NEW DELHI: Factual entertainment network Discovery has launched in India its kids channel, Discovery Kids, to fight in a genre that is struggling to push up revenues amidst strong competition.

Discovery?s eighth channel in India will be in three languages ? English, Hindi, and Tamil. Discovery Kids is priced at Rs 13.75 in analogue and a little over Rs 6 in digital.

Discovery General Manager (South Asia) Rahul Johri said that the channel was aimed at children between 4 and 11 years from amongst the 370 million children under 14 years of age.

Most of the programmes on the channel are in animation but some are in live action. Some of the shows are aimed at children aged between four to six years. The mid-morning is reserved for these young ones, while the other programmes will be aired later in the evening.

Discovery Kids is already running in Latin America and in the Asia Pacific region from the Philippines, but the Indian channel will have several indigenously produced programmes.

Johri said research had shown parents wanted a kids channel that had programming they could trust. Hence, the tagline ?Ignite your imagination?.

Johri told that the channel is presently available only on Videocon D2H and Dish TV among the DTH platforms, but will shortly be available on other platforms too.

While pointing out that the channel will not take advertising immediately but will do so within a month or so, he did not agree that there was a slowdown in advertising. ?In any case, we are here for a long haul?, he added. He felt that experience from the other Discovery channels had shown that it was a healthy market.

Johri said that the channel would use all its usual methods for advertising the new channel, not only on its own channels but on others as well. However, he refused to divulge any figures about the advertising budget.

Positioned as a factual channel, Discovery Kids has no plans at present to take fictional stories. However, he did not rule out taking tales from the Panchtantra since they were moral in nature.

The research had covered focused groups in all the major cities. ?Discovery Kids will offer Indian children an entertaining way to satisfy their natural curiosity and promises to ignite their imagination through stimulating programming. It will form the bedrock for development of their social, cognitive, emotional and personal skills. The channel will usher in a new wave of kids? entertainment in India ? one which will have them engaged and their parents satisfied,? he said.

The channel will have some shared content from the Latin American or Asia Pacific channels but will also have some indigenous stories. Johri said some of the animation was also being done in India. The channel will be working on more Indian shows in the near future.

Discovery Kids website will launch next week. Discovery already runs the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Science, Discovery HD, and Discovery Tamil Nadu.

The channel will cover a variety of programming ranging from iconic global content to multiple India-themed series. Committed to offer a comprehensive viewing experience and cater to diverse demands of Indian kids, the programming formats will include highest-quality animation and engaging live action series under multiple genres such as adventure, mythology, nature, history and science.

The core values of Discovery Kids include playful (by stimulating learning and imagination in a fun and innovative way), smart (by giving creative surprises for enquiring minds), transformative (by providing an immersive world that sparks wonder and curiosity) and learning (by creating a trusting and engaging environment).

Discovery Kids? programming slate features fun, enriching and entertaining programmes such as Kim, Rudyard Kipling?s famous hero; Adiboo Adventure (unveils all the puzzling questions that can bother a kid?s mind); and The Legend of Enyo (takes kids on a spectacular journey of fantasy, fun and wild adventure); and Gali Cricket that takes on a whole new exciting and colourful avatar in the unique animation series Howzzatt.

BENGALURU: Travel Trendz TV, an international TV channel that is dedicated to the cause of promoting world travel and tourism in its true perspective, has seen its official launch here.

The Hinglish channel plans to cater to over 65 per cent of the Indian population. Travel Trendz, promoted by Agrigold, a group with diverse interests has R Rama Rao Avvas as chairman, and Mohammed Abdul Azeem as executive director and CEO.

The infotainment channel plans to delve into tourism destinations from the Indian travelers perspective, in India as well as abroad. There will be some content from the perspective of people traveling into India. The channel plans to produce its own programs to a large extent.

"Our emphasis is on showing the different colors of India through unique programming. The channel has invested in extensively in its production as well as acquiring high quality international content with an objective to offer viewers 24x7 experience that is original, relevant and impactful. The channel will be meant for the entire family," said Travel Trendz director Apurupa Avvas.

At present it has canned around 600 hours of Indian programming and sourced another 200 hours of programming from a German producer. The outsourced programming is from the Indian travelers perspective says Travel Trendz head of programming Som Banerjee. "The middle class traveler will find the information that we provide on our programs useful," he said.

Besides the studio and head office in Hyderabad, Travel Trendz has offices in the NCR region and Mumbai. It plans to open an office in Bengaluru shortly.

