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 Managing
Director of the Sun Network, Kalanidhi Maran is
unquestionably king of Satellite Television in South India.
Sun TV, which kick-started the Satellite Television
revolution in the south, remains the most viewed Tamil
Satellite Television Channel (despite the present clutter
of several later entrants in the market).
And under the umbrella of the Sun Network, Kalanidhi Maran
has a Channel for each of the South Indian states - Udaya
TV and Ushe TV in Kannada, Gemini TV and Teja TV in Telugu
and Surya TV in Malayalam. Also launched is a 24-hour Sun
News Channel.
For this MBA from Scranton University, Pennsylvania, it all
started off with 'Poomaalai' - a Tamil video newsmagazine.
From there, telecasting was the next logical step. When
Doordarshan's National Network seemed totally out-of-sync
(with Hindi programming for the Tamil viewers), he saw the
possibilities and launched Sun TV (without his own
Satellite link-up at the time).
Kalanidhi's brand of leadership is marked by innovation and
staying several steps ahead of competition. At a time when
news programming was considered a non-revenue-generating
obligation, his was the first private channel in the
country to telecast a Daily News Bulletin. The phenomenal
success of Sun TV's News, rewrote viewership and
advertising projections.
Today, Sun TV is also the first channel in the country to
set up its own earth station.
Recipient of the International Young Business Achiever
award in 1999 (from the Worldcom group, New York),
Kalanidhi Maran was also among the few representatives (of
India's future in business) at the round table with the
visiting U.S. President Bill Clinton.
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