Upcoming Telugu news channels 10TV to extend reach to Orissa, Karnataka

10TV will reportedly spend close to Rs 4 crore in the launch phase. The promoters of the channel plan to launch two more channels in the state.

Keeping the ongoing digitisation, the upcoming free to air channel in the Telugu news space, 10TV, has thus decided to extend its reach to the Telugu speaking population beyond the borders of its focus state, Andhra Pradesh. It has expanded its distribution to reach six districts of Orissa and five bordering districts of Karnataka, which also have a substantial Telugu population.

Available on Hathway, Cinevision and Digicable, the channel is in talks with a few DTH players, too, to spread its network.

10TV believes that digitisation will bring in democratisation in the television business and hence, the carriage and placement fees will not be a large amount. The channel is prepared for an alphabetical order of channel placement and hence, strategically, 10TV will be the first channel to appear on the Telugu news genre.

The channel will be launched with the tagline, 'The 4th Estate with a 6th Sense', on January 26, 2013. The recent launch in the market was V6, which was launched in April, 2012.

10TV has earmarked close to Rs 4 crore for marketing in the launch phase. The two-pronged strategy will target the prospective audience as well as the trade, including marketers and other broadcasters in the region.

10TV will put up 300 hoardings across Andhra Pradesh and a few others in Orissa and Karnataka. Tie ups with about five radio channels in the state and print will also be leveraged to increase awareness. To establish connect in villages, it will organise various social meetings in the villages of AP.

The Andhra Pradesh market has about 18 news channels. Interestingly, three-four of these are in non-functional state and about 10 of these are driven by political parties. In this burgeoning market, the channel will be set up with an investment of about Rs 100 crore, wherein close to Rs 50 crore has been spent in the launch phase. The second phase will involve expansion, and the launch of new channels.

10TV expects to break even in three years. Advertising is the only revenue stream of the channel and it plans to launch with about 20 local retail brands on-board.

The channel is promoted by the newly formed company Spoorthi Communications, which is driven by its chairman Prof K Nageswar. While a large part of the team is from TV9, the CEO of the channel is Arun Sagar, who has been a journalist for about two decades. The channel has also taken on board Aditya Someshwar Rao, erstwhile marketing head of V6 News, as head, marketing.

10 TV will compete with channels such as TV9, TV1, ETV2, N TV, Sakshi TV, T News, Gemini News, V6 News, Raj News and Zee 24 Ghantalu.

Spoorthi Communications plans to launch two more channels in the same market but the genres of these are not frozen yet.