Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Sep 18, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Sep 18, 2003 |
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Corporate
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Interview `We hope to become No 2 channel by March' Nithya Subramanian
New Delhi , Sept. 17 THE recently appointed CEO of Sahara Media and Entertainment, Mr Sushanto Roy, is no novice to television. After playing a small part in Sahara Manoranjan's, the group's entertainment channel, Mission Fateh, he now spearheads the media and entertainment business. Business Line caught up with the CEO. How has your newest blockbuster Karishma - A Miracle of Destiny done for the Sahara Manoranjan? The feedback on the show has been very positive. People are watching the programme and seem to like Karisma (Kapoor) as an old person. They are finding old Karisma as a lady with a lot of character, a very strong protagonist. The show gives us confidence because or gamble of going with big stars has paid off. What are the other big shows in the offing? Next in the pipeline is a sitcom featuring Sridevi called Hamari Bahu Malini Iyer. This will be followed by Raveena Tandon's daily soap - Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam (based on Bimal Mitra's classic novel) and a third one starring Mr Amitabh Bachchan. With these new programming initiatives, how is Sahara Manoranjan doing? Earlier Sahara was competing with SAB TV. We have now crossed them. We are 30 GRPs (gross rating points) behind Zee and 80-90 GRPs behind Sony. We are hoping to become the No 2 entertainment channel by February/March next year. Also, our channel has been able to attract a lot of advertising. Our ad rates have also gone up. With the new shows featuring big stars, our viewership has gone up and this has given a boost to our rates. Are you disappointed that the Conditional Access System (CAS) has not been completely implemented? We have really not been affected by the non-implementation of CAS. Since, ours is a free-to-air channel, it would have been a temporary advantage. But finally it is content that matters. How have your News channels done? Sahara Samay, the national news channel, had started off well but later slackened. Now it is once again looking up. This channel is generating advertising revenues of Rs 1.5-1.7 crore a month. The UP local channel is also picking up. We are planning a soft launch of the Mumbai channel coinciding with Navratri. A full-fledged launch is planned in October. The Madhya Pradesh channel is also to be launched followed by channels for Rajasthan, Bihar and the National Capital Region of Delhi. How is the print business looking? We currently have Rashtriya Sahara from three cities and a Hindi and English weekly — Sahara Samay and Sahara Time from four-five cities. We are planning to have about 15-20 such city editions.
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