Vijaykanth channel to join TN's satellite war

With one more political' channel all set to grab a slice of the bandwidth, Tamil Nadu viewers are in for a cacophony of political propaganda. Captain TV, backed by actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth, got the I&B ministry nod recently and is slated for an April launch. But significant is the fact that Tamil Nadu could well be among a few states, if not the only one, to have such an array of powerful politicians flexing their propaganda' muscles in the runup to a crucial 2011 assembly election, which is expected to get meaner and tougher.

Sample this: The state has 28 regional television channels. And a good quarter of it are owned by politicians from the influential Sun Network group owned by the Maran brothers to Kalaignar TV which has the backing of Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and Jaya TV launched several years ago with the blessing of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss floated the Makkal (People's) TV' and PCC president KV Thangkabalu has his own channel the Mega TV'(which has the Congress symbol, the hand, as its logo). Thangkabalu's party colleague, H Vasanth Kumar, launched his Vasanth TV in May 2008. And now the Captain, as his DMDK partymen call Vijayakanth, will have his own channel too.

Politicians are fighting hard for a chunk of the urban viewership in a state considered the most urbanized. The TAM (People Meter System) pegs the urban vierwership at 1.5 crore, a sixth of Tamil Nadu's population. With a potential for more growth in viewership and a state freebie which ensures that every poor living room is adorned with a free colour television and a cable connection, it's a virtual scramble for space in the sky. Especially since all the competing channels are free-to-air.

According to TAM, Vijay TV, the regional channel of the cash-rich Star Group owned by Rupert Murdoch, enjoys a viewership rating of 3.7% in the state. But it took the channel more than a decade to get into the top-ten chart. Thangkabalu admits that most channels need many years to break even. But he is optimistic. "I know it is a long haul, but we are confident that people will tune in, especially ahead of elections. They like to get a balanced picture." Despite the competition being tough and crores of rupees needed to be pumped in to keep a channel going, more politicians are joining in. The Captain TV is an example. "It is a convenient tool for politicians to address their constituency," says Media Development Foundation president, S Sasikumar. "Vijayakanth benefited from decent coverage on Sun Network when the Sun TV and the DMK were not seeing eye-to-eye. But after they patched up, the Captain' is finding less space and so a need for his own platform to showcase his ideology and tell his constituency about his party and what it hopes to achieve," he adds.

Says Thangkabalu, whose Mega TV has in the last two years, showcased achievements of the Congress in the states it is in power, besides covering the local party activities: "Every television viewer has a political affinity and he or she will tune into a political channel, especially in the runup to elections," he says with confidence. "This is the biggest advantage. News channels can push political agenda," says KP Sunil, head of Jaya TV News. However, snatching a piece of the pie in the sky is not as easy as a hero bashing up villains on screen, say channel heads. But Captain TV managers are unfazed. "We will be a popular entertainment channel, and will position ourselves in a way which will attract the youth," said a source close to the Captain. As veteran politician and presidium chairman of DMDK Panruti K Ramachandran points out: "With the three major political parties dominating the satellite channels, fledgling parties like the DMDK need a media organ to reach the masses, and make it a level playing field."

- Times of India