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Shakthi TV

Shakthi TV began broadcasting in 1998 and is the Tamil language TV channel of MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited, which is part of one of Sri Lanka’s largest conglomerates, The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited. Sinhala language channel Sirasa TV, and the Sinhala and English bilingual channel TV 1 are Shakthi TV's sister TV channels. Its featured content includes entertainment, sports, current affairs, children’s programmes and news segments. Most of the entertainment programmes aired on Shakthi TV are programmes from Sun TV and Star Vijay from India. Additionally, programmes on Shakthi TV are available online through Yupp TV.

During the height of the war, in early 2009, the premises of the MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited and MBC Networks (Pvt) Limited were attacked by armed men who had reportedly held the staff at gunpoint and destroyed the main control room. Groundviews, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) considered the attack to be led by a government affiliated group. Former Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa however refuted such allegations levelled against the state.

The premises of MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited and MBC Networks (Pvt) Limited were also reportedly attacked by the use of firecrackers in April 2018, allegedly following the defeat of the No Confidence Motion brought against the incumbent Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Key facts

Audience Share

6.1%

Ownership Type

Private

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

Free-to-air terrestrial

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited

Ownership

Ownership Structure

MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited is a subsidiary of one of Sri Lanka's largest conglomerates, The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited. The Capital Maharaja and its subsidiary companies have complex ownership structures. As per the structure of MTV Channels (Pvt) Limited, 10 companies own shares in the company. These are: MBC Networks (Pvt) Limited (35.34%), Vision Link (Pvt) Limited (20.83%), S-Lon Industrial Plastics (14.48%), Capital Holdings (12.95%), Jones Overseas (Pvt) Limited (5.45%), Stradbroke INV (Pvt) Limited (3.80%), Business Investments (Pvt) Limited (3.40%), The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited (2.27%), Jones Land (Pvt) Limited (1.29%) and Dawson Capital (Pvt) Limited (0.16%). In turn, all of these companies appear as shareholders in their ownership structures, each part- owning the other.

Voting Rights

Missing Data

Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

1998

Affiliated Interests Founder

Rajandram Maharaja and Rajandram Rajamahendran are the founders of Sirasa TV, and the sons of Sinnathamby Rajandram, one of the founders of The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited. Rajandram Maharaja was married to Padma Maharaja, an enterprising figure who had her own fashion label called 'Vati' and also served on the board of Hilton Hotel. She passed away in 2016. Rajandram Rajamahendran is married to Cannice Rajamahendran. She is the CEO of Rumours salon, a company under the organisation. While both brothers took over the organisation, Rajandram Maharaja eventually retired. In 2018, Rajandram Rajamahendran's son, Sashidharan Rajamahendran, was appointed as Managing Director of the organisation. Meanwhile, Rajamahendran's daughter, Anjali Rajamahendran, is a Group Director in the organisation. Pradeep Maharaja, the son of Rajandram Maharaja and Padma Maharaja, is also a Group Director in the organisation. In 2015, Pradeep was appointed to the board of directors at the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL).

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Susara Dinal – serves as the CEO of MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited. Previously, he held the post of Channel Head at Sirasa TV. He also contested for the Western Provincial Council Polls from the Gampaha District in 2014.

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

G.V. Prakash – Channel Head

Affiliated Interests other important people

Nedra Weerasinghe – Heads Capital Maharaja's media divisions, the MTV Channel and MBC Networks. She is a Group Director in the organisation. Previously, she headed the group's two GSA airline operations, namely, Northwest Airlines and Royal Jordanian. Additionally, she has headed Capital Maharaja's commercially successful pipe manufacturing entity, S-Lon Lanka.

Contact

MBC/ MTV Channels (Pvt) Limited

45/3, Braybrook Place, Colombo-02

Tel : +94112851371

Website: shakthitv.lk

Financial Information

Revenue (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Advertising (in % of total funding)

Missing Data

Market Share

Missing Data

Further Information

Meta Data

The official websites of Shakthi TV, or MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited i.e. the company it is managed by, does not provide any details about its founder or company structure. Instead, it provides a list of the channel's programmes and contact details. Meanwhile, MTV Channel (Pvt) Limited’s parent company, The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited, provides a list of is board of directors. In order to obtain further information on the channel, secondary sources were required. Upon contacting the channel via phone calls, it was confirmed that the mentioned key individuals still hold their respective posts. The founder is occasionally referred to by two names in the referenced sources as R. Rajamahendran and Kili Maharaja. These names are also spelt differently across the cited reports. Details with regarding to the present shareholders were obtained from the annual returns available at the Department of Registrar of Companies. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited by formally requesting for the company’s information on 20 July 2018, the company did not respond to the aforementioned request. Viewership data was obtained from the Kantar Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) for the year 2017.

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