Sun TV starts dirty tricks after Star Vijay takes lead

TRAI and I&B ministry on complaint from Star Vijay has send notice about unfair practices from the Sun Network . Sun TV for the first time has been beaten by a channel and that is Star Vijay . Week 24 saw Star Vijay GRP reach 772 and Sun was 749 across Chennai- Pondicherry. Sun network which controls cable operator SCV and OTT Sun Direct immediately pushed Star Vijay to lower LCN band and making it lower on cables so that viewers would have to reset favourites and those without these settings will have to go down manually to get Star Vijay. Star Vijay after getting BARC ratings advertised on digital platforms about beating market leader in Tamil Nadu. Sun TV officials have not responded to the notices or to request from Star Vijay. Sun Tv officials maintain that this jump is temporary and limited to Chennai region and outside they are the market leaders. For the BJP led Central ministry, the complaint from Disney India that owns Star Vijay, is a god send. It had been trying to end the cable operations of SCV or at least limit it. Late Jayalalitha revived Arasu cable of State Government to take on SCV owned by Kal Cables, subsidiary of Sun Network. To a certain extent, SCV growth and monopoly was limited. In urban areas and especially in Chennai, Tata Play the DTH operator has the largest numbers and followed by Airtel.

Sun has Sun Direct the DTH platform and when Tata Play entered Chennai market, the I&B ministry was with Dhayanidhi Maran of DMK. Facing many resistance from DMK, Tata took up the issue with Prime Minister office and got it resolved. Among the Tamil news channels, Sun News which initially climbed after DMK came to power, has now dipped as it cannot take an offensive stance, DMK first family owned Kalaignar TV is a lower position. Interestingly, Kalaignar TV was started after Sun TV and sister concern Dinakaran the daily newspaper rated M K Alagiri then Union Minister as poor performer. It led to assault on newspaper office and resulted in death of few employees. Later on the Kalaignar TV was involved in the 2G scam. To limit cable operations of SCV, DMK ministry started Arasu cable Corporation to end the monopoly. After the Murasoli family smoked the peace pipe with Karunanidhi family. Arasu became dormant and then took a new avatar when Jayalalithaa came back to power.

Sun TV launches Marathi channel - sixth Indian language in network

 

Sun TV Network has entered the Marathi Entertainment Television space with the launch of Sun Marathi. The Channel went on air today (17th October 2021) at 6: 30 PM and it will be a Free-to-air channel.

The channel’s Tagline is ‘Sohala Natyancha’ which translates to ‘Celebrating relationships’. Staying true to its tagline, the channel has announced 3 hours of original programming with 6 shows starting from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm. Each of these shows explore unique relations in its storyline. The shows announced are ‘Nandini’ at 6.30 pm, ‘Sundari’ at 7 pm, ‘Jaau nako dur..baba!’ at 7.30 pm, ‘Abhalachi Maya’ at 8 pm, ‘Kanyadaan’ at 8.30 pm and ‘Sant Gajanan Shegaviche’ at 9 pm. The Channel is likely to add movies to its Programming line-up that includes a mix of original Marathi movies and dubbed movies of hit titles from other languages as the network has a strong library of 4000+ movie titles.

The channel has also announced ‘Bagha Roj Jinka Rokh’ (Watch Daily, Win Cash) contest which every day offers an opportunity for more than 1,000 viewers to win up to 2 crores in cash prize from Dusshera to Diwali.  Every day during the contest period, one question will be asked in each of the six shows and viewers will have to give a missed call to register their answers on the numbers provided.

With the entry of Sun Marathi, the Marathi GEC space get even more competitive as the market is already having handful of satellite channels with Star Pravah on top of the viewership chart followed by Zee Marathi and Colors Marathi at No. 2 and No. 3 position respectively. The market also has other players like Sony Marathi and Fakt Marathi.

Prior to entering Marathi Market, Sun TV Network forayed into Bengali entertainment television market with the launch of FTA Bengali GEC, Sun Bangla on 3 February 2019.

With the launch of Sun Marathi, the Conglomerate has power-packed Thirty Four TV Channels with the reach of more than 95 million households in India. Out of 34 Channels 25 are aired in SD format and 9 Channels in HD format across six Indian languages. It also beams 68 FM Radio Station across India.

Sun TV Network’s channels can be viewed in 27 countries including U.S.A, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Srilanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. ( source- Medianews4u.com)