Sambad Group backed Manjari TV , a Free-to-Air (FTA) Odia Entertainment channel has aggressively expanded its presence across Direct to Home (DTH) platforms with addition across Sun Direct, Tata Sky, Dish TV, and D2h in a span of seven days ensuring its presence across all pay DTH platforms.
Manjari TV has been available on Airtel Digital TV at LCN 600 since February, however the FTA Odia Entertainment channel remained unavailable on other DTH platforms until now. Sambad Group seems to have gone on a aggressive drive with Dish TV, D2h, Sun Direct and Tata Sky all adding the channel last week. Interestingly, the channel is also advertising itself on the home page of D2h website, signaling its intent to disrupt the Odia GEC market.
Manjari TV is now available on Sun Direct at LCN 656, LCN 1309 on Dish TV, LCN 830 on D2h, and LCN 1777 on Tata Sky. The channel with the tagline ‘Utsav Ama Samparkara’ (celebrating our relationship) was digitally launched in January 2020 followed by official TV launch.
The entry of a FTA GEC space in Odia market from Sambad Group will be an interesting prospect to watch out for given the Odia GEC market is dominated by Zee Sarthak, Colors Odia, and Tarang TV. The Odia market is also going to see Sarthak Music renter the TV business later this year under the ‘Siddharth’ branding.
