Divya Radhakrishnan launches Helios Media

She has roped in Bala Iyengar as business director for this integrated ancillary service company for television broadcasters.

Divya Radhakrishnan, former president of TME has announced the launch of her entrepreneurial venture, Helios Media which is an integrated ancillary service company for television broadcasters. The company will offer its services in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Radhakrishnan has named herself as managing director. Further, she has roped in Bala Iyengar, the former business head of Zoom (Times Television Network), as business director. Within this capacity, Iyengar will lead the sales vertical for Helios Media.

Helios Media is based on the premise that the growing number of TV channels in the country today, in addition to a large number of channels still waiting to come into India, is posing a key business challenge.

Radhakrishnan explains the logic in a press note. "While content is the primary scope of these channels, a lot of effort has to be invested in creating a robust eco-system to run the business. This puts a lot of stress on the channel business head, resulting in dilution of focus from the key delivery, which is content. Also, the proliferation will lead to further slicing of the revenue pie making the all-encompassing business model non-viable," she says.

Helios Media has already set up sales, marketing, research and traffic management verticals. These services will be offered to broadcasters either as a composite piece or as a stand-alone, based on the specific requirements.

The firm has already signed up three channels/groups, including the Bollywood music channel - M Tunes, the music channel - Music Express and the marketer of Indian channels to ethnic population in the US and UK - World Media Connect. The channels under the World Media Connect portfolio include six channels of the Sun Network, (namely, Sun TV, KTV, Gemini TV, Udaya TV, Gemini Movies, Surya TV) and Punjabi TV, amongst few others that will soon be aligned.

Additionally, Helios is currently in advanced stages of negotiations with four specialty channels that are ready to enter India.

Radhakrishnan has been in the business of media management for the last 24 years. She has worked with advertising agencies such as Publicis and Rediffusion-Y&R and in her most recent assignment she was head of TME, the public relations company - Rediffusion PR and the event management company - Showdiff Worldwide.