Media wars

Prize Catch - Chandramukhi

In mid-March, Teakada had reported about the tug of war between SUN TV and Jaya TV to bag the rights of Chandramukhi. Based on initial estimates Teakada had estimated the budget for this movie to be around INR 15 Crores. However as per the latest Sify report, Rajini alone was paid a whopping INR 15 Crores. This could be due to the fact that Rajini got a share from the proceeds of the film.

Sify says that Jaya TV has bagged the rights to screen all the Tamil New Year releases (viz. Chandramukhi, Mumbai Xpress and Sachien). However as per IndianTelevision.com, SUN TV has managed to bag the rights of Chandramukhi whereas the other two movies have gone to Jaya TV. Whoz the real winner?

KOLLYWOOD BOX OFFICE


The verdict is out. Chandramukhi is ahead in the race.


SS Music to enter US market

SS Music Channel is going to enter the US Cable TV market. I always keep wondering who is the target market for SS Music Channel. For those of you who don’t know, SS Music plays songs from the 4 southern languages (Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu). The VJ’s speak in English. They play an assorted mix of songs from all the 4 southern languages and hence viewers are bound to move to another channel as soon as SS plays a song from an alien language. IMO it is better to focus on one language instead of pan-South Indian presence. This lack of focus might even put-off the advertisers.

Eastword Ho!

According Business Today (dated 24th April), SUN TV is launching a Bengali channel titled Surjo. This could be an acid test for SUN Network as they are entering a totally new territory. Their southern expansion might have been easier as they have the habit of dubbing some of their serials from one language to the other.

Hindustan Times to enter South India

HT is looking to acquire couple of vernacular newspapers in South India. It is still not clear as to what are the languages they are looking at.