MUMBAI: After reigning in the print and radio space down south, print major Matrubhumi group is all set to make its foray into the television space by launching two channels in early 2013.
The group will launch a specialty music channel titled ‘Kappa’ that will go on-air from the second week of January 2013. The music channel will feature a differentiated format catering to the up-market youth. The music offering will consist of a mix of genres from bollywood, regional languages like Malayalam and Tamil, and international music as well. It will be a free-to-air channel with a wide variety of programmes.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com on the music channel, Matrubhumi Group director Shreyams Kumar said, “We aim to offer better content and improve the situation of what is happening in the industry currently. Through the launch of these channels, we will bring in different programmes that are not seen on any other TV channels. The music channel will specifically have focused programmes catering to all youth and its packaging too will be very different from that of other music channels.”
Besides music channel, another the group is all set to launch a Malayalam news channel in the first week of January. Aiming to bring widespread coverage of news and current affairs, the 24 hour news channel will compete with the likes of Asianet News, Manorama News, Reporter TV and India Vision amongst others. It will be free-to-air and will be available on multiple DTH platforms.
Asianet former CEO Mohan Nair will head the group’s foray into television as CEO, while Unni Balakrishnan has been roped in as editor of the news channel.
Apart from television, the group is also witnessing steady progress in its radio space with Club FM. With the festival of Christmas around the corner, the station is engaging in a lot of on-ground and on-air activities as well. Kumar also claims that the year has been substantially good for the station which has witnessed a growth rate of 30 per cent and is all set to close the year on a good nate with a further increase in its growth rate.