Comedy genre registers TRP rise in Tamil space

Comedy programming has emerged as the new flavour of Tamil television. Two new comedy channels - Aditya and Siripoli were launched last month, dedicated exclusively to humour by Sun TV Network and Kalaignar Television Network respectively.
A spokesperson from Sun TV Network says, "The aim is to provide laughter and fun to millions of viewers across the state. The Aditya programming includes comedy film clips, comedy songs, candid camera and stand up comedy shows."
Sujit Kumar, director, Social Media India, which has the marketing rights for Siripoli, says, "Tamil audience is excited about the humour quotient. We saw the potential for a full-fledged comedy channel and launched it."

In a bid to lure more viewers, most of the Tamil general entertainment channels (GEC) and music channels, have switched over to airing comedy clips from Tamil films between 9.30 pm and 11 pm during the last one year.

All those channels which replaced daily soaps with comedy clips have registered a remarkable rise in their TRPs. In the recent time, all the women-oriented daily soaps have shown a decline in viewership, according to the research data by TAM Media.

In the Tamil Nadu market, what sells best is Tamil film comedy clips of Vadivel, Vivekh, Senthil and Goundamani, Nagesh and the golden oldies — N S Krishnan, Thangavelu, M R Radha and Thengai Sreenivasan. The comedy scenes of Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Vijay are also extremely popular among young viewers.

Sun TV Network already has a comedy channel, called Comedy Thirai, which operates only for its DTH platform Sun Direct. Meanwhile, both Aditya and Siripoli are available across cable and leading direct-to-home (DTH) platforms.