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Tag: Jaya TV

  • This has not only opened up the market but also pushed up rates

    Jaya TV stirs up rights market for Tamil films

    By Sangeetha Kandavel

     

    Jaya TV and a few other rivals of Tamil television leader Sun TV are making a hitherto-unseen charge toward bagging the TV rights for big-ticket Tamil movies, for long the preserve of the Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun TV. This has not only opened up the market but also pushed up rates.

     

    Jaya TV, the mouthpiece of the ruling AIADMK party and a distant rival to Sun TV, has virtually stirred up the market in the past few days by bagging two top titles. Last week, it acquired the rights for the upcoming Rajnikanth-starrer ‘Kochadaiyaan.’ On Monday, it bought another big-ticket  movie – the upcoming Suriya-starrer ‘Maatraan.’

     

    The previous Rajnikanth movie, ‘Endhiran,’ was produced by Sun TV, which had then called it the costliest Indian movie ever made. Jaya TV was never known to indulge in the buying of TV rights, something that’s a key part of Sun TV’s content strategy. But KP Sunil, vice president of Jaya TV, said that after a lull of six years the channel has started looking at Tamil movies aggressively. “We are looking are acquiring more such movies and it will be a mixture of big and small ones,” he added.

     

    The onslaught by Jaya TV and others comes after what has been a challenging year for Sun TV. Once she came to power last May, chief minister J Jayalalithaa floated a government-run cable service called Arasu to counter the ground distribution support that Sun TV enjoyed through another Maran-owned company. Cases were also filed against the then Sun TV COO Hansraj Saxena on charges of defrauding producers while purchasing movies for television.

     

    Maran and his brother, former Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, have been under the lens of the Central Bureau of Investigation on allegations that Aircel’s former owner C Sivasankaran was arm-twisted to sell his company to Maxis founder T Anandakrishnan, who in turn invested in Kalanithi Maran’s Sun DTH.

     

    For those reasons, a challenge in the market for TV rights of movies has been expected for more than a year now. It’s only now that Jaya TV is in “full swing,” as a top official of a rival Tamil channel, wishing anonymity, put it. Executives at Sun TV and Star Vijay could not be reached for comment.

     

    The challenge isn’t confined to Jaya TV. Star Vijay has since last year has picked and chosen key titles it wants to buy. It has ended up with movies such as ‘Avan Ivan’ (directed by National Award winner Bala) and even ‘Nanban’ (the remake of ‘3 Idiots’), for which it is said to have paid record sums.

     

    Even Zee Tamil, a relatively late entrant in the Tamil entertainment market, has got onto the movie buying bandwagon. It has acquired the rights for the Simbu-starrer ‘Vettai Mannan.’ A Ficci-Deloitte report pegged the South Indian media and entertainment market in 2011 at Rs18,740 crore, 70 per cent of it coming from the Tamil and Telugu markets. TV accounted for Rs10,630 crore and films Rs2,110 crore.

     

    Political commentator Gnani Sankaran puts the trend down to clout. “Whichever party has political clout, they tend to bag satellite rights. When the DMK were in power, Sun Pictures was doing it,” he said. It isn’t as if Sun TV is struggling to buy anything. Being the TV network with the deepest pockets, it is still lapping up movies, being by far the biggest acquirer of movie rights. It recently got the rights for ‘Naan Ee’ as also the much-awaited Ajith-starrer ‘Billa 2.’ Sun TV has announced it will spend Rs200 crore on its movie library this year (this includes all languages in which it has a presence). This is a steep in crease from Rs80 crore last year. One reason for the significantly higher allocation, two industry executives said, could be because it anticipated competition to push up prices.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

     

  • The company will be handling the advertising sales duties for the Tamil television network for the next 3 years

    Aidem wins advertising duties for Jaya TV network

    By A Correspondent

     

    Aidem Ventures Pvt Ltd has announced its partnership with Jaya TV Network where the company will be handling the advertising sales duties for the Tamil television network for the next 3 years. The Jaya TV Network comprises Jaya TV, Jaya Max, Jaya Plus and J Movies.

     

    Announcing the partnership, K P Sunil, Vice President, Jaya TV Network said: “Having identified that in order to communicate with their consumers, brands need to speak to them in their language, thus national clients are increasingly adopting the regional mediums to reach their prospective clients. This is the perfect time for us to expand our sales operations in a big way to geographies beyond Tamil Nadu. Most of the major advertisers are based out of advertising and commercial hubs like Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. We are looking at Aidem to complement our growth strategy with its established network and relationship across clients and agencies across India. This partnership promises to broaden our current client base and facilitate a healthy revenue stream for the Jaya TV network’.

