Mumbai: Along with the birth of the new year 2016, Marathi News space witnessed the birth of a new channel Maharashtra1, headed by most famous news man Nikhil Wagle, which according to the market is set to create a big impact from the day one. ‘Maharashtra 1’ will be a part of Sharp Advertising Pvt Ltd (a subsidiary Sadhana Group) that runs many Regional News Channels.
With the quality of people at the helm of affairs and their proven and time tested track record, they are determined to take Maharasthra1 to the pinnacle of success and take it to every Marathi speaking Household.
The industry knows Veteran Journalist Nikhil Wagle as a rain-maker for his proven and time tested prowess in launching and handling Media Vehicles in the Marathi News space. He will be ably supported by a team of professional handpicked by him, with proven capabilities.
Interestingly, when we look at the Viewership share of regional language channels, Marathi enjoys a pivotal patronage of viewership share. This obviously should be attributed to the strong Language affiliation and connect a Maharastrian has with his mother tongue.
Nikhil Wagle at the helm of affairs is sure to add value to Maharashtra1 and it is expected to hit the limelight from the day one and open with good numbers. He is one among very few who understands the pulse of ‘Marathi manoos’ and along with the nuances of what it takes to tick the Marathi viewer. Honest and Vocal about what he says his impeccable honesty and commitment to his job is what makes him to stand out in the crowd. No doubt that this credibility will transfer to the Channel too.
The Business part of Maharashtra1 will be handled by the CEO of the Channel Mr. Sanjay Sharma. He brings with him wealth of experience in running a News Channel. Earlier, he worked as a COO of IBNLokmat and Director Operations of Networ18.
While briefing about his team of resources Sanjay Sharma, CEO of Maharashtra1said, “Besides Nikhil Ji and me, the key people who will bring in a wealth of experience are Sandeep Chavan, who is a thorough media Professional with close to two decades of experience. Biren Kansara is our Chief Finance officer and he was previously associated with IBN Lokmat News. Abhay Ohja is our Head Strategy and Biz Development and he was previously associated with Star CJ as Vice President and Head for Business Initiatives. Apart from this we also have scores of talented professional in Senior and Middle level positions.
Marathi language News Channels enjoy a strong viewership base despite being a crowded market place that already has five known players in Marathi language.
Speaking on the strategy behind the launch of Maharashtra1, Sanjay added “With the kind of editorial team we have and with the best people in distribution and marketing, we see ourselves in top 3 positions with-in first 6 months of launch and wish to target upward in the charts from thereon”.
The Branding and Marketing of the channel is taken care by Adbhoot Creatives Pvt. Ltd. – Creative Strategy Design Company; excels in Broadcast Designing & Integrated TV Programming.
Vaibhav Pandit, The Founder & Creative Director of Adbhoot says “Adbhoot is part of this entire project from day one. The Brief we are following is very clear i.e. Be relevant and differentiate the brand in every sense. We wanted to break the stereotype Packaging style, channel IDs and OAP. From channel tagline to Music to Colour Scheme to Packaging to On-Air Promotion is differentiating channel at first look. Adbhoot has carefully selected The Tagline – ATA JAG BADLEL (Now world will change!), very Positive and progressive approach, keeping in mind sentiments & belief of viewers. It’ll get reflect in content also as Editor in chief Nikhil Wagle is a differentiator himself when it comes to approach towards Journalism.”
Speaking on the ad-cap regulations and their breakeven targets Sanjay added, “We will break even fast because we are focused on multi tasking and keeping our costs low. We also believe that we will get good ratings and hence good rates. Together, by keeping the costs low and a good performance on ratings and our ad sales rates, we should be able to achieve our goal of breaking even at a faster pace”.
Maharashra1 has roped in Fourth Dimension Media Solutions as its ad-sales partner. Apparently, this makes Fourth Dimension further strong in selling News channels as they already have ad-sales partnership with strong players like Puthiyathalaimurai in Tamil and V6 News in Telugu markets. With the addition of Maharashra1, which is headed by a veteran like Nikhil Wagle, it seems they are in the process of dominating the Marathi News space also.
