, Udaya merger

    Sun fixes share swap ratio of Gemini, Udaya merger

    MUMBAI: Sun TV Ltd. has approved the share swap ratio for the merger of Gemini TV Pvt. Ltd. and Udaya TV Pvt. Ltd. with itself. The shareholders of Gemini will get 1.78 shares of Sun TV for every one share held. Gemini posted a revenue of Rs 1.75 billion and a net profit of Rs 451 million for the year ended 31 March 2006. The company owns Gemini TV, Teja TV, Gemini News, Gemini Music and Gemini Cable Vision.

    Udaya shareholders will get 19.72 shares of Sun TV for every one share held. Udaya revenues for the last fiscal stood at Rs 943 million while net profit was at Rs 253 million. The company owns four television channels, Udaya TV, Udaya Movies, Udaya Varthegalu and Udaya TV II. All the divisions of Udaya, except the FM radio division, will be merged with Sun TV Ltd.

    Sun will issue a total of 17.8 million shares to Gemini shareholders and 11.8 million shares to Udaya shareholders. On completion of the merger, the company is proposed to be renamed as Sun TV Network Ltd.

    “After the proposed amalgamation and merger, the outstanding equity share capital of the company will increase from 68,889,155 to 98,521,155 equity shares of Rs 10/- each. The additional 29,632,000 shares proposed to be issued will constitute 30 per cent of the enlarged equity capital of the company,” Sun TV said in a statement.

    The board of Sun took on record the suggestions made by Enam Financial Consultants and DSP Merrill Lynch and approved the valuation report submitted by the independent chartered accountant N Subramanian.

    “Sun, Gemini and Udaya boards have approved the Scheme of Arrangement which governs the above amalgamation and merger,” the company said.

    The merger, however, is subject to final approval by shareholders, creditors and the High Court.

    With the merger, Sun will increase the number of television channels in its bouquet from six to 15. “The proposed amalgamation and merger will enable us to build a dominant presence in entire south India, and emerge as one of the largest and most profitable television broadcasters in India,” Sun said.

  • SaharaOne and Filmy accept CAS ceiling price of Rs 5

    SaharaOne and Filmy accept CAS ceiling price of Rs 5

    MUMBAI: Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd have let the 15 October deadline pass to inform sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) the channel price fixed for the notified areas under conditional access system (CAS).

    The company, which manages general entertainment channel SaharaOne and movie channel Filmy, has acknowledged the ceiling price of Rs 5. 

    The two channels switched to the pay mode in September. 

    The regulator had set a common price on all pay channels directing that under CAS regime they will cost a maximum Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes).

    Ahead of the deadline, most pay broadcasters including Star India, Set Discovery, ESPN Software, Raj TV Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV, Gemini TV limited, Ushodaya Enterprises Limited, B4U Television Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV and Gemini TV, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Zee Turner Ltd had agreed to the price and declared the charges of all the channels.

  • Broadcasters follow Trai diktat, declare channel rates at Rs 5

    Broadcasters follow Trai diktat, declare channel rates at Rs 5

    MUMBAI: Under protest but within the deadline stipulated by the sector regulator, pay broadcasters today fell in line on the price fixed for the areas notified under conditional access system (CAS). As pre the directive issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), pay broadcasters have declared the a la carte rates of their channels at Rs 5 (excluding taxes).

    The regulator had set a common price on all pay channels directing that under the conditional access system (CAS) regime they will cost Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes). 

    Star India has declared the prices of its channels as well as the channels the company distributes. The company has specified that the prices are being filed under protest and without prejudice to Star India Private Ltd’s rights and contentions raised in petitions filed by Star and / or any other parties on the issues.

    Last month, Star had filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court challenging the basis of Trai’s announcement on pricing for CAS. The matter will come up for the next hearing on 15 November.

    Set Discovery Pvt Ltd and ESPN Software Pvt Ltd have also respectively acknowledged the ceiling price. The two recently tendered an appeal against the tariff order at the tribunal forum TDSAT, where the final arguments are likely to be heard on 13 November.

    Set Discovery pointed out that the pricing shall be effective from 31 December 2006 and is subject to implementation of CAS in the notified areas pursuant to I&B’s notification dated 31 July 2006.

    Raj TV Network, Sun TV, Udaya TV, Gemini TV limited, Ushodaya Enterprises Limited (Television Division) and B4U Television Network Pvt Ltd have also affirmed to the tariff order set by the regulator. Sun TV, Udaya TV and Gemini TV, however, clarified that the ceiling prices are not effective in Chennai, the CAS market and be accessible as free-to-air channels.

    The British Broadcasting Corporation, which turned its BBC World into a pay channel earlier this year, has also affirmed to the price like the other broadcasters. Zee Turner Ltd has also agreed to the price and declaring the charges of all the channels that the platform distributes.

    The regulator does indicate that in respect of those broadcasters who are yet to confirm their rates, a communication is being sent to them to report compliance in respect of the maximum retail price fixed by them for their pay channels in CAS areas.

    Trai deems that the declaration of tariff for pay channels in CAS areas is an important milestone in the implementation of CAS, which will also protect the interests of consumers.

    The regulator is also pursuing the completion of interconnect agreements among the service providers as envisaged in the Interconnection Regulation order to ensure a smooth roll out of CAS.