Manorama News, a 24-hours Malayalam news channel that went on air on August 17, is gearing up to launch a weekly news programme on the lines of ‘News You Can Demand’. Viewers can request any story, segment or moment that they would like to view again through phone, SMS, email or logging on to the channel’s website, and the channel would replay the requested story.
“Rather than pre-defined stories to be chosen from, this could be any story, segment or moment that the viewer can choose to demand,” said Anil George, COO, Manorama News.
“We will also be introducing a whole lot of special programmes in the coming days as
Kerala celebrates her 50th birth anniversary. These include a quiz contest for students, which would be a two-month event. However, news would form the core of the programming,” George further said.
Some of the programmes of the newly launched channel include – Manorama News Hour, which is the flagship news and views show of the day. Pularvela is a morning bulletin, while Nattuvartha is the regional bulletin that covers local news from the three different regions of the state and aired simultaneously across the three regions.
The weekend has a greater share of infotainment programming. Nere Chowe, which is on air at 8 pm on Sundays, has been a quite a hit for its unique style. This programme is hosted by News Director of the channel, Johny Lukose, who has grilled several top names in politics and films.
Commenting on the channel’s performance, George said, “Performance could be mapped on various parameters, the most critical for us has been viewer acceptance. It had always been the biggest challenge given the huge expectations from a channel coming out of the Malayala Manorama group. Viewers have been quite happy with the channel on the content, the visual identity, the editorial stance and the unique formats.”
“Another key metric for us has been distribution. Through a combination of viewer pull and professionally managed distribution drive, we have managed 100 per cent connectivity from day one in all of Kerala. That is helping in all the viewing conversions,” he further said.
“We have also clocked top programme ratings above 2 TVRs for each of the weeks since launch, a lot of our programmes have made inroads into primetime viewing and our channel share is already in line with that of existing players in the news genre. The figures are even more impressive in the upmarket males 25+ SEC AB segment, where we are delivering the highest numbers from within the news genre,” George added.
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