Sakaal Group’s GEC Saam Marathi to launch on 15 August

[alpeshpatelk]

MUMBAI: The Pune-based Sakaal newspaper group is set to launch Saam Marathi, its Marathi general entertainment channel (GEC), on 15 August. A special show on Independence Day will see Saam take off at 7 pm.

Headed by Sanjay Dabke, who was earlier with ETV Marathi, the channel has started its pre-launch campaign across Maharashtra and Goa.

With a budget of Rs 1.5 billion, Saam Marathi is eyeing 30 per cent of Maharashtra viewership within six months of launch. “We are investing Rs 1.5 billion for our channel. Our aim is to grab at least 30 per cent of the channel share of Marathi GEC,” Dabke told Indiantelevision.com.


The channel will launch in Maharashtra and Goa with 100 per cent cable presence and are in talks with Dish TV, claims Dabke.

“We are spending close to Rs 150 million on the distribution of the channel and will on direct-to-home (DTH) platform very soon,” he says.

The channel will have 40 per cent of news content for which Saam Marathi will rely on the Sakaal network. "We have extensive reach in Maharashtra and the Hindi-speaking belt. We will use our 32 bureaux and 20 stringers across the nation. Apart from Maharashtra, we have a bureau each in Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, UP, MP and Bihar," says Dabke.

Saam Marathi will have four shows for weekday primetime. The shows are emotional thriller Vilakshan, game show Pandav, the fiction-based Struggler and tele-novella Mrinal Kulkarni Prastut.


The channel has roped in Siddhi Vinayak Chitra productions for the action adventure daily Vilakshan.
Abhijeet Satam (son of CID star Shivaji Satam), under his production house Alpha Lyra Production, is producing two shows for the channel. In Satam’s words, “Pandav is Maharashtra’s answer to Telematch (the German game show). It will have two teams comprising five members each, and the contestants have to show the qualities of the Pandavas to win.”

The other show from Satam’s kitty is Struggler, based on the daily life of strugglers who come to Mumbai from small towns in awe of the tinsel town glamour.

In the afternoons, the channel will have a women-oriented segment ‘Stree’ that will have special news bulletin and programmes tailored for women.

The channel will offer Marathi original and dubbed movies on weekends at 7:30 pm. On Saturdays at 7.30 pm it will air a Marathi movie, while on Sundays, a Hollywood movie dubbed in Marathi will be shown.

In Marathi, Dabke claims that the channel has acquired telecast rights of 100 movies that include classics from the 70s and the 80s plus a slew of new movies. Additionally, it has bought rights for movies like Vertical Limits, Mask of Zoro, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon among others for dubbing.

Saam Marathi is upfront with promotion campaign and so far has set up hoardings in around 90 cities and towns of Maharashtra and carrying out print adverts in Sakaal group's print publications. Says Dabke, “We are present in every city and town of Maharashtra with our hoardings and print ads.”

Secunderabad-based Tempest Advertising is managing the advertisements for the upcoming channel.

Says Tempest's Pune branch head Rakesh Raisinghani, “While in Pune we have put up 110 hoardings, the number is close to 75 in Mumbai. In other cities, at least 10-15 hoardings have been taken by us.”

A close look at the Marathi GEC market indicates that Zee Marathi leads the pack followed by ETV Marathi, state broadcaster DD Sahyadri and Broadcast Initiative’s Mi Marathi.

The Marathi GEC market which is pegged at around Rs 2.5 billion by industry observers will be soon joined by Star India and Reliance Big Broadcasting. However, media planners think that this will lead to the enlargement of the ad pie.

Madison Media Group CEO Punitha Arumugam is optimistic about the Saam launch. “It is a positive sign for advertisers, as more competition will lead to competitive ad pricing. Also, the new entrants should see the Marathi regional genre grow,” she says.

Dabke claims that there is lot of room for more players and the market can accommodate them. He accepts, “It will not be easy to sustain as a standalone channel, but with the fresh programming, we are hopeful of good response.”

On the impact of Saam's entry, ETV head of operations (Maharashtra) Subhro Chowdhry says, “Some revenue will definitely get divided with its launch. However, in the long run, a broadcaster with a bouquet of channel will survive whereas, for standalone channels profitable operating will be a tough task.”

The Sakaal group is owned by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s family and consists of Marathi and English-language newspapers, magazines, and online properties. Recently, the group has been in the limelight thanks to the visit of NewsCorp chief Rupert Murdoch to meet the group's director Abhijit Pawar.


source : http://www.indiantelevision.com/headline...aug125.php