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MUMBAI: STAR Majha which is a 24 hour Marathi News channels from MCCS bouquet was launched on 22nd June 2007. Today it completes 3 successful years of capturing the hearts of Marathi manus. In the pursuit of three relentless years, STAR Majha has exposed truth and fearlessly covered the news. Some examples are fearless stand against the Maharashtra government opposing the subsidy on liquor production, exposing Shiv Sena candidate in election who had noted criminal records, and so on.
After West Bengal, Maharashtra is the most language deep market in Hindi Speaking belt. In Maharashtra, 78% population has Marathi mother tongue and 32% of the news consumptions happens in this language. Launching a Marathi News channel in such lucrative market was a strategic call. In 2007, with the launch of STAR Majha and Zee 24 Taas, first time 9cr Marathi population tasted the news in their own language from a 24hr news channel. From Viewership share of 0.6% to 2.7%, the genre grew exponentially in 3yrs of time. It happened when other news genres like Hindi & English were seeing a tough time in holding viewers.
Since launch, STAR Majha captured the leadership position in the genre. With an avg share of 42%, STAR Majha continued to gain the viewers; so much so that it surpassed the Viewership of national news channels like Aaj Tak, Zee News, NDTV, Times Now etc. Compared with all the news channels in Maharashtra including national Hindi & English, STAR Majha stands at no.1 position with 12% Viewership share. The data reinforces our belief and advocated the power of language and acceptability of news in mother tongue. Some of the leading new bulletins on STAR Majha is 10chya Batmya, Vishesh, Batmya Superfast, Mumbai East West.
Advertisers have also shown trust in the genre. There has been a substantial increase of 41% advertisers on the genre in 2009 vis a vis 2008. Required are exclusive solutions to small / big advertisers who resort to print as primary medium. The fact that number of advertisers on Marathi news is just 3% of total print advertisers (Print- 18307, Marathi News- 548), points to a huge potential to grow by attracting these unattended prospects.
