9X gets 'Jhakaas' to enthrall Marathi music audience

According to industry sources, 9X Media will foray into the Marathi music genre with the launch of its latest channel 9X Jhakaas. The channel, whose commercial launch is today, October 31, will give birth to a new genre in the Marathi television space.

9X Media is ready to sashay to the tune of some real jhakaas music.

According to industry sources, 9X Media will foray into the Marathi music genre with the launch of its latest channel 9X Jhakaas. The channel will have its commercial launch today, October 31, producing a new genre altogether in the Marathi television space. Currently, there are many existing Marathi channels with music content as a part of their programming mix, but there is no channel that completely specialises in holistic music content.

Therefore, with this launch, 9X Media will tap into the Marathi TV market which is estimated at Rs 350 crore (up by 35 per cent from 2008), of which Rs 250 crore belongs to the region's GEC pie.

The channel, which is expected to specialise in Marathi music across all genres, will include film, as well as non-film content. Donning the tagline 'Aai Shappath', the channel will be the third product from the 9X Media stable which already operates the Hindi music channel 9XM, and which recently, launched the Punjabi music channel Tashan, in August 2011.

While the name of the channel heads could not be confirmed at the time of filing the report, the initial supervision of Jhakaas is expected to be under the guidance of Amar Tidke, head of programming, 9X Media, and Punit Pandey, senior vice-president and business head, 9X Media Group.

Meanwhile, in a bid to capture an expanded audience set, 9X Jhakaas is also expected to eventually stream live online on the channel's website, as well as on the mobile platform.

Apart from music, the channel will also air a series of animated shows, presented by characters created only for the channel, while a few of the popular animated characters on 9XM will be adapted to suit the Marathi audience's tastes.