ITV

Tag: Bengali channels

  • ATN International and Win TV in partnership talks

    ATN International and Win TV in partnership talks

    MUMBAI: ATN International is in advanced stage of negotiations with Chennai-based Win TV to partner for Bengali news on ATN World, aimed at the West Bengal and Bangladesh market.

    “We are also talking of a possibility of equity participation from Win TV,” says ATN International managing director Santosh Jain. ATN International, a listed company, is planning to introduce six news bulletins on Bengali general entertainment channel ATN World.

    Win TV owns and operates a Tamil and a Kannada language channel and wants to expand into the Bengali language space with news content. “News is essential if we are to survive. We expect to garner an annual revenue of Rs 10 million from news,” says Jain.

    ATN is planning to launch the channel in Bangladesh, for which it is in talks with a local company which has major interests in power, aviation and textiles. Two teams have already visited ATN office in Kolkata and an internal due diligence has been done. “We are in the final stages of negotiations for a marketing and programming tie up. The group, which plans to diversify into media business, is to fund our operations in Bangladesh,” says Jain. He, however, did not reveal the name of the Bangladesh-based company.

    Stiff competition from the other Bengali channels and a slow-growing regional market is threatening ATN World. The company hopes that a partnership with Win TV and the Bangladesh-based company will provide for funding and news content.

  • ETV Kannada Launching, Urdu Channel Next

    ETV Kannada Launching, Urdu Channel Next

    Competition in the Kannada TV firmament is all set to heat up with the launch of a new Kannada Channel from Ramoji Rao’s Eenadu TV (ETV) stable on 10 December.

     

    Its launch comes just about a year after news of such a channel first surfaced in December 1999. The new general entertainment Kannada channel faces a stiff test from the well settled Udaya of Sun TV, as also the comparatively more recent Ushe and Suprabhat. Udaya at present hogs a whopping 70% share of the Rs850 million worth of ad spending in Karnataka.

     

    The channel will be a 24 hours free to air channel with the programming pattern on the same lines as other ETV regional channels like ETV Marathi. Transmission is through Intelsat 704 at 66°E. The trial run started on 3 December. On Launch day two Blockbuster movies will be shown, one starring Kannada matinee idol Raj Kumar.

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, an executive of ETV’s Mumbai office said: “The Kannada audience is very discerning on the quality front. This IT savvy, educated audience will not accept just anything that is dumped to them. But our experience in successfully running Marathi and Bengali channels will definitely help us to deliver the best to our Kannada audience.”

     

    For Ramoji Rao, after ETV Kannada, the next on the list is an Urdu channel which will be launched sometime in March 2001. The programme compilation has been going on for the last few months. Other regional channels are also in the pipeline.