Star's Bengali channel from September 8

Star India’s Bengali general entertainment channel - Star Jalsa - will go on air on September 8.

This is part of Star India’s plan to invest $100 million to launch as many as six regional channels in India.

Star Jalsa will be available only on satellite and not on direct-to-home (DTH) network.

At a press conference in Kolkata on Thursday, Prem Kamath, vice president - marketing and communication, Star India, said, “It will be a paid channel. We are still working out the pricing strategy for the channel. We will launch Marathi and Gujarati channels next.”

In the regional space, the network has a Tamil channel Star Vijay and two news channels. There is Star Majha, the Marathi news channel, and the ABP joint venture that runs STAR Ananda.

Star Jalsa is Star India’s second regional general entertainment channel after Star Vijay.

The company intends to introduce merchandise like apparel, jewellery and also CDs and DVDs of a few of the popular Bengali shows.

Star already has its merchandise line for some of the popular shows on Star Plus, like its Star Parivar range.

Once launched, Star Jalsa will compete with other general Bengali entertainment channels like ETV Bangla and Zee Bangla.

According to Adex India, a Television Audience Measurement (TAM) media research division, so far in 2008, out of the total advertising revenue on television, regional channels contributed 41 per cent compared with 51 per cent by the national channels.

The total regional advertising market, including print and television, stood at Rs 2046.2 crore in 2007-08. Of the total advertising market in India, the national versus regional ratio was 81:19 per cent, clearly skewed in favour of national advertising.