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.
Audience Share
6.1%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Free-to-air terrestrial
Media Companies / Groups
The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited
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.
For example, MBC Networks is owned by Capital Holdings (94.56%) and Vision Link (5.43%). However, Vision Link is owned by Jones Overseas (71.13%) and Capital Holdings (28.6%). Meanwhile, Jones Overseas is also owned by Capital Holdings (43.66%), Harrisons Colombo Limited (36.42%), The Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited (19.92%) and R. Rajamahendran (0.00003%); Harrisons Colombo Limited is owned by S-Lon Lanka (99.99%); S-Lon Lanka is owned by Vision Link (53.46%) and S-Lon Industrial Plastics (46.50%); S-Lon Industrial Plastics is owned by Vision Link (84.2%) and Capital Holdings (15.79%). In total, 18 companies within the Maharaja Organisation were researched. All of these companies have Capital Holdings as a shareholder at some level in their ownership structures. Capital Holdings (Pvt) Limited is directly owned by the Rajamahendrans, i.e. Rajandram Rajamahendran (79.95%) and his son Sashidharan Rajamahendran (20.05%). The calculations of shares indicate that the Rajamahendran family has overall ownership over all these companies.
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
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. $)
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Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
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Market Share
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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.
