Sun TV is an Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

general entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands ...

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel owned by

Sun TV Network Sun TV Network Limited is a Indian media company, headquartered in Chennai. It is a part of Sun Group and was established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanithi Maran. It owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages ...

. It was launched on 14 April 1993. It is the flagship channel of the

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

-based

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...

Sun Group's

. It was founded and is owned by

Kalanithi Maran Kalanithi Maran (born 24 July 1964) is an Indian billionaire media proprietor. He is the chairman and founder of Sun Group, one of India's largest media conglomerates. He owns multiple television channels, newspapers, weeklies, FM radio station ...

. It started airing on open network (Antenna) on 14 July 2002 at the time of "Majunu" Tamil movie premiering. Then it was removed from this open network on 2005. It was also removed from free on 9 November 2007. Sun TV launched its HD version on 11 December 2011. Since its inception, the channel consistently remains the top rated Tamil channel and one of the top rated Indian television channel.

History

Kalanithi Maran has been interested in television since his trip to the United States where he did an MBA at the

University of Scranton The University of Scranton is a private Jesuit university in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1888 by William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. In 1938, the college was elevated to university status and took ...

in the mid-1980s. At the time, Doordarshan controlled the entirety of India's television landscape. Upon returning, he had plans to set up a television channel, but the plans were thwarted by the ongoing monopoly and the lack of liberalisation of the sector. Sun TV is the flagship channel of

which started on the

Tamil New Year Puthandu (), also known as Tamil New Year (), is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar that is traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamils. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the solar Hindu calendar, as the first day ...

, 14 April 1993. It started off with a four and a half hour programming per day on a time sharing agreement with

ATN ATN is the Sydney Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax Media, John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the ...

, India's first independent television channel, having rejected a proposal for an afternoon slot on

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

. In January 1997, it started 24-hour broadcasts. In 1995, it signed an agreement with ST Teleport in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

to provide uplink. Singapore Cable Vision added the channel on 1 October 1996. Sun TV went to become one of the most profitable television channels in India, considering that, as late as 2009, one third of households in India with television sets were in Tamil Nadu and adjacent states. Sun TV was listed on the

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange based in Mumbai. It is the 6th largest stock exchange in the world by total market capitalization, exceeding $5 trillion in May 2024. Established with t ...

on 24 April 2006 upon raising $133 million. It is the most viewed Tamil television channel in the world with syndicated broadcasts in several countries such as the United States, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Qatar, Hong Kong, Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ireland) and other countries. In October 2009, Sun TV's network of channels had a sum of 21 programmes among the 100 most watched; more than 16 shows came from the Zee network.

Programming

Scandal

On 8 December 2013, the Little India Riot broke out at

. On 9 December 2013, Sun TV made a false news report on the riot saying that the deceased was pushed out of the bus by the driver, as well as attacked by locals. Lim Thuan Kuan, Singapore's High Commissioner to India, protest against the false report. As a result, Sun TV issued a correction the following day and apologized for the error.

Awards

Sun TV also hosts numerous film-industry–related events in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

and the

Sun Kudumbam Awards Sun Kudumbam Viruthugal is an awards ceremony held to honour the cast and crew of the Soap opera, television serials which air on Sun TV (India), Sun TV, presented by Sun Network. The first awards ceremony happened in 2010 and it is a biennial ...

ceremony biannually.

Sister channels

KTV

KTV is an Indian

language movie

channel owned by

, broadcasting

language films. It was launched on 22 October 2001.

Sun Music

Sun Music is India's first

language music

channel owned by

. It was launched on 5 September 2004. Its HD counterpart was launched on 11 December 2011.

Chutti TV

Chutti TV is an Indian

language kids

channel from the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The

target audience The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of cons ...

are children aged between 3 and 17. It was launched on 29 April 2007, making it Sun TV Network's first ever television channel for kids.

Adithya TV

Adithya TV is an Indian

language comedy

channel owned by

. It was launched on 8 February 2009.

Sun News

Sun News is an Indian

language news

channel owned by

, headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was launched on 7 May 2000.

Sun Life

Sun Life is an Indian

language classic movie

channel owned by

, which broadcasts classic movies. It was launched in 2013.

References

External links

{{Nifty 200 companies Tamil-language television channels Foreign television channels broadcasting in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 1993 Sun Group Television stations in Chennai Indian companies established in 1993 1993 establishments in Tamil Nadu