Punjab Today, a 24 hour digital news channel hits the airwaves on Monday.The new channel floated by STV Enterprises claims to be an attempt to bring Punjabis across India and those settled abroad closer by bringing news and events occurring in their home state in their mother tongue. STV chairman Jugal Jain says Punjab Today is just the first in line of a series of channels, which will be unleashed in the next six months. An Urdu channel for the state of Jammu and Kashmir is next on the cards.

Jain says Punjab Today will provide what other Punjabi channels have not done so far - coverage of local news and programming. The target viewership is 15 million Punjabis in over 100 countries, with the ultimate aim of reaching every Punjabi household around the globe. The Punjab Today team comprises senior professionals with a background in journalism, reporting, advertising sales and television software production. Former Hindustan Times staffer Avinash Singh is the COO of the channel, which will air content that has 80 per cent of news related to Punjab and the rest 20 per cent will cover areas like Udham Singh Nagar, Haryana, Himachal, J&K and other places where Punjabis have a presence.

Punjab Today will also feature other news-based programmes, including regular industry, agriculture, finance, development, and sports related content. There will also be current affairs shows, investigative features, employment news and human interest stories. STV has its own set of state-of-the-art studios and other infrastructure in Delhi, Jalandhar, Chandigarh and Mumbai. The nerve centre of newsgathering for Punjab would be Jalandhar.

The Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) has lambasted cable operators for "holding consumers to ransom" in the ongoing dispute between InCableNet and ESPN Software over increased subscription rates.

A press release issued today by Anand Patwardhan, chairman, CGSI, says feedback it has received from various consumers groups such as housing societies across the city indicate such bodies have "decided not to pay their monthly dues to the cable operators for depriving them of the exciting ESPN and STAR Sports channels, which is a very good way to protest."

CGSI has exhorted consumers to initiate action against cable operators as the "operators continue to hold them at ransom for their personal gains. Non-payment of the fees for the month of Rs 24 during which these sports channels are blocked shall not prejudice or affect any action if initiated by the consumers / co-operative societies under the Consumer Protection Act."

"The cable operators charge Rs 150 - 250 from the consumers and they do not have any legal right to block out the channels. By doing so they are stepping on the rights of their consumers, says CGSI.

The CGSI suggests the state government should devise a concrete action plan so that such situations could be prevented "because of massive under-declaration of subscribers, the state government is losing revenue worth crores (tens of millions) of rupees."

The CGSI has taken up the following issues with the ministry of information & broadcasting and all the other appropriate authorities, the release says:

1. Most of the cable operators do not specify which channels they will show for the monthly subscription fee charged. The operators also do not give a receipt of monthly subscriptions they receive from consumers.

2. The cable operators have formed monopolies in all areas. The consumers do not have a choice to get the service from any other cable operator in case of any problems.

3. The cable operators do not specify and maintain the channels shown on prime bands and non-prime bands due to which a consumer has to keep searching for a particular channel and is often deprived of the same.

4. Adult movies and fashion channel containing offensive material are regularly shown by the cable operators. This practice is illegal, and is also affecting young minds, and disturbing the social fabric of our culture and traditions.

5. The right to information and education is a fundamental right and should not be left to be tampered as per the whims and fancies of a few monopolistic cable operators for their personal gains.

It may be down, but it‘s not yet out. Broadcast Worldwide, which promotes regional language channels Tara is planning to beef up its news programming to stay afloat in the intensely competitive market.
While Tara Bangla has already received a shot in the arm at the beginning of the new year with a variety of localizing initiatives and has started airing 13 hours of fresh programming daily, Tara Marathi is next in line for revival. Sources say a massive investment of upto Rs 1470 million is likely to made for resurrecting Tara Marathi. The government of Maharashtra is likely to be involved in a strategic tie-up that will help Tara Marathi revive from its current somnolent state.

Currently 80 per cent of programming on Tara Marathi is re-runs. But all this will soon change if the joint venture comes through, say sources. The venture has been on the cards for the last six months and if finalized, the results would show in the next two months, they add. Tara Marathi creative director Shobha De said recently that the revamped Tara would focus on rural and folk traditions of Maharashtra and would attempt to "reflect the aspirations of the common Maharashtrian."

Although Broadcast Worldwide Business Development director Pradipto Sircar is unwilling to divulge details of the proposed tie-up, he says programming on Tara Marathi will anyway be beefed up with a focus on news programmes in the next couple of months. "Instead of concentrating on Mumai, we are looking at the rest of Maharashtra, where we have a strong viewer base," he says. The channel, which started with novel programming like telecast of well known Marathi plays (a weak point with Maharashtrian viewers), could not keep up the tempo due to dearth of returns on investments. While the channel is languishing behind Alpha, ETV and DD Sahyadri, the channel reaches 80 per cent of the population in the rest of the state, Sircar says.

While Tara Punjabi will be the last of the four to be revived, Sircar says it will eventually be a news, music and Gurbani channel.