MUMBAI: Come 28 December, the Ramoji Rao-owned Eenadu Television Network will launch its first 24-hours Telugu news and current affairs channel, ETV2 in Andhra Pradesh. The channel has already made a test launch in the state, a week ago.
While confirming the launch, an ETV spokesperson did not deny the possibility of more south Indian channels in the coming months.
ETV2 is backed by state-of-art infrastructure that encompasses a dedicated earth station and VSAT technology.
ETV2 is said to have a team of 150 staff reporters and 100 news contributors exclusively, from across the state. For international news, the channel has tied up with news agencies like Reuters, CNN and ANI News.
While the new channel will focus mostly on news from Andhra Pradesh, national and international news will be shown in regular intervals, the spokesperson says.
For starters, the channel plans to have four half-hour news bulletins covering national, international, business and sports news. Besides there will be four regional bulletins called Andhravani, 13 hourly news bulletins of five minutes each, regular breaking news and highlights.
Besides news programmes there will be regular infotainment shows like Sukhi Bhava dedicated to health;Maya Bazar, a political satire; Telugu Velugu a perspective on the Telugu language; Pratidhwani an interactive show on consumer rights and law and order.
On being asked about their position in the news channels arena, Madangopal Menon, ETV's head of channel promotions (UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan), said, "We don't feel the strain right now, because we are the first south India broadcaster to lauch a news channel."