Chennai: Sun TV Network is planning to re-position Sun Life channel as its second GEC in Tamil. It is presently positioned as a Classic channel with Tamil Film Music from the Golden Era. It was was initially launched as a Valued Added Service in Sun Direct and later-on converted as full service Satellite Channel.
The Company has revealed its plans to launch the Second GEC in TN and entry into other regional markets such as Marathi and Bengali in Q1FY19 conference call.
The announcement on Sun Life comes at a time when the share of Tamil market to the Total Ad revenues fell from the earlier 67% to 60%. The strategy of second GEC is expected to ramp up its dropping revenues in Tamil Nadu market due to the growing popularity of Zee Tamil, Star Vijay and Colors Tamil that has considerably eaten into the share of primary Tamil GEC Sun TV.
Analysts cited falling market share and Loss in viewership due to competition from high-rated shows like Big Boss by Star Vijay remains a concern. Sun TV’s viewership has declined from 44% in April 2018 to 42.4% in May 2018 and, to 40% in June 2018 that was closer to 55% a year before.
According to Emkay Global’s findings in June 2018, Sun TV had lost ~6-7% share to Zee Tamil in FY17 and in FY18 it lost 10% to both Zee Tamil and Star Vijay.
The media giant also disclosed its plans to enter the Bengali market by the end of FY19 and signing of a deal with Jio for its content on Sun NXT.
