MIB grants approval to Star Sports 1 Marathi, Sun Marathi

The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has approved Star India and Sun TV Network’s four name change applications.

Star India has got the MIB nod to rename its licences Star Movies Kids and Star Movies Kids HD to Star Sports 1 Bangla and Star Sports 1 Marathi. Star Sports 1 Bangla launched on 5th March with an MRP of Rs 19.

In December 2018, Star India MD Sanjay Gupta had stated that the launch of Star Sports 1 Kannada will be followed by the launch of Star Sports 1 Malayalam, Star Sports 1 Bengali, and Star Sports 1 Marathi.

“We launched Star Sports in Hindi followed by Tamil. Recently, we added Star Sports 1 Telugu. We are launching Star Sports in Kannada followed by Bengali, Malayalam, and Marathi. We are trying to make sports accessible to every consumer in their language at an affordable price,” Gupta had said.

Star Sports 1 Marathi will be the sixth regional sports channel from Star India stable. Currently, Star has five regional sports channels including Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 1 Telugu, Star Sports 1 Kannada, and Star Sports 1 Bangla.

Sun TV Network’s name change applications to rename Udaya News and Gemini News to Sun Marathi and Sun Bangla has also been approved. The broadcaster has discontinued both Udaya News and Gemini News.

It is pertinent to note that Sun Bangla debuted on 3rd February. Sun TV Network’s Marathi GEC is expected to launch by end of the calendar year 2019.

As reported earlier, both Sun Bangla and Sun Marathi will be free to air (FTA) channels.

The Sun TV Network management expects Sun Bangla to breakeven by end of the second year from its launch with a market share of 10-15%. It expects the channel to garner 10% share in the Bangla market quickly.

By end of year 2, management plans to have 10.5 hours of original programming per day. Sun Bangla was launched on 3rd February with 3.5 hours of original programming per day (7 serials). The content spend per day is Rs 17 lakh.

The total cost including content and marketing for Bangla channel will be in the range of Rs 80-90 crore for first year and will go up in the second year. It expects the channel to generate Rs 125-150 crore revenue by FY21.