Marathi Television

Marathi Language Television Industry started in India in 1984. Although, earlier confined to a half an hour slot in the national television Doordarshan, the industry has now expanded with many commercial TV channels currently on air. Various dedicated categories like news and movies have been added and have considerably expanded the horizon of Marathi TV entertainment.

New Channels, coming soon!

*GEC from STAR TV (STAR MARATHI)- Will come before June 2009. Has a mega budget serial on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (Star group may takeover Tara Marathi Channel which is close long back)
*GEC from R-ADAG Big TV (BIG MARATHI)- Will come in early 2009.
*Music Channel from Media World Wide (MUSIC MARATHI)- Other details not known yet.
*GEC from Sahara Manoranjan (SAHARA MARATHI)- Other details not known yet.
*GEC from Marathi industriyalist (MAAY MARATHI)
*GEC from Marathi industriyalist (MAAY BOLI)
*News Channel from TV Today - Other details not known yet.
*News Channel from NDTV - Other details not known yet.
*Infotainment Channel from Shivsena - Will be launched before Loksabha elections 2009

Existing Marathi Channels

*DD SAHAYADRI - Infotainment - Public broadcaster (Started in 1972)
*Zee Marathi - GEC - by Zee TV Group.(Started in 15.08.1999)
*ETV Marathi - Infotainment - by ETV Group. (Started in July 2000)
*Mi Marathi - Infotainment - by Shri Adhikari Brothers. (Started in 2007)
*Zee 24 Taas - 24x7 News - by Zee TV Group. (Started in 2007)
*Star Majha - 24x7 News - by MCCS. (Started in June 2007)
*IBN Lokmat - 24x7 News - by Lokmat Newspaper Group & IBN. (Started on April 2008)
*Zee Talkies - Marathi Movie - by Zee TV Group. (Started on 25.08.2008)
*Saam Marathi - Infotainment - by Sakaal Group. (Started on 15.08.2008)
*Sahara Samay Mumbai/Maharashtra - 24x7 News - by Sahara Group. (35% Marathi and 65% Hindi)

History

Slot Programming (1984 - 1998)

Marathi Programming on TV started in 1972 on the state-owned Doordarshan channel. From that time when it was confined to a half-an-hour slot, till 1998, when it was increased to a three hour slot a day, it remained a Doordarshan domain.

First TV Channel (1998 - 1999)

In 1998, Doordarshan started a full-blown Marathi channel 24-hrs a day. It was called DD-Sahyadri.

Advent Of The Private Channels (1999 - 2001)

In 15th August 1999, Zee Network launched Zee Marathi. after some month it change as Alpha Marathi (later renamed to Zee Marathi), which saw the standard of the industry go high. (Zee Marathi is available on the net at www.planetvu.com)

Zee Marathi was an instant and a phenomenal success, for it addressed a cross section of the Marathi diaspora (unlike DD which aired programmes in pigeonhole categories- Agriculture, Medicine, government propaganda) which indeed didn't cater to the entertainment requirements of the mainstream urban audience.

Zee came in with an army of quality actors and quality programmes. Concepts like breakfast shows(Good Morning Maharashtra), theatre reviews (Housefull), satire (Ghadlay Bighadlay), Spirituality, Phone-in shows (Hello DD was a good show, though Namaskar ZEE put up a good show). A characteristic of the old time Zee programme was 'short and sweet' soaps and melodious title songs. (the latter is still evident)

Slightly later rivals like ETV Marathi came in... (To be added later...)

Peak Period (2001 - 2002)

This period saw many new channels being launched including ETV's ETV Marathi, Prabhat TV and Tara Marathi. Apart from these, many other regional and local Marathi channels were launched.

Stability (2002 - 2006)

Since 2002, both "Prabhat TV" and "Tara" had shut down and the other three channels- DD-Sahyadri, Zee Marathi and Etv Marathi stabilised, only to see new entrants coming at the dawn of 2007, when Adhikari Brothers launched a free-to-air infotainment channel Mi Marathi. Its title Song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNrzm3Gudd4&mode=related&search= Mi Marathi] became popular in no time.

News Boom (2007)

Marathi got its first round-the-clock news channel in the form of Zee 24 Taas in the year 2007. Following that, STAR TV is all set to launch its second regional news channel after Star Ananda in Bangla. STAR's Marathi channel Star Majha has been launched in June 2007. Global Broadcast News of TV18 group has also announced its first regional news channel, IBN-Lokmat. The channel, headed by Nikhil Wagle is a 50:50 venture between GBN and Lokmat group. The channel is expected to go on-air by the end of 2007.( It has started in April 2008)

Cinema Channel (2007)

Marathi got its first round-the-clock Marathi movie channel in the form of Zee Talkies in the year November 2007.

Historical interest

Prabhat : Marathi film star, Ajinkya Deo, who is also the 'Executive Director' of Prabhat Entertainment TV channel. The channel, which is being beamed through THAICOM-3 is being financed partially by an NRI. The Board of directors of Prabhat Entertainment TV comprises Ravi Agrawal (chairman), Deepak Agrawal (managing director), Ajinkya Deo (executive director), Charuhas Satam (creative director), Anant Rangaswami (marketing director) and Anil Shetty (director). This channel is started in 2000 & close on 2002.

Tara Marathi : Broadcast Worldwide's Tara Marathi was launched in March 2002.

Outside Internet sites

* [http://zeemarathi.com/ Zee Marathi's , Zee Talkies & Zee 24 Taas official site]
* [http://mimarathi.tv/ Mi Marathi's official site]
* [http://www.saamtv.com/ Saamtv Marathi's Official Site]
* [http://www.etv.co.in/e-tv-5/index1.php ETV Marathi's official site]
* [http://www.ddindia.gov.in/About+DD/CPC Sahyadri Marathi's Official site ]
* [http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/video_streaming.php?type=ibnlokmat/Watch IBN Lokmat Live 24*7] & [http://features.ibnlive.com/special/web2/ibn- lokmat.html Watch videos of IBN Lokmat specials]
* [http://www.in.com/active18/watchnow/watchvideo.php?id=1626400 Watch live IBN Lokmat News]

* [http://www.marathimati.tv/ MarathiMati TV - Global Maharashtras Own Internet Marathi TV Channel] Marathi Internet TV Channel
* [http://www.dhoomley.com/meemarathi/index.htm Listen Marathi movie songs]
* [http://www.marathifun.com/marathi/categories.php?cat_id=80 Streaming Marathi Video Songs]

Marathi television