GECs
New Tamil GEC Pudhu Yugam to go live on 23 October
MUMBAI: A new channel is about to enter the Sun TV-dominated GEC space of South India.
Pudhu Yugam, from the Chennai-based New Generation Media Corporation stable, is slated to go on air from 23 October. It is the second TV offering from the company after news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai TV.
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Shyam Kumar has high expectations from the new channel
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An internal launch has already taken place on 5 October, when the channel’s programming was unveiled to the New Generation Media Corporation. Whereas an official launch has been planned on 18 October at Chennai’s Leela Palace where everything about the baby channel will be revealed. The ad sales are being handled by Fourth Dimension Media Solutions while the media and creative duties will be handled by Mindshare Chennai and Disha Communications respectively. The channel logo will be unveiled on the day of the launch.
Nearly Rs 100 crore has been invested in the channel, which plans to air about 100 hours of in-house content per week including serials, reality and non-fiction shows, with the rest commissioned to producers. Popular Tamil film celebrities such as Simran, Sonia Agarwal and Ambika are expected to grace the shows with their presence.
New Generation Media Corporation CEO R B U Shyam Kumar couldn’t have been happier as the launch is happening before Diwali as he’d wanted.
As of now, each hour will see about seven to eight minutes of advertising. Fourth Dimension has recently opened up an office in Mumbai to attract more advertisers for the channel. “I have travelled extensively across India and the response to the channel has been terrific,” says Fourth Dimension Media Solutions CEO Shankar B.
Digitally speaking, all the shows will be available on the channel’s website plus viewers will be able to live stream them with a delay of just one or two minutes.
Plans are afoot to launch an application for Android and iOS that will be free for the first three months, post which it will be made subscription based. Viewers will be able to see live TV on the application as well.
“We tried the application with our news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai TV, and we realized people want to view us wherever they are,” says Pudhu Yugam convergence head Manikanda Boopathi. The channel will be available as a pack with PT TV for a price of Rs 250-Rs 300 per annum. Apart from that, it has also tied up with Yupptv for showing live TV and VOD.
“We know where the world is heading and we want to be ahead of everyone else,” says an optimistic Boopathy. The PT TV application has had over 80,000 downloads that gives viewers three options- live TV, just live audio (for low bandwidth) and live tickr. All this with just under four minutes of delay.
There are plans to have live streaming in HD for Tamilians in US in phase II considering Indian bandwidth is too low to allow HD on the internet.
Like in the case of Puthiya Thalaimurai, the marketing campaign will focus more on outdoor than TV. Closer to the launch, events such as flashmobs have also been planned to generate buzz
Pudhu Yugam plans a breakthrough in the GEC space by positioning itself as a General Engagement (and not Entertainment) Channel with domestic as well as foreign-based Tamil viewers as its target audience.
Only time will tell if Pudhu Yugam can give established networks like Sun and Jaya a run for their TVTs…
GECs
Sahara One reports financial results, notes director exit and business realignment
Muted revenues, steady expenses and strategic adjustments shape company’s current phase
MUMBAI: In a tale where the sands seem to be slipping faster than they can be gathered, Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited has reported another quarter of wafer-thin income and widening losses, even as a boardroom exit adds to the unease.
The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that its board, in a meeting held on April 4, approved its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. The numbers paint a stark picture. Total income for the quarter stood at just Rs 0.13 lakh, unchanged sequentially and sharply down from Rs 0.26 lakh a year earlier.
Losses, meanwhile, deepened. The company posted a net loss of Rs 24.16 lakh for the quarter, compared to Rs 18.81 lakh in the June quarter and Rs 39.69 lakh in the same period last year. For the six months ended September 2025, the cumulative loss stood at Rs 39.69 lakh, while the full-year loss for FY25 was reported at Rs 60.72 lakh.
Expenses continued to outweigh income by a wide margin. Total expenses for the quarter came in at Rs 24.30 lakh, led by employee benefit costs of Rs 6.51 lakh and other expenses of Rs 17.78 lakh. Earnings per share remained in the red at Rs (0.11) for the quarter.
The balance sheet reflects a company with significant assets on paper but limited operational momentum. Total assets stood at Rs 23,065.57 lakh as of September 30, 2025, broadly unchanged from March 2025. Equity share capital remained steady at Rs 2,152.50 lakh, while total equity was reported at Rs 18,004.85 lakh.
Cash and cash equivalents saw a modest uptick to Rs 6.75 lakh from Rs 4.68 lakh earlier, supported by a positive operating cash flow of Rs 180.01 lakh for the period.
Yet, beneath these numbers lies a more complex narrative. The company’s auditors flagged their inability to obtain sufficient evidence to form a conclusion on the financial statements, citing lack of access to records. They also raised concerns over the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, pointing to insufficient funds, delayed recoveries, and stalled content investments.
Adding to the governance overhang, the company disclosed that Rana Zia has resigned as whole-time director, effective October 16, 2025, citing other professional commitments. The resignation, noted and accepted by the board, also brings an end to her role across company committees.
Regulatory pressures continue to loom large. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has already initiated penal actions for non-compliance with listing norms, with trading in the company’s shares remaining suspended. There is also a risk of promoter demat accounts being frozen.
Legacy legal issues remain unresolved. A substantial deposit of Rs 694,027.88 thousand linked to the long-running OFCD dispute involving Sahara group entities is still under the purview of the Supreme Court of India. Restrictions on asset disposal continue to weigh on the company’s financial flexibility.
Operationally, challenges persist across multiple fronts. Advances worth Rs 1,92,916 thousand given for film content remain stuck, with delays in project completion and uncertain recoverability. The company’s YouTube channel, despite being operational, has generated no revenue for over three years due to compliance lapses. In a further twist, management has indicated that revenues may have been fraudulently diverted through unauthorised changes to its AdSense account, with a police complaint in the works.
There are also missed revenue opportunities. Television content rights continue to be used by a related party despite the expiry of the licence agreement, with fresh negotiations still underway.
For now, Sahara One Media and Entertainment Limited appears caught between legacy disputes and present-day operational hurdles. As losses linger and governance questions mount, the road to recovery looks less like a sprint and more like a slow trudge through shifting sands.
