News Headline | Indian Television Dot Com

2 InCable operators held in Mumbai for stealing signals: ESPN

Jan 25, 2002

MUMBAI: The ongoing tussle between ESPN

ETV net widens with launch of 6 new channels Sunday

Submitted by ITV Production on Jan 25, 2002

Confirming the report on indiantelevision.com last month (24 December 2001 to be exact), the Ramoji Rao owned Eenadu Television Network announced today that it was all systems go for the launch of its six new regional language channels on Sunday, 27 January.
The four major Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan will each have a separate channel along with two channels servicing Orissa in the east and Gujarat in the west. The launch of the six channels will see ETV emerge as the "largest television network in the country cutting across linguistic boundaries," an official release states. With the launch of the six channels, ETV Network will have a total of 11 regional channels including Telugu, Kannada, Bangla, Marathi and Urdu.

Programmingwise, the ETV Network‘s is claiming a unique feature - Annadata, a programme wholly devoted to the farming community. Annadata will provide exclusive fare for each state it caters to and will function as a daily guide for farmers in the respective regions it covers.

All the channels are digital, free-to-air and transmitted from the earth station located at Ramoji Film City in in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and beaming off the Insat 2E satellite.

Other regional players include the six Zee Alpha channels, the Tara bouquet of four channels, RITV?s two channels and ETC?s Punjabi channel. There is of course the Sahara Group‘s plans to launch a national news channel and 37 independent city-based regional news stations covering Uttar Pradesh & Uttranchal, Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar & Jharkhand, National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai. But these are not entertainment channels but news and current affairs-based.

DD unveils edutainment channel Bharati tomorrow

Submitted by ITV Production on Jan 25, 2002

News Headline

The grande dame of Indian broadcasting is donning a new avatar from tomorrow.

The launch of DD Bharati, the sleeker version of good old Doordarshan, timed to coincide with Republic Day, will be marked by a three hour live broadcast of the inaugural function. Artistes including flute maestro Hari Prasad Chaurasia, violinist L Subramaniam, singers Kavita Krishnamurti and Begum Parveen Sultana and the Colonial Cousins are expected to perform at the launch.

The 24-hour edutainment channel takes over from DD News, that is being given a silent burial today. It aims to be ?different?, bringing together three broad programming bands - on health and fitness, children, and culture and heritage. The USP is that all programmes will be India centric. Forty per cent of the content is being produced in-house, the rest has been commissioned out to TMG, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and Transtel of Germany. While Discovery Channel is likely to provide some software for the new channel, DD is also in talks with Pentamedia Graphics to source animated versions of Indian classics and folktales.

The new satellite channel will have to face competition from the plethora of private channels that are already vying for viewer attention in the country. DD is taking precautions by reportedly making it mandatory for cable ops to air the FTA channel in the northern belt. The channel, with its India specific programming, will have to sustain audience interest in an age when most rival satellite channels are focusing on going more and more local. Time alone will decide if DD Bharati lives up to its promise of being ?different?