Chennai: Satellite channel major the Rs703 crore revenue Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is making a serious come back attempt into the Tamil satellite channel market with Zee Tamizh.

"We will start airing the channel in couple of months. We are in the process of hiring able hands," says G Ramprasad, CEO, Zee South.

A commerce graduate from Madras University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management - Kolkata, Ramprasad was earlier the president of TI Cycle, the bicycle division of Tube Investments of India Limited, part of the Murugappa group.

At Murugappa group Ramprasad has held several responsible positions. As the executive director of EID Parry India Ltd and the CEO of Parryware division, he contributed significantly to the transformation of the unit from an inward focussed to a market- and consumer-oriented one.

Prior to entering the portals of the Murugappa group Ramprasad had handled sales and marketing at various consumer goods companies such as Funskool India Ltd, Hindustan Lever Ltd and Sara Lee (in India).

Speaking about his decision to get into a media company after selling sanitary ware and cycles, Ramprasad says, "The satellite channel scene in south is mature and it is time to look at positioning and promoting the channels vis-à-vis the competition. My current role is like any other head of business to strategise the channel's growth.

Earlier heading TI Cycles, the cycles division of Tube Investments of India Limited, Ramprasad moved to Zee earlier this month to head the company's southern operations. (See: Tube Investments: Movements at the top)

He will be responsible for Zee's existing Kannada and Telugu as well as the proposed Tamil and Malayalam channels.

The channel has hired V Chandrasekaar as the business head for Zee Tamizh and is on the look out for a person to head the Malayalam channel.

For Zee this is its second attempt in the Tamil satellite market - in 2001, sortly after launching Bharathi TV, the group wound up the Tamil channel's operations.

The failure was attributed to the problems it faced in reaching the homes as the last mile-the cable operations- was owned by rival channel network.

"Now the distribution scenario has changed. We have alternate mechanisms like direct to home players like group company Dish TV and Tata Sky to take our signals," says Ramprasad.

In addition the cable distribution scene has also changed in Tamil Nadu.

As the equations between Sun Network that owned Sun Cable Vision the MSO and the ruling DMK party changed dramatically last year, the Tamil Nadu government is in the process of setting up its own cable distribution company.

Speaking about Zee Tamizh, Ramprasad says, "It will be a general entertainment channel. We are yet to finalise the programming mix and other aspects."

The entry of Zee Tamizh will take the total number to Tamil language satellite channels to 21.

Out of the existing 20 Tamil channels 13 are general entertainment channels, five music channels and only two news channels.

After the launch of Tamil and Malayalam channels, Zee will be the third group to have a presence in all the four southern languages.

While Sun Network with its boutique of channels is present in the four states, Raj Television Network has announced its plans to expand its presence in the south.

Meanwhile it is going to be difficult for Zee Tamil to get the movie rights as the competition is on the rise there by increasing the rates.