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MUMBAI: They were late entrants
into a market that was dominated by
the Marans’ Sun group. Nearing three
years into its foray in broadcast
television media space with a News
channel ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai TV’ (PT),
besides running the successful Tamil
magazine of the same name, the
New Generation Media Corporation
owned by the Sri Ramaswamy
Memorial (SRM) group had launched
a general entertainment channel
(GEC) Puthu Yugum (PY) on 23
October 2013.
Targeting the Tamil youth during
prime time, Puthu Yugum has
brought in south Korean shows to its
programming mix. On offer are
dubbed versions of south Korean
dramas acquired from broadcasters
MBC and KBS such as Boys over
Flowers (KBS2) , The Greatest Love
(MBC) , Playful Kiss (MBC) , Moon
Embracing the Sun (MBC) , Iris (KBS2) ,
Pasta (MBC)and A Hundred Year
Legacy (MBC).The shows originally
broadcast in south Korea from 2009
onwards, are aired between 7 pm to
8 pm Monday to Thursday with
repeats at 10:30 pm, along with a
marathon run on Saturday at 9 pm
on Puthu Yugam. Show rights are
with the channel for approximately
one to three years.
“Since Puthu Yugam is from the SRM
group that also runs the SRM
University, our president Dr
Sathyanaranan had an opportunity to
observe the trend of the students. He
noted that they are obsessed with
Korean (K) series. He suggested us to
bring them to Puthu Yugam. K series
has brought lot of young blood into
the channel,” says New Gen Media
Corporation CEO RBU Shyam Kumar.
PY is also in talks with channels in
Turkey, UK and US to acquire some
of their shows. Shyam says that the
culture, storytelling as well as
sentiments which seem to match with
those in Tamil culture, is appealing
to the audience they cater to. This
apart, he adds that several Tamil
directors are inspired from Korean
films and series.
Nearly 25 fresh dubbing artists are
being employed to lend their voices
to the Korean characters. A specialist
Sanjay Mohan, who has worked for
Star Vijay and NGC, and is well
versed with both Tamil and Korean
languages, has been roped in to
monitor the content translation.
Advertisers such as Poomex, Head &
Shoulders, White Tone, Harpic, Lizol
10X, Vodafone, Wheat naturals and
Prestige have been brought onboard
for the Korean shows. The channel
refuses to declare the acquisition cost
but says that although it differs from
channel to channel, it is equivalent to
acquiring a “mega show from a Hindi
GEC for Tamil dubbing.”
The two channel group also considers
the digital space important. New Gen
Media Corp convergence head K
Manaikandaboopathi says, “Digital is
all about convenience. Smartphones/
apps are the way people seek
information these days and the
audience growth is unlimited. It’s an
untapped market with unlimited
potential. Positioning our brand via
handsets and tabs is the way forward
for us and has more option for
audience engagement.”
Manaikandaboopathi says that rather
than invest in advertising the app,
cross promotion is done via
Facebook, TV and the website. 74 per
cent of app downloads are from
India itself. The PT app has had
240,000 downloads on Android since
its launch in November 2013 with
about 1.25 lakh downloads
happening during the recently
concluded elections. The group has
invested Rs 50 lakh on the PT live,
PPY live, PT VOD, PY VOD and PT
Tickr apps . Two of the group’s shows
have special apps- Chinna Chinna
Cinema (Puthu Yugam) and Nerpada
Pesu (Puthiya Thalaimurai). Some of
the apps are free while some are
paid.
However, the Korean dramas are not
available on the apps, since the
channel has not acquired the digital
rights for them. The apps are the
group’s way to reach out to younger
audiences in India, between the age
group of 18 to 40, specifically.
The company says that the PT
application seems to have become
quite popular, while, on the PY front,
more work needs to be done as yet.
It has had 30,000 downloads in six
months. “We need to focus on
increasing the visibility as this is
mostly demanded by the non-
resident Tamil diaspora. We have
witnessed that the audience prefers
catch-up TV via the app. So, a new
and free video on demand app has
just been launched last week on iOS
and will soon launch on Android,”
informs Manaikandaboopathi.
While the News channel has made a
mark among Tamilians with its claims
of having overtaken Sun News and
Jaya News within 60 days of launch
in August 2011, the GEC is yet to
firm up against the big guns that rule
the Tamil TV GEC roost - Sun TV, Star
Vijay, Jaya TV and Kalaignar. The Sun
Network and Jaya Networks are
connected to the political
heavyweights in the country - the
DMK and AIADMK families
respectively, while the Star Network
has a major stake in Star Vijay. While
PT claims to be the only News
channel without any political
affiliation, SRM Group founder TR
Pachamuthu had contested the recent
Lok Sabha elections under a BJP
ticket, but lost to the AIADMK’s RP
Marutharajaa.
into a market that was dominated by
the Marans’ Sun group. Nearing three
years into its foray in broadcast
television media space with a News
channel ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai TV’ (PT),
besides running the successful Tamil
magazine of the same name, the
New Generation Media Corporation
owned by the Sri Ramaswamy
Memorial (SRM) group had launched
a general entertainment channel
(GEC) Puthu Yugum (PY) on 23
October 2013.
