Besides Walshe, the company roped in Bhagwan Singh, from Deccan Chronicle, as the member, editorial board, and Rajesh Sundaram as its editor and news head. The channel is expected to be launched on October 19. The new channel will fight for its pie in the already-crowded market, which has about 10 players who are focussed only on news. Another eight news channels are expected to be launched in the next two years.
With about 10 companies, VV Group has interests in mining, cement, paints, oil and others. The group was recently pulled for alleged illegal activities in sand mining.
The news channel ‘News7’ will be in Tamil and the group has invested around Rs 60 crore to start the venture, said V Subramanian, one of the four directors of Alliance Broadcast Limited, which owns the channel.
The company will focus only on Tamil, to start with. Based on its success, it will look at a national news channel, he said, while ruling out the possibility of starting a general entertainment channel.
According to a FICCI media report, the media and entertainment industry in south India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 per cent to reach Rs 36,005 crore by 2015-16, from the current size of around Rs 21,190 crore.
The total TV advertisement revenue in south India was estimated to be Rs 3,610 crore in 2012, which is expected to grow at around 16 per cent to touch Rs 6,540 crore by 2016. The total content revenue from television in South India are estimated to be around Rs 470 crore, in 2012, and it is expected to grow at 15 per cent to reach Rs 830 crore by 2016, added the study.
Meanwhile, the film industry in South India is expected to grow from Rs 2,340 crore in 2012 to Rs 3,550 crore in 2016. In film industry, Tamil Nadu occupies the major share of the market size at present, with around Rs 1030 crore, while Andhra Pradesh has Rs 1020 crore film industry, Karnataka has Rs 140 crore and Kerala has around Rs 150 crore of the total South Indian film industry.