MUMBAI: This one is for Tamil speaking devotees of Tirupati. From time to time over the past few years, The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) which administers the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple – the richest temple of its type in the world - has been making announcements about launching its Telugu channel in Tamil. But so far it has only provided Tamil and Kannada audio feeds for its Telugu service.
Now, the TTD once again announced last week that it would be taking a stab at a full-fledged Tamil version of SVBC to start with, followed by an exclusive spiritual channel in Kannada. Dates were not given, but the management said it would happen soon.
The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple attracts close to 75,000 pilgrims everyday and has an estimated budget of Rs 2.530 core for 2015-2016 and it generated close to Rs 1,000 crore in donations in 2008; that figure has probably gone up manifold since then.
TTD administrators behind it laid the foundation stone of the SVBC Studio and Office at the Replica Temple near Alipiri in Andhra Pradesh to help it achieve that ambition. And the trust board’s chairman Chadalawada Krishnamurthy stated that it was investing Rs 14.50 crore behind the new facility.
Krishnamurthy added that “the SVBC Channel was initiated with an aim to spread Hindu Sanatana Dharma across the globe through innovative spiritual and dharmic programmes. To supplement such efforts, a state-of-art studio with the latest technology will soon be established in the temple city. The works will be completed within a year and the facility will have a live studio apart from two more studios with all the advanced technical equipment.”
SVBC Telugu airs an FPC consisting of the daily sevas (rituals and worship) , special pujas (prayers), processions, the annual brahmotsavams and other events in which devotees from all over the globe participate in all round the year in the temple’s premises. It also telecast spiritual songs by famed classical musicians and devotional performances by classical dancers, classical mythological films, yoga training shows, amongs many others. Advertisers too have been coming on board to tap into its viewers and the channel charges anywhere between Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per 10 second TVC.
The channel is being beamed off Insat 4a located at 83 degrees east. It is available on channel 702 on Sun Direct, on Channel 842 on Reliance Digital, on Channel 915 on Dish TV, on Channel 530 on Airtel, and Channel 769 on Tata Sky.
