Janam TV looks to crack Kerala news market with hybrid content

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MUMBAI: Come 19 April, the Malayalam television news market will have a new player in Janam TV, a news and infotainment channel from Janam Multimedia. Janam TV’s launch comes at a time when bigger news channels are fighting hard to become profitable while smaller ones are finding the going tough with some even stretched to pay salaries on time.

Asianet News is the market leader, followed by Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News which are owned by strong print brands Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi.

There is little room for a new player in a market where TV news generates total annual advertising revenues of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) and growth is pegged at 7-8 per cent. It’s this reason which has prompted Janam TV to take a hybrid channel route rather than having a pure play news channel.

The name Janam means people in Malayalam. According to Janam Multimedia COO and executive editor Rajesh G Pillai, Janam TV is being positioned as a Malayalam channel with a nationalist outlook.

“Janam TV is a Malayalam news and entertainment channel. It will have 60 per cent entertainment content while 40 per cent will be news,” he says. He further adds, “We are having entertainment content for commercial reasons.

In Kerala, most of the pure play news channels are not making profits.

They are even finding it difficult to survive.” While admitting that the TV news market in Kerala is crowded, Pillai pointed out that only few channels have good financial backing, which includes the likes of Asianet News, Mathrubhumi News, and Manorama News.

Janam TV has its task cut out as Kerala is a small market and cannot accommodate more players.

A news channel head cites the example of TV New which shut down within months of its launch. TV New was launched by Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

However, Pillai has a different take. “Unlike newspapers, people are not hooked up to any one news channel. If there is good content available on a new channel, people will definitely accept it,” he retorts.

Pillai is confident that the channel would break-even in three years. “The management has given us target of 3–5 years but we are confident of doing it before that,” he asserted.

First private TV channel to have news bulletin in Sanskrit The channel will have 10–12 hours of fresh content everyday which include news-based and entertainment programmes.

It will also have spiritual content besides Sanskrit bulletin, which is a first in private television space. “We will have 10 news bulletins from morning show to debates late night.

For the first time in private television, we will also have a Sanskrit bulletin,” Pillai stated. In news, Janam will have different programmes like talk shows while entertainment programming will include reality shows, serials, game shows and film-based programmes.

“We will also implement new concepts and ideas,” Pillai expounded.

Pillai claims that Janam TV will be a people driven channel. To buttress his point, he stated that the company has started forming local clubs in different districts of Kerala and even abroad which will act as a guiding force behind us

Read more at Janam TV looks to crack Kerala news market with hybrid content | TelevisionPost.com
 
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