Star's Kannada offering Suvarna is on a roll these days. The channel seems to be on the path to entrenching itself, at least for now, in the number two slot in the Kannada GEC space. The top three positions were for long occupied by the Sun Network's Udaya TV, the number one player by far; Ramoji Rao's ETV Kannada at No 2; and Zee Kannada, a relatively newer entrant at the third spot.
"Suvarna stands for fresh entertainment. Call it fiction or non-fiction or any program for that matter; our approach is to offer differentiated and fresh concepts as programs," says Suvarana business head Anup Chandrasekharan.

The channel says that it is attempting through a planned strategy that it calls a 'Threshold Strategy' to grow its viewership by attracting the 15-24 age group, which did not consume Kannada television. "We decided that once we had the people to sample our offering through reality shows, we will ensure that stickiness prevails in the form of fiction," reveals Chandrasekharan.

"Our reality shows such as 'Pyete Hidigir Halli Lifu' (PHHL), 'Halli Hyda Pyeteg Banda' (HHPB) 'Pyete Mandi Kadige Bandru' (PMKB) have helped bring in younger and newer audiences