MUMBAI: Star India has deputed Star One programming head Ravi Menon as Vijay TV general manager. Harsh Rohatgi, who had been heading the channel as deputy general manager, was promoted as general manager Star Network in July 2005.
"Star One programming is more or less steadied up now and it has been brought under the Star India programming wing now. Vijay TV being the South Indian hub of Star India, we are looking to pump up our initiatives. The channel has grown as one of the revenue centres and now the effort is to improve the position," Menon, who took charge on 1 February, tells indiantelevision.com.
Menon is hitting the ground running as it were bringing in two Star properties into the weekends: Koffee with Karan and The Great Indian Laughter Champions. The Tamil version of The Great Indian Laughter Champions will launch on 10 March, while Koffee with Karan will go on air later in the month.
"Star has been launching its successful Hindi formats on Vijay in the weekends and the strategy continues. Koffee with Karan and The Great Indian Laughter Champions follow this stream. We will be also launching a musical property soon to spruce up the weekends," says Menon.
Along with Star Plus, Vijay was also forced to reshuffle its weekend programming following Kaun Banega Crorepati 2's abrupt exit. With KBC2 bidding adieu to Vijay on 25 February, the slot will be filled with some of the channel's successful properties.
"We will be telecasting some of our crowd-pullers -- including Best of Lollu Sabha -- in the KBC2 time slot on Saturdays," states Menon.
Menon adds that the channel's weekday prime time band has been shaping up well. "Vijay is comfortably placed with its weekday prime time. K Balachander's soap Idhu Oru Kadhal Kadhai is one of our driver shows in this segment," he says.
Speaking about the plans for this fiscal, Menon says the emphasis will be on reality formats. "Apart from reality, we are seriously looking at the kids' space also. Then we have plans for the afternoon band. Since we follow a July to July fiscal, we will be putting our act together in July," says Menon.
