The battle for the No 4 slot in the general Hindi entertainment channel sweepstakes is hotting up. Sahara TV has refocused itself and is readying for an aggressive marketing and programming assault, so can Sabe TV be far behind?
A press release from the company says that its FPC is being rejigged and a bunch of new shows are being introduced come the first week of September. Popular sitcom Office-Office will air thrice a week. A fun-based programme to be produced and hosted by Ravi Behl and Naaved Jaffrey of Sony Entertainment‘s Boogie Woogie fame titled Paisa Vasool will be introduced, featuring celebrities in each episode and mounted on a lavish scale. A cop-thriller Dial 100 will be shown four days a week from Mondays to Thursdays.

A spanking new one-and-a-half hour afternoon programming band featuring women oriented programmes like a Cookery Show, a Pop Countdown, Swayam (the woman achiever), Utsav, and Drishtikon is also to be introduced.

Additionally, a popular cartoon strip for children will be shown daily from Monday to Friday in the evenings. Variety programmes such as Brahma Vishnu Mahesh, comedies like Daddy Samjha Karo and Yes Boss and dramas like Karam and Sambandh will be featured on the 9.00 pm slot.

With the introduction of fresh programming, Sabe TV‘s FPC will include a daily cartoon strip, a daily sitcom, Aflatoon at 7 pm, the fantasy Alif-Laila at 7.30 pm, comedy Office-Office at 8 pm thrice a week followed by Paisa Vasool, the daily thriller Dial 100 at 8.30 pm and varieties like mythological dramas and weekly comedies at 9 pm and the comedy Shriman Shrimati at 9.30 pm.

Sabe TV, in the release, claims that it has overtaken major players like Sony and Zee in the five major cities (excluding Mumbai) in the key western Indian state of Maharashtra. Market research agency‘s AC Nielsen‘s latest TAM data for the week ending 28 July 2001 shows that Sabe TV has generated higher Gross Rating Points (GRPs) - for the Top 25 programmes in all segments like All 15+ AB, 15 + Female AB, 15 + All ABC and 15 + Females ABC - than Sony Entertainment and Zee TV, the release states.

Television software major TV18 came out with miserable results showing the down turn in media sector. The Net profit has gone down by more than 69 per cent at Rs11.3 million in the quarter ended on 30th June 2001 from 36.9 million in corresponding quarter in last financial year.

Total sales has gone down by 30 per cent to Rs 62.2 million from RS 89.7 million while other income has gone up from RS 6 million to RS 10.3 million

As the total expenses has actually gone up during quarter at RS 48.3 million compared to fall in the sales, total Operating margin also came under pressure, which has gone down to 22 per cent for the first quarter this year from 45 per cent last year.

TV-18‘s consolidated results for the first quarter, which included the performance of its other group companies like Television Eighteen Mauritius and e-eighteen dotcom, showed a net loss of Rs 8.2 million.

The major chunk of revenue for the company (Rs 57 million) came from sales of programming to business channel CNBC India in which TV18 has equity holding. Internet operations, e-commerce and other television software sales accounted for just RS 50 lakh for the quarter under review.

Looking at the improved advertisement revenue and the low cost programming, the company is expected to do well in remaining months in this financial year.

Star Group Limited and UTV announced in Chennai today the formation of a joint venture which will oversee Tamil regional language channel Vijay TV. Star has taken a controlling 51 per cent majority stake in Vijay Televisions Ltd, the UTV subsidiary which manages the channel, while the remaining 49 per cent remains with other shareholders, primarily UTV. The JV covers content, distribution, ad sales and marketing.

The JV will focus on content production and distribution in Tamil and will enable Vijay TV programming to reach new markets within India and overseas under the Star bouquet, an official release says.

Peter Mukerjea, CEO STAR India, said: ?Vijay TV is an established brand in the market and brings to the table local experience and equity with the consumers. Vijay TV will complement our success in Hindi language programming, and help us penetrate deeper into South India ? the synergies are obvious.?

?The regional language market has huge growth potential and a joint venture with Star will give Vijay TV the right impetus to take it to the next level,? said Ronnie Screwvala, Chairman of UTV.

Mukerjea ruled out any change in the name of the channel and said he expected the channel to be ready to pose a serious challenge to its rivals before the year was out. Mukerjea said they would be refurbishing Vijay TV‘s film library as well as pumping money into development of programming but would provide no details about the roadmap that had been set out to reposition the channel.

On what would happen to CEO Rohit Adya in the new dispensation, Mukerjea said he would be returning to UTV. Ajay Vidyasagar who has come in as COO will be heading the channel.

While the broadcast of Vijay TV channel stays with UTV under its subsidiary Vijay Broadcasting, the JV will provide content, distribution, ad sales and marketing to the channel.

The new company has reportedly been floated to circumvent the statute that foreign companies cannot hold more than 20 per cent in a satellite channel while uplinking from India.

It is too early in the day to predict how far Star‘s acquisition of Vijay TV will impact on the the channel stakes in Tamil Nadu with Kalanithi Maran‘s Sun TV being far and away the leader but Tamil television is bound to see a sea change with the big boys Star and Zee (Asianet Bharati - soon to be Zee Alpha) making their entry.