TV (NET) work?

On my return after a sojourn (only fourteen years!) abroad, I started looking for some engagement, besides my teaching profession, that will satisfy my taste in creativity and fulfill a mental urge yet to be satiated. It was then that a close friend of mine suggested the starting up of a new TV channel which will provide me with maximum exposure in addition. I regarded it an idea and a half.

That made me do some research and I'll tell you what I found. It may help the Mar Thoma Church in freeing itself from the agony of being ignorant about the pros and cons of the Channel Affair, especially so when I hear a lot of talk about its desire to start a new channel though it was earlier given out to be just a channel programme.

I started out by looking at the current scenario in Kerala with regard to the televised medium.

My inquiry revealed to me that there are 18 channels on the air in Kerala at the present time, broadcasting all sorts of programmes in Malayalam. Of those, 10 belong to the GEC (General Entertainment Channel) category, 5 in the NC (News Channel) category and 3 in the RC (Religious Channel) category.

Asianet, Surya TV, Asianet Plus, Kiran TV, Kairali TV, WE Channel (Kairali), JaiHind TV, Jeevan TV, YES TV (India Vision), and Amrita TV come under the head GEC.

AsiaNet News, India Vision, Manorama News TV, People TV (Kairali), and Reporter TV come under NC.

Shalom TV, Powervision TV and AYTV (owned by Bishop K.P. Yohannan) come under RC.

The two channels that are making commendable strides are AsiaNet and Surya. AsiaNet bags 400 crores and Surya takes 300 crores out of the total 780 crore Television Advertising Market in Kerala. The balance amount of 80 crores is snatched among the remaining 16 channels which struggle for their daily existence.

To make things worse, 7 more new channels are in the pipeline. They are Kerala Kaumudi, Mathrubhumi, Madhyamam, Manorama GEC, Janapriya (owned by K. Muraleedharan), an RSS- owned channel etc. That will increase the count to 25. Aren't they too many?

Having said that, let us now look how cost effective the channel spectrum is. Cost-defective may be a more apt word!

To start a channel, an investment of 25 to 50 crores is needed for software alone, ie. programme production, serials, films etc. Experts say that more than 100 crores will have to be expended before the 5th year is out. If a reasonable income is to come in after an year or so, the channel should have an excellent TPR (Television Program Rating). For that to happen, a channel will have to broadcast Cinemas (certainly not 'Snapaka Yohannan') and other Reality Shows. Can and will the Mar Thoma Church do that? ( there are people who ask what they will not do, I hear). Know that the current average satellite cost of a Malayalam cinema is anywhere from 75 lakhs to 2.5 crores.

Without this- viz. the airing of cinemas and reality shows- happening, the proposed Mar Thoma Channel will remain at the rock-bottom of the TPR, calculated through Television Audience Measuring. Be informed that the Jeevan TV of the Syrian Catholic Church, Amrutha of the Amrutananda Madom and Jai Hind of the Congress- all are struggling for existence. They are still alive only because they have the strong base of a funding group. You may remember how the Middle-east TV, started by Gulf Malayalees found its demise within a very short time.

At this juncture, the question as to why the Orthodox and Jacobte churches- who are by far richer than the Mar Thoma Church- never jumped into the turmoil of starting a tv channel makes sense.

A friend humourously said that we would need 10 channels now and 3 more within the next 3 months to defend our bishops against various charges. Even if we admit that for the sake of argument, tell me how many Marthomites are there among the total 50 lakhs of Cable TV/ Dish TV subscribers at present (a negligible number, right?) and how many of them will switch to a channel getting started by the Mar Thoma Church? (undoubtedly electro-microscopic, right?)

Notwithstanding, it may be noted that the modern generation- irrespective of caste, colour or creed- turns to Face Book, Orkut, My Space, Linked In, Twitter and such other social sites for giving expression to their ideas, likes and dislikes...

Thanking you,

Love,

Adv. Alex Abraham Odikandathil