population of over a billion. Innumerable gods and goddesses. Thousand of pilgrimage spots. Dispersed faiths and religions. Are religious channels the next best thing to happen to TV since Ekta Kapoor decided to take over the reins of Balaji Telefilms? Especially from an advertiser's point of view? Maybe, because even though such channels occupy less than 1 per cent of the entire cable and satellite viewing pie, they are fast becoming a force.

Apart from the biggies - Aastha TV leads with Sanskar close behind and ZEE Jagran at a distant No 3 - there are quite a few channels dotting the TV universe. For instance, channels like QTV, GOD TV, and Miracle Channel cater specifically to one religious community or the other. There are a number of local cable channels like Aimil Jagran and Siti Gurbani too, which battle for the viewers' mindshare. According to a TAM Media Research report, viewership of these channels, expectedly, is at its peak (share, about 9 per cent; CS All India, 4 years +) during the early morning time band - between 4 and 7 AM - and plummets during primetime. Another indicator of their rising popularity is that the early morning time band on many of the general entertainment channels (GECs) like Star Plus and ETC Channel Punjabi is being taken up by devotional content.... more