It‘s all about geography after all. When in Greece do as the Greeks would do. Most international satellite television and cable TV channels have been going in for dual audio feeds for their services.
With star rival Discovery going Hindi a long time ago can National Geographic stay far behind? Nyet. Come mid September, the channel is going to be available in a dual Hindi-English feed from 7:00 am to 1:00 am, all of 18 hours, in order to strengthen its connect with Indian and south Asian audiences. It was earlier airing just four hours of Hindi dubbed shows.

"Much emphasis will go toward making the programs in simple Hindi language which appeal the masses right from an office boy to a grandmother sitting in northern part of India," says National Geographic Channel associate vice-president programming Vijay Raman. "At the same time it will not put off English speaking individuals in a family as two to three generations can sit down and watch it together. The Hindi will be very simple," he stresses.

"NGC isn‘t a niche channel which it is often perceived to be," adds Raman. "It‘s got universal appeal and caters not only just to people of all age groups, it is liked by people across all the sections of society and the viewership and the television ratings that we have been getting indicate that it is like any other mainstream channel. We receive feedback not only from well-heeled in the SEC A category but also from individuals living in slums."

NGC claims a penetration of 18-20 million homes and is distributed in India by co-owner Star India.

Tomorrow Sony Entertainment Television joins Star India and Zee TV as a completely pay-driven bouquet with its flagship channel becoming fully encrypted.

The channel will be available at a sticker price of Rs 12 while the whole bouquet of Sony Entertainment, Set Max, AXN and CNBC India will cost Rs 22, Shantonu Aditya, senior vice-president, franchise channels & distribution, says. In the two main metros Delhi and Mumbai the price has been fixed at Rs 12 but the rate is lower in the smaller centres, Aditya revealed.

Aditya said a total of 10,000 set top boxes would be rolled out across the country over the next 15 days. Four thousand set tops had been distributed so far, with another 2,000 expected to be in place by 3 September, Aditya said.

Sony uses the more expensive Scientific Atlanta box that will put back the cable operator by Rs 12,000 initially and with a balance of Rs 8,000 to be paid after six months. Sony is subsidising the box to the tune of Rs 15,000 with the actual cost being Rs 35,000, Aditya said.

Queried as to how cable operators would respond, Aditya said most had signed on to the new dispensation.

While Sony‘s going pay has been on the cards for some time, how the move will impact on its viewership at a time when it has been losing cachet with audiences will be watched closely.

Information & Broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj has scheduled a meeting today evening at 5:00 pm with cable operators where major issues impacting the industry are to be thrashed out.

The meeting is to be held at the Shastri Bhavan (I&B ministry headquarters) in New Delhi.

In a note sent to all major MSOs and cable operators, Swaraj has set down two main topics for discussion - conditional access systems and the rampant piracy prevailing in the cable industry. Piracy is an issue which has come to the fore with the measures taken by the producers of two recent blockbuster movies - Gaddar and Lagaan - to ensure that their films were not shown own cable. That the effort - in spite of a high court ruling in the producers‘ favour - was largely a failure is another matter.

Representing the Hinduja-promoted INCablenet is its president Rajiv Vyas while the Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Cable (in which Star India has a 26 per cent stake) is being represented by its V-P North SN Sharma.