NEW DELHI: Green TV, India’s first private TV channel to reach out to rural areas, has completed its first year of operations and is now eyeing more markets to launch.
As of now Green TV is available across Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia, wherever INTELSAT 20 has its footprint. The channel is planning to further expand to the African market as well as Indonesia in the near future.
While the channel claims to have reached out to over 15 million viewers in its first year run, the target is to reach 60 million viewers in the coming year through cable TV networks.
Green TV has a distribution team of about 35 people travelling through villages and midsize towns for months to reach out to those cable operators who hardly get importance from broadcasters.
“After seeing Green TV’s reach, DTH operators who were initially unwilling to carry Green TV or expected huge carriage fees are now expressing interest. Our push in the rural market is giving a boost to these cable operators who were previously neglected,” said Green TV co-founder and managing director Junaid Memon.
Apart from conventional cable & DTH, Green TV’s live feed is also available on mobile devices as 50 per cent of rural population still doesn’t have electricity supply for more than six hours a day whereas almost every villager has a mobile phone. Green TV is already present on the internet via its Live TV feed.
The channel is also developing several short web series, apart from regular 25 minute TV episodes and their shorter edits for the internet. These will initially be targeted to urban audiences only.
Additionally, to mark the completion of its first year, Green TV has launched a unique ‘DOIALT- Donate once in a Life Time’ blood donation campaign.
The campaign is the brain child of retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Keshav Chandra and is intended to initiate a nationwide blood donation campaign. It emphasises the fact that if every normal human donates blood only once in his or her lifetime, there will be no deficit of blood in blood banks.
Memon added, “We are very grateful to our viewers for constantly supporting us on our journey. On our first anniversary, we are excited about the future of the channel. As far as I can remember, 70 per cent of India’s population has always lived in villages. While urban India is spoilt with a plethora of choices, rural India remains where it is. The focus for all marketers remains urban India. We have over 200 channels catering to just 30 per cent of the population! What about the remaining 70 per cent? There is no channel for those whose livelihood depends only on information and innovation. Launching a channel is the least one can do for this information deprived and often misinformed community. Green TV is not solely about environmental awareness, although many of our programmes are about environment-related issues.”
