MUMBAI: Malayalam channel Asianet will celebrate its 11th anniversary with a 11-day long festivities starting tomorrow (20 August). The anniversary celebrations coincide with Kerala's principal festival Onam.

Asianet and Asianet News have lined up an array of special programmes to celebrate the occasion apart from a ground event to be held on 26 August. The show will air on 30 August, the channel's birthday.

Television premieres of blockbuster films, interviews with popular Malayalam film artists, cultural and musical programmes, tele skits, live programmes and more figure in Asianet's programming schedule for these days. News features woven around Onam, Asianet news channel has also lined up variety programmes woven around the theme of Onam to celebrate the occasion.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, Asianet COO Mohan Nair offers, "Asianet has successfully maintained its supremacy in the market for a period of 11 years and that itself is the specialty of this occasion."

According to Nair, the growth of Asianet as a brand has been the biggest USP for the channel in Kerala. Nair points out that the channel has grown with the market and has been instrumental in expanding the duration of the prime time segment from two hours to five hours. He says Asianet has now consolidated its position in the Middle East also.

Reportedly, Asianet has recorded a turnover of 500 million for the 2003 - 2004 fiscal. The channel has its international reach in Sri Lanka, China, South East Asia, Middle East, UK, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union.