This is an automatically generated PDF version of the online resource sri-lanka.mom-gmr.org/en/ retrieved on 2024/03/29 at 13:45
Global Media Registry (GMR) & Verité Research - all rights reserved, published under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Verité Research LOGO
Global Media Registry

Vasantham TV

Vasantham TV is the Tamil language broadcasting channel of the Independent Television Network Limited (ITN). ITN is a company that is presently owned by the state. The Secretary to the Treasury, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, owns all of the shares of ITN. Founded in 2009, Vasantham TV initially catered to the Tamil-speaking audience of the Western Province. Eventually, it expanded its coverage to other regions including the Northern, Eastern and Uva Provinces of the country. Vasantham TV telecasts programmes such as news, serial teledramas from South and North India and Sri Lanka, talk shows, religious and other social programmes.

Key facts

Audience Share

2.4%

Ownership Type

State owned

Geographic Coverage

National

Content Type

Free to air

Data Publicly Available

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

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

ITN

Ownership

Ownership Structure

While the Independent Television Network (ITN) was nationalised by the Gazette Extraordinary No. 39/4 of June 1979, it was brought under the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act no. 6 of 1982 which is presently under the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media. The Secretary to the Treasury owns 100 percent of shares of the Independent Television Network Limited (ITN) which houses Vasantham TV. This body comes under the purview of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media.

Voting Rights

Missing Data

Individual Owner

Media Companies / Groups
Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2009

Affiliated Interests Founder

Vasantham TV was founded by the Independent Television Network Limited (ITN) which is a state-owned public company. Founded by the Chairperson of Telshan Networks (Pvt) Limited (TNL) and the brother of the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Shan Wickremesinghe, ITN commenced its operations as a private sector company in April 1979. However, it was nationalised by the Gazette Extraordinary No. 39/4 of June 1979. In 1992, it was incorporated as a state-owned public limited company.

Affiliated Interests Ceo

Chandana Thilakarathna is the CEO of Independent Television Network Limited (ITN). He served as a Senior Consultant at China Radio International. Before joining ITN, he served as the CEO for Sath FM.

Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief

Paraneetharan Murugesu Kulendran currently serves as the Channel Head of Vasantham TV. He concurrently serves as the Channel Head of Vasantham FM. He has previously served as the Programme Manager at Sooriyan FM, which belongs to Asia Broadcasting Corporation (Pvt) Limited. Additionally, he has held the position of Assistant General Manager at Varnam FM and Channel Head of Vettri FM. The latter station belongs to the Voice of Asia Network (Pvt) Limited.

Affiliated Interests other important people

J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara was appointed the Chairperson of ITN in May 2018. She is the Additional Secretary (Development/ Planning) of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media. She has previously held the following positions:

Contact

Independent Television Network

Wickramasinghepura, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka

Telephone: +94 11 2774 424, +94 11 2774 725, +94 11 2773 289

Fax: +94 11 277 4591, +94 11 277 4421

Email: manager@vasantham.lk

Website: www.vasantham.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 Annual Report of Independent Television Network Limited (ITN) for the year 2015 provides the ownership details of the Independent Television Network Limited (ITN), which is the company that manages Vasantham TV. Further data on ownership was collected from the annual returns available at the Department of Registrar of Companies. The most recently available data for ITN is from the year 2018. Secondary sources were referenced for details regarding the founder and key people of the media outlet. Meanwhile, viewership data was gathered from the Kantar Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) for the year 2017. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to ITN by formally requesting for the company’s information on 20 July 2018, the company did not respond to the aforementioned request.

  • Project by
    Verité Research
  •  
    Global Media Registry
  • Funded by
    BMZ