Competition in the already crowded news and entertainment channels market is sure to hot up with nearly a dozen regional and national channels from Andhra Pradesh broadcasters’ stable poised to go on air this year.
For instance, the Associated Broadcasting Company Private Ltd (ABCL), which runs news channels in Telugu, Kannada and Gujarati under the TV9 brand and Telugu spiritual channel Samskruthi, is lining up five channels, both in news and entertainment genres, in the next one year.
ABCL, funded by iLabs Capital Ltd, will be launching some time this month a Hindi news channel – TV9 Mumbai – in Mumbai, where the air waves are already crowded with four major players – IBN Lokmat, Zee Marathi, Star Mazha and Sahara Mumbai.
“Our strategy has always been different, first becoming strong locally (Andhra Pradesh) and then building a strong pan-India network to compete against major national players,” Ravi Prakash, chief executive officer of ABCL, told Business Standard, adding that the company would soon raise Rs 100 crore foreign investment to fund its new projects.
ABCL, which also picked up majority stakes in Kolkata TV promoted by Xenitis Group and Malayalam channel Indiavision, will be launching Lehren, a 24x7 Bollywood channel in Hindi this month, while it is expected to begin transmissions of TV9 NCR and a Tamil channel by the first quarter of 2009.
TV9 NCR, dedicated exclusively to the National Capital Region, will be locking horns with channels like Delhi Aajtak, STV promoted by a real estate company and Total TV. Ravi Prakash said the company had also planned an English new channel, which will go on air in October this year.
