Entertainment - Kalaignar TV’s 24-hour Tamil news channel Seithigal goes on air

Esha Madhavan

The Tamil news channel space has a new addition – Seithigal, from Kalaignar TV, which was launched on November 30. Seithigal is the third addition to the DMK-owned TV channel bouquet after GEC Kalaignar TV and music channel Isai Aruvi.

Seithigal will focus on regional, national and international news. The channel will be under the same management of Kalaignar TV, headed by a team of three people. Amirtham, nephew of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, functions as the Chief Financial Officer. Rama Narayanan is the Chief Operating Officer and also the President of the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council. Sharad Kumar is the Managing Director of the channel. The editorial team of Seithigal will be headed by Doyle in continuation of his role as the head of Kalaignar’s news editorial team.

Considered to be the closest competitor of Sun Network in the Tamil television space, Kalaignar TV was launched on September 15, 2007. The second channel, Isai Aruvi, a channel exclusively devoted to music, was launched within six months. The other news channels in the Tamil news space include Sun News, Jaya Plus and Raj News 24x7.

The Kalaignar Group is planning to launch two more channels shortly – Siripoligal, which will be dedicated to comedy and comedy-related programmes, and Chitram, which is targeted at children and will air cartoons and children-related programmes.