National Geographic to speak more Hindi

(Posted on 31 August 2001, 11:15 pm)

It's all about geography after all. When in Greece do as the Greeks would do. Most international satellite television and cable TV channels have been going in for dual audio feeds for their services.

With star rival Discovery going Hindi a long time ago can National Geographic stay far behind? Nyet. Come mid September, the channel is going to be available in a dual Hindi-English feed from 7:00 am to 1:00 am, all of 18 hours, in order to strengthen its connect with Indian and south Asian audiences. It was earlier airing just four hours of Hindi dubbed shows.

"Much emphasis will go toward making the programs in simple Hindi language which appeal the masses right from an office boy to a grandmother sitting in northern part of India," says National Geographic Channel associate vice-president programming Vijay Raman. "At the same time it will not put off English speaking individuals in a family as two to three generations can sit down and watch it together. The Hindi will be very simple," he stresses.

"NGC isn't a niche channel which it is often perceived to be," adds Raman. "It's got universal appeal and caters not only just to people of all age groups, it is liked by people across all the sections of society and the viewership and the television ratings that we have been getting indicate that it is like any other mainstream channel. We receive feedback not only from well-heeled in the SEC A category but also from individuals living in slums."

NGC claims a penetration of 18-20 million homes and is distributed in India by co-owner Star India.

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