SUN TV LAUNCHES MALAYALAM CHANNEL

South Indian regional language TV network added a Malayalam entertainment channel to its portfolio today. Called Surya TV, the channel is beaming off the same satellite as Asianet (Intelsat 703) for six hours daily. It will be the first serious competitor to Asianet, which has had a monopoly on the Malayalam TV market. It will air soaps, news, movies and cultural programmes.

The Sun Network operates a bouquet of channels in Tamil (Sun TV, Sun Music, Sun Movies), Telugu (Gemini TV) and Kannada (Udaya TV) and last year it recorded estimated revenues of Rs 900 million. Promoter Kalanithi Maran believes that Surya TV stands to benefit because of his channel bouquet. "All my existing advertisers like Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, the Tata group are with me," he says. He told a local daily that Surya TV had managed to attract advertising to the tune of 2,800 seconds before it had started, translating into revenues of Rs 3 million.