Marathi Television

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Marathi Language Television Industry started in India in 1984. Although, earlier confined to a half an hour slot in the national television Doordarshan, the industry has now expanded with three major TV channels currently on air. At its peak, there were six major Marathi TV channels (circa 2001) and many local and regional channels. Today, there are 4 infotainment channels and one news channel. Two more news channels have been announced, which would be launched soon.


Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Slot Programming (1984 - 1998)

Marathi Programming on TV started in 1972 on the state-owned Doordarshan channel. From that time when it was confined to a half-an-hour slot, till 1998, when it was increased to a three hour slot a day, it remained a Doordarshan domain.

[edit] First TV Channel (1998 - 1999)

In 1998, Doordarshan started a full-blown Marathi channel 24-hrs a day. It was called DD-Sahyadri.

[edit] Advent Of The Private Channels (1999 - 2001)

In 15th August 1999, Zee Network launched Zee Marathi. after some month it change as Alpha Marathi (later renamed to Zee Marathi), which saw the standard of the industry go high. (Zee Marathi is available on the net at www.planetvu.com)

Zee Marathi was an instant and a phenonmenal success, for it addressed a cross section of the Marathi diaspora (unlike DD which aired programmes in pigeonhole categories- Agriculture, Medicine, government propaganda) which indeed didn't cater to the entertainment requirements of the mainstream urban audience.

Zee came in with an army of quality actors and quality programmes. Concepts like breakfast shows(Good Morning Maharashtra), theatre reviews(Housefull), satire(Ghadlay Bighadlay), Spirituality, Phone-in shows (Hello DD was a good show, though Namaskar ZEE put up a good show). A characteristic of the old time Zee programme was 'short and sweet' soaps and melodious title songs. (the latter is still evident)

Slightly later rivals like ETV Marathi came in... (To be added later...)

[edit] Peak Period (2001 - 2002)

This period saw many new channels being launched including ETV's ETV Marathi, Prabhat TV and Tara Marathi. Apart from these, many other regional and local Marathi channels were launched.

[edit] Stability (2002 - 2006)

Since 2002, both Prabhat TV and Tara had shut down and the other three channels- DD-Sahyadri, Zee Marathi and Etv Marathi stabilised, only to see new entrants coming at the dawn of 2007, when Adhikari Brothers launched a free-to-air infotainment channel Mi Marathi. Its title Song Mi Marathi became popular in no time.

[edit] News Boom (2007)

Marathi got its first round-the-clock news channel in the form of Zee 24 Tas in the year 2007. Following that, STAR TV is all set to lauch it's second regional news channel after Star Ananda in Bangla. STAR's Marathi channel Star Majha has been launched in June 2007. Global Broadcast News of TV18 group has also announced its first regional news channel, IBN-Lokmat. The channel, headed by Nikhil Wagle is a 50:50 venture between GBN and Lokmat group. The channel is expected to go on-air by the end of 2007.( It has started in April 2008)

[edit] Cinema Channel (2007)

Marathi got its first round-the-clock Marathi movie channel in the form of Zee Talkies in the year November 2007.

[edit] Channel Logo

[edit] Channel Closed

Prabhat : Marathi film star, Ajinkya Deo, who is also the 'Executive Director' of Prabhat Entertainment TV channel. The channel, which is being beamed through THAICOM-3 is being financed partially by an NRI. The Board of directors of Prabhat Entertainment TV comprises Ravi Agrawal (chairman), Deepak Agrawal (managing director), Ajinkya Deo (executive director), Charuhas Satam (creative director), Anant Rangaswami (marketing director) and Anil Shetty (director). This channel is started in 2000 & close on 2002.

Tara Marathi : Broadcast Worldwide's Tara Marathi is lonch in March 2002.

[edit] Outside Internet sites


v • d • e
Marathi Television channels

• DD Sahyadri  • Zee Marathi  • ETV Marathi  • Mi Marathi  • Zee 24 taas  • Star Majha  • Zee Talkies  • Lokmat IBN