MUMBAI: Hit shows Kavyanjali and Marumagal are among the programming content that Star‘s Tamil language channel Vijay TV is marketing to a Sinhalese channel in the UK.

Vijay TV general manager Ajay Vidyasagar told the Hindu Business Line that the content syndication would be part of a three-hour Tamil block that Sirasa, a Sinhalese station, part of the BskyB DTH (direct to home) bouquet in the UK is creating.
According to Vidyasagar, Sirasa currently has only four hours of programming, predominantly Sinhalese. The three hour Tamil block filled with Vijay TV content will cater to the fairly large South Indian audience in the area.

Among the programmes offered by Vijay to Sirasa will include classical and devotional music, plays, events, daily and weekly soaps. Marumagal will be the driver show, as will be Kavyanjali, which will also be beamed on Sirasa.

Vidyasagar has been quoted as saying that marketing programming content in a DTH scenario offers tremendous opportunities, as it makes audience response measurement easy.

MUMBAI: The Malayalam channel space is becoming increasingly crowded. After Jeevan TV, which is all set to go on air from 1 August, it will be the turn of India Vision TV to launch on 17 August.

India Vision TV is promoted by Kerala state Public Works Department minister Dr MK Muneer and has its head office in Kochi, from where the channel would be uplinked.
With Asianet, Surya, Doordarshan and Kairali channels already operating in the state, the two new kids on the block are going to find it quite tough (to put it mildly) to mop up any advertising revenue.

Among the four channels already on air, Kairali is desperately short of funds. Even Asianet, which had first mover advantage in the private channel space, has had to go in for a major course correction to counter the threat of the Sun Network‘s Surya channel.

MUMBAI: South Indian language Sun Network is aiming to start test marketing its transition towards pay TV services in Andhra Pradesh. This was revealed by network chairman Kalanithi Maran to the Financial Express. Maran added that the test marketing would be followed by a campaign wherein digital IRDs would made available nationally, so that "every cable operator has our decoder".
He said the decision to go pay was based on the fact that viewers were paying for channels they did not want to see. "They certainly would not mind paying for channels they want to see," he pointed out. "But if we find our subscriber base is dwindling by even five per cent, we will not go ahead with the plan."

Maran‘s cautious stance apart, indications are that the entire Sun Network will be going pay by next year. First up will be its two Telugu language channels Gemini and Teja, both of which are expected to go pay latest by October.

Maran said that his group was in favour of CAS. "Our channels occupy the No 1 spot in every market they are present."

MUMBAI: G Venkatesh Babu, director and COO, Pentamedia Graphics Ltd, has resigned from the company from 22 July, according to a communication from the company to the stock exchanges yesterday.