MUMBAI: Hungama TV is back with the second season of its unique property Hungamathon, which is slated to be held in January 2007. The mini marathon will be adding Kolkata to Mumbai and Delhi, where the event was held last year.

"Over 20000 kids ran in the Mumbai and Delhi Hungamathon last year and our expectations have risen even higher for the hunt this year! We plan to make Hungamathon 2007 one of the most fun-filled events of the year - one that kids will look forward to," says UTV Sr. Vice President - marketing and corporate communications Siddharth Roy Kapur.

Hungamathon 2005 witnessed the participation of close to 20,000 kids across Mumbai and Delhi with eight brands that sponsored the event. This year the race is open to kids between 8-15 yrs. There are two categories, the 'Masters' for age group 8 - 12 years that would run 2.5 km and the 'Blasters' for the age group 13 - 15 years who would run 4 kms.

In its second season, an intensive school contact program covering 100 schools will be rolled out in the month of November in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata to ensure maximum participation. Application forms will also be available online on www.hungamatv.com.

Hungama TV has tied-up with sports association, Athletic Federation of India for Hungamathon 2007 to ensure appropriate adjudication for the entire event.

In addition, the channel has another reason to cheer as it completes two years this week, as per the latest tam data (TAM Period: 10 - 16 September 2006), Hungama TV has emerged as the number 1 channel in the kids space by a GRP of 153 and highest TVR growth of 28 per cent amongst all its competitors in the kids' space, informs an official release.

"Innovative initiatives like 'Hungamathon', 'Rasna Full Toss', 'Parle G Hungama Captains Hunt', 'Oral B John aur Kaun' amongst others has helped us to successfully catapult Hungama TV to the number one spot amongst kids channels and hugely strengthen the channel's brand equity in the last two years," adds Kapur.