Maiboli
Overview
Maiboli was a Marathi-language free-to-air television channel from Mumbai, Maharashtra, owned by Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Limited, the broadcasting company of the SAB Group. Launched on 8 August 2013, it built its schedule around a distinctive mixture of Marathi music and short comedy, a format modelled on the group's successful Hindi music channel Mastiii but adapted to Marathi tastes. The channel broadcast in standard definition and was listed as closed on 23 January 2026, ending a run of more than twelve years. This profile is therefore written in the past tense.
The name Maiboli refers to one's mother tongue, and the channel carried the tagline "Aapli Aaplya Mansaanchi", presenting itself as a channel of and for Marathi people. In its early years the SAB Group described Maiboli as perhaps the most successful channel launch of its year, in a period when, as the group itself noted, most new launches failed.
Origins and Launch
Maiboli was the Sri Adhikari Brothers group's second attempt in the Marathi market. Its first, Mi Marathi, had been launched in 2007 when the Marathi television market was still nascent, and the group retained a stake in it. By 2013 the group judged that Marathi music and comedy remained uncharted territory: there were effectively no dedicated Marathi music channels, and the group believed its long association with Marathi content gave it a natural claim on that gap.
Early reports in 2013 said the new channel, at one stage reported under the name "My Boli", would follow the programme format of Mastiii, with Marathi songs mixed with comic acts. The channel was officially launched on 8 August 2013 as a 24-hour free-to-air service. Markand Adhikari, vice-chairman and managing director of Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network, explained the core creative decision at launch: Hindi music is vast, but the Marathi music catalogue is not, so feeding a channel around the clock with songs alone was not possible; music therefore had to be blended with something else, and comedy was chosen as the best companion.
The Music and Comedy Format
Maiboli's format alternated songs with short comedy skits of around four to five minutes performed between musical items. Well-known faces of Marathi comedy, including Sunil Tawde, Anshuman Vichare, Pradip Patwardhan and Santosh Pawar, along with performers such as Digambar Naik, Arun Kadam and Kishori Ambiye, were roped in for the sketches. The gags were organised into recurring strands with titles such as "Andheri Nagari Chaupat Raja", "Vatrat Vinya", "Shejari Pajari" and "Bas Thaamba".
The channel's leadership argued that in Marathi culture comedy and music go hand in hand, reinforced by the strength of Marathi theatre, so an audience for the combination already existed. Music and humour were intended to share the schedule roughly equally, with the playlist spanning the classic era through to contemporary hits. The channel partnered with music labels for content, including the major label Sagarika among its three launch label partners.
Programming Through the Day
The daily schedule was divided into broad parts. Mornings carried devotional music under the strand "Bhakticha Teva". Romantic songs followed in "Priteechi Jhul Jhul Gaani". Regular film music filled strands such as "Mast Madmast", while lighter music appeared in "Sur Tech Chedita" and "Chandane Shimpit Jashi". At weekends the channel planned content based on the Marathi film industry and its stars.
Named music shows in its later schedules included "Dhingaana", "Coffee Ani Baarich Gaani", "Bhau Mast Vajtay" and "Dumdaar Hits". Its wider programme history included devotional and cultural items such as "Amrit Manthan - Kirtan Sohala", the serial "Maza Dhyanoba", music strands such as "Aika Dajiba", and a long list of comedy formats including "Bakwas 24 Taas", "Happy Crime Time", "Kon Banel Roadpati", "Office Che Show Piece", "Locha Zala Re Gugle Aala Re", "Baiko Sher Navra Pavsher" and "Satteche Rangeen Patte", together with channel strands such as "Maiboli Review" and "Maiboli Updates".
Network and Ownership
Maiboli belonged to the SAB Group's bouquet alongside Mastiii, the Hindi music and youth channel that held leadership in its genre; Dabangg, focused on the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand; Dhamaal, converted into a Hindi movie channel and later associated with Gujarat; and Dillagi, dedicated to rural India. Anita Varma, vice-president of programming for Mastiii, also took charge of programming for the new free-to-air channel.
The group's broadcasting history stretched back further: Sri Adhikari Brothers had been producing television content since 1995 and entered broadcasting in 2000, and it was originally behind SAB TV, which was sold to Multi Screen Media in 2005. Senior executive Manav Dhanda, who joined as executive vice president reporting to Markand Adhikari, described 2014 as a year of consolidation and growth in which Maiboli's launch stood out while Mastiii and Dabangg held leadership positions in their genres.
Audience and Positioning
Maiboli targeted an unusually broad audience, described at launch as viewers from as young as four years of age upwards across Maharashtra. That family-wide target reflected the format: film songs carried the appeal for younger and music-led viewers, while short, self-contained comedy items were designed for casual viewing at any point in the day. Trade discussion in 2014 credited the channel with very rapid growth from its launch base, and group executives presented detailed audience research into how music television is consumed as the network's key edge over competitors.
Within the Marathi market, Maiboli occupied a niche quite different from the dominant general entertainment and movie channels. Competitors in Marathi music were thin on the ground at launch, with 9X Jhakaas the obvious comparison, and later entrants such as Sangeet Marathi arrived only in 2015. Maiboli's head start and its comedy ingredient gave it a distinct identity among Maharashtra's free-to-air regional channels.
Availability
As a free-to-air channel, Maiboli depended on carriage deals with direct-to-home and cable platforms, and its distribution record was unsettled in its later years. It was the subject of repeated removal notices: Tata Sky listed Maiboli, along with sister channels Mastiii and Dabangg, for removal with effect from 3 April in one carriage dispute; Dish TV and Videocon d2h gave notice that Dabangg and Maiboli would be removed from 1 February 2019 for non-execution of the interconnection agreement; and further d2h removal notices followed in other years. At other times its position was being adjusted rather than ended, as when Sun Direct moved Maiboli to channel 680 in 2021 and Airtel renumbered it in the Marathi music genre in April 2022, evidence that the channel remained in active distribution into the 2020s.
Digital and Group Ventures
Maiboli's owner pursued wider distribution ventures during the channel's life, including a December 2017 collaboration between the SAB Group and Pantel Technologies to launch more than 20 channels aimed at rural markets, combining Pantel's technology with the group's content expertise. In that period the group described its five channels as Mastiii, Dabangg, Maiboli, described by then as a Marathi entertainment channel, Dillagi and Dhamaal Gujarat, which reflected how Maiboli's positioning had broadened from pure music and comedy towards general Marathi entertainment.
Closure and Legacy
Maiboli's listings record the channel as closed on 23 January 2026, with its website discontinued. No relaunch under the Maiboli name followed. What remains is its place in Marathi television history as the channel that proved a music-plus-comedy format could work in Marathi, that demonstrated the durability of the Mastiii template when translated into a regional language, and that gave the Sri Adhikari Brothers group a successful second entry into the Marathi market after Mi Marathi. For more than a decade it served Maharashtra viewers with a light, song-led alternative to serial-driven general entertainment, before its closure brought that experiment to an end.
