Copyright © | Marathi Theatre 2008

Home | About Us | History | Site Map

News

Marathi general entertainment market heats up

The Marathi general entertainment market (gec) will witness an intense battle for a larger pie between media conglomerates Zee and Star India with the entry of a new Marathi channel ‘Star Pravah’ later this month.

At present, Zee Marathi is the leader in the current pack with a 45 per cent marketshare, followed by ‘ETV Marathi’, ‘Sahaydri’, ‘Mi Marathi’ and ‘Saam’. Regional markets in Marathi and Bengali are evolving and Zee was the first to tap them, Zee Marathi and Zee Talkies Business Head Nikhil Sane said. Zee Marathi has played a substantial role in the growth of Marathi language category entertainment space in terms of viewership and revenue, he said.
The channel has also contributed to the growth of retail advertising on television, he added. Sane said the entry of Star Pravah into the GEC space will further boost the growth of the language category and help promote better content.

Zee Marathi has been the pioneer in this category and will continue to be so, he said. “Our competition is with Hindi channels in the GEC market in Maharashtra. If Zee Marathi has over 300 Gross Rating Points (GRP), Star Plus has 70 to 80 GRPs,” he said. Star India Executive Vice President and Head of Regional Channels J C Giri said the boom in regional entertainment market is mutually beneficial to advertisers and viewers.

According to estimates, Marathi entertainment channels are a Rs 170-200 crore market. “Star Pravah wants to position itself as a channel which reflects Maharashtrian pride, culture and ethos,” Giri said. “Viewers like to see content in their native language and hence the language space is growing in terms of viewership. Naturally, advertisers find it as an apt means to reach consumers,” Giri said.

Sane said Zee Marathi was not looking at cutting into the pie of other Marathi channels. “We are for healthy competition to boost the language category and welcome it for improving content. Our competition for a larger pie in the market is with the Hindi GECs as our channel is the numero uno in the Maharashtra market of GECs,” he added. Sane said Zee Talkies is a movie channel with a strong library and its performance indicates that movie channels do have a place in the market dominated by GECs, depending upon content.

He said the channel is number one in the regional movie category. The success of this channel has helped us to get into film production, he added.

Source : PTI