MUMBAI: A new channel is about to enter the Sun TV-dominated GEC space of South India.

Pudhu Yugam, from the Chennai-based New Generation Media Corporation stable, is slated to go on air from 23 October. It is the second TV offering from the company after news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai TV.

An internal launch has already taken place on 5 October, when the channel’s programming was unveiled to the New Generation Media Corporation. Whereas an official launch has been planned on 18 October at Chennai’s Leela Palace where everything about the baby channel will be revealed. The ad sales are being handled by Fourth Dimension Media Solutions while the media and creative duties will be handled by Mindshare Chennai and Disha Communications respectively. The channel logo will be unveiled on the day of the launch.

Nearly Rs 100 crore has been invested in the channel, which plans to air about 100 hours of in-house content per week including serials, reality and non-fiction shows, with the rest commissioned to producers. Popular Tamil film celebrities such as Simran, Sonia Agarwal and Ambika are expected to grace the shows with their presence.

New Generation Media Corporation CEO R B U Shyam Kumar couldn’t have been happier as the launch is happening before Diwali as he’d wanted.

As of now, each hour will see about seven to eight minutes of advertising. Fourth Dimension has recently opened up an office in Mumbai to attract more advertisers for the channel. “I have travelled extensively across India and the response to the channel has been terrific,” says Fourth Dimension Media Solutions CEO Shankar B.

Digitally speaking, all the shows will be available on the channel’s website plus viewers will be able to live stream them with a delay of just one or two minutes.

Plans are afoot to launch an application for Android and iOS that will be free for the first three months, post which it will be made subscription based. Viewers will be able to see live TV on the application as well.

“We tried the application with our news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai TV, and we realized people want to view us wherever they are,” says Pudhu Yugam convergence head Manikanda Boopathi. The channel will be available as a pack with PT TV for a price of Rs 250-Rs 300 per annum. Apart from that, it has also tied up with Yupptv for showing live TV and VOD.

“We know where the world is heading and we want to be ahead of everyone else,” says an optimistic Boopathy. The PT TV application has had over 80,000 downloads that gives viewers three options- live TV, just live audio (for low bandwidth) and live tickr. All this with just under four minutes of delay.

There are plans to have live streaming in HD for Tamilians in US in phase II considering Indian bandwidth is too low to allow HD on the internet.

Like in the case of Puthiya Thalaimurai, the marketing campaign will focus more on outdoor than TV. Closer to the launch, events such as flashmobs have also been planned to generate buzz.

Pudhu Yugam plans a breakthrough in the GEC space by positioning itself as a General Engagement (and not Entertainment) Channel with domestic as well as foreign-based Tamil viewers as its target audience.

Only time will tell if Pudhu Yugam can give established networks like Sun and Jaya a run for their TVTs...