Noida, India – Shagun TV, a new television channel headquartered in India’s capital, is set to offer 24-hour matrimonial reality content. This leverages on the Indian wedding market – valued at an estimated $38 billion a year and expected to grow 25-30% annually, according to the Times Colonist.
Shagun TV’s current programming includes a bridal makeover show, a show featuring honeymoon destinations and one on the often-fraught relationship between mothers and daughters-in-law, with marriage-themed soap operas soon to come, added the report.
The show is designed as a “pre-marriage therapy session,” said Anuranjan Jha, Shagun TV’s managing director. But its aim is not to create drama, but “to help in guiding how to lead a good life,” he said.
Shagun TV says its aim is to give middle-class Indians who want to be in the spotlight a platform. Couples shell out between $11,000 and $19,000 to showcase their multi-day wedding festivities on the channel — with the price depending on how many nights of the celebration they want aired, added the report.
While the report adds that some media analysts say Shagun’s model may not work, amid the proliferation of channels and fragmentation of audiences, it also says that Shagun has a potential audience of tens of millions of Indians: singles and newlyweds aged 22 to 32, as well as their family members.
