Industry Mass media Divisions Sun TV Network Founder Kalanithi Maran Headquarters Chennai Area served India | Founders Kalanithi Maran Website www.sun.in Founded 1992 Type of business Private | |
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Key people Kalanithi Maran (Chairman) Products Publishing
Broadcasting
Radio
Film
Cable television
Sports franchising Key person Kalanithi Maran (Chairman) | ||
T p o n sun group vi t nam
Sun Group is an Indian media conglomerate company based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by Kalanithi Maran in 1992.
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Sun group s cfo sl narayanan on the company s challenges
Television
In 1990, Maran started a monthly video (VHS) news magazine in Tamil called Poomaalai which was stopped in 1992. Sun TV is the first and flagship channel of the group started on 14 April 1993. Sun TV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on 24 April 2006 upon raising $133 million. Sun Group owns 33 TV Channels across four South Indian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Sun Direct is a DTH service provider established in 2008. Sun direct is the fourth largest in India DTH service provider as of March 2015. Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) is a cable distribution company owned by Sun network.
Radio
The group owns 48 FM radio stations across India broadcasting under the names Suryan FM and Red FM.
Newspapers and Magazines
Sun Group owns two daily newspapers and five magazines in Tamil. Dinakaran was founded in 1977 by K. P. Kandasamy and was acquired from K. P. K. Kumaran by Sun Network in 2005. It is the second largest circulated Tamil daily in India after Dina Thanthi. Tamil Murasu is an evening newspaper. The group owns magazines Kungumam, Kumguma Chimizh, Kungumam Thozhi, Aanmigam, Mutharam and Vannathirai.
Film production
Sun Pictures is a film production and distribution company established in 2000. It produced the TV film Siragugal and Rajnikanth starrer Endhiran. It has distributed more than 20 Tamil films starting from Kadhalil Vizhunthen.
Sports
Sunrisers Hyderabad is a cricket franchise based in the city of Hyderabad that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was bought by Kalanithi Maran in October 2012. Tom Moody is the head coach and David Warner is the captain of the team.
Aviation
Sun Group acquired 37.7% stake in Indian low cost carrier Spicejet in June 2010. In 2012, Despite the losses, Kalanithi Maran increased his stake in Spicejet by investing ₹1 billion (US$15 million) in the airline. In January 2015, the Sun group sold its entire shareholding to the airline's founder Ajay Singh and transferred control.
Controversies
In May 2007, followers of M Karunanidhi's son M. K. Alagiri attacked Maran's newspaper office after a survey in the newspaper claimed that M. K. Stalin was the preferred successor to M Karunanidhi. Later in 2008, the dispute between Maran and Karunanidhi families was resolved. Government investigator Central Bureau of Investigation filed charges against founder Kalanidhi Maran for fraudulent in the takeover of Aircel by Maxis Communications. In a status report to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on telecom, CBI said mala fide considerations and an "illegal gratification" of ₹550 crore (US$82 million) were behind the "active intervention" of Dayanidhi in curbing the business interests of Aircel's former owner C Sivasankaran. Alleging the Marans of arm-twisting former Aircel owner, Sivasankaran, into selling Aircel to Maxis, the CBI report states that an illegal gratification of Rs 5,499,601,793 was accepted as quid pro quo through his brother Kalanithi Maran in the garb of share premium invested in Sun Direct, owned by Kalanithi Maran.