TV Today coins new gameplan

With half a dozen news channels are waiting to be aired on the television screens, what will be the positioning of TV Today’s Aaj Tak? In all possibility, TV Today will launch an English channel with special focus on south India. But TV Today CEO GV Krishnan is non-committal.
‘‘We will finalise the concept and decide upon whether the new channel will be English or a regional language within a week,’’ he said.Krishnan said Aaj Tak grew by over 100 per cent in the second year. Though a late entrant into the Hindi visual news segment, Aaj Tak was successful in its venture by breaking even in the first year of its operation.
Now, it claims a 60 per cent market share in the Hindi audience, reaching 23 million cable homes. ‘‘In my opinion most Indian markets are not served well. We are analysing the markets where we can sustain ads and emerge successful after launching the channel.’’ According to him, the adspend on the visual news business is expected to touch Rs 500 crore within 3-5 years, up from Rs 250 crore at present. And, the market for 24-hour news channels currently exist in Punjabi, Oriya, Gujarati, Bengali and south Indian languages. Krishnan admitted that rivals were poaching talents from Aaj Tak. ‘‘Being a number one channel it is bound to happen. But the retention rate is low.’’