Targeting the Tamil youth during
prime time, Puthu Yugum has
brought in south Korean shows to its
programming mix. On offer are
dubbed versions of south Korean
dramas acquired from broadcasters
MBC and KBS such as Boys over
Flowers (KBS2) , The Greatest Love
(MBC) , Playful Kiss (MBC) , Moon
Embracing the Sun (MBC) , Iris (KBS2) ,
Pasta (MBC)and A Hundred Year
Legacy (MBC).The shows originally
broadcast in south Korea from 2009
onwards, are aired between 7 pm to
8 pm Monday to Thursday with
repeats at 10:30 pm, along with a
marathon run on Saturday at 9 pm
on Puthu Yugam. Show rights are
with the channel for approximately
one to three years.
“Since Puthu Yugam is from the SRM
group that also runs the SRM
University, our president Dr
Sathyanaranan had an opportunity to
observe the trend of the students. He
noted that they are obsessed with
Korean (K) series. He suggested us to
bring them to Puthu Yugam. K series
has brought lot of young blood into
the channel,” says New Gen Media
Corporation CEO RBU Shyam Kumar.
PY is also in talks with channels in
Turkey, UK and US to acquire some
of their shows. Shyam says that the
culture, storytelling as well as
sentiments which seem to match with
those in Tamil culture, is appealing
to the audience they cater to. This
apart, he adds that several Tamil
directors are inspired from Korean
films and series.
Nearly 25 fresh dubbing artists are
being employed to lend their voices
to the Korean characters. A specialist
Sanjay Mohan, who has worked for
Star Vijay and NGC, and is well
versed with both Tamil and Korean
languages, has been roped in to
monitor the content translation.
Advertisers such as Poomex, Head &
Shoulders, White Tone, Harpic, Lizol
10X, Vodafone, Wheat naturals and
Prestige have been brought onboard
for the Korean shows. The channel
refuses to declare the acquisition cost
but says that although it differs from
channel to channel, it is equivalent to
acquiring a “mega show from a Hindi
GEC for Tamil dubbing.”
The two channel group also considers
the digital space important. New Gen
Media Corp convergence head K
Manaikandaboopathi says, “Digital is
all about convenience. Smartphones/
apps are the way people seek
information these days and the
audience growth is unlimited. It’s an
untapped market with unlimited
potential. Positioning our brand via
handsets and tabs is the way forward
for us and has more option for
audience engagement.”
Manaikandaboopathi says that rather
than invest in advertising the app,
cross promotion is done via
Facebook, TV and the website. 74 per
cent of app downloads are from
India itself. The PT app has had
240,000 downloads on Android since
its launch in November 2013 with
about 1.25 lakh downloads
happening during the recently
concluded elections. The group has
invested Rs 50 lakh on the PT live,
PPY live, PT VOD, PY VOD and PT
Tickr apps . Two of the group’s shows
have special apps- Chinna Chinna
Cinema (Puthu Yugam) and Nerpada
Pesu (Puthiya Thalaimurai). Some of
the apps are free while some are
paid.
However, the Korean dramas are not
available on the apps, since the
channel has not acquired the digital
rights for them. The apps are the
group’s way to reach out to younger
audiences in India, between the age
group of 18 to 40, specifically.
The company says that the PT
application seems to have become
quite popular, while, on the PY front,
more work needs to be done as yet.
It has had 30,000 downloads in six
months. “We need to focus on
increasing the visibility as this is
mostly demanded by the non-
resident Tamil diaspora. We have
witnessed that the audience prefers
catch-up TV via the app. So, a new
and free video on demand app has
just been launched last week on iOS
and will soon launch on Android,”
informs Manaikandaboopathi.
While the News channel has made a
mark among Tamilians with its claims
of having overtaken Sun News and
Jaya News within 60 days of launch
in August 2011, the GEC is yet to
firm up against the big guns that rule
the Tamil TV GEC roost - Sun TV, Star
Vijay, Jaya TV and Kalaignar. The Sun
Network and Jaya Networks are
connected to the political
heavyweights in the country - the
DMK and AIADMK families
respectively, while the Star Network
has a major stake in Star Vijay. While
PT claims to be the only News
channel without any political
affiliation, SRM Group founder TR
Pachamuthu had contested the recent
Lok Sabha elections under a BJP
ticket, but lost to the AIADMK’s RP
Marutharajaa.
