The Marathi language television industry was started in India in 1984. Although earlier confined to a half an hour slot in the national television Doordarshan, the industry has now expanded with many commercial TV channels currently on air. Various dedicated categories like news and movies have been added and have considerably expanded the horizon of Marathi TV entertainment.
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General Entertainment Channel (GEC)
Marathi programming on TV started on 2 October 1972 (Gandhi Jayanti) on the state-owned Doordarshan channel. It was originally confined to a two-hour slot using a small transmitter that served few TV households.
On 15 August 1994 (Independence Day) Doordarshan launched DD Sahyadri as the first dedicated Marathi-language channel. DD Sahyadri was initially called RLSS Marathi.
On 15 August 1999, Zee Network launched Alpha Marathi which was later renamed to Zee Marathi. This period saw many new channels being launched including ETV's ETV Marathi (2000), Prabhat TV and Tara Marathi. However, both Prabhat and Tara were shut down in 2002.
Star TV started its GEC Star Pravah in 2008 with flagship serial Raja Shivachhatrapati on the life of Chhtrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Fakt Marathi started in March 2016, Mumbai-based firm Enterr10 Television Pvt. Ltd owns the channel.
News
The Marathi Television got its first round-the-clock news channel in the form of Zee 24 Taas in the year 2007. STAR TV launched its Marathi news channel Star Majha in June 2007, which was later named as ABP Majha from 1 June 2012. Television 18 & Lokmat together formed a joint venture to launch IBN Lokmat in 2008. In 2009, TV9 Maharashtra launched. On 1 May 2013 another channel launched, namely Jai Maharashtra, by Mumbai based media group Sahana Films.
Film channels
Marathi got its first round-the-clock Marathi movie channel in the form of Zee Talkies in November 2007.
Music channels
9x Jhakaas was the first 24-hour Marathi music TV channel, launched on 31 October 2011.
Sangeet Marathi another brand New Marathi music channel launched on 18 September 2015
List of Marathi Television Channels
Radio channels
Top five Marathi Channels in India
This is a list of top five Marathi Channels in India as per BARC ratings.