News Broadcasting
Star Vijay confident that show hosted by Lakshmi will shake Sun TV stranglehold in TN
MUMBAI: It was just under a year ago that Star India announced it had acquired a majority stake in the Tamil regional language channel Vijay TV (9 August 2001). Now, nearly 10 months after the channel went digital with a whole new programming menu on 1 October, Star Vijay looks to have a show that can lead the challenge against Tamil titan Sun TV.
Just into its second week, Kathai Alla Nijam (KAN), Tamil TV’s first “real” reality show, has caught the imagination of the viewer in Tamil Nadu, asserts Ajay Vidyasagar, general manager regional channels, Star India. Vidyasagar is confident that when the TAM ratings data is released next week, his contention will be borne out.
REALITY-STRUCK: Kathai Alla Nijam show host Lakshmi with orphan Abhi in a shot from yesterday’s episode.
KAN is an episodic format live phone-in show with well-known film personality Lakshmi hosting. Produced by acclaimed film director K Balachandar’s Min Bin Bangal Productions, the show, heavily research based, picks up from true-life incidents that have been reported in the press. Human interest stories are what the show tracks down as a follow up to what has appeared in the media and may have slipped out of the public conciousness, says Vidyasagar.
Yesterday’s episode was about a boy who has been thrice orphaned. Eight-year-old Abhi was initially found wandering alone at the Palakkad municipal bus stop in the southern state of Kerala by the local police. Unable to trace his parents, the police handed him over to a local orphanage.
Abhi was then claimed by a resident of Kollam in Kerala who took care of him for two years. After that, however, the woman found her own child again and the boy was sent back to the orphanage. Seven days after the boy’s return to the orphanage, a 75-year-old woman read about the boy’s tale in a local paper and decided to be his sponsor. A few months of her taking him under his wing, the woman’s husband died. The boy was back in the orphanage after this because the woman’s children decided she was too old to stay on her own and took her with them. Abhi currently studies in the Ramkrishna Mission Ashram in Trissur.
Balachandar has a panel of journalists and four Tamil publications that he uses to source material for his shows, says Vidyasagar. The concept was developed inhouse some time in December but actual work on the show has been going on for the last three-and-a-half months, says Vidyasagar. They currently have enough source material with all the background information verified for 75 episodes, he adds.
Vidyasagar claims that the show has got distributors and advertisers massively excited because of the viewer response. KAN has three main sponsors – retail chain Sabiksha, oil brand Goldusimer and FMCG company Cavinkare for their fairness cream brand Fairever.
KAN is a one-hour show that airs live Mondays to Fridays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm with a repeat telecast from 10 pm onwards.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
