Kolkata: As part of its strategy to expand its Regional presence beyond South India, Sun TV Network Ltd has earmarked Rs300 croretowards invest for its foray into Bengali and Marathi GEC market that is
Sun TV will invest Rs150 crore in setting up its first Bengali general entertainment channel that is expected to go on air next month. A similar amount will be invested in its first Marathi channel, expected to go on air “over the next one year.”
“Sun Bangla will be our first major regional foray outside of South India. We also have plans for a Marathi channel,” SL Narayanan, CFO, Sun Group, said while addressing media persons on Monday.
The investment in the Bengali channel includes the cost of content acquisition, broadcasting fees, and others. The investments will be made from internal accruals and it is expected to break even in the next two years, after which expansion into other franchisees will be looked at. The target is to get 10 per cent market share in the (Bengali) entertainment media.
“As of now, our focus area is the Bengali general entertainment channel. We are looking at a substantial market share and by the end of the second year, we should break-even here,” said Narayanan.
Narayana ruled out any near future plans of expansion into any of the other genres like news channel, film production and so on in the Bengali market.
