In less than two weeks of its official launch, Kalaignar TV, the new entertainment channel promoted by family members of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has marched to the number three slot on the weekly TRP (television rating profile) chart. | |
| The Maran family- (grand nephews of Karunanidhi) controlled Sun Network's Sun TV and the group's movie channel K TV, occupy the number one and two positions. |
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Media sources say that this is only the beginning of a major turf battle between the ruling DMK party and Sun Network.
| PEOPLE'S VERDICT... | | Channel | TRP for
week ended
Sept 28, 07 | | Sun TV | 38.00 | | K TV | 12.57 | | Kalaignar TV | 11.79 | | Vijay TV | 6.08 | | Jaya TV | 3.37 | | Sun Music | 2.87 | | Raj TV | 1.25 | | Source: Media industry |
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| The estimated size of the regional advertising revenues over which the battle lines are drawn is estimated at Rs 600-700 crore annually. Sun Network at present has an estimated 60-70 per cent share of this pie. |
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| Over 100 staffers, mostly from the programming and production departments from Sun Network have already moved to Kalaignar TV. |
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| A handful of content creators like AVM Studio and Kavithalaya (owned by movie director K Balachandar), who were with Sun Network until recently, have already sworn their allegiance to Kalaignar TV. |
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| A few other powerful production houses are also waiting on the wings to move from Sun Network to the new television channel. "Some of those who are continuing with Sun Network are waiting to cash their carried forward free commercial time which the network owes them," says a network insider. |
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| Production houses like Radan Media Works, owned by noted actress Radhika Sarathkumar hold free commercial times (FCT) worth Rs 5-6 crore pending encashment. |
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| Similarly UTV also has FCTs worth Rs 5-6 crore to its account, pending from Sun Network. |
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| FCT is the industry norm for payment to producers for providing programmes to the network. For every half hour worth of content, producers are given three to four minutes of FCT which they can sell to advertisers as 10-second spots and recover their cost and make some profit. |
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| Kalaignar TV plans to make its presence felt stronger in Tamil Nadu with its proposed launch of a new music and daylong news channel, with an intention of hitting directly at Sun Music and Sun News. |
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| Sun Network for its part is on the cusp of changing its distribution pattern by moving to the direct-to-home (DTH) platform and abandoning the 15-year old cable format. The network is even willing to provide the hardware equipment free and charge consumers only for the content. |
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| While Sun Network's domination is expected to continue for some more time, market observers clarify that it may not be so for long. |
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| "The present monopoly position Sun Network enjoys cannot be taken for granted any more," said Nikhil Vohra, media stocks analyst with brokerage house SSKI Securities. |
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| Despite the imminent threat faced by Sun Network from Kalaignar TV, the stock market has not panicked so far. |
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| Since the official launch of the former, Sun TV stock price has not only remained stable but has also managed to record some minor gains. Between trading days September 17 and 28, the Sun TV counter has moved from Rs 329.55 to Rs 337.85. |
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