At present, the channel is available in selected geographies and on Videocon D2H. "Talks are on with various delivery platforms like MSO, DTH operators, etc., and we should be accessible to 50 million viewers in India by mid August. We will be available in analog where digital is not there," says Travel Trendz president PR Sateesh. "Over the next two months, we should be available in 40 countries."

"We are creating a unique advertising or promotional opportunities which will help in creating awareness about traveling, about the places. We plan to offer what we call a 360 degree approach on digital platforms beyond television to the advertiser - this includes a print publication, online and mobile, more so for the B2B and the SME segment advertiser who may not be able to advertise on television," said Travel Trendz chief strategy officer Tajamal Husssain.

MUMBAI: India has 44.21 million private DTH subscribers as of 31 December 2011, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in its quarterly report.

The total number of registered subscribers is from the six private direct-to-home operators - Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV and Sun Direct.

Digital cable TV, however, is growing slowly in the Cas (conditional access system) notified areas.

Cable TV operators have marginally increased the seeding of set-top boxes (STBs) in the Cas areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai during this period.

According to Trai, the total number of STBs installed increased to 853,737 in the quarter ended December 2011, as compared to 819,960 STBs in the previous quarter.

Trai has also released the data on the number of TV channels in India till 31 December 2011. There are a total of 825 private satellite TV channels permitted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, out of which 163 channels are pay, as per the sector watchdog?s report based on the data received from 25 broadcasters and distributors across the country.

The maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported multi-system operator (MSO) in digital mode is 277. In analogue form, however, the maximum number of channels being carried by any of the reported MSOs is 100 channels.

Trai also said that the number of private FM radio stations in operation remained at 245 till the end of Dec 2011.

MUMBAI: English movie channel Movies Now, which created an impact in the genre in a short period of time celebrates its first anniversary on 19 December 2011. It is looking at increasing its distribution footprint.

Movies Now channel head Ajay Trigunayat said that the aim is to increase its reach in the one million plus towns. "These are places where products and services are seeing a lot of growth. The focus will be on making the channel available at the right price among operators."

He notes that Movies Now is the only channel in the genre that reports for eight Metros which gives advertisers a homogeneous picture. Some of the other players he says are still not present in cities like Chennai and Ahmedabad.

The channel has now done deals with all the DTH operators - Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H, Reliance Digital TV, and Sun Direct. The question though is what impact cable digitisation will have in terms of distribution costs.

Times Television Network MD, CEO Sunil Lulla notes as per the experience in other markets globally digitisation will result in as re-caliberation of carriage costs. "It is important that you are a strong brand that is present in consumers homes. The Times Television Network owns and operates strong brands. Movies Now, if I may say so, has been a super smash hit. We are a daily habit. Consumers come to see the movie of their choice," Lulla added.

One challenge is that of viewer fatigue with franchises like Rocky and Bond revolving among channels. Trigunayat notes that Movies Now gives at least a two month break to a film. The other challenge is increasing content costs which Trigunayat says have doubled in the past couple of years. This is affecting the period for which a channel holds the rights to a film. "For instance, if earlier you held the rights for three years, today if you want to pay the same price then you will only be able to hold it for a year and a half to two years. It has become a sellers market. Earlier when there were fewer players it was a buyers market."

He adds that when Movies Now launched it challenged the status quo. He adds that most viewership in this genre comes from library content. Action and comedy work the best. "Our philosophy is that if 60 million people watch this genre each week then it cannot be considered as niche. Right from the start we provided the necessary value with HD."

He adds that GRPs for the genre have risen despite the large amount of cricket being played. Also now more library content for film is being exploited with more players coming in. Earlier only 60 per cent of the available content was being used. Now this has gone up and popular films from previous decades air. Movies Now has around 500 films in its library and this will not grow. The only thing is that some films will go out and others will come in.

He adds that the broadcaster has made strides in social media. On Facebook it has half a million fans.

MUMBAI: Adding to the milieu of religious/spiritual channels, Agra-based MSO Sea TV Network has launched a new channel Jinvani under the umbrella of Jain Telemedia Services.

The channel is available to viewers in India on Videocon D2H channel no 684.

The channel has shows on religion, spirituality, health, art of living and moral values, all based on the principles of Jainism.

The aim of the channel is to spread the word of Jain religion to the masses in a simpler language. In order to lure the younger audience, Jinvani will telecast movies and serials on Jain epics, events in the history of the religion in 2D and 3D.

Sea TV Network CMD Neeraj Jain said, "Jinvani is world?s first satellite ?Jain channel? solely dedicated to the Digambar sect of Jain religion. The channel is directed at bringing to the people the perennial philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence) propagated by Bhagwan Mahaveer. We not only look at targeting the audiences from India but also those who have settled abroad."