The Indian ventures of US-based media houses Viacom and News Corp are set to use the country's national passions - cricket and Bollywood - as weapons in their battle for supremacy in the world's second-largest cable television market.

Colors, owned by a joint venture between Viacom and India's Network18, will next month launch a series of reality TV shows based on the Indian Premier League, the multibilliondollar cricket competition, in what is shaping up to be a critical year for Indiantelevision.

News Corp's Star Plus plans to respond to Colors - a start-up channel that last year stole the top Hindi general entertainment ratings slot from its US rival - with a Bollywood awards show featuring the Indian film industry's top stars.

"Cricket is a national passion. Bollywood is a religion. If you can bring both of them together, it can't get any bigger than that," Rajesh Kamat, chief executive of Colors, told the Financial Times.

The next year is expected to be decisive for Indian television, with four foreigninvested channels competing with Indian group Zee for top position in a market with 83m subscriber households, second only to China.

Aside from Colors and Star Plus, the Indian units of Sony and Turner are also vying for top spot with colourful offerings of " Saas Bahu " (Hindi mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law)

Bollywood-style soap operas and reality TV shows.

Colors, launched 18 months ago, has led the ratings for about 30 weeks but is only narrowly ahead of Star Plus, which ruled Hindi TV for the previous nine years. It is already profitable on a quarterly basis and is expected to make a full-year net profit in the fiscal year ending March, according to Media Partners Asia, a research house. Revenue this year is forecast at $180m for the channel.

Star, meanwhile, is enjoying a recovery in advertising sales and is making a foray into India's numerous regional language markets.

MPA expects Star's revenue in India to grow to $530m in the financial year ending June 2010, up 15 per cent, with operating profit of $105m, up 11 per cent.

Colors has secured a licence from the six-week IPL cricket tournament, whose third season starts next week, to use its brand for television shows.

Colors is planning to launch IPL Rockstars , a talent contest to be held at IPL matches, a version of Fear Factor , the US stunt/dare show featuring cricket stars, an IPL celebrity party show and an IPL awards night with Bollywood stars.

In response, Star Plus has launched three soap operas and is planning a Bollywood extravaganza, the Cinta Awards, which will feature many of Indian film's biggest stars, during the IPL tournament.