With an eye on the Rs 20-crore television broadcasting market in Bihar and Jharkhand, filmmaker Prakash Jha is ready to launch his news and current affairs channel Maurya TV in Bihar. Headquartered in Patna, the 24-hour, free-to-air channel will vie with regional competitors such as ETV and Sahara in the news category and other Bhojpuri channels like Mahua TV and Hamar TV for viewers as well as for the limited advertising.
Though Prakash Jha was unavailable for comment, a source in the media consulting firm that prepared the business plan for the channel admitted that the project was ready to take off and that the channel was going through what are known as “dry runs”. Former Adlabs head honcho and film producer Manmohan Shetty is said to be a partner in the business. Shetty, however, clarified to Business Standard that he was merely an investor in the channel; Jha would handle day-to-day operations.
Media industry experts say though the television advertising pie looks small for so many players in the region, it is set to double in the next 18 months. A senior Zee News claims that the region is growing and is also on Zee’s radar for launching a news channel. That TAM, the TV monitoring agency, now measures viewership in Bihar is proof of the growing importance of the region for broadcasters.
Incidentally, Bihar and Jharkhand have already attracted print media players like Hindustan, Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar to launch editions in the region to bite into the Rs 150 crore advertising market in India.
Hi Ms. Shuchi...
This is a nice news.. but I think you are unaware about the Television Business in Bihar/Jharkhand. Recently, a new channel, Sadhna News was launched few months back, now #1 channel in terms of TRPs and Revenues. Sadhna has been successful in Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh and now launched in Bihar/Jharkhand. But, unfortunately, there is no reference to this fantastic channel in your article...
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