     

    According to the FICCI Frames 2012,India’s regional television industry witnessed a growth of 70 per cent in 2011, as compared to the national growth of the industry which is slated at 12 per cent. The numbers clearly denote that the growth in the industry is coming from the regional markets and the future is there! With the regional channels accounting for approximately 33 per cent of all India CS 4+ television viewership, every advertiser is trying to better their foothold in the regional markets to ensure they enjoy Pan India presence.

     

    “Aidem is well equipped and geared to bridge the gap between the regional and national advertisers. We are optimistic that regional will be the new national and it is a strategic business decision on our part to make out foray in this market. There’s no denying that exciting times are in store for regional TV channels and we are looking forward to this business assignment,” said Vikas Khanchandani, Director, Aidem Ventures Pvt. Ltd.

     

    Discussing the Southern Media Market in India, Alok Rakshit, Head-Broadcast Business-Regional & News, Aidem Ventures Pvt Ltd said: ‘This market comprises various uni-lingual sub-markets, which helps the local broadcasters in terms of viewership, subscription profit, advertising revenue and building overall consumer loyalty for their channels. It forms a sizeable portion of the total Television pie after the Hindi General Entertainment Channels’ category. Among the sub-markets, Tamil genre commands the largest share in viewership. What is good news for the players in this market is the fact that the industry is now also backed by the presence of national advertisers who concede that the regional television industry is the best possible platform for them to connect with the local consumers.”

     

  • Viewership numbers by TAM Media Research for the first two weeks of January show Sun News had been relegated to the No 3 slot

    Kalanithi Maran’s Sun News battles to retain lost crown

    By Sangeetha Kandavel

     

    After 11 years of leadership among Tamil TV news channels, Kalanithi Maran’s Sun News is suddenly on shaky territory. Viewership numbers by TAM Media Research for the first two weeks of January show Sun News had been relegated to the No 3 slot.

     

    In the third week, it was tied for the second spot, and it was only last week when it was a decisive No 2. It was in late October last year that newbie Puthiya Thalaimurai beat Sun News, the first time ever the latter has shed the top slot even for a week. Since then, it has been a see-saw battle for leadership.

     

    Now, while Puthiya Thalaimurai is No 1, what could have shocked Sun News for most of January is even the No 2 slot was taken away from it by Jaya Plus, which belongs to long-time rival Jaya TV. Never until now has any of the Jaya TV channels come even close to Sun TV’s channels in viewership.

     

    One of the reasons for the change of fortunes for Sun News is the initiative of the state government to start its own cable service, called Arasu, to counter the on-ground cable distribution strength that Mr Maran has with the Sumangali cable distributions service.

     

    Arasu claims membership of almost all cable operators in all areas of Tamil Nadu where it launched.

     

    The Sun slew of channels isn’t yet part of Arasu.

     

    But while the eponymous general entertainment channel Sun TV is being shown on the sly by cable operators, as it enjoys a two-thirds share, the rest of its channels might not enjoy similar visibility in Arasu’s areas. Jaya Plus might also enjoy more visibility than the pre-Arasu days.

     

    “With Arasu cable coming in there has been a tremendous distribution correction in the last two months,” said a Chennai-based media industry official, on the condition of anonymity. GV Vijayakumar, associate vice-president, Lintas Media Group-Chennai, pointed out programming as one of the other reasons.

     

     

    “In the last few months, Puthiya Thalaimurai has shown good numbers because of their news format and variety. Sun News is still following its traditional roots.” Sun’s fortunes in other genres such as general entertainment and music, where it is still the leader, depends on the fate of its negotiations with Arasu.

     

    A media planner said the spike in interest in Jaya Plus could also be a result of the viewer interest surging after Jayalalithaa expelled her close confidante Sasikala. Jaya TV, of which Jaya Plus is a part, is seen as a mouthpiece of the AIADMK party. Sun TV and Jaya TV officials couldn’t be reached for comments. As far as media buying interest goes, the battle is still only between Puthiya Thalaimurai and Sun TV, said a media planner.

     

    Punitha Arumugam, Group CEO, Madison Media Group, however, pointed to the relative insignificance of news channels in Tamil Nadu. “People who want to watch news watch it on Sun TV or Jaya TV (general entertainment channels). These channels telecast news thrice a day. News as a genre is not significant and not successful. The fluctuations for channels losing grip could be the cable war that happening in the State,” she said